cult film freak: vince vaughn

Showing posts with label vince vaughn. Show all posts

Written by James M. Tate / 2/04/2016 / No comments / 2016 , cable , colin farrell , neo noir , vince vaughn

GLIMPSE INTO TRUE DETECTIVE SEASON TWO

2016, cable, colin farrell, neo noir, vince vaughn

GLIMPSE INTO TRUE DETECTIVE SEASON TWO

Colin Farrell in a "majestyk" shot in the maligned but powerful and underrated TRUE DETECTIVE SEASON 2 We won't go into fu...

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 / 12/30/2013 / 1 Comment / 2013 , comedy , judd apatow , paul rudd , steve carell , vince vaughn , will ferrell

ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2013 rating: **1/2</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;">In an extremely cautious time where Political Correctness dictates the media, from scolding a bearded Reality Show redneck to throwing Steve Martin under the Twitter bus, it’s nice to revisit an era when men were men and spoke bluntly with obnoxious confidence, all the while perched on top of the world… </span>Well in this particular case the last part’s not entirely true.<br />
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1970's mustached anchorman Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is a maligned celebrity stuck in the wrong era, for it’s 1980 (despite references to mid-decade GHOSTBUSTERS and CUJO) and, having been fired as Network co-anchor, he doesn’t have a pot to <i>relieve himself</i> in… He does however have his friends, gathered up within the first ten minutes, and a new job for a "groundbreaking" cable station providing news 24 hours a day.<br />
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Much of the underlying theme pokes fun at FOX, centering on zealous patriotism Ron creates to boost ratings to win an in-house bet with the new handsome bully… Although the idea to cover celebrity gossip and police chases, and subtle glimpses into an O.J. Simpson trial future, makes the agenda-based target any other outlet besides the big three networks that dominated for many years… You’ll hear the line “This isn’t news,” referring to the modern brand of pop culture coverage, about a half dozen times.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Shark Scene</td></tr>
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Ron’s old school buddies, including Brick (Steve Carrel), Brian (Paul Rudd) and Champ (David Koechner) are all but peripheral, simply along for the ride… Brick has the most solo time, having met his awkard Girl Friday who also speaks from left field: alas their relationship is boring and pointless… Even love-interest Veronica Corningstone, being promoted (sans her husband) as sole network anchor, has taken backseat to Ron’s sudden popularity in the 24-hour phenomenon. Basically, Veronica represents the "good old fashion" news media, providing the moral compass.<br />
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What’s most important is that Burgundy’s an obnoxious stud once again, having hooked up with his sexy black boss… Here’s where the non-PC jokes fly and our oblivious “Legend” is truly enjoying himself... Then something extremely bizarre and completely unfunny happens... The revamped superstar literally goes blind, holes up in a lighthouse, gets back together with his family, and rescues (then nurses) a shark! At which point the movie gets so absurd one can only look back at the good times: that being either the original or the initial setup of this one.

2013, comedy, judd apatow, paul rudd, steve carell, vince vaughn, will ferrell

ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES

year: 2013 rating: **1/2 In an extremely cautious time where Political Correctness dictates the media, from scolding a bearded Reality S...

Written by James M. Tate / 11/22/2013 / 1 Comment / 2013 , comedy , vince vaughn

VINCE DOESN'T DELIVER IN DELIVERY MAN

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2013 cast: Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Britt Robertson, Cobie Smulders rating: *1/2 </td></tr>
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If “Charming Lovable Loser” isn’t a film genre, it should be – Hollywood turns out stories centering on underdog slacker dudes by the dozens, and unfortunately Vince Vaughn, landing only a few decent gigs since gaining fame in the classic indie SWINGERS, is stuck in this particular treadmill…<br />
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Once the plot is revealed, about a guy whose past “donations” to a fertility clinic resulted in over 500 children... 142 of them seeking his identity... we don’t know too much about Vaughn’s troubled David Wozniak except he’s a really nice guy who loves his family, extended or otherwise…<br />
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Working for his father delivering meat, he’s as inept a driver as he is a boyfriend to a patient woman, pregnant with a child… <i>one</i> child… but he has many other problems...<br />
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For the first half, David keeps a guardian angel eye on a handful of twenty-somethings trying to make a living in New York City: including a junky, a struggling actor, a street musician and a professional basketball player… But once one particular kid latches on, in the form of an annoying young man named Viggo, the movie goes to pot… Or perhaps it was there already…<br />
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Chris Pratt plays Brett, a single dad who's not only David’s best friend but also his lawyer… And while Pratt tries way too hard to provide dry humor throughout, his performance is as lethargic as the second half of DELIVERY MAN, an uneven comedy immersed in hipster schlock rock and, once David faces his ultimate (predictable) dilemma, balancing a financial payoff and the love of his new family, the movie not only tugs at the heartstrings but yanks them out entirely.

