WANDERLUST Trailer 2012 - Official [HD]

Wanderlust

Film: Wanderlust

Starring: Paul Rudd (Our Idiot Brother) and Jennifer Aniston (Horrible Bosses)

Director: David Wain (Role Models)

U.S. Release: February 24th, 2012 (Rated R)

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 98 minutes

Paul Rudd's once up and down career has blossomed into a solid body of work. Beginning his upswing in 2004 with the instant classic Anchorman, Rudd then followed suit with another excellent supporting role in the hysterical comedy The 40 Year Old Virgin. After a couple more years of successful secondary stints, his career finally took off when he starred in the 2009 smash hit Role Models. A mere three years later, Rudd finds himself once again teaming up with his Role Models director David Wain. But Wain and Rudd are no strangers to one another. The friends and colleagues have worked together on every film that Wain has directed, including his most recent work Wanderlust. Unfortunately though, Wanderlust is no Role Models.

Wanderlust follows a husband and wife named George (played by Rudd) and Linda (played by Aniston) who are struggling to get by in New York City. But when George unexpectedly loses his job and Linda's attempt at a documentary gets turned down by HBO, the couple can no longer afford their mortgage. While trekking to Atlanta to shack up with George's more successful and far more intolerable older brother Rick, the husband and wife discover Elysium. Elysium is a commune-like property filled with dozens of free-spirited members living under the direction of a divine leader named Seth. Although the experience seems far fetched, could Elysium be just the lifestyle that this couple needs?

Wanderlust is an overly simplistic and re-hatched attempt at R-rated humor. The film's story becomes lost behind the overly animated characters that exist on screen. As Wanderlust serves up its obvious plot twists, it becomes apparent how brutally shallow the movie really is. Rarely does a film cause its audience to give up on its leading characters so quickly. Pinpointing the problems in David Wain's Wanderlust becomes a daunting task, mostly because there is so much blame to go around.

In addition to its aimless plot, Wanderlust finds little solace in the performance given by its leading actress Jennifer Aniston. Even though her co-star Paul Rudd is far from spectacular himself, Aniston is simply woeful in the film. With remarkable ease, the actress elevates her already unlikable character to a whole new level. But despite the movie's spotty lead performances, Wanderlust does offer a wide variety of outlandishly comical side characters. With the aid of a few minor roles, there are a handful of laugh out loud moments which manage to keep the film mildly entertaining.

Unfortunately for fans of well written comedic genius, "shock comedy" has become the latest craze. Everything from the bathroom scene in Hall Pass to Maya Rudolph defecating on the street in Bridesmaids, the bigger the shock the better. Wanderlust rides this bandwagon and musters up plenty of frontal nudity (both male and female). But don't worry, I won't spoil the biggest shock of all.

Wanderlust is a drifting hour and a half adventure to nowhere. Centered around over the top side characters and containing very little substance, the film becomes a somewhat purposeless experience. As is the case with any comedy, Wanderlust has the occasional highlight. However, the distant gap between these rare moments is far too difficult to withstand. Heed my advice and stay clear of Wanderlust.

Stars: 1 and a half stars out of 4

Grade C-

NOTE: This review and others can be found at Movie Critic Dave's syndicated site Geekscape.

Safe House (2012) Trailer - HD Movie - Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds

Safe House

Film: Safe House

Starring: Denzel Washington (Unstoppable) and Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern)

Director: Daniel Espinosa

U.S. Release: February 10th, 2012 (Rated R)

Genre: Action

Runtime: 115 minutes

I spent a significant part of my childhood idolizing the work of mega-actor Denzel Washington. Although I've never been much of an action junky, there was just something about the 1991 filmRicochet that had me hooked. Pitting a young Denzel Washington against the revenge-seeking and villainous John Lithgow, it was pure magic. Fast forward more than 2 decades and Washington is still known for taking center stage in countless heart-pounding action movies. But Denzel's latest effort Safe House, in which he stars alongside heartthrob Ryan Reynolds, plays more like his early 2000's work Man on Fire and Out of Time ... it leaves much to be desired.

The film follows a young CIA agent named Matt Weston (played by Reynolds) who mans a safe house in Cape Town, South Africa. Desperate for a chance to prove himself to his superiors, Weston gets more than he can bargain for the moment the CIA's most wanted rogue agent, Tobin Frost (played by Washington), arrives at his location. And when his safe house isrecklessly attacked by mercenaries, Weston will go to no end to keep Frost detained.

Directing his first American film to date, Daniel Espinosa's Safe House is a meandering attempt at film making. Bogged down by an unforgivable script, Safe House is an obvious disappointment. Rather than spending the film's runtime developing its plot and characters, Espinosa trades depth for gun fire and fight scenes. What makes this scenario so unfortunate is the fact that, at its core, Safe House offers some interesting ideas. However, the movie never takes the appropriate steps needed to derive the story and, as a result, ends up feeling all too flat.

Despite its poor script and directorial execution, Safe House manages to remain somewhat bearable thanks, in large part, to its cast. Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds prove to be stellar once again in their respective roles. Yet, no matter how strong of an effort the talented pair of actors and their co-stars give, it seems as though all of the movie's characters are non-apologetically misused. To its discredit, instead of building off of its own premise and characters,Safe House takes the wrong approach by desperately attempting to measure up to big time action films such as The Bourne franchise.

With a runtime knocking on the door of two hours, Safe House's initial intrigue and natural flow quickly wear thin. The overabundance of gun fire and combat scenes leave the action film feeling surprisingly drawn out. All in all, there's far more potential than there is resolution, as Safe House clearly deserves a better fate. However, it's evident that even the feature's strong cast and crafty plot twists are completely mishandled. As you can guess, I suggest keeping a safe distance from all things Safe House.

Stars: 1 and a half stars out of 4

Grade: C-

2012 Oscars Recap

As of 11:40pm last night, another awards season had come and gone. As expected, The Artist reigned supreme and took home 5 Oscar statues including Best Picture, Best Lead Actor (Jean Dujardin), and Best Director (Michael Hazanavicius). For any naysayer who is yet to see the film, The Artist is truly an astonishing masterpiece worthy of its Best Picture label. I was quite the skeptic prior to my initial viewing, but I walked out of the theatre reminded of all the reasons I love movies.

Tying The Artist with 5 Oscar victories was Martin Scorsese's Hugo. Another wondrous tale recognizing the earliest years of cinema, Hugo earned all of its wins in artistic and technical categories. As I read earlier on Indiewire.com (courtesy of Peter Knegt), it's interesting to note that Hugo's 5 Oscar wins are more than the combined total of Scorsese classics Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull.

In a rather predictable evening (I went 9 for 10 in my Oscar Predictions), the only major upset came at the hands of Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady). Streep's portrayal of Margaret Thatcher landed her a third Oscar in which she edged out Viola Davis (The Help). Also, a big kudos to Christopher Plummer who took home a Best Supporting Actor victory for his role in Beginners. At the nostalgic age of 82, Plummer represents the oldest person to ever win an Oscar. For a complete list of winners for last evening's Academy Awards, click here (courtesy of IMDB.com)

The Woman In Black - Official Trailer [HD]