Blu-ray Review: A Case of You (2013)

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Like CliffsNotes for People, Facebook profiles provide us with a succinct getting to know you guide to any individual, where a person’s likes, snapshots and status updates have become the cyber version of a first date. Namely, we find out things we used to learn by having a good old-fashioned conversation with a friend request and a click of the mouse.

Using this idea as a jumping off point to explore what would happen if a shy guy took the Facebook profile of the object of his crush-worthy affection far too literally to become what he believes is her ideal mate, affable actor Justin Long makes his screenwriting debut, starring in the work he penned alongside his brother Christian and co-star Keir O’Donnell.

A frothy, sweet romantic dramedy confection with a dry sense of humor that translates a bit awkwardly onscreen, Long’s Case is as in need of mischievous laugh-out-loud fun as it is a stronger sense of just who our lead character actually is before he undertakes his romantic quest to become the real-life version of the blonde, bubbly barista Birdie’s online dreams.

Directed by actress turned Life Happens helmer Kat Coiro, A Case of You’s weaknesses are easily overshadowed by the appealing star-studded supporting cast’s obvious commitment to and infectious energy for the scene-stealing characters they play from Vince Vaughn’s macho publisher and stoned out Spin Doctor guitar instructor Sam Rockwell to Wood’s oddball coworker Peter Dinklage and outgoing ex Brendan Fraser.

The film centers on Long’s insecure writer Sam, whose carting around massive invisible baggage thanks to the trust and commitment issues that stem from his heartbreaking estranged relationship with the mother who’d walked away from him along with his bookish father in favor of an exciting new man.

Deciding he isn’t ready to put himself out there without at least some kind of established (albeit manufactured) connection, Sam uses Birdie’s profile to become someone completely different from himself to attract the effervescent beauty (played by Evan Rachel Wood).

From taking dance, cooking and guitar lessons to purchasing her favorite books and music (including, I presume the Joni Mitchell titular song that is never played or mentioned in the film), Sam fails to realize what the audience, his friends and Birdie already understands, which is that the most interesting person he can possibly be is himself. Likewise, anytime he reveals anything genuine about himself in the film, he’s easily one hundred times more fascinating than the polished, rehearsed guy he’s trying to be.

Finding himself as attracted to Birdie as he is inspired by the caricature artist who seems to be a (thankfully) more relatable version of the stereotypical rom-com free-spirited hippie waif of the over-exaggerated love child of Goldie Hawn meets Drew Barrymore variety, Sam’s love life soon also serves as fodder for his new manuscript.

Branching away from the horrific teen vampire movie novelizations he’d written in the past to create something far more authentic, he chronicles his relationship with Birdie including all of the hopes, fears, secrets and lies he’s too afraid to reveal anywhere but in print.

Although Long’s muse-like plotline sets Case up for a formulaic finish, one of the film’s most admirable qualities is in the way it deviates from traditional romantic trappings.

Intelligently written and respectful of the audience's intellect – instead of just plugging the characters and subplots into the same A+B=C genre paradigms we’ve seen again and again, A Case of You lets its hero’s motivation be its guide, telling a tale of people versus a formulaic plot.

Although we’re enchanted by Wood from her earliest scenes, by not offering enough information about Sam before he begins his plan of romantic action, the film makes it that much harder to root for him or understand his sudden drastic change in attitude when he first picks a fight with Birdie without any real prompting and then inevitably, later sees the error of his ways.

A simple fix might have been swapping out the scene order to move an opening sequence that finds him crossing paths with an ex to later on in the film (ideally before the fight) in order to maximize the emotional impact of it so that we fully grasp his level of insecurity. Unfortunately the way it all plays out onscreen keeps us at an arm’s length from Sam from start to finish.

Thankfully, Long is so charming that he helps break down some of Sam's and by extension the film's walls. Case finds him playing slightly against type so that he delves much deeper to embody a far more internalized version of the same "nerdy" persona that first introduced him to American television viewers (including yours truly) via NBC's Ed over a decade ago.

