Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie questionably turns Arthur Conan Doyle's titular sleuth into an action hero in "Sherlock Holmes."

Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and Watson (Jude Law) must prevent the recently reincarnated Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) from taking over the world with black magic, or something to that effect. Holmes’s love interest Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) gets tangled up with dubious motives.

Downey Jr.’s performance is strong and humorous, playing Holmes as a detached genius with poor social skills. He has great chemistry with McAdams as well as Law; the two playing Holmes and Watson like a bickering married couple is a pleasure to watch. This makes it unfortunate that Watson’s betrothed is needlessly introduced in this film, driving a wedge between the two heroes. It would have been nice to see more unadulterated antics between the two.

But despite the strong casting, the film suffers under the hand of Ritchie, a director mismatched for the material. He is more concerned with making Holmes a cool action hero than providing real mystery. Ridiculous action set-pieces and bad CGI seriously detract.

Also, an elaborate set up for the inevitable sequel is laid throughout the picture, which actually feels more like a preposterous cop-out than an ingenious story arc. With the last few minutes of the picture are uncomfortably dedicated to setting up Sherlock 2.

Here’s hoping there’s more mystery next time.

- Eschew It - Two Stars

The Fourth Kind

Sorely lacking scares and aliens, “The Fourth Kind,” directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, drops the ball on an interesting premise. The title originates from UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek's classification of close encounters with aliens, in which the fourth kind signifies abduction.

Milla Jovovich plays Dr. Abigail Tyler, a psychologist researching supposed alien abduction cases in Nome, Alaska. Before the action begins, Jovovich eerily addresses the audience informing them that she is an actor portraying a real person.

After several patients experience identical sleeping problems, Tyler starts video taping their sessions and begins to suspect alien abduction. Tyler uses hypnosis on one patient with disastrous results, and from there she becomes more and more convinced.

Interviews with the “real” Dr. Tyler and sessions with her patients are intercut with dramatized footage of actual events. Therein lies the film’s biggest flaw – it tries so hard to sell itself as being based on “actual case studies” that one becomes even more suspicious of its legitimacy.

Gimmicky split screens simultaneously show sessions with real patients and dramatized patients. The idea that we’re watching real people is preposterously pounded into our heads again and again.

In the meantime, Tyler’s family continues to struggle with the loss of their husband and father. The unsolved murder adds some soapy family drama, with the daughter inexplicably losing her sight and the son blaming Tyler for his father’s death.

To be fair, there is more action in the movie than the trailer implies. A suicide and a possible alien visit add much needed variety to the scenes in Tyler’s office. But most of the scares are supposed to come from patents twitching around while under hypnosis. Yawn.

Recent horror hit “Paranormal Activity” uses the “found footage” concept well because it doesn’t try hard to pass itself off as real. “The Fourth Kind” never lets you forget, explicitly stating that it is “based on actual case studies” in its marketing campaign.

The film provides a couple of scares, but Osunsanmi is not competent enough to really terrify the audience. We never get to see anything which becomes very frustrating. “Paranormal Activity” is scary because it leaves most things to the imagination, but in this film it feels like a big cop out. I’d like to actually see some aliens.

Add to mix some unforgivably bad dialogue, continuity errors, and uneven acting, the scariest thing about “The Fourth Kind” is how bad it is.

- Eschew It - One and a Half Stars

Cold Souls

Plotted like a bad fusion of Charlie Kaufman films, such as “Being John Malkovich” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Cold Souls,” from writer and director Sophie Barthes, does little with its intriguing premise.

Just like in “Malkovich,” actor Paul Giamatti literally plays himself, or at least a caricature of himself. And like in “Sunshine,” Giamatti goes through a high-concept surgery with unexpected side effects. Instead of erasing memories, Giamatti removes his soul.

Giamatti’s role in a production of Chekov’s “Uncle Vanya,” is causing him unbearable stress and anxiety. An advertisement in the New Yorker for a high-tech clinic that removes and stores souls sounds like a promising solution.

Apparently, souls are heavy, and having a twisted soul is worse than having no soul at all. At least that’s what Dr. Flintstein (David Strathairn) tells Giamatti on his first visit. He doesn’t go into more detail, which is one of the film’s problems.

Dialogue barely begins to scratch the surface. Extracting one’s soul hardly seems worth it, especially when the benefits are brushed over. Of course this is a high-concept comedy, but the film makes the idea unnecessarily hard to buy.

Giamatti loses all emotional and physical feeling and realizes he can’t act without a soul. Not wanting his own burdening soul, he fittingly chooses a Russian poet’s soul. His acting performance improves, but he desperately wants his own soul back. He discovers it was stolen by a soul-trafficking mule (Dina Korzun) and must go to Russia to retrieve it.

