Former Comedy Central sketch comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele (who were unfortunately tasked with following the brilliant Dave Chappelle) make a weak transition to the big screen with “Keanu,” a painfully unfunny buddy comedy about a pair of suburban nerds who pose as fearsome drug dealers in order to get Peele’s stolen kitten back from a street gang.
The kitten – named Keanu – is no doubt cute, but the rest of the film is a flagrant barrage of F-bombs and N-words wrapped up in a juvenile premise that’s somehow supposed to be a parody of actor Keanu Reeves’ hit revenge thriller “John Wick.” Reeves, naturally, makes a cameo as the voice of the kitten when one of the characters slips into a drug-induced haze. Apart from an inspired cameo from actress Anna Faris (playing herself), “Keanu” is a total dud.
Reviews on KQRS-FM, beginning 12 minutes in.
Click book cover for info on how to buy!
“Green Room” (R) 3 stars (out of four)
“Star Trek” and “X-Men” star Patrick Stewart takes a brilliant career detour to the dark side in “Green Room,” a brutal crime thriller about a down-and-out punk rock band whose members are forced to fend for their lives after they stumble onto a murder scene in the green room at a backwoods Oregon club.
Stewart plays Darcy, the club owner and neo-Nazi leader who orders the hit on the musicians, while Anton Yelchin stars as band’s leader who tries to devise an escape plan. “Green Room” isn’t perfect – the violence is too excessive and there are some silly bits of ill-timed comic relief – but overall, it’s a solid nail-biter.
“The Huntsman: Winter’s War” (PG-13) 3 stars (out of four)
The stars of “Snow White and the Huntsman” are back – sans Kristen Stewart – in “The Huntsman: Winter’s War,” a solid prequel/sequel to the 2012 original that adds Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain to the cast. Stewart was creatively omitted from the follow-up, which first looks at the origins of Eric the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) and the fellow warrior, Sara (Chastain), he grew up with; then skips forward over the events of “Snow White and the Huntsman” as it heads to an epic showdown between Eric & Sara, the evil Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) and her sister, the Ice Queen Freya (Blunt), over the all-powerful magic mirror.
While “The Huntsman’s” premise – a mishmash of fairy tale characters from “Frozen,” “Brave” and, of course, “Snow White” – is hardly original, a talented cast (including the hilarious Nick Frost as one of the Huntsman’s dwarf warriors), makes up for the film’s shortcomings. “The Huntsman” is far from perfect, but a crowd-pleasing film nonetheless.
When it comes to the success of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2,” star and writer Nia Vardalos said the movie’s a hit, no matter the financial outcome. For Vardalos, who earned a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination for the first “Greek Wedding,” the second “Greek Wedding” is already a great success for the simple fact that, like the first film, it’s connecting with the audiences.
That’s all she could ever hope for, Vardalos told me in a phone conversation Friday, some 14 years after we first met to talk about the first “Greek Wedding.”
“I cannot believe it happened with the first movie, and for it to happen again with this one — it’s not about the box office financial success. It’s about people seeing their family in my family again,” Vardalos said, giddily. “I love that. It’s like a big fat family reunion … what we love is watching the audience come out of the theater laughing, smiling and talking. We go from theater to theater and hide and watch audiences, because seeing their reactions makes us feel like we’ve reached out and connected with people again. It’s a feeling of being understood by a generation of people saying, ‘That’s my family!'”
Now playing in theaters nationwide, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” picks up 17 years after the nuptials between Toula (Vardalos) and Ian (John Corbett), where the couple is fretting the decision of where their 17-year-old daughter, Paris (Elena Kampouris), will attend college. Trying to manage her daughter’s life, her life with Ian and her parents’ lives, the exhausted Toula’s life is turned completely upside down when a Portokalos family secret is uncovered, leading to a chaotic tiff between her mom, Maria (Lainie Kazan) and dad, Gus (Michael Constantine).
Of course, given the blockbuster success of the first “Greek Wedding,” it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that Vardalos was immediately approached about doing a sequel. Also a surprise was that she opted to live a life that would truly inform a follow-up narrative, which explains why it’s been 14 years since the last invitation to another “Greek Wedding.”
