Director: Dennis Dugan Writer: Steve Koren, Steve Koren, Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel Cast: Adam Sandler, Katie Holmes, Al Pacino, Dana Carvey
Synopsis: Jack and Jill is a comedy focusing on Jack Sadelstein (Adam Sandler), a successful advertising executive in Los Angeles with a beautiful wife and kids, who dreads one event each year: the Thanksgiving visit of his identical twin sister Jill (Adam Sandler). Jill's neediness and passive-aggressiveness is maddening to Jack, turning his normally tranquil life upside down.
Hey! Another DC Comics direct-to-DVD animated film came out a couple of weeks ago. And I finally had a chance to sit down and watch it. So let's get to my review of....
Starring the voices of Ben McKenzie, Bryan Cranston, Eliza Dushku, Katee Sackhoff, Alex Rocco, Jon Polito, Jeff Bennet, Steve Blum, and Grey DeLisle.
Backstory: I tend to repeat myself whenever one of these DC animated films comes along, and that is, I'm getting very disappointed in their choice to just focus on Superman and Batman. There's so many great "lower A-list" and "upper B-list" characters that could sustain a film, but apparently, Superman and Batman are the only ones with enough "mainstream appeal" to make this project profitable. And, my disappointment reached new heights when it was announced that they'd be doing Batman: Year One, Frank Miller's legendary retelling/updating of Batman's origin tale. Seriously, so much of Batman: Year One inspired Batman Begins that how could you do a Year One adaptation without it seeming like a Batman Begins rehash? Well, my copy arrived from Amazon.ca a few days ago, so let's pop it in and find out. Plot: Lieutenant James Gordon, still recovering from a police scandal in Chicago, arrives in Gotham City for a new posting with the GCPD and a chance at starting over. Meanwhile, after 12 years of traveling the world, billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne finally returns to Gotham City. Wayne, himself, has been working on his own plan to help clean up the streets of Gotham, and he seems ready to enact it. Gordon soon finds himself quickly being the only honest cop in a police force that's corrupt to the core, and he's soon put to work on a special task force to bring in this vigilante that the press has dubbed "The Batman." Can Gordon remain the only honest cop in Gotham City? Will Bruce Wayne's plan succeed? Will these two be able to strike up a partnership and bring hope to this troubled city?
What I Liked: This is an incredibly faithful adaptation of the original graphic novel. I'm glad that the story's action centerpiece -- a tense standoff between Batman the Gotham SWAT team in a burnt-out apartment building -- survived unscathed. Probably the best voice acting in this film comes from Dushku as Selina Kyle/Catwoman and Sackhoff as Detective Sarah Essen, Gordon's partner. They really put emotion into their roles. And the animation, as always, is of very high quality.
What I Didn't Like: The voice acting of our two leads -- McKenzie as Batman and Cranston as Gordon -- is...not the best. They both sound really sleepy in their roles. This being a Frank Miller comic, when they do wake up, they seem to take their acting cues from Sin City. In fact, in most of his scenes, McKenzie seems to be playing Batman as though he's Dwight McCarthy, or at least Clive Owen's portrayal of him in Sin City.
Final Verdict: Meh. It's OK, but it could have been better. And, surprisingly, it didn't feel like a Batman Begins rehash.
2.5 Nibs
Bonus Features: There's an interview with the current creative team working on the Batman comics, a running commentary with film`s directors and producers, a featurette about returning Batman to his dark roots, a preview of the next direct-to-DVD film, Justice League: Doom, 2 bonus episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, and they resurrect the DC Showcase concept to bring us an all-new short film all about Catwoman.
"Naomi Watts began her career in Australian television, where she appeared in series such as Hey Dad..! (1990), Brides of Christ (1991), and Home and Away (1991). Her film debut was the 1986 drama For Love Alone. Her following portrayals included roles in B-class movies, such as the 1996 horror film Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering, as well as roles in television and independent films. Watts gained critical acclaim following her work in David Lynch's 2001 psychological thriller Mulholland Drive, starring alongside Justin Theroux and Laura Harring. The next year, she received public recognition for her participation in the box office hit horror film The Ring. In 2004, she received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress as well as for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her portrayal of Cristina Peck in Alejandro Gonz�lez I��rritu's 2003 drama 21 Grams, alongside Sean Penn. Other film roles include the 2005 remake of King Kong, the 2006 remake of The Painted Veil, the 2007 thriller Eastern Promises, and the 2009 thriller The International."
Well, I think we've reached that time...it's time to bring back U62: The Targ for another season!
In Episode 5.01: What, This Again?, I take the time to explain where I've been and why it was time to bring it back, I recap the superhero movies of the summer, and I disclose my podcast's secret origins.
A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas - Kumar Patel (Kal Penn)
A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas - Harold Lee (John Cho)
A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas - NPH
A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
Release: November 4, 2011 Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson Writer: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg Cast: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris, Paula Garces, Danneel Harris, Bobby Lee, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Tom Lennon, Danny Trejo, Amir Blumenfeld, David Burtka, Fred Melamed, Patton Oswalt, Richard Riehle
Synopsis: The new Harold & Kumar comedy picks up six years after the duo's last adventure. After years of growing apart, Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) have replaced each other with new friends and are preparing for their respective Yuletide celebrations. But when a mysterious package mistakenly arrives at Kumar's door on Christmas Eve, his attempt to redirect it to Harold's house ends with the "high grade" contents�and Harold's father-in-law's prize Christmas tree� going up in smoke. With his in-laws out of the house for the day, Harold decides to cover his tracks, rather than come clean. Reluctantly embarking on another ill-advised journey with Kumar through New York City, their search for the perfect replacement tree almost blows Christmas Eve sky high.
"After some minor television roles, her first widely seen appearance was in Much Ado About Nothing (1993), filmed while she was a student at Oxford University. She then appeared in British costume dramas such as Prince of Jutland (1994), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Emma (1996) and The Golden Bowl (2000), in addition to various stage and radio productions. She began to seek film work in the United States in the late 1990s and, after appearing in small-scale dramas The Last Days of Disco (1998) and Brokedown Palace (1999), she had a breakout year in 2001 with starring roles in war epic Pearl Harbor and romantic comedy Serendipity. She built on this success with appearances in The Aviator (2004) and Click (2006). She garnered a reputation as an action star following an appearance as a vampire in 2003's Underworld and has since starred in Van Helsing (2004), Underworld: Evolution (2006) and Whiteout (2009). She has also continued to work on smaller independent projects such as Snow Angels (2007), Winged Creatures (2008), Nothing But the Truth (for which she earned a Critic's Choice Award nomination in 2008) and Everybody's Fine (2009). She has three films set for release in 2012: the fourth installment of vampire franchise Underworld: Awakening, crime thriller Contraband and sci-fi remake Total Recall."
