Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

For F*** Magazine

ALEXANDER AND THE HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY

Director : Miguel Arteta

Cast : Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Dylan Minnette, Ed Oxenbould, Kerris Dorsey, Megan Mullally, Jennifer Coolidge, Bella Thorne

Genre : Family/Comedy

Run Time : 81 mins

Opens : 4 December 2014

Rating : PG

Daniel Powter sang about a “Bad Day” in 2005 and in this Disney comedy, we meet someone who’s had his share of bad days, 11-year-old Alexander Cooper (Oxenbould). It’s the day before his 12^th birthday and Alexander’s crushed that all his friends will be attending another schoolmate’s party instead. None of his family members will give him the time of day because they’re too caught up celebrating all the things that are going right for them. A dejected Alexander fixes himself a makeshift birthday sundae, wishing that the rest of his family will experience a downer day of their own. The next day, Alexander’s wish comes true: his dad Ben’s (Carell) job interview takes a less-than-successful turn, the children’s book his mum Kelly (Garner) is publishing emerges with an unfortunate typo, his sister Emily (Dorsey) might have to sit out the production of Peter Pan in which she’s starring due to the flu his older brother Anthony (Minnette) has a disastrous driving test and a falling out with his girlfriend Celia (Thorne) and his baby brother Trevor (Elise/Zoey Vargas) ingests a permanent marker. Alexander realises what his wish has wrought and the family band together to make it through the day together.

            This writer is grateful that Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day has as long a title as it does because it will help with his word quota. The film is based on the 1972 children’s book by Judith Viorst, which was earlier adapted into an animated musical special. Being a 32-page children’s book, the film calls for adaptation expansion. So, while the book focused on Alexander’s own bad day, the bulk of the film centres on the bad day Alexander wishes upon the rest of his family. It’s basically Hijinks Ensues: The Movie, with Murphy’s Law in full effect. There’s a degree of schadenfreude to be had in seeing myriad family-friendly calamities befall the Cooper clan. This is best-described as a sitcom episode with a larger budget. It’s really, really silly but you knew that going into it already. Between the least successful stage production of Peter Pan since the one in 21 Jump Street, Steve Carell pursuing a runaway kangaroo through the neighbourhood and strippers showing up for a kids’ birthday party, the comedy set-pieces are lively but stop short of being satisfyingly elaborate.

            Parents make many sacrifices for their children and sitting through cringe-worthy family movies is one of them. Thankfully, Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day isn’t as torturous for the older members of the audience as it could’ve been and it helps that it clocks in at a breezy 81 minutes. Steve Carell’s presence elevates the pratfall-heavy flick – no matter what he’s in, he never looks like he’s phoning it in or that the material is beneath him and he’s been subjected to far more embarrassment in earlier films like Evan Almighty. He’s game for anything director Miguel Arteta throws at him, including being lit on fire at a Benihana-style teppanyaki restaurant. Jennifer Garner’s good in this one too, making for a believable pillar of sanity for the family. The attitudes that both Ben and Kelly Cooper carry are actually quite uplifting and it does bring a smile to one’s face to see this couple try their darndest to remain positive as everything unravels around them in comedic fashion.

            The child actors in the film are competent if not particularly remarkable. Ed Oxenbould has just enough of that “loveable moppet” quality about him without looking like he was assembled in a Disney child star factory. It’s also pretty funny that Alexander is fascinated by all things Australian, and Oxenbould is an Aussie himself. Kerris Dorsey is appealingly loopy as she attempts to play Peter Pan while high on cough syrup. Dylan Minnette is a little stiff as the older brother eager to impress his date and Bella Thorne does bring just enough “mean girl”-ness to bear. Dick van Dyke is a bit of an odd cameo choice – we suppose there’s the Disney connection. Genre fans will also get a kick out of seeing Burn Gorman from Pacific Rim, Torchwood and Game of Thrones show up as the drama teacher.

            Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day has its share of bodily function jokes and other juvenile gags but it’s able to escape that feeling that it should be consigned to the Disney Channel thanks to the two A-list stars playing the parents. The production values are also decent, barring an iffy CGI kangaroo. If you’re at the Cineplex and have got little ‘uns in tow, you could do worse than this bad day.

Summary: It’s a really silly, fluffy family flick, but the gags fly thick and fast, Steve Carell throws himself into the nonsense and it’s all over fairly quickly.

RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

For F*** Magazine

THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE

Director: Don Scardino
Cast: Steve Carell, Olivia Wilde, Steve Buscemi, Jim Carrey
Genre: Comedy
Run Time: 100 mins
Opens: 14 March 2013
Rating: PG13 (Some Drug References and Coarse Language)

There is much drama to be mined from the world of magic. There’s a sort of romanticism, danger and mystique associated with the heyday of such performers as Houdini, a world where reality and make-believe dangerously collide, a world where smoke can suffocate and mirrors can shatter…but let’s face it, there’s just as much, if not even more, comedy in there too.

Las Vegas stage magicians have long been associated with cheesy theatrics, ridiculous costumes, unruly big cats and even unrulier bad hair. Burt Wonderstone (Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Buscemi) are a pair of magicians in that grand tradition, best friends since their mutual love of magic brought them together as kids. However, a tiresome routine, waning ticket sales and Wonderstone’s increasing self-absorption put a strain on their working and personal relationship.



On top of that, new magic sensation Steve Gray (Carrey), a self-styled street illusionist renowned for his wince-inducing, “extreme” stunts, has poised himself as competition for a residence at a new hotel. After falling out of a glass box and from grace, Burt is forced to eat his humble pie working in a retirement community, where he meets his idol Rance Holloway (Alan Arkin), a curmudgeon whose magician days are far behind him. However, perhaps there’s a spark to ignite yet, as Wonderstone strives to recapture his glory days and win the affection of Jane (Wilde), a beautiful assistant and aspiring magician he once spurned.

We’ll come right out and say it – The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is pretty much formula from start to finish. There’s the hero whose early success has gotten to his head and who has lost his drive, the loyal best friend whom he abandons, the ageing mentor whose wisdom has yet to run out, the despicable professional rival, and of course the girl who motivates him to get his groove back.



We’ve seen it hundreds and hundreds of times and yet, the film is somehow able to rise just above the clichés from which it is constructed. There isn’t very much to the characters beyond Burt’s requisite “hero’s journey”, and many of them are not very much more than one-note caricatures – the hotel/casino tycoon played by James Gandolfini is actually named “Munny”!  Still, the cast musters enough charm to get us to actually enjoy this familiar ride.

Decked out in low-cut, bejewelled jumpsuits and sporting the most vivid spray tan this side of the Jersey Shore, Carell is, as usual, just very fun to watch. However, it is a little more difficult to buy him as the sort of guy who’d actually have groupies. The film also showcases Steve Buscemi at his least creepy and most sympathetic, and he and Carell do make a decent team. As the subversive, manic illusionist who relies more on gross-out, shocking feats than actual magic, Jim Carrey is clearly having the time of his life, and it is the craziest he’s been in a movie in a while. Olivia Wilde and Alan Arkin don’t do all that much in their supporting roles, but Wilde’s lower-key performance is a good counterpoint to the broad comedy and Arkin being the actor that he is, is effortlessly hilarious and threatens to steal the show each time he appears.



As a satire of the Las Vegas stage magic scene, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is not particularly insightful or biting, and its parody of street magicians who trade on shock factor is around ten years too late. However, there are a good number of laughs to be had and some pretty inspired gags. For example, Steve Gray’s show is named “Brain Rapist”, a side-splitting riff on “Mindfreak”, and magician David Copperfield’s cameo as himself is something of a treat. The closest the film gets to being offensive is a vignette in which Anton Marvelton visits a poor village in Cambodia, only to find that the villagers aren’t interested in magic kits and are much more in need of food and clean water – but that bit is indeed funny.

The movie’s high-energy first half is certainly its better one, and the climactic trick is both ethically and logistically dubious – but director Don Scardino ultimately succeeds in serving up silly, old-fashioned fun. Sure, the story mechanics are well-worn, but if done proficiently enough, there’s still magic to be found in even the oldest of tricks.

SUMMARY: More like a card trick than making the Statue of Liberty vanish, but it coasts by with the help of a game, charming cast and a healthy number of laugh-inducing moments.

RATING: 3 out of 5 STARS

Jedd Jong

Seeking A Friend For The End of the World

 As published in Issue #31 of F*** Magazine Singapore.

 Movie Review                                                                                                             19/7/12

SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

2012

Starring: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley

Directed by: Lorene Scafaria

            Hollywood has long had an obsession with the end of the world. A cataclysmic, humanity-threatening event is a cinematic goldmine for awe-inspiring visuals and shocking images of large-scale devastation, as Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay know all too well. It can serve as a somber platform for contemplations on mortality and our place in the universe, as with Melancholia, or a chance for characters to weep their hearts out over their life’s regrets and attempt to set things right, as with Deep Impact. Then there are the ever-popular post-apocalyptic science-fiction adventures, such as the Mad Max, Terminator and Matrix films, that have straggling survivors forced to adapt to unforgiving landscapes and enemies.

