Paul Rudd – People Talking

Movie Review – ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ – All The Small Things

Directed by Peyton Reed
Written by Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers and Paul Rudd, Andrew Barrer, & Gabriel Ferrari
Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Tip “T.I.” Harris, David Dastmalchian, Hannah John-Kamen, Abby Ryder Fortson, Randall Park, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Douglas, Michael Cerveris, Riann Steele, Tim Heidecker, Tom Scharpling, Jon Wurster, Divian Ladwa
Soundtrack: Christophe Beck

Another week, another sequel.

Such is life.

(And I won’t even mention how this is the fourth Marvel movie in eight months.)

Let’s keep this short and sweet though.

2015’s Ant-Man was a film I thoroughly enjoyed except for one nagging thought, and that is, “How much better would it have been had Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish been able to see it all the way through?” The answer is it likely would have earned another half (if not full) star in my rating, but still, I think Peyton Reed and company did a fine job making a mostly stand-alone movie with a fun, underdog, Eighties vibe.

Similarly, I enjoyed Ant-Man and the Wasp, though not as much as its predecessor. The tone is largely the same, and the action is still very much to my liking (aka you can actually see what’s happening and who’s punching who, not to mention the miniaturization is unique and interesting), but the comedic execution isn’t as sharp and I found myself visualizing the ending long before we actually got there.

Even so, it’s an entertaining movie, and in a rare occurrence for Marvel, I actually noticed and enjoyed some of the score.

Quite simply though, Ant-Man and the Wasp isn’t as strong as the first one, but I’d still recommend it without any qualms.

Rating: ★★★½ (out of five)

Movie Review – ‘Sausage Party’ – What’s the point?

Directed by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon
Written by Kyle Hunter (screenplay) & Ariel Shaffir (screenplay) & Seth Rogen (screenplay and story) & Evan Goldberg (screenplay and story) & Jonah Hill (story)
Cast: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, Michael Cera, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Paul Rudd, Nick Kroll, David Krumholtz, Edward Norton, Salma Hayek, Sugar Lyn Beard, Anders Holm, Harland Williams
Soundtrack: Christopher Lennertz and Alan Menken

It would be a lie to say that ‘Sausage Party’ is completely lacking in creativity, as there are many imaginative visuals and a handful of jokes that are at least somewhat funny and clever.

However, and with respect to Tim League, it would also be a lie to say that ‘Sausage Party’ is “the ‘Blazing Saddles’ of our generation.” That’s a bit like comparing ‘Revenge of the Sith’ to ‘Citizen Kane’. Sure, ‘Blazing Saddles‘ has a lot of subversive commentary, but it’s nicely blended in to a [mostly] cohesive comedic story; it wasn’t a thinly-veiled effort at megaphoning a specific agenda (‘Blazing Saddles’ is also legitimately hilarious).

I feel a bit strange talking about this, because I rarely, if ever, get into discussion of messages in movies I review, but ‘Sausage Party’ has forced my hand.

Before we get to that though, let me first cover some standard ground.

The premise of ‘Sausage Party’ is that all of the food (along with some non-perishable items) at our local supermarket is alive, similar to the toys in ‘Toy Story’, and they await being chosen by us in order to enter the great beyond. The hard truth, of course, is that we just eat it, and it’s up to one brave sausage to shed light on this and take the humans down.

If this sounds like a comedy set-up that doesn’t resolve, it’s because it doesn’t; which makes the whole exercise rather pointless, which I guess is what the filmmakers were going for, which brings me back to my main point.

The “tl;dr” version of what ‘Sausage Party’ is really about is simply this: religion is stupid, and Stephen Hawking is our true savior. Not to mention that we should give in to every desire we have because moral constructs aren’t real. Sure, sometimes the movie randomly splashes into other topics, but by and large it does everything it can to hammer its true message home.

You’d think that ‘Sausage Party’ would be able to handle its social commentary more seamlessly because it’s a silly animated film, but, again, the core concept of the story is so nonsensical and unresolvable that it makes the real motive of the movie that much clearer. Honestly, it would work better as a series of non sequitur shorts, rather than trying to stretch it to a single feature-length film.

Ultimately, I don’t find ‘Sausage Party’ offensive because it’s offensive, I find it offensive because it’s so obvious, in addition to not being very funny. Honestly, I was in a full theater on opening night, and there wasn’t one moment where the entire audience erupted with laughter, so I know it’s not just me.

‘Sausage Party’ isn’t the worst film I’ve ever seen, there were some funny moments I liked here and there, but, as an entire movie, I absolutely cannot recommend it. It’s too juvenile and too crass without the intelligence to back it up, but worst of all it’s utterly transparent in its intentions.

There’s a big difference between wannabe smart and actually smart, kids.

Rating: ★½ (out of five)

Movie Review – ‘Captain America: Civil War’ – Counting the Cost

Directed by Anthony Russo & Joe Russo
Written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (screenplay), based on the comic book by Mark Millar & Steven McNiven, based on characters created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Florence Kasumba
Soundtrack: Henry Jackman

I’m not going to spend too much time on this because the reality is you’ve most likely made your mind up already, and that’s fine.

Captain America: Civil War is the latest offering in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is now up to 13 movies (and counting) since Iron Man first hit the screen in 2008. It’s basically another Avengers movie because almost everyone is assembled except for Thor, Hulk, and Nick Fury, though the plot does mostly focus on the eponymous Captain. Marvel also wisely brought back the Russo Brothers to direct the film, after their successful turn with Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which I highly rate in terms of the MCU).

I do have some issues with the movie. For one, it’s overly long. I’m not even saying it drags, though many may have that opinion, but I do have a problem that all the big Marvel movies are becoming 2.5 hours long. It’s not like the Nolan Batman series where it’s a closed trilogy and you need to pack in as much as you can, Marvel has these planned out til Infinity [Wars]; maybe they could find a way to be a little more economical with the storytelling? ‘Winter Soldier’ wasn’t that long.

Also, and this is likely related to the previous point, there are some scenes that I suppose are in the movie to connect it to future movies, but in the movie at hand they feel like superfluous vestiges (like your appendix, you can live just fine without it). Dare I say, we may be seeing the first real signs of fatigue from the MCU, but then Dr. Strange might revitalize things a la Guardians of the Galaxy, so I don’t know.

Overall, Civil War holds a good balance of fun, action, and more serious themes of power, friendship, and the intersection of the two. It has a great cast giving solid performances (though some appearances are little more than cameos), and I actually found myself invested in the story outside of the action set pieces. Most importantly, there are no giant blue lasers shooting into space.

If you’re already into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you’ll probably like it quite a bit. If you’re coming in fresh, I don’t really know what to tell you, but I’m sure you’ll get something out of it.

Rating: ★★★½

P.S.
These pint glasses from Alamo Drafthouse are incredible.

P.P.S.
In terms of new characters, I was underwhelmed by Black Panther, but I loved Spider-Man.