'Cyrus'

'Cyrus' (R) (3 1/2 stars)

Writers and Directors: Mark and Jay Duplass
Starring: John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, Catherine Keener, Matt Walsh, Tim Guinee

"Cyrus" is one of my favorite kind of comedies and I completely loved it! I haven't laughed this loud and this long at a comedy in ages. I usually smile or chuckle to myself when I find something funny but when I laugh out loud in a theatre it is very rare. "Cyrus" is also a very deep and unsettling movie that is easily one of the best written movies of the year. The makers of the movie, the Duplass brothers usually specialize in what they call "mumblecore" movies and I find that style annoying. A few years back they made a movie called "Baghead" that was supposed to be a horror spoof and I found it to be pretentious and obnoxious. This time they have great actors and a more polished and mature screenplay. John C. Reilly is one of our best actors and he is amazing here as John. John has been divorced from his wife, played by my sweetheart Catherine Keener, for seven years. He goes to a party with his ex wife so he can find a girl. John meets Molly who is played by Marisa Tomei. Marissa Tomei is very good here and I swear she gets more beautiful as she ages. Molly has a 21 year old son Cyrus played by Jonah Hill. John and Molly get closer and even talk about him moving in with her. What transpires between the three is very awkward for all especially when the son still stays at home. John and Molly start to get closer and John finds out that Cyrus seems to appear a little mentally off balance. The first half hour of this movie is very smart, funny and endearing. Then the movie gets a little deeper and blacker and some interesting issues are brought up. John thinks Cyrus is trying to break him and Molly up in very sneaky and evil ways. The movie in the last half hour gets twisted and returns to being even more hilarious.

This is not a mean spirited comedy just made to provide cheap laughs. This is actually a very deep movie that delves into relationships and love. John C. Reilly is outstanding here and he is one of our finest under the radar actors. He delivers a line in here that is a funny line but the way he says it I couldn't stop laughing well after the movie was over on just that one line. It is the biggest laugh out of any comedy this year. Jonah Hill is becoming a very likable and dependable actor. He is very good here playing the most difficult character to grasp. Reilly and Hill should be remembered at award time but they won't so they will get Snavely award nominations. The two have great chemistry together and have a great give and take. Marissa Tomei is also very good here playing a sweet but sometimes clueless woman. This is a very black comedy that sneaks in some dramatic tension which makes it a special comedy in my opinion. I loved it, want to see it once again for the acting and then once again for the dialogue and delivery of it. This is a beautiful, strange, dark and hilarious movie that even contains some pain but in a funny way. It is easily one of the best movies of the year!

'Grown Ups'

'Grown Ups' (PG-13) (Rental)

Writers: Adam Sandler and Fred Wolf
Director: Dennis Dugan
Starring: Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade, Salma Hayek, Rob Schneider, Maria Bello, Blake Clark, Steve Buscemi, Colin Quinn

According to the critics "Grown Ups" is supposed to be a bad movie but that is why my blog site is called regular moviegoer. If I was a real critic I probably would say this movie is smug, unfunny, tasteless and cloying. This site specializes in giving perspective for an audience that just likes to have fun. I had a big smile on my face throughout and I had some fun with this movie. I can't say it is a great comedy and one of the funniest movies you will see but it is fun. A lot of the jokes fall flat but all the men in this film are my age and I kind of identified with the characters. The movie is actually geared towards more my age. There are much worse movies out there this summer than this one. This could have been a lot more hilarious and even classic but it is much better than say the awful "Couple's Retreat". The movie is like a Little Chill for men who refuse to grow up. It is about a group of men who played basketball together in grade school and won a championship. They all find out that their coach has passed away so they all get together for a weekend in a cabin and bring along their families. Sandler is a Hollywood agent with stuck up kids, Schneider is married to a much older woman and so on. The movie gets crowded when a lot more characters are added. This short changes Chris Rock and Kevin James from getting some bigger and funnier moments. Also some of the jokes are pretty mean and tasteless but so what. I smiled a lot and I actually laughed quite a bit. Also Rob Schneider is extremely annoying to me and I hate his movies and his cameos. The fact that I really liked Schneider here and he didn't annoy me is a very good thing so I had that going for me. I like Sandler a lot and he just simply wants to entertain us. His movies are at least a step up from most Hollywood crap lately. "Grown Ups" is not very funny but it is a nice summer splash with very likable people. If you were at home late at night and you were flipping through the channels and came upon this it wouldn't be bad to stop and watch.

P.S. Any movie with a Steve Buscemi cameo can't be all bad. Buscemi is in "Grown Ups" and he is very hilarious! Any movie with Steve Buscemi pretty much gets an automatic 2 stars from me even if it is bad.

