CASA DE MI PADRE
Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: *** (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5 stars)
Back when “Casa de mi Padre” came out in the theaters, I was more impressed with the trailer rather than I was with the actual movie. This isn’t uncommon for theatrical releases nowadays. After all, when I drive to the theater, sometimes fighting crowds and half the time paying my own way because the studios don’t always screen films in my home town, I think I might be expecting too much. So when a movie is just so-so, it’s even more of a let-down with the hassle and expense of seeing it in its first run.
However, when it hits the home video market, I tend to be more forgiving. My experience with “Casa de mi Padre” resulted in this, with a midnight screening in a small-but-rowdy audience. It just didn’t pack the punch that I’d expect from, as the advertising says, “the gringos who brought you Anchorman.”
However, I felt I could absorb the film’s comedy and absurdity better on home video. In watching it a second time, I knew what to expect, which ultimately is an immersive SNL sketch brought to full feature length. However, this movie is more than just a single joke played for laughs. It’s not really a joke at all. It’s an idea, an essence of comedy. The players are so committed to the film that it actually plays like a poorly made Mexican film. The joke is... there is not joke necessarily.
The story puts Will Ferrell as the unlikely Mexican hero Armando Alverez, who has been working on his family’s farm since his brother went off to seek riches. When his brother returns with his beautiful fiancée, Armando discovers he is a notorious drug dealer, who brings a cartel war to the family’s doorstep.
“Casa de mi Padre” is an exercise in absurdity, playing awkwardness and hyperbole within a genre that thrives on such things. In fact, most of the gags are achieved by just emulating shoddy filmmaking and awkward acting moments.
The movie was made in the Spanish language, save for a few moments that involve a scene-stealing American DEA agent (played brilliantly by Nick Offerman), so it can be a bit of a chore to watch in the home video setting. (I do wish they had poorly dubbed English dialogue into the mix, just to continue the non-joke nature of the experience, but they apparently didn’t want to do that.) Still, as far as my naive, white American eyes can see, this movie comes closer to spoofing Mexican exploitation films than Robert Rodriguez’s “Machete” did.
It’s silly and dumb, but it did make me chuckle... a little more than it did when I first saw it in theaters.
The Blu-ray comes with an audio commentary with Will Ferrell, director Matt Piedmont and writer/producer Andrew Steele. There’s also an interview with actor Pedro Armendariz Jr., who passed away before the film was released. Additional features include 20 minutes of deleted scenes, a “making of” featurette, commercials and an equally absurd music video of “Fight for Love” featuring Will Ferrell and Genesis Rodriguez.
THE THREE STOOGES
Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: ** (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5 stars)
At times, I wonder if us critics have been too tough on the Farrelly Brothers’ reboot of “The Three Stooges.” After all, it seems that all they’re trying to do is honor one of the funniest comedy troupes in American history. Plus, this isn’t the first time the Stooges have attempted to be retread (and that’s not including the live-performance revivals of various sorts.
After the Stooges were done with their shorts at Columbia, they attempted their own retread with Curly Joe in the iconic spot of Curly. While the Stooges themselves were excited to get into feature films, Stooge fans acknowledge that these were pale comparisons to the original comedy. But even before Curly Joe came on the scene, Joe Besser had a stab at recreating the magic with Larry and Moe, and it resulted in some of the worst Stooge episodes ever.
So that makes me wonder if the Farrelly’s “The Three Stooges” is any better or worse than these incarnations, including weird spin-offs like the Robonic Stooges cartoons from Hannah-Barbera. I think it’s all about at the same level, so the Farrellys haven’t done anything too bad along the way. And after taking a step back, their film “The Three Stooges” isn’t terrible. It actually has some good things in the mix.
The story follows Larry, Moe and Curly from their infancy, being raised in an orphanage. When the orphanage falls on hard times, the Stooges set out into the world to raise $830,000 to save their childhood home. Along the way, they get roped into a murder scheme and, of course, cause a lot of shenanigans along the way.
As a standard family film, “The Three Stooges” can be fun. There’s a certain heart the film retains in simply enjoying cartoonish slapstick humor. Like any number of “The Three Stooges” shorts from Columbia, this film isn’t trying to change the world. It’s just trying to make people laugh.
On the whole, the performances are really quite good. Chris Diamantopoulos does a striking performance as Moe, but it’s Sean Hayes as Larry that really nails the classic role. Together, the Stooges have some decent chemistry, and I’ll have to say I laughed at quite a few jokes.
However, there are problems. Will Sasso is woefully out of place as Curly. While he does an impression that would work in his old job at MadTV, it comes across as more imitative than an actual performance. Plus, he’s too large for the role, considering the original Stooges were all approximately the same height. The new story also has a little too much potty humor, which only bothers me because it was never a large part of the Stooge’s act.
Finally, the movie goes completely off the rails when Moe joins the cast of “The Jersey Shore.” Stooping so low for a few jokes deemed to be relevant, the Farrellys give us the modern equivalent of making an iconic 80s character perform a rap to connect better with the youth of the day.
In the end, “The Three Stooges” isn’t terrible, but it’s a misfire. Maybe Diamantopoulos and Hayes could replace Sasso and start making shorts again. At the very least, this inspired me to watch some of the old short films from the 30s, and that’s always a treat.