While his charisma and the palpable chemistry between the two leads helps us get over our some of our hurdles with the main character, the ingenious way that Case introduces and then abandons rom-com red herrings from a likable ex-boyfriend and his tell-all manuscript to Sam’s juvenile conceit that he’s figured out some new dating angle is very impressive for a first time screenplay.

While the humor is too understated to set the film apart from superior rom-coms, making Coiro’s work ultimately as forgettable as its title that sadly never pays off on the promise or allusion to Joni Mitchell, A Case of You is still a warmhearted effort that’s sure to inspire discussion about the ups and downs of love in the time of Facebook.

As succinct as a Facebook profile (by clocking in at a mere 91 minutes), this IFC Films release hits shelves just in time for Valentine’s Day. And even though it’s light on special features, by managing to work in an opportunity for Across the Universe star Evan Rachel Wood to delight viewers with a song, this enjoyable film gives us the greatest bonus in the feature film itself by bringing us both music to our ears and a potential status update to “like” on our Facebook page.

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

Movie Review: Best Man Down (2013)

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Production Title:  Lumpy

Had Best Man Down been made in a different decade or with a different budget, then Lumpy -- the bighearted buffoon (embodied by Tyler Labine) who drops dead on a cactus at a destination wedding after hitting the open bar too hard -- might've been played by John Candy, Chris Farley or Zach Galifianakis.

And when it comes to this well-intentioned but ultimately uneven feature debut from writer/director Ted Koland, that's precisely the problem as -- even at his most obnoxious in the film's first major sequence -- Lumpy is the most interesting character onscreen by far and he's killed off in a matter of minutes as the title warns.

Arguably Koland understood this fact much better than anyone -- going so far as to name the first draft of the film Lumpy. Yet the resulting Best Man Down only comes alive in the moments that Lumpy is as well, as our dully underwritten newlyweds Scott and Kristin (Justin Long and Jess Weixler) dutifully abandon plans for a honeymoon in Cabo to give Scott's childhood friend a proper burial back home in Minneapolis.

 

Spending their vacation money (which incidentally was given to Scott in a Lumpy loan) to send his body home from Phoenix, the two return early as well, going on a search for the past in the process. Learning the hard way that there's a difference between a best friend and an oldest friend, Scott and Kristin endeavor to sort out the fact from fiction to uncover the truth about Lumpy.

 

In doing so, they are quick to discover that in this day of technology replacing face-to-face communication combined with the natural tendency to drift in adulthood as we go to college, start careers and make new families of our own, they may not have known Lumpy as well as they thought.

 

Unfortunately, from their petty fights and underdeveloped personalities -- particularly in the case of Weixler who tries to make the most of what little she has to work with in a stereotypical anxious bride role Scott and Kristin never manage to reach us as anything beyond an audience surrogate.

 

Frequently, the two seem to exist in a different movie altogether, as evidenced in a few darkly comedic gags involving an old boss of Lumpy's who was fond of computer porn to Kristin inexplicably sneaking a peek of Lumpy in the body bag.

At their best, the newlyweds serve as a connective thread to link us to the life Lumpy left behind -- literally it seems, in the form of his friendship with Ramsey (Addison Timlin), a wise-beyond-her-years fifteen-year-old living a hard life in Northern Minnesota who became something of a kid sister, best friend and kindred spirit to the deceased.

 

And once we begin to learn more about Ramsey's plight with a bad home life and her relationship with Lumpy in a series of flashbacks, much needed life is breathed back into the picture and the pace is picked up considerably.

It becomes fairly obvious around this point how much stronger Koland's script would've been if the newlyweds would've been -- if not completely exorcised -- then demoted to supporting characters to tell the story of Ramsey and Lumpy in a straightforward narrative as when Lumpy and Ramsey are together onscreen, we glimpse something close to magic.

Reminiscent of Lost in Translation and Beautiful Girls -- once again with the heart of a John Hughes era John Candy beating through -- those moments are far too brief but make us wonder about what might’ve been.