'Solitary Man'

'Solitary Man' (R) (3 stars)

Writer: Brian Koppelman
Directors: Brian Koppelman and David Levien
Starring: Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Mary Louise Parker, Jesse Eisenberg, Imogen Poots, Danny Devito, Jenna Fischer

Michael Douglas has had an amazing and diverse career. He is sometimes criminally under rated as an actor. He had his 70's period producing fine movies like "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and acted in masterpieces like "The China Syndrome". He made a huge comeback in the mid 80's after some flops with the extremely fun "Romancing the Stone". He then made his controversial potboilers like "Fatal Attraction" and "Basic Instinct" and also his first acting Oscar win for "Wall Street". He has a grace, confidence and every man appeal to him that makes him a cherished star. He is not afraid to play shallow and flawed men like he does in the very good movie "Solitary Man". Douglas plays Ben Kalman, a car magnate who has gotten in trouble with financial scandals and romantic infidelity. He has an ex wife played by Susan Sarandon, an estranged daughter played by Jenna Fischer ( The Office) and a girlfriend played by Mary Louise Parker. The woman he is dating has a daughter who is about to go to a college for an interview. The girlfriend wants him to take her daughter to the school since he has connections. They go on the trip and as soon as they get there Ben gets in a fight with a college student. Ben is pretty much an arrogant and not to nice man who is a complete womanizer. He will have to do some soul searching as he visits his old college home.

This is not a great movie but it has a well written screenplay and one of Douglas's best performances of his career. It reminds me of Paul Newman's work in "Nobody's Fool". It is a joy to watch Douglas act and he has great support and a wonderful few scenes with friend Danny Devito. Jesse Eisenberg plays a student who tags along Ben and shows the daughter the campus. Eisenberg is building a stellar career and I love his work. He was wonderful in last year's best movie "Adventureland" and he is again solid here. Jenna Fischer is very good in "The Office" but I think she has what it takes to build a nice film career. She handles drama very well here and shows her range well. I always love watching Mary Louise Parker and also Imogen Poots makes a nice debut and is very beautiful. This movie should be watched just for watching how smooth and great Michael Douglas can be. This is a very good character study with a performance by a man who is now mastering character roles. When you watch Michael Douglas you realize what a presence he has and what a true movie star he is.

'Jonah Hex'

'Jonah Hex' (PG-13) (1 star)

Writers: Mark Nelvedine and Brian Taylor
Director: Jimmy Hayward
Starring: Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, John Malcovich, Will Arnett, Michael Fassbender, Aidan Quinn

"Jonah Hex" is one of those comic books adaptations that give comic book adaptations a bad name. This movie is one of the most boring and joyless movies I have seen since "Killers" a while back. Boy does this summer movie season suck! The movie is simply a revenge tale and hyped up Western that is wall to wall shootouts and nothing else. There are no characters we care about, no laughs or any logic to the action scenes. Josh Brolin is a very good actor and he tries here but there is only so much you can do with badly written crap. Megan Fox continues to be a bad actress and I don't get her appeal but then I am not a horny ten year old boy. I give the movie 1 star for Brolin and Megan Fox's eyes which are beautiful. Oh and John Malcovich appears and is slumming it here as the man who killed Jonah's family. The movie opens with narration and comic book cartoon scenes. After 45 minutes of shootings and terrible one liners I wished the movie went back to cartoon form. The movie is dark, boring and very unnecessary. I couldn't wait to leave and then I fell asleep and then I thought about how much time I had after this movie to see a movie that had to be better than this. Actually watching an Ernest movie or a Pauly Shore movie would be better than this turkey.

'Knight and Day'

'Knight and Day' (PG-13) (3 stars)

Writers: Scott Frank, Laeta Kalogridis and James Mangold
Director: James Mangold
Starring: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Viola Davis, Paul Dano

"Knight and Day" accomplishes what "The A Team" wishes it could have, create a dumb action movie that actually succeeds in being dumb fun. The problem with the "A Team" creators was that they had a dumb property, thought they were being clever by being complicated and wound up being dumb asses. The plot in "Knight and Day" is so simple that we are not confused by anything because there really isn't even a plot. Tom Cruise is a spy who bumps into Cameron Diaz, they get on a plane and bad guys try to kill them on plane. When they get off Cruise drugs Diaz and then she wakes up in her apartment. They bump into each other again and they get involved with a drug dealer and FBI agents on their trail. The FBI say that Cruise is dangerous and mentally unstable. What is Cruise's mission? To protect a scientist who made something really powerful but I really don't understand why and what it does. Roger Ebert taught me when I was young what he learned from Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock explained that something that the good and bad guys are after and stirs the plot is called a "McGuffin". The device in this movie is the McGuffin. You really can't explain what it is but everybody sure wants it! A movie like this does not depend on it's plot, something the makers of "A Team" should have figured out. This movie depends on star power and it has two of the biggest stars at the top of their game. I didn't care about the plot, I just loved seeing Cruise and Diaz strut their stuff.