The Blu-ray includes a DVD and Digital Copy disc for portable viewing. Bonus material includes a bunch of deleted and extended scenes, the original screen test and a mash-up of classic Stooge moments from the film. Featurettes include the overly congratulatory slate of “What’s the Big Idea?: A History of The Three Stooges,” “Knuckleheads: Behind the Scenes of The Three Stooges,” “Do You Hear That?: The Three Stooges Sound Effects” and “Poifect!: Casting The Three Stooges.”
GET THE GRINGO
Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5 stars)
Mel Gibson has had a rough time these past few years. Much of these pains are self-inflicted, of course, but unlike Alec Baldwin, Mel hasn’t weathered the storm so well. And I find that unfair, in an industry where we give child molesters Academy Awards and chronic alcoholic brawlers reality television shows.
I’ll happily admit that I’m a fan of Gibson’s work, going back to his “Mad Max” and “Lethal Weapon” days. But I haven’t been a huge fan of his recent films. “Edge of Darkness” was decent enough, though it lacked any real punch. “The Beaver” was downright awful.
In this respect, “Get the Gringo” was a pleasant surprise. It’s not perfect by any estimation, but it is a hell of a lot of fun to watch, and it shows an aging but still potent Gibson in a gritty action film role.
The movie follows a nameless American criminal who is thrown in a Mexican jail after busting over the border with several duffel bags filled with cash. While he tries to navigate his way through the prison grounds, which has been opened to the families of the criminals and exists more as a miniature city, he tries to also track down his money. During his stay, he meets a young boy who is being kept alive for an organ transplant for the king criminal in the prison.
Over the years, I’ve seen quite a few direct-to-video films, and I often treat them with a kinder approach than I do theatrical features. They’re often working under a constrained budget and schedule, and they are far more disposable as films. While “Get the Gringo” has these elements to it, its star brings a level of quality you don’t expect from this sort of movie. Not only does Gibson lend his A-lister street cred to the cast, his production company also helps deliver a movie that far exceeds your standard direct-to-video quality.
“Get the Gringo” is a gritty film with some grizzled punch. The action sequences are solid, and the cinematography works to add character to the movie. Gibson himself gives a strong performance as a hardened criminal that still has some heart. We haven’t seen this good of a bad guy meant to be good since “Paycheck.” If this is the new Mel Gibson, I’m totally on board.
The Blu-ray comes with a DVD and Digital Copy disc for portable viewing. It also has a music video and the featurette “Get the Gringo: A Look Inside.” Additional features are short “On Set” videos showing the behind-the-scenes of “The Car Chase,” “The Showdown” and “The Raid.”
4.3.2.1
Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: *1/2 (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: ** (out of 5 stars)
I can respect any filmmaker that is trying to deliver an original film under staggering odds. In fact, unless you’re one of the anointed few filmmakers that take charge of the massive summer event films, you fall into this category.
BAFTA-winning actor/writer/director Noel Clarke has seen his fair share of in-front-of-the-camera work, but he’s still working on becoming a household name. Most sci-fi fans have seen him in the early years of the “Doctor Who” reboot as Mickey, Rose Tyler’s boyfriend, and he’s had quite a bit of work in Britain.
His latest major piece is “4.3.2.1,” which he wrote and co-directed with Mark Davis. The story follows four London girls who stumble into a jewel heist. The movie is told from each of the four girls’ perspective over a weekend, as the heist intersects with their own personal problems.
Like many films and television shows I’ve seen lately, I admire the ambition. Unfortunately, it’s the execution that fails here. None of the characters are even remotely likeable.
Jo (Emma Roberts) is meant to be a hard-working blue-collar girl, but she’s not very nice to anyone, including her friends. Cassandra (Tamsin Egerton) is the rich girl who travels to New York to lose her virginity to her online boyfriend, but she makes such stupid moves throughout the movie, I just don’t sympathize with her. Kerrys (Shanika Warren-Markland) is a defiant, rebellious lesbian who is ready to get in a fight with anyone who looks at her sideways, a terribly cliched character at best. Finally, there’s Shannon (Ophelia Lovibond), a mopey teen who was coerced into getting an abortion, which yields an awkward and often confused and preachy political element.
There’s an attempt to understand each of the girl’s perspective, but with no likability or sympathy for them, it’s hard to swallow. More over, as the movie tries to weave together this not-quite-so-brilliant-as-they-think-it-is jewel heist sidestory, the film feels like its held together with wet tissue paper and chewing gum. Like the forced abortion storyline with Shannon, this results in back-end preaching about conflict diamonds that only superficially gets mentioned but never gets examined in the slightest.
Clarke does some cool things with the camera, including an innovative way to show the four stories splitting up. However, this feels like a fantasy, trying to tell the story of four girls in what one might consider sexy in a wet dream. And to make the filmmaker fantasy complete, Clarke gives us the most unnecessary and out-of-place bit part by filmmaker Kevin Smith. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around that angle.
The Blu-ray comes with a 20-minute making-of featurette, which answers some of the questions that arise during the film, but sadly it’s a better-directed and more cohesive piece than the film itself.