 

Fortunately settling into a Ramsey-dominant narrative within the last act that elevates Best Man Down from awkward to heartbreakingly tender, managing to inspire a few tears during Ramsey's moving eulogy, Koland's film definitely improves as it continues.

To this end, it owes a great deal to its superb cast, most notably Timlin whose quiet power recalls early Kristin Stewart and Natalie Portman as well as a startling, against-type turn by a nearly unrecognizable Frances O'Connor as Ramsey's struggling single mother.

 

Initially drawn to the film for its geography, as a Minnesota native who now resides in Phoenix, Best Man Down doesn't disappoint. It serves as a strong Minnesota showcase from the gorgeous shots of downtown at night (lensed by Disturbia and Adam cinematographer Seamus Tierney) that paint my hometown like a winter wonderland to the use of local talent from Minneapolis's noteworthy theater scene that has "more theater seats per capita than any other city in the U.S. outside of New York City."

Though its flawed in structure and dominates the script with the wrong two characters for a bulk of Best Man Down's roughly ninety-minute running time, much like Lumpy, you can tell that the film's heart is always in the right place, making me excited for what's to come next for Koland.    

Referenced/Related Reviews

Adam

Beautiful Girls

Disturbia

Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation (Essay Comparison to In the Mood for Love)

Text ©2013, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

DVD Review: Galaxy Quest -- Deluxe Edition (1999)

This Hilarious Cult-Favorite

Is Now Available As a Deluxe DVD & Blu-ray

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I'm not sure if I was in another galaxy during the winter of '99 but when I received information about the tenth anniversary deluxe edition release of director Dean Parisot's Galaxy Quest, I was sold within an instant upon seeing the names Alan Rickman and Sam Rockwell. Likewise, I was completely stunned that I'd never caught it before.



Yet, just as I was about to say that I'd love to review it-- my eyes moved lower on the screen wherein the clincher to the entire press release arrived with three little words proudly promising, "Sigourney Weaver Raps." Yes, it may be in an extra and not actually the film but the idea of the classy, tall, elegant and accomplished three-time Oscar nominee pulling a Dr. Dre seemed far too irresistible to pass up.



While of course, admittedly I knew that it would help if the movie was good but when-- day in and day out-- you read an overflowing inbox filled with various press releases and news articles (with way too many awesome offerings and precious little time to take in as much as I'd like to discover), I'm always on the lookout for that something extra to grab my attention and share with Film Intuition.



And obviously, in that respect, I'm not alone as the geniuses at Paramount knew that Weaver rapping would make the title stand out even more than in its beautifully (and rather expensive looking) futuristic packaging as they made the wise decision to slap those same three words in yellow font on a sticker that adorns the beautiful, 3D hologram style box for the Deluxe Edition's debut on shelves May 12th.



Marketing wise, the release of Galaxy Quest (which technically wouldn't celebrate its tenth anniversary until December) received an early and logical push now to help thematically tie in with both Paramount's big screen, fun summer blockbuster Star Trek from helmer J.J. Abrams along with the killer new Blu-ray releases of the classic films and series that also boldly offered fans the chance where Kirk had never gone before.

And for those who were unfamiliar with the material, such as yours truly, this premature bow as a collectible DVD was more than justified with this surprisingly heartwarming yet hilarious good-natured spoof of the Star Trek franchise (both on-screen and off in the lives of the actors and their undyingly devoted fans) with the thinly disguised fictitious version of the series, appropriately sharing the title Galaxy Quest.

Once an admittedly cheesy yet wildly entertaining television series-- the movie opens with a look at a clip of the Star Trek like vintage clip and then catches us up with the show's cast twenty years following the now cult hit's cancellation as the actors grudgingly eek out an undignified living cutting the ribbons at new shopping centers, signing autographs at science fiction conventions while posing for photos and answering trivia that fans obsess over when questioning the logic of the "mythology" and rules perpetuated throughout the series.



