cult film freak: dave franco

Written by James M. Tate / 3/06/2015 / No comments / 2015 , comedy , dave franco , road movie , tom wilkinson , vince vaughn

VINCE VAUGHN IN UNFINISHED BUSINESS

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2015 rating: **</td></tr>
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It’s Politically Incorrect to use the “R” word for… the mentally challenged. And it’s even worse, especially in a movie with a bullying subplot, to laugh at… those people. Which is the first of many problems with UNFINISHED BUSINESS since the unpredictable third banana wild card, played by Dave Franco, is beyond "touched." <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Token Doofus</td></tr>
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Not sure when Tom Wilkinson aesthetically morphed into Jack Klugman. And lately, Vince Vaughn’s comedies have been lackluster. Although compared to DELIVERY MAN, this underdog globetrotter isn’t entirely horrendous: yet it constantly aims in that direction. <br />
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The plot is both simple and complicated: Vaughn’s Dan Trunkman and Wilkinson’s Timothy McWinters are former employees of a successful company that… it really doesn’t matter what they did or are attempting: Something about having “good numbers” and basically, if an important deal fails – shuffling the boys from St. Louis to Portland, Oregon and then Berlin, Germany – the future isn't theirs.<br />
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Other than one over-the-top scene at a gay nightclub bathroom, there are no real laughs, shocking or otherwise. Franco’s brain-dead Mike Pancake hardly utters a complete sentence. The wrongly cast/overly qualified Wilkinson seems lost while Vaughn acts like a passenger in his own vehicle, sleepwalking through the usual "cool talkative guy" routine. Meanwhile, bonding sequences with his wife and kids (mostly online) disrupt what could have been a wild overseas party – like the trailers (and poster) imply. But everyone's having a bum trip. Especially the audience. <b>OVERALL RANK: Jedi Rebel, <u>Droid, Sith</u>. </b>

2015, comedy, dave franco, road movie, tom wilkinson, vince vaughn

VINCE VAUGHN IN UNFINISHED BUSINESS

year: 2015 rating: ** It’s Politically Incorrect to use the “R” word for… the mentally challenged. And it’s even worse, especially in a ...

Written by James M. Tate / 5/09/2014 / No comments / 2014 , comedy , dave franco , rose byrne , seth rogen , zac efron

SETH ROGEN VERSES ZAC EFRON IN NEIGHBORS

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2014</td></tr>
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A young married couple, played by Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, suddenly feel old when their new next-door NEIGHBORS, consisting of an entire University frat house led by Zac Efron, party like it’s 2014…<br />
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Promoted as a rivalry between tubby regular guy Rogen as Mac and muscular pretty boy Efron as Frat brat Teddy, instead much of the film consists of each side holed up inside their own property, wondering how to play the next hand against either unseen antagonist. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">rating: *1/2</td></tr>
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Teddy's buddy Pete (Dave Franco) is way more sensitive and caring than Mac’s wife, Kelly, wherein Rose Byrne slips out of her usual passive character and really goes for it: providing her husband an equal partner-in-crime to shut down the party for good. Their schemes range from flooding the frat house to causing a love-triangle rift between best friends, but none of the results are involving or humorous. And when Efron’s desperate Teddy plants airbags to catapult Mac around like a rag doll, it’s much too farfetched. <br />
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Rogen and Byrne have the bland chemistry of a brother and sister who happen to be married, while Efron and Franco seem part of a “bromance” that would garner five minutes in a throwaway sex comedy. Meanwhile the punchlines are too <i>inside</i> to be funny: the characters know each other way more than we ever will. It's as if two comedy genres crashed into each other and were never quite sure how to deal with the repercussions.  <br />
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If the put-upon married couple (much too wild to seem like worthy victims) didn’t have rowdy neighbors they wouldn’t be interesting at all… Not even Judd Apatow would waste time on their neurotic marriage, consisting of an infant keeping dad and mom from a social life. And if Efron and company were allowed to party all night without restraint, they’d have a lot more fun than the audience, who deserved a much better time.

2014, comedy, dave franco, rose byrne, seth rogen, zac efron

SETH ROGEN VERSES ZAC EFRON IN NEIGHBORS

year: 2014 A young married couple, played by Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, suddenly feel old when their new next-door NEIGHBORS, consisti...

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