Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast

New Releases 11/07/08

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (PG)
Starring: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith
Director: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath
The animated creatures that escaped from New York’s zoo and hightailed it to an island off the coast of Africa star in a new film, and along the way, they have grown fur which ruffles in the breeze (thanks to improved CG techniques). Other than that, it’s pretty much the same old Dreamworks schtick “mildly amusing fare that’s safe for the whole family. But the plot is based on the concept that sounds like it was “borrowed” from Disney’s “The Lion King” “for when they land on the African continent, Alex the lion discovers he is the long lost son of the aging king. (Sounds a little like Shakespear’s “King Lear” as well).
2 and 1/2 pieces of second-string animation toast

Role Models (R)
Starring: Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jane Lynch
Director: David Wain
Judd Apatow has nothing to do with this raunchy comedy but his ideas for combining gross-out situations to please the 17-22 year-old-males, and adding a certain sweetness to the characters to make them tolerable to females adds up to big-box office potential (i.e. date movies). They even use an Apatow star (Paul Rudd), and pair him with a graduate of the “American Pie” franchise to act as shills for an energy drink company that gives “educational, anti-drug” presentations at high schools and suggests that high calorie, caffeine-laced beverages offer a legal high. It’s funny in spite of itself, but the sight gags are what bring on the belly laughs. You’ve got to see it to believe it.
3 pieces of Apatow-style raunchy toast

Soul Men (R)
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Bernie Mac, Sharon Leal, Sean Hayes
Director: Malcolm D. Lee
It’s too bad that this is the last of the movies starring the late Bernie Mac “he deserved better. The concept is that two former rock stars are now grumpy old men who hate each other but have to sing together to make some money and are forced to share a bed (shades of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles“), to get the AARP discount at the same hotels where they used to trash the rooms, Overall, it’s sadly pathetic and the songs are the “D” side of the 45’s.
1 and 1/2 pieces of pathetically unfunny toast

Breakfast with Scot (PG-13)
Starring: Tom Cavanagh, Ben Shenkman, Noah Bernett, Jeananne Goossen
Director: Laurie Lynd
Like an ad put out by the “Yes on Proposition 8″ people showing the dangers of gay marriage. the story is about a very “straight” homosexual who used to be a professional hockey player and is now a sports commentator who has to cope with his prejudices when his boyfriend brings home a recently orphaned. 11-yer-old boy who is as swishy as Robin Williams in drag. Well intentioned, but bogged down by predictability.
1 and 1/2 and pieces of wears out it’s welcome quickly toast

Happy-Go-Lucky (R)
Starring: Sally Hawkins, Stanley Townsend, Eddie Marsan
Director/Screenwriter: Mike Leigh
Director Mike Leigh has his actors live together for months before filming begins so they can explore all facets of their characters. The result is always exciting and often quite revealing, uncovering some of the inner demons which haunt all of us. But this time, the center of the film is a refreshingly upbeat London schoolteacher who really loves her job and makes a determined choice to find joy in those minor setbacks that plague even the sunniest people. Polly is one of those exuberantly happy, Polyannish people who collect all those pennies
from heaven in a large pitcher to make the lemonade from the lemons
life sometimes brings.
3 and 1/2 pieces of upbeat toast

NEW On DVD

Get Smart (PG-13)
Starring: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp
Director: Peter Segal
The “Get Smart” movie starring Steve Carrell as secret agent Maxwell Smart, Anne Hathaway as Agent 99 and Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson as Agent 23, was compared harshly with the original TV series. For no matter where you first saw Don Adams talking on his shoe phone or Barbara Feldon wearing a trenchcoat, they were really funny (courtesy of ideas and scripts by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry). But catching that original feeling is elusive and this movie on y works in fits and starts, I like Carrell and Hathaway, but some of the set ups are too long, and the payoffs too weak, and I’m not sure the younger generation will get all the references to 40-year-old technologies.
2 and 1/2 pieces of this would have been a good 1 hour TV movie toast