When the film itself begins, the frequently late, hung-over and always sneaking off for extra solo gigs-- Tim Allen's hilariously egocentric actor Jason Nesmith-- who's the crowd favorite for his William Shatner modeled role as Galaxy Quest's Commander Peter Quincy Taggart seems to fare better than his colleagues.



While the show's one-time bit player Guy Fleegman (a terrific Sam Rockwell) serves as the emcee and scheduler for the crew-- having been so insignificant to the series that his nameless character died in episode 81-- essentially he serves as the bridge between the fans and the actors as he's stuck in the middle himself, never fully accepted on either side. Of course, we're not sure which one is less co-dependent or extreme as the fans dress up like their favorite characters and line up in droves to cheer and celebrate whereas the cast struggles to put on their game faces, wondering what happened to their careers.



Rounding out the rest of the main "cast" of both the film and the fictitious show, we have: Allen's jealous sidekick in the form of the resentful and frustrated formerly Shakespearean thespian Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman in a role that channels Nemoy's Spock) who has said his famous one-liner so many times he's ready to snap; Weaver's beautiful blonde Gwen DeMarco, whose only role aboard Quest as Lieutenant Tawny Madison was to show as much cleavage as possible while simply serving as the translator to repeat whatever it is the computer has just said; Daryl Mitchell's former child actor Tommy Webber who played the youngest integral member of the crew; and Tony Shalhoub's illogically named Fred Kwan who played the "Asian" Tech. Sergeant Chen despite the fact that... well he's as white as his USA Network character Adrian Monk.

When Jason is persuaded to appear in what he assumes is merely a paid side appearance by a group of strange yet aggressively friendly "fans," the movie ventures away from what we assumed was its satirical premise about has-beens struggling with their former glory and lives stuck on nostalgic repeat with as Shalhoub described a beautiful misdirection as Jason finds himself face-to-face with real aliens who-- after having mistaken old reruns of Galaxy Quest for factual "historical documents" completely rebuilt the ship to its exact parameters (useless, cheesy set-pieces and all) to recruit him to help fight an evil intergalactic villain set on destroying their race.



After Jason returns to Earth, his cast-mates assume he was simply trying to steal another gig out from under them and come along, only to find themselves all in an outer space reality version of Galaxy Quest minus the rubber bullets. Highly creative and incredibly amusing both in the screenplay form from writers David Howard (who sold the spec script from the midwest and amazingly found his work realized) and screenwriter Robert Gordon as well as the talented ensemble cast.



Following as Allen explains the director's advice to ignore the "jokes" and tendency to go for broad humor by playing everything seriously, the movie works so incredibly well for that reason as it's a film lampooning a franchise while also respecting it in a way that makes Galaxy Quest a movie that's still hard to pinpoint. As Weaver notes-- first acknowledging that it's probably the film she's been in that people have loved the most-- viewers didn't know what to make of it and ten years later they still don't as Allen simply confesses that "every part of [the film]... is great."



Filling the work with the same kind of absurd logic that is apparent in series like Star Trek with a hallway that's filled with an intense gauntlet of medieval like blades and traps that can slice and dice stars serving no purpose other than to entertain (as Weaver's character complains throughout that they're stuck re-living the same badly written episode this time for real), it's even more amusing as it requires the assistance of the Galaxy Quest version of a Trekkie as Jason has to contact Ed star and "Hi, I'm a Mac" actor Justin Long as an obsessive, nerdy teenager who helps return the crew to safety along with his dedicated friends.

Yet, somehow managing to wrap the actors all up in the arc as well as Rockwell's unappreciated bit player worries that he has to die in this version of Galaxy Quest since that's what he did in the show and Rickman realizes just how important it is to say those same old lines once more with feeling-- it's an unexpectedly lovable romp that's guaranteed to entertain.