The film is more interested in its own ideas of soul trafficking and soul remnants left after an extraction than the true nature of the soul. In his first scene, Dr. Flintstein explains that they still don’t understand much about souls, let alone if they are immortal or not – yet souls are inexplicably physical objects. The film opts for the easier road and skimps on the more weighty philosophical and spiritual implications of removing souls.

Giamatti does provide some good laughs, but isn’t even as lovable as his usual sad-sack characters; he doesn’t punch up the endearing neuroses as much as usual. The film shows more restraint than most comedies.

When Giamatti receives the Russian soul, he thankfully doesn’t start speaking with a thick accent, a device that a lesser film would have used. This film is smart in its own right, but it still doesn’t dig deep enough into its story.

Much like Giamatti’s character’s soul, the film itself is quite cold. Director Sophie Barthes shoots the film so the viewer will feel detached, which makes it especially hard to sit through when the pace is so slow.

“Cold Souls” is funny, but could have been funnier. It’s smart, but could have been smarter. For a film about such a heavy topic, “Souls” comes off as a lightweight.

- Eschew It

Whatever Works

Woody Allen is nothing if not prolific and is back with his yearly cinematic offering.

New Yorker Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David) wouldn’t hesitate to impose his views on intellect, religion, and worthlessness of existence to anyone within earshot. He’s a crotchety, recently divorced old guy with little to live for. When Melodie (Evan Rachel Wood), a southern runaway, meets Boris and convinces him to let her stay in his apartment, she adds a little light to his otherwise dark existence.

Despite their 40+ year age gap, the two get married. They seem oddly content until Melodie’s parents show up and complicate things.

Larry David fits into the Woody Allen persona well, but isn’t as likeable as the characters Allen once played himself. Boris can be downright abhorrent. Wood is cute and likeable, but her southern shtick wears thin. And she’s given some really, really bad jokes.

Story structure is helter-skelter at best. The first half of the picture focuses on Boris and his ramblings, but the second half takes lengthy diversions with Melodie’s infidelity and her mother (Patricia Clarkson) discovering herself.

The conclusions come too quickly and neatly. Some jokes fall flat. And no one makes a better Woody Allen than Woody Allen.

This is disappointing because parts of the movie are charming and poignant. There are some good laughs too. The main point the protagonist is trying to make is that though life is miserable and worthless, you should hang on to whatever bit of happiness you can find. “Whatever works,” he says.

And while that’s a nice sentiment, I walked out of the theater thinking “whatever.”

- Eschew It

The Proposal

The Proposal looks like it’ll be the big romantic comedy of the summer. But it’s standard fare for the genre.

Domineering editor-in-chief Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock), forces her assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her to keep her Visa status in the U.S. and avoid deportation to Canada.

Andrew only agrees under the condition that he is promoted to editor. When the government investigates the possibility of fraud, the two must spend a weekend at Andrew’s family’s home in Alaska to make their relationship appear legit.

Andrew has a couple subplots involving gaining his father’s approval and a missed opportunity with a sweet ex-girlfriend. These are nothing amazing but help to flesh out Reynold’s character and their world.

This film is full of familiar rom-com material. There’s a cute old lady. Ridiculous comedy set pieces. The inevitable third act break up. None of this stuff really worked for me. I’ll admit, what drew me in was Ryan Reynolds.

Reynolds brings his enjoyable smarmy humor to the role, and as usual, is a pleasure to watch. This has been a good year for him, first proving himself as a decent actor in Adventureland, getting a small part in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and now starring alongside Bullock.

On the outside, Bullock is a heartless shrew, but there is a reason for that. We do get to see her more human side as she warms up to Reynolds. But her character development is a bit of a mess. She goes from a soulless she-devil to an uninteresting goof and back. I bought her as the callous boss, but the rest didn’t feel as natural.

Their characters aren’t terribly deep or anything, but they’re more than one sided, cardboard cutout people up there on the screen. But Bullock’s transitions were still a bit iffy.

Rounding out the cast are Craig T. Nelson and the lovely Mary Steenburgen as Andrew’s parents and Betty White as grandma. The most enjoyable supporting role was by Oscar Nuñez of The Office as the town Jack-of-all-trades, whose duties include exotic dancer.

This movie isn’t going to stick with you. It’s one you enjoy, go home and forget about. It depends entirely on your tolerance for romantic comedies. If you like them, you’ll like this, if you hate them, you’ll hate this.

I’m kind of a sucker for them once in a while, but this one is nothing special. It wouldn’t kill you to see it with your girlfriend, but be prepared for yet another tragically flawed romantic comedy. Just make sure you know how you feel about your own proposal.

- Eschew It

Wendy and Lucy

If you’ve ever been homeless or have lost your dog, watching this movie might move you to tears. But I think it’s more likely that you’ll be bored to them.