2013, comedy, vince vaughn

VINCE DOESN'T DELIVER IN DELIVERY MAN

year: 2013 cast: Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Britt Robertson, Cobie Smulders rating: *1/2 If “Charming Lovable Loser” isn’t a film genre...

Written by James M. Tate / 6/08/2013 / No comments / 2013 , comedy , owen wilson , rose byrne , team-up , vince vaughn

VINCE VAUGHN & OWEN WILSON GOOGLE THE INTERNSHIP

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Does Google have to Like its Own Movie? YEAR: 2013</u></td></tr>
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It seems that everyone’s forgetting the name of <i>that</i> <i>Google Movie</i> where two guys, played by the usually dependably likable Owen Wilson, with his deadpan-yawning surfer dude drawl, and Vince Vaughn, always the energetic smooth talker, lose their jobs and wind up interning at… hey, that’s it, THE INTERNSHIP…<br />
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And with a title more befitting a single episode of a TV series, this forced comedy plays out like something made for television or perhaps a straight-to-DVD rental, although Wilson and Vaughn have decent chemistry… at first: The film opens up with the desparate partners pushing their wares, in this case classy yet dated wristwatches, not realizing their business has gone to pot, more out of date and unnecessary than a horse and buggy in 1950's Detroit...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>InternshipScore: **</u></td></tr>
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And so, lost in the age of high speed Internet, the instigative Vaughn comes up with a plan to climb to the top by starting at the bottom (of the top): a possible internship at none other than the giant search engine Google… but that we’ve covered already. Then after a humorous cameo by Will Ferrell as Wilson’s new boss, a sexed-up, obnoxious owner of a mattress store, our hapless heroes enter the pearly Blue, Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Red gates in Mountain View, Northern California, both clashing noticeably with the young brainy hipsters: These include underdogs that become part of Wilson and Vaughn's team (competing against a snarky villain), each with their own annoying personalities... The worst scenes have the kids, who could never drive a film on their own, forced upon the audience with too much screen time. Meanwhile the two potentially funny forty-somethings wind up channeling Emilio Estevez to a computer generation's MIGHTY DUCKS.<br />
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A filler love story between Wilson and a <i>much too beautiful to be single</i> Google employee awkwardly blends with the tale of dorky phenoms – with two cool “uncles” providing lessons of good old fashion human interaction to counterbalance their antisocial personalities... making this a wannabe REVENGE OF THE NERDS meets THE WEDDING CRASHERS. But what THE INTERNSHIP ultimately feels like is a ninety-minute Google infomercial... And for that, it's not completely awful.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Google rules the world, but not cinema, yet</td></tr>
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2013, comedy, owen wilson, rose byrne, team-up, vince vaughn

VINCE VAUGHN & OWEN WILSON GOOGLE THE INTERNSHIP

Does Google have to Like its Own Movie? YEAR: 2013 It seems that everyone’s forgetting the name of that Google Movie where two guys, p...

Written by James M. Tate / 7/29/2012 / No comments / 2012 , ben stiller , comedy , jonah hill , vince vaughn

STILLER & VAUGHN IN THE WATCH

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>year: 2012 cast: Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Will Forte, Erin Moriarty, Doug Jones, R. Lee Ermy, Richard Ayoade SCORE: ***</u></td></tr>
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Unfairly criticized for not being very funny, THE WATCH is, well… not very funny. But it’s still a pretty decent and involving movie about a small town four-dude Neighborhood Watch headed by Ben Stiller, who manages the local Costco where the night security guard was killed mysteriously. Stiller’s uptight Evan puts out fliers with only three responses: Vince Vaughn’s partying single dad Bob; Jonah Hill’s edgy wannabe cop Franklin; and Jamarcus, the token oddball played with charming finesse by Richard Ayoade.<br />
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Ben takes the straight man mantle to the limit (what Jason Bateman does all the time nowadays) – he hardly smiles or thinks anything is amusing, especially Bob’s constant attempt to win over the crowd (Vaughn sustaining his SWINGERS and OLD SCHOOL persona once again). Meanwhile, the group has little to do but wait for something to happen until their car crashes into a scary looking beast – and they soon realize that monsters abound...<br />
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A subtle satire on the alien paranoia theme and a buddy flick (Vaughn and Stiller have the best anti-chemistry here), THE WATCH works despite the forced crude humor. Enough happens… including subplots about Evan’s marriage and Bob’s promiscuous teenage daughter… to keep the viewer entertained, as the direction works for suspenseful scenes involving aliens lurking in the night and, although the initial Alien discovery sequence, 11th hour group conversations and the climactic CGI standoff becomes somewhat draining, this is a worthwhile time-waster with more to offer than punchlines.

2012, ben stiller, comedy, jonah hill, vince vaughn