Augmented with fond featurettes that roll out new interviews (as opposed to the same old material usually found in re-releases) and of course the extra where Weaver-- inspired by Daryl Chill Mitchell-- composes a rap for her agent's birthday in a video filmed by Parisot and co-starring some of the Quest crew, the film's a blast and one that I wholeheartedly wish I would've seen back in its initial release, although perhaps it may have fared better as a summer blockbuster a la the work its gently toying with in the form of Star Trek.

Blu-ray Review: Strange Wilderness (2008)

Now Available on Blu-ray

Also Available on DVD

You have to be a fan of actor Steve Zahn to be able to appreciate the loony mayhem that is director Fred Wolf’s Strange Wilderness. Fortunately, this is one prerequisite that I’ve aced ever since I witnessed my fellow Minnesota native initially playing the sweet, closeted Reality Bites character amidst a terrific ensemble of actors in Ben Stiller’s directorial work.

Balancing out blockbusters with indie films, he followed this up with more great little-seen turns over the years (Safe Men, Happy, Texas), but it wasn't until he finally stole the spotlight away from such larger-than-life celebrity presences as Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, and Don Cheadle, first in Hanks’ underrated, sunny ‘60s feel-great musical comedy That Thing You Do! before he brought a bizarre mixture of humor and pathos to his small time hoodlum turn in Steven Soderbergh’s brilliant Out of Sight that people started to pay attention in a bigger way.

Although unfortunately, despite some truly memorable and instantly quotable laugh-out-loud moments in this film penned by Fred Wolf and Peter Gaulke that finds Zahn starring as the inept son who’s inherited his deceased Jack Hanna-like father’s nature television series, Strange Wilderness loses its way shortly after the characters hit the road in a series of escalating, tired, gross out, and cliched “outsiders on a journey” gags.

And despite the fact that only a third of the way into the roughly 90 minute movie, most viewers will feel like channel flipping as though they've stumbled onto the movie on television and moreover feel the strange sense they’ve seen it all before in countless other Happy Madison productions from executive producer Adam Sandler-- the main reason that the film succeeds at all (in the precious few times that it does) and what kept me watching for its entire running time was none other than Steve Zahn.

Coming right off of an impressive dramatic portrayal in Werner Herzog’s acclaimed Vietnam-set biopic Rescue Dawn co-starring Christian Bale, Zahn is instantly believable in familiar comedy mode as the fictitious version of Peter Gaulke.

The ill-prepared host of the now laughably awful series a three a.m. time slot-- Gaulke’s show is just weeks away from justifiable and long overdue cancellation by network executive Jeff Garlin. So in one last ditch attempt to bring back the viewers and make his father proud, Zahn leads his group of even more clueless staffers (including Allen Covert, Jonah Hill and Justin Long) on a journey to find Bigfoot by traveling down into central America.

Of course, we know they're completely unprepared for the dangers that face them given the group's prior tendency to prep for shows with voice-overs written on bar napkins, nonsensical and erroneous “facts” and pseudo-intellectual observations like “it is estimated that the faster a shark swims, the more distance he covers in a given period of time,” and enlisting crew members to don animal costumes to horrific results. And sure enough, it isn’t long before they’re flat broke and find themselves truly trying to survive in some very “strange” wilderness indeed.

A few years following the success of the movie’s origins as comedic shorts from Wolf and Gaulke via an independently produced series of short video “parodies of wildlife shows… which [were] eventually [aired] on Comedy Central,” former Saturday Night Live writers, stand-up comics and TV writers Gaulke and Wolf decided to turn that idea into a feature length work.

Kick-starting their ambition to see it as a movie by crafting their own version of it on video for potential financiers-- Wolf acknowledges that time and again they encountered “a lot of people interested in making it into a TV show… until Adam Sandler and his producing partner Jack Giarraputo read the script.”

With the blessing of Happy Madison Productions and Sandler’s name enabling them to attract some top-notch talent including Ernest Borgnine (in an inspired casting decision made after seeing him on SpongeBob SquarePants), soon the film was set into motion. And while one can’t argue with some of the incredible performers involved like the always-welcome Justin Long as the perpetually stoned, creepily tattooed new crew member and fun cameos with Robert Patrick and Joe Don Baker—- not to long after the movie's incredibly addictive and wholly original set-up-- the film's tone is destroyed by excess.