“My family and friends were shocked when I said ‘No’ to the sequel offer that was immediately extended to me after the success of the first film,” Vardalos said. “I said, ‘I can’t, and here’s the truth why. I’m in a private struggle to become a mom, and it’s not happening. How would I write that Toula and Ian are parents, which I had written at the end of the first movie in a moment of wishful thinking, but not having experienced it myself?’ My producers and John Corbett were so kind about it, and everybody immediately understood and said, ‘Got it.’ But then, my producers said, ‘The door’s always open.'”
Vardalos, who chronicled her and husband Ian Gomez’s struggle to become parents and the wonderfully blessed adoption of their daughter in her book, “Instant Mom” (HarperOne, 2013), said she realized on the promotional tour of the book that the time had come to tell the story of the second “Greek Wedding” the way it was supposed to be told — naturally.
“I believe now in the order of things. I believe everything was supposed to happen to me, and not work, so that I could meet my real daughter. I get it now,” Vardalos said. “This is why I feel this was the time for the sequel. There was no way I could have written the story of wanting to stay close to my daughter if I didn’t experience motherhood. So, I’m grateful for all the years I’ve waited, and I’m grateful that my producers waited for me.”
Since Vardalos and Gomez became parents, the actress-filmmaker has become a major advocate for adoption. In fact, there’s a mention of adoption in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” that put a huge smile on this writer’s face, since adoption has played a huge part in my family’s history.
“I like to float the idea of adoption out there to open people’s minds up so they think, ‘Hey … maybe,'” Vardalos said.
For Vardalos’ part, she’s been making prospective parents adoption dreams a reality since she’s been donating all proceeds of “Instant Mom” to adoption charities.
“We found out recently that the proceeds have gotten close to 1,000 children adopted,” Vardalos enthused.
The beauty is, the adoptions Vardalos has helped make possible all stem from the success of the first “Big Fat Greek Wedding,” the life-altering event that provided her an opportunity to not only forge a wonderful career, but off-screen, to make a difference in other people’s lives.
Suddenly, that funny, honest and heartfelt celebration of Vardalos’ family 14 years ago seems to have taken on a profound new meaning. Think about it: Because of Vardalos’ kindness, 1,000 more families, no matter their heritage, will be able to celebrate weddings of their own someday.
“Midnight Special” (PG-13) 2 1/2 stars (out of four)
Writer/director Jeff Nichols partially channels “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” with uneven results in “Midnight Special, an indie sci-fi thriller that keeps you at arm’s length for most of the film, only to deliver an underwhelming payoff. Michael Shannon stars as Roy, the desperate father of an 8-year-old boy (Jaeden Lieberher) who has otherworldly abilities. Escaping a religious cult that believes the boy is their savior, the two, along with Roy’s best friend, Lucas, find themselves also on the run from the NSA, which perceives the boy as a weapon because he can bring down objects out of the sky. Roy has different plans, to bring his son to a specific location for reasons unexplained.
Although “Midnight Special” is slow to and uneventful at times, it’s almost a relief that it’s also not overwhelmed by special effects, especially given the genre it has originated from. Even though the cast – which also includes Adam Driver, Kirsten Dunst and Sam Shepard – is stellar all around, the film seems empty when all is said and done. Ultimately, “Midnight Special” is not special, but merely above average.
“I Saw the Light” (R) 3 stars (out of four)
Loki actor Tom Hiddleston puts aside his usual brand of mischief to take on a risky performance of an American music icon with “I Saw the Light,” a biopic about Hank Williams’ rise and untimely death at the age of 29 in 1953. The film largely centers on Williams’ struggle with alcoholism and his relationship with his first wife, Audrey (an excellent Elizabeth Olsen) and how their tumultuous marriage effectively inspired the country and western star’s classic songs.
Hiddleston, who also sings such Williams classics as “Cold, Cold Heart” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” is spectacular in the film, yet somehow we come away from “I Saw the Light” with little insight into what tortured Williams’ soul to begin with. There’s no question he was a creative genius, but the film doesn’t fully explain why.
Click book cover for info on how to buy!
Original Interviews, Reviews & More By Tim Lammers