            Writer-director Lorene Scafaria of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist fame has delivered something quite different: a dark romantic comedy about the lead-up to the end of the world. There are no expensive CGI shots or elaborate practical effects, no rousing speeches about rising up against alien invaders and no technobabble about the scientific properties of “the inevitable end”. In fact, the failure of a space shuttle mission to destroy a massive asteroid on a collision course with earth is merely mentioned on the radio as a framing device in the opening seconds of the movie.

            That asteroid has been given the innocuous-sounding nickname Matilda. Everyone knows what’s coming, and many have taken this as an excuse to literally live life like there’s no tomorrow. Nothing is taboo – there are random orgies and lootings, respectable middle-class types shooting up heroin, and parents making their kids drink alcohol. Strait-laced insurance salesman Dodge Petersen (Carell) will have none of it, and desperately wants to live out his last days in normalcy. His neighbour Penny (Knightley), a peppy, winsome wild child of sorts, comes knocking on his window in need of consolation after a break-up. The unlikely pair quickly forms a bond and embarks on a road trip to fulfill their respective last wishes – seeing her parents over in England one last time for Penny, and reuniting with a long-lost first love for Dodge. As doomsday draws ever nearer and things get out of hand, Dodge and Penny slowly realize that all they’ve wanted may be right in front of them.

            The film sets out to be a scathing, pitch-black comedy on how our lives can be almost entirely diminished of meaning when faced with a scary ultimatum and seems somewhat nihilistic. There are stabs at modern popular culture in the form of TIME Magazine’s “Best of Humanity” issue, putting Oprah Winfrey on the same pedestal as Jesus Christ. We’re meant to laugh at the juxtaposition of a grim future set in stone and random acts of debauchery, when really it’s rather off-putting. Also, suicide is never funny. However, the film quickly hits its stride once Carell and Knightley form their pair, and it is then that one realizes this would have worked so much better as a drama with comedic moments rather than a black comedy with pathos lurking beneath the surface.

            What really drives the movie is the sheer sweetness and the tender romance that blossoms against a surreal backdrop. It’s the discovery of how much simple joys can really mean in the face of certain doom, the incomparable effects of listening to a vinyl record, enjoying a home-cooked meal or having that one last phone call to the family. The sentiment that it’s never too late to mend a broken relationship or a broken heart. There are moments that are stunningly earnest in comparison to what went before, and it is a shame that Scafaria felt the need to temper this with broad, raunchy humour. Sure, there are certain inventive gags, including one where Dodge finds an adorable abandoned dog with the attached note “sorry” – and proceeds to refer to the dog by that name. This film may not have elicited many belly laughs, but it sure did elicit tears by the end.

            The movie rides on Carell’s tried-and-tested comedic shtick of an everyman flung into an outrageous situation and coping in the most mundane ways possible, greeting everything with a shrug and a confused smile-frown. He is likeable to a fault, and one certainly feels for Dodge as the film enters more heartfelt territory. He shares more chemistry with Keira Knightley than one might think, as on paper the two sound like pretty bad matches. Keira Knightley is far more watchable here than as the token female in action and fantasy flicks, she relishes having the chance to play the kooky sweetheart perfected by the likes of Zooey Deschanel and Anne Hathaway.

            Since the focus is squarely on Dodge and Penny (and Sorry the dog), there isn’t much in the way of a supporting cast; there are quite a number of characters who pop up never to be seen or heard from again. Comedian Patton Oswalt seems particularly wasted (in both senses of the word) as Dodge’s friend at a dinner party. Derek Luke’s stereotypically chivalrous and tough ex-military type who was a former flame of Penny’s is okay, but his and several other characters do bring to the mind annoying one-off eccentrics who crop up in almost all road trip movies. William Petersen of C.S.I. fame seems to have packed on a few pounds and fares better as an amiable truck driver from whom Dodge and Penny hitch a ride. But the show is stolen by Martin Sheen, whose performance in the last act is absolutely heartbreaking.

            Props have to be given to Scafaria for tackling such an unusual and ambitious topic in a comedy and it seems she has started a trend – look out for Seth Rogen’s End of the World next year, starring Rogen and a bunch of his celebrity pals as themselves at a party when doomsday unexpectedly comes knocking. Scafaria also shows a knack for writing sweet, non-cheesy romantic and emotional scenes. So in the end (heh) it’s quite a waste that she felt the need to embellish this story with several off-key, off-kilter comedic touches.

SUMMARY: Seeking a Friend seeks to blend cynical, unsettling comedy with nice touches of the sentimental, but they are even odder bedfellows than Steve Carell and Keira Knightley.

RATING: 3/5 STARS

Jedd Jong Yue