Namely in unsuccessfully trying to juggle so many different characters (including a bizarre and overdone turn by Jonah Hill that grates on the nerves within seconds) and an increasing over-reliance on disgusting sight gags-- soon the great premise about the dim-witted host is left by the wayside in lieu of sequences involving animals attacking our lead in the privates and-- I'm not kidding-- an entire conversation centering on the fact that a character's name is Dick.

And overall, Wilderness is a movie that holds our interest for the first portion as we see some of the characters in action creating what has to be the worst animal show ever captured on film-- making the screenwriters’ initial feedback that it would’ve probably worked best as a television show seem especially true in hindsight.

With a great deal of enthusiasm, the actors all try their hardest but sadly, there’s not much to like about a film that alienates more viewers with each successive scene that goes for laughs in the crudest possible manner, forgetting just what made the first act so damn funny to begin with.

Typically for the format, the Blu-ray quality of the 2008 work is quite impressive given the stellar sound and heightened depth perception, however since it was purposely filmed to visually hearken back to 1970s wildlife shows, it’s not a great improvement over the DVD so those who already own it may want to skip the upgrade.

Containing some extra features that relish in the repulsion of the infamous “turkey scene,” Jonah Hill’s bizarre Eddie Vedder modeled song performed alongside Justin Long, a veritable press kit extra on the film just added onto the disc and deleted scenes—the sole standout that shows exactly what the cast is capable of is titled “What Do We Do?” which finds Zahn, Long, Hill, Covert, and Borgnine all riffing in a hilarious exchange about Jack Nicholson, Nell Carter, and others.

As they improvise and challenge one another to be funnier, you can sense Long’s polite discomfort as he apologetically blames his crude outbursts on his character rather than himself (while seated next to the legendary Borgnine) but it’s a great example of just putting a bunch of creative and comically gifted people in a room together and letting them rip.

Likewise, it’s a terrific indication that—instead of the gross-out gags and over-the-top effects-- if Gaulke and Wolf would’ve done more scenes like the one featured in this extra over the course of the film, perhaps they’d be sitting with a much more successful and far less formulaic Happy Madison Production that’s memorable for something other than just simply marveling at the next ridiculous nature observation to be uttered by Zahn’s host.

Zack and Miri... (2008)

You'll never look at the "Hello, I'm a Mac" kid in quite the same way again. Following Justin Long's great turn as the nerdy kid in the unfairly canceled David Letterman executive produced TV show Ed (note to NBC Universal: please release the DVDs already), the Vassar College graduate has begun quietly appearing in some downright hilarious cameos in Frat Pack related comedies of the Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Seth Rogen, and Judd Apatow variety. With mini but memorable roles in The Break Up and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Long has become one of the filmmakers' MVPs in the same category as other frequent go-to funnymen Paul Rudd and Danny McBride.

Yet, it wasn't until he appeared in a brief but memorable role in Kevin Smith's new comedy Zack and Miri... that you realize just how damn funny that Mac kid really is. As a gay actor in adult films who accompianies his boyfriend to his ten-year high school reunion in Pittsburgh, Long completely steals the film away from its leads, Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks in a scene so hysterical, shocking and profane that I found myself wishing we could've followed around his character for two hours instead of the affable but less-than-truly-inspired Zack and Miri.

Although, this being said Zack and Miri's premise alone is priceless. The film centers on two lifelong platonic friends-- co-under-achievers who've become roommates in debt-ridden existence-- who find themselves so broke that after losing the water, power, and with the threat of being forced onto the Pittsburgh streets, make the unlikely decision to construct their own "home-brewed blue movie," as the press release promises. The characters, comprised of the beautiful Miri (Elizabeth Banks, gamely joining the boys club and underplaying her wholesome image) and goofy Zack (Seth Rogen) enlist the support of Zack's unhappily married coworker (The Office's Craig Robinson) to use his "flat-screen TV money" to fund their project as a producer, with the perk of being able to cast the shapely women who will star, including notorious real-life performers Traci Lords and Katie Morgan.