Wendy (Michelle Williams) and her dog Lucy are traveling to Alaska in search of a new life, with little more than a car and a handful of possessions. The car breaks down in a small Oregonian town, which is the first event in a series of bad luck and worse decisions for Wendy. She ties up Lucy outside a supermarket then gets caught shoplifting inside. After being released from jail, to her horror she discovers that her dog is gone. The rest of the picture is a bleak affair, chronicling the search for Lucy and Wendy’s struggles to survive in a foreign place with no money.

This is a tough film to sit through. Wendy seemingly has no friends and has an estranged relationship with her sister. When Lucy disappears, she’s got nothing left. There’s very little in the way of plot, which wouldn’t matter so much if Wendy were more developed. Her daily actions of endurance are fascinating to watch, but it’s very difficult to care for the character. We never find out why she left home, why she has those mysterious bandages, or why she is so hard on her luck. We don’t learn anything about Wendy’s personally either; she’s broken to the point of being a void. Her back-story is left purposefully ambiguous, but that becomes a big hindrance for the audience’s emotional investment.

This feels like one of those films you’re almost required to like as a critic. It’s “arty,” and minimalistic, but it tries too hard. Or maybe it doesn’t try hard enough. Wendy isn’t enough of a character for the film to be much of a character study. And without giving anything away, the conclusion to the film left me underwhelmed and not emotionally attached at all. This film is meant to evoke empathy for homeless and others in tough financial times. But that’s a pretty hard task when you’ve got a ghost of protagonist.

- Eschew It

Observe and Report

Observe and Report is one part delicious farce, two parts vagrant confusion. And that's disappointing because this film showed a lot of potential.

Bi-polar mall security guard, Ronnie (Seth Rogen), must take action to catch a pervert who flashes several mall patrons. But Ronnie must compete with Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta) who is brought in to solve the case. He also tries to woo make-up counter girl, Brandi (Anna Faris), and become a real police officer. But neither of these subplots end up amounting to much of anything.

Observe and Report is a big, balls-out comedy. It is highly offensive and fearless which are great qualities to see in R-rated comedies. But unfortunately the humor is as uneven as Ronnie's moods. Moments like when Ronnie and a fellow security guard beat the living daylights out of skateboarders in the parking lot, or the unexpected twist in Ronnie and Brandi's sexual encounter had me breathless with laughter. The shocking parts were the best, especially the film's climax which is easily the most outrageous scene to taint the big screen in a long time. But for every comedic high, there is an equally unfunny low. The over reliance on profanity for laughs, and downright absurdity of the action are off-putting.

Besides the comedy, the plot also lacks cohesion. The script can't decide if it wants to focus on Ronnie's goal of joining the police academy or his mission to procure the pervert. There are also several loose threads in the plot that are unnecessary, such as turning one supporting character into a criminal, or having Brandi "cheat" on Ronnie. These elements do nothing for the overall story, but there isn't much of one to begin with. These issues wouldn't be as much of a problem if the comedy weren't so hit and miss, but that just isn't the case. It's a shame too, because Observe and Report had some moments of glorious comedic hysteria. But ultimately the lack of story and dry spells in humor make this film not worth observing.

- Eschew It

I Love You, Man

It can be really awkward meeting new people. It’s not something I’ve ever been good at, so I can relate to the main character’s plight in this film. But when the film itself becomes awkward to watch, this comedy is less than humorous.

Real estate agent Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) has always been a “girlfriend guy.” He puts so much effort into his relationships that he lets his male friends fall by the wayside. So when he proposes to his girlfriend, Zooey (Rashida Jones), and the two begin to make wedding plans, he realizes that he’s going to be all alone up at the altar. Peter goes on a series of “man-dates” to find a suitable best man. All hope seems lost until he meets Sydney (Jason Segel) at an open house. The two quickly become friends, but their friendship creates friction between Peter and Zooey.

I Love You, Man shows its strength with its realtionships. Peter and Zooey’s quarrels feel like things real couples could find relatable, like jealously over spending time with other friends. I also like the “bromance” concept, and the relationship between the two male leads is cute. But the movie’s biggest plus is Jason Segel, who is perfectly side-splitting playing the carefree loser, Sydney. And while this role isn’t complex, he shows that he can play different kinds of characters from his other work in How I Met Your Mother and Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

However, Paul Rudd is just tolerable. He’s likeable and relatable, but he just can’t get the laughs that Segel can. One particularly un-funny running gag involves Peter becoming tongue tied and making up awkward words and nicknames for Sydney. It was funny the first few times, but they really needed to know when to stop. In places it was almost painful to watch Rudd’s inexplicably nerdy behavior. Besides Rudd, the whole movie feels a little too awkward for comfort. And for an R rated comedy, the film plays it too safe. There is nothing incredibly surprising, and the third act falls into cliché. I Love You, Man is funny at times but struggles to consistently keep laughs coming.

- Eschew It