This movie is a lot of fun, pure and simple fun. It is very dumb but there are some good one liners. The action is exciting but I had a slight problem and that was CGI effects. This movie could have been much better and a classic in the vein of "Romancing the Stone" if the movie had realistic action without jazzed up effects. Back in 1984 when the iconic "Romancing the Stone" came out CGI effects weren't around and the movie had simple romance, realistic action and pure comedy. That is a classic and "Knight and Day" needed more talk and less hyped up action. Don't get me wrong, there are some great chases and Cruise and Diaz look good being athletic. Tom Cruise has mercifully lightened up lately after being so boring and safe in Robert Redford's dull misfire "Lions For Lambs" and the last two "Mission Impossibles". I actually like this movie much more than those sequels. With this movie and "Tropic Thunder" we have the old smiling, loose and funny Tom Cruise. I think we underestimate the power of Cameron Diaz. She is tall, drop dead gorgeous and has one of the best smiles in the business. She is also very great at comedy and she is funny, daffy and charming. These two mega stars have smiles that light up the screen and it was a joy watching them work. I just wish they kissed more, made out a little and talked and then we would have a great movie. "Knight and Day" is a lot of fun, never boring and is a great date and popcorn movie. If Cruise and Diaz weren't in this movie it would have been a big failure. I was imagining Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl in these roles and I started to cringe. That is the difference between an A team like Cruise and Diaz and hacks like those other two. This is an action movie that delivers the goods and has two actors I could watch in almost anything. I hope they make another movie together.

'Winter's Bone'

'Winter's Bone' (R) (3 stars)

Writers: Anne Rosellini and Debra Granik
Director: Debra Granik
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Garret Dillahunt, Sheryl Lee, Kevin Breznahan, Dale Dickey

"Winter's Bone" is cold just like it's crisp and stark fall setting in the Ozarks. It is not an easy movie to embrace but I think that is why it is effective. The movie is gritty, cold, unfeeling but it contains an outstanding performance by an actress that makes us somehow care for her character. The movie is set in the Ozarks and Jennifer Lawrence plays a 17 year old girl living with her crazy mother and raising her siblings. They are poor, backwoods people and the father is a criminal who is being pursued by the law for skipping out on his bail. He put up their house for bail and if he doesn't show up to court their house will be taken away. The daughter wants to go look for him and what we have here is a unique film noir type detective movie where the girl tries to find out what happens to her father. She encounters family members and towns people who make the "Deliverance" people look like Disney characters. There is a code of silence among these people and if you break that, God help you. This is a cold, spare and unfeeling movie with violent scenes that are scary and feel real. Jennifer Lawrence is amazing as the girl and here we have another great actress to watch. She gives a natural performance that is just right, never makes a false note and is very effective. What I like a lot about this movie is that these are actors I have never seen before for the most part. That makes this eerily seem like we are watching a docu series and the people seem real and are very creepy and scary. One of the characters is a family member played by a great indie character actor, John Hawkes. You might not know the name but you will recognize him. He is an outstanding actor and he is so great here. He at first makes us fear him but as the movie's story unfolds he becomes something different and human, maybe caring. Lawrence and Hawkes are so great here they really need to be remembered at Oscar time. They will definitely get a few Snavely award nominations. The movie's settings are real, lived in and the location work is beautiful. The movie is well written, the cinematography is perfect and beautiful and the director has major talent.

Why don't I love this movie more? I think it needs two viewings, one at home. I felt there was something holding it back from greatness because I didn't feel a deep connection. It reminds me of a masterpiece called "Snow Angels" from a few years back and I feel this misses that movie's power. It is a very effective movie and I hope Hawkes gets more attention and I can't wait to see Debra Granik's next movie. It also has a performance by actress Jennifer Lawrence that announces a major new actress who just shot up to elite status.

'Toy Story 3'

'Toy Story 3' (G) (3 stars)

Writer: Michael Arndt
Director: Lee Unkrich
Starring the Voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, Michael Keaton, Jodi Benson, Laurie Metcalf, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Blake Clark, Ned Beatty

"Toy Story 3" lives up to the original two movie's spirit, warmth and charm. It is nowhere as good as the first two movies but it is better than most third movies and beats the hell out of the "Shrek" films. It is a joyful, warm, funny and endearing movie with a heartfelt and uplifting ending. It is exciting, still has most of the charm of the other movies and it will give you a huge smile coming out of the theatre. Little Andy has grown up and is about to go to college (Man I feel old!) and is about to leave his toys behind. They include Woody, Buzz Lightyear, the potato heads and a cowgirl. You know these toys from the first two movies so it is no time at all before they are back and you feel familiar with them. We love these toys and when we see them after so many years we get a big grin on our face. The toys are either going to be put in the attic or thrown away. They end up in a day care center and introduced to new toys that are just as funny and cool as the originals. The best part of the movie belongs to Barbie and her new acquaintance Ken voiced by the great Michael Keaton. Ken and Barbie are hilarious together and generate the biggest laughs. In my opinion Buzz is my favorite toy and Tim Allen is perfect again and the funniest joke belongs to Buzz and the crowd couldn't stop laughing. The movie has action and a lot of witty humor and at the end I was strangely touched and that is what the first two movies did to us and why they are classics. "Toy Story 3" is not as good as those first two, it is too busy and too cluttered sometimes, but it is a lot of fun and for a second sequel compared to others it is pleasure to sit through.

P.S. The state of family movies is garbage to me but with "Karate Kid" and "Toy Story 3" this summer so far so good.