However, Kevin Smith's film never fully lives up to the comedic potential of neither its title nor premise as it unsuccessfully tries to marry raunchiness with romantic comedy by predictably revealing that deep down, the two friends have always felt more than a passing attraction to one another. Or, to quote the far more blunt Rogen in Entertainment Weekly's "The Fall Movie Preview," he noted that "I feel like a lot of people want to f*** their friends. That's always relatable." While that probably sends a warning call to all of Seth Rogen's female friends, in the same token it also seems to be the 2008 version of the more subtle evaluation of the same tricky situation mined by Nora Ephron and Rob Reiner in When Harry Met Sally.

Yet, in roughly twenty years, have American values shifted so much that filmmaking and romantic comedy has moved to When Harry Met Sally Make a Porno? I truly hope not and while I was game to laugh at the situation itself and have enjoyed some of Smith's films in the past including the unfairly maligned Jersey Girl, the sweet yet raunchy Chasing Amy, and Clerks, in this one Smith tries to outdo not only himself but Apatow and the Farrelly Brothers by stockpiling as many toilet jokes as he can possibly imagine to fill his 101 minute running time.

And while you know going in exactly the type of dialogue you've come to expect-- Smith in his heyday was the Bard of explicit conversations that would make the women of Sex and the City blush-- this time it just feels stale and Rogen is reigned in to become more of an "actor" than the far more natural qualities he's exuded in more recent works like Pineapple Express. While he reveals in the press release that his earliest Hollywood ambition was "to be in a Kevin Smith movie," the fact that he also shared that he and his girlfriend approved the script before fully committing did make me think that perhaps deep down, he knew it wasn't up to the usual level that would have normally made him dive in right away.

The chemistry between Rogen and Banks (whom he'd recommended to Smith after working with her in The 40 Year Old Virgin) is wonderful as Banks even joked that onscreen "we have been cursed with the 'adorable stick'... beating adorable over the head," as their home movie's big sex scene becomes a big (nicely fully clothed) love-scene instead, revealing their true feelings about one another. Yet they're especially good bantering back and forth early on as they walk and talk, drive and talk, falling into a familiarity old friends easily have. In fact, they're so great together that I wanted to pull them out of this film and cast them in an altogether different romantic comedy-- one with more of Rogen's improvisation and free-wheeling humor that doesn't simply hit plot point A and B, thudding along and hoping we won't notice the obvious 3-act marks by distracting us with enough jokes about fecal matter and having Zack's ultimate "I Love You" confession occur when Miri is on the toilet.

While comically, I get that some scatological humor works, honestly, I've always thought that it's an easy way out and a cheat. And while it worked fine in There's Something About Mary because the script and performances were so strong that we didn't care about a few off-color hair gel jokes here and there, ever since then it's just been the old-standby, lowering audience standards film by film as it shows up far too often in everything from trite movies like Along Came Polly to better written ones like Tropic Thunder that suffer because of it.

While I get that we're in a different place cinematically than we were in the era of old "oh my gosh, I dig my friend," movies of yesteryear and one wouldn't want that from Smith, it's a lazy way out. And perhaps by removing even half of the jokes about bowel movements, the fimmakers would've actually surprised us by showing that Smith and Rogen can make a sweet romantic comedy about making an adult movie instead of simply trying to shock and gross us out (particularly in one sight-gag I'm still trying to erase from memory nearly one month after seeing the film) that would've been worth even half of what I can only assume is the astronomical price-tag of the advertising campaign launched by MGM Films and The Weinstein Company.

Unfortunately as it stands, there's not enough there to recommend Zack and Miri, except for a killer scene featuring Justin Long that rivals both Tom Cruise's wickedly hysterical cameo in Tropic Thunder and Jason Sudeikis's performance in The Rocker.

