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Here's a comedy with the closest thing to an "all-star cast" we've seen in quite a while -- Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe and Brad Pitt all in one movie.
It's silly, but a lot of fun.
Sandra Bullock plays a romance-novel writer who is burned out with her work, but still revered by her fans. Channing Tatum is the doofus but well-meaning "cover model" for all of her books. Daniel Radcliffe is a rich super-fan who is convinced the story in her latest novel is true, and kidnaps her to help him track down something called the "gold crown,' which is similar to the Tesseract from the Marvel movies, I guess. Of course, the cover model gets swept along on the adventure and you can probably guess the rest.
Channing Tatum has most of the best lines in the show. It's a role that seems like it may have been written for Chris Pratt, but Tatum still does a good job with it. He's got great comic timing. The chemistry between him and Sandra Bullock is ... well, a little awkward at first, but hey, if Tom Cruise can always get the young great-looking love interest, why can't Sandra Bullock? I mean, fair is fair.
In the scene that draws the most laughs, you get to see Channing's naked torso and butt for what seems like 9 or 10 minutes, so that's a plus for people who like the "beefcake." This scene goes on for a good minute after everybody in the audience has stopped laughing -- a little judicious editing would have been good. Unfortunately Sandra's rear end stays covered up throughout the movie, although she does exhibit the standard female-action-movie-star cliches of being in high heels, and having a costume that gets skimpier and skimpier as the movie goes on.
Daniel Radcliffe, as possibly the wimpiest "bad guy" the screen has ever seen since Dr. Evil in the "Austin Powers" movies, seems kind of wasted in his role. Maybe they should have given THAT part to Chris Pratt. But it's kind of cool to see Daniel having some fun with a role that isn't Harry Potter.
Brad Pitt steals the show in a short cameo and a mid-credits scene.
Another good casting addition was Oscar Nunez, who played "Oscar" on the TV show "The Office," as the smart-alecky owner of a boat that takes our heroes to and from their great adventure. In this movie his character is also named Oscar. Maybe that's in his contract, he must always play guys named Oscar. Anyway, he's pretty funny in his couple of scenes, and he also gets one of the best lines in the movie as Daniel Radcliffe is trying to escape: "Why would you run? It's a BOAT."
The locations are top-notch (it was filmed in the Dominican Republic) and the story, while kind of improbable, doesn't require too much thought to ride along with.
For good mindless fun movie entertainment, which we could really use a lot of right now, I'll give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
It's silly, but a lot of fun.
Sandra Bullock plays a romance-novel writer who is burned out with her work, but still revered by her fans. Channing Tatum is the doofus but well-meaning "cover model" for all of her books. Daniel Radcliffe is a rich super-fan who is convinced the story in her latest novel is true, and kidnaps her to help him track down something called the "gold crown,' which is similar to the Tesseract from the Marvel movies, I guess. Of course, the cover model gets swept along on the adventure and you can probably guess the rest.
Channing Tatum has most of the best lines in the show. It's a role that seems like it may have been written for Chris Pratt, but Tatum still does a good job with it. He's got great comic timing. The chemistry between him and Sandra Bullock is ... well, a little awkward at first, but hey, if Tom Cruise can always get the young great-looking love interest, why can't Sandra Bullock? I mean, fair is fair.
In the scene that draws the most laughs, you get to see Channing's naked torso and butt for what seems like 9 or 10 minutes, so that's a plus for people who like the "beefcake." This scene goes on for a good minute after everybody in the audience has stopped laughing -- a little judicious editing would have been good. Unfortunately Sandra's rear end stays covered up throughout the movie, although she does exhibit the standard female-action-movie-star cliches of being in high heels, and having a costume that gets skimpier and skimpier as the movie goes on.
Daniel Radcliffe, as possibly the wimpiest "bad guy" the screen has ever seen since Dr. Evil in the "Austin Powers" movies, seems kind of wasted in