Showing posts with label Mila Kunis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mila Kunis. Show all posts
These Friends Are Worth Checking Out
As a headhunter, Jamie’s (Mila Kunis) job is to find the best and the brightest. Dylan (Justin Timberlake) is the art director for a blog that is off the charts successful. Seems like a perfect match when Jamie needs to fill the Art Director job for GQ. The challenge is to bring him from California to New York, but she is ready to sell him on the move.
Upon acceptance of the job, Dylan realizes that he has no real friends here in the city. Both he and Jamie are tired of the dating game and decide to become friends with benefits. But can that type of relationship really last?
Timberlake and Kunis are fun stars to work with. I really believe they are both on the verge of becoming superstars. It is these two that make this film fun. Their raw and unencumbered relationship will shock and be a welcome change from most romantic comedies. When they are going for humor this film knocks it out of the park.
The one downfall is the fact that the film tries to get too serious in the end. Like so many before it, they don’t realize they don’t need a serious third act to tie things together. They use great actors like Richard Jenkins and the always likable Jenna Elfman to try and bring the story line to the fore, but instead it feels tacked on and added without a lot of thought. The plot line deals with something near and dear to my heart and despite Richard Jenkins bringing a tear to my eye, it wasn’t necessary in the film as it was constructed.
Sure it has its serious side, but you come to see Timberlake and Kunis and have some fun. The actors (and the bit cameos as well) are what you come to this film to see and they are wonderful. But why oh why did they have to go for the third act serious angle? Though it derails a bit, these friends are worth checking out.
B-
Friends With Benefits
Screen Gems Pictures
Director: Will Gluck
Cast: Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis, Patricia Clarkson, Jenna Elfman, Richard Jenkins, Woody Harrelson
Rating: R
Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes
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As a headhunter, Jamie’s (Mila Kunis) job is to find the best and the brightest. Dylan (Justin Timberlake) is the art director for a blog that is off the charts successful. Seems like a perfect match when Jamie needs to fill the Art Director job for GQ. The challenge is to bring him from California to New York, but she is ready to sell him on the move.
Upon acceptance of the job, Dylan realizes that he has no real friends here in the city. Both he and Jamie are tired of the dating game and decide to become friends with benefits. But can that type of relationship really last?
Timberlake and Kunis are fun stars to work with. I really believe they are both on the verge of becoming superstars. It is these two that make this film fun. Their raw and unencumbered relationship will shock and be a welcome change from most romantic comedies. When they are going for humor this film knocks it out of the park.
The one downfall is the fact that the film tries to get too serious in the end. Like so many before it, they don’t realize they don’t need a serious third act to tie things together. They use great actors like Richard Jenkins and the always likable Jenna Elfman to try and bring the story line to the fore, but instead it feels tacked on and added without a lot of thought. The plot line deals with something near and dear to my heart and despite Richard Jenkins bringing a tear to my eye, it wasn’t necessary in the film as it was constructed.
Sure it has its serious side, but you come to see Timberlake and Kunis and have some fun. The actors (and the bit cameos as well) are what you come to this film to see and they are wonderful. But why oh why did they have to go for the third act serious angle? Though it derails a bit, these friends are worth checking out.
B-
Friends With Benefits
Screen Gems Pictures
Director: Will Gluck
Cast: Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis, Patricia Clarkson, Jenna Elfman, Richard Jenkins, Woody Harrelson
Rating: R
Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes
Hanging With Ted
A movie about a stuffed teddy that ISN’T for kids?
A movie about a stuffed teddy that ISN’T for kids?
Really?
That is what we are looking at with the new film Ted, from Seth MacFarlane.
John (Mark Wahlberg) has always had a hard time fitting in. As a child the neighborhood kids did not want him to be a part of even the most extreme situations. All he wanted was a friend. For Christmas he got that friend, a stuffed bear named Ted (Seth MacFarlane)and a wish brought that bear to life.
Now fast forward, John is 35 and Ted still lives by his side. They spend the day indulging in weed and watch shows like Flash Gordon as long as they can. But as John is growing up, he tries to solidify his relationship with his girlfriend Lori (Mila Kunis). As you can imagine, the ultimatum finally comes – it’s me or the bear. Who will come out of this relationship? Can everyone be friends?
Let’s put all the preconceived notions out there right now…this is NOT a kids’ movie. Ted is for adults. Seth MacFarlane has a fan base from his creation of the television series Family Guy and brings more of that edgy humor to Ted. It will offend you, really it will. But you will also laugh, A LOT.
Wahlberg steps out and creates John as a character that is conflicted but relateable. The cast works with MacFarlane’s edgy script to deliver the most laughs that I’ve had at the theater in quite some time. It’s wrong and over the top from time to time, but in the same regard it’s oh so right.
I found myself loving the wisecracking Ted. It is not for any kids, by any means. And if you are easily offended this one might not before you. But Family Guy fans, take note this is everything you could have wanted and then some. Ted is an explosion of funny on screen.
B+
Universal Pictures
Director: Seth MacFarlane
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane (voice)
Rating: R for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, and some drug use.
Runtime: 1 hour 46 minutes
Oz Strays From The Yellow Brick Road
The Wizard of Oz is a classic film that will always live in our hearts. But what happened before Dorothy arrived in Oz? That is the tale that is told in Oz the Great and Powerful.
Oscar (James Franco)is a magician that is part con man, part showman and all ladies man. As a magician he is struggling to make ends meet on the carnival circuit. As he travels from town to town he needs to bring the crowds in, entertain them and find a new lady at every turn.
But while visiting with the one that he really cared for, a tornado rolls into town and he takes off in a hot air balloon to get away from an irate father, but that get away is soon confronted by the tornado and he is whisked away to the magical land of Oz.
Oscar’s first encounter is with Theodora (Mila Kunis). She seems nice enough and helps Oscar find his way in this way too unfamiliar territory. There is the belief that Oscar is the one that was sent to help them defeat the evil in Oz.
But Theodora’s sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) is not interested in defeating the evil in Oz, because she is controlling much of that evil. But as Oscar soon finds out, it is the journey to fight the perceived problem child that leads him to Glinda (Michelle Williams) the good witch.
Who will be successful? Sure we know that answer…but how is the fun part.
Oz the Great and Powerful has immediate name recognition going for it, but that can be a bad thing too. The name recognition carries with it an expectation level that might be higher than it should be. That was the case, on my behalf, with this film.
Unfortunately, Oz suffers from the “b” word for much of the early part of the film. It is just boring as it sets the stage for the rest of the journey. We are to be intrigued and interested in the setup from discovering the “wicked” witches and their origin to seeing the variety of Oz inhabitants. We should be invested in the “goodness” of Glinda and turning against Evanora and Theodora. But instead, I felt we just dragged ourselves through a murky beginning, part of which led to the overly long 2 hours 10 minutes running time.
But it doesn’t stick like that, fortunately. Instead it does find a way to bring it back around and not totally go in the tank. After a slow start, the concluding third of the movie is solid and will make you almost forget what you’ve been through for the previous 80 minutes. I said almost.
I like the actors, I like the characters, I like the visuals and I’m willing to go to Oz again with this group. I just hope that next time we feel less like sleeping in the poppies and more like the excitement of the man behind the curtain.
B-
Walt Disney Pictures
Director:Sam Raimi
Cast: James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams
Rating: PG for sequences of action and scary images and brief mild language.
Runtime: 2 hours 10 minutes