Just Add Water

Director: Hart Bochner

Speaking as someone who doesn’t even have power windows let alone a GPS directional system, I’ve graduated from the headache inducing cumbersome maps with size nine font and an overreliance on geometry to the friendlier, although sometimes erroneous MapQuest directions. And, while it’s always nerve-wracking to venture out on my own-- armed with a terrific mix CD or programmed iPod and a questionable cheat sheet from a computer website to get myself where I need to be-- I love taking in the scenery as I go. Not only am I constantly amazed by the homogeny of mini-malls, fast food places, and chain stores, but it’s always intriguing when I get out of the cityscape and drive through one of those under-populated desert ghost towns where you only see one main grocery store with a mostly vacant lot, a few scattered shops including the obligatory gas station and then one small community of homes amidst an unforgiving, desolate backdrop, where it’s quiet for miles and... when global warming is at its worst, it climbs to an extreme one hundred and thirty degrees. As I whip by in air-conditioned luxury, knowing it’s just one numeric direction on my MapQuest list, the writer in me wonders what life is like in one of those sleepy towns.

In Just Add Water, writer/director Hart Bochner’s unrelentingly dark yet sweet and sour flavored comedy, we have the opportunity to find out as we meet our unlikely sad sack hero Ray Tuckby (Nip/Tuck’s Dylan Walsh), who lives in the bleak town of Trona, California where the toxic waste poisoned soil caused the river to be diverted as most citizens including the law enforcement all jumped ship (or rather town), and a group of unruly young meth lab running punks including Justin Long and led by the particularly vile Dirk (Will Rothaar) purchased up all the property they could get their greasy hands on to run the show as greedy landlords, shutting off the electricity (and therefore air conditioning) when one of their residents blows their welfare checks and forgets to pay up, or threatening to harm Ray’s son if they’re not granted a new five dollar toll for driving down a public street.

Needless to say, life in Trona is miserable and for Ray it’s no exception with a shut-in wife who coupon clips and as Ray soon learns has a devastating secret all her own along with Eddie (Jonah Hill), an aimless son who keeps reminding his father that he’d like to visit a hooker for his belated graduation present, although really-- when all is said and done-- he realizes that he’d rather be a proper boyfriend to the lovely R’Ch’lle (Anika Noni Rose).

With more family drama piled on early in the film via a medical emergency that—in predictable dark comic fashion—ends with shocking laughter in a questionably tasteless confrontation, it seems that the only ray of light for Ray himself comes from his daily trips to the local market when he gets a precious few uninterrupted minutes with the girl he’s loved since grade school-- the sweet, adorable checkout woman Nora (Tracy Middendorf). However, as we all know—one of the greatest obstacles of finding love is timing—it’s not enough that you meet someone you’re compatible with, what’s more, you need to be fortunate enough that when the feeling goes from one-sided to mutual, you’re both free.

Lucky for Ray, he’s released from the old ball-and-chain but true to the film’s sardonic nature, his decoupling occurs in one of the most emasculating ways. Thus after Ray’s life is turned upside down and he finds himself single again, he tries to build up enough courage to give in to the crush he’s harbored for nearly two decades and Walsh’s scenes with Middendorf provide a much needed earnest and romantic relief to the otherwise dire film where the overwhelmingly unlikable characters and situations threaten to destroy any hope of finding humor in the outrageous situations that grow much more dismal as it continues.

Yet, thanks to a great, understated turn by Walsh whose quintessential good guy everyman we’re rooting for from the start and an amusing smaller role from Danny DeVito as the new Chevron station independent operator, this otherwise lackluster, below average comedy which initially made me recall the horrors of DeVito’s Drowning Mona and Death to Smoochy, becomes surprisingly watchable Saturday afternoon fare—especially one that would be much more enjoyable after days of endless rain has left one longing for the type of sun they can’t avoid and for which they would love to trade in order to Just Add Water in Bochner’s desolate, downbeat depiction of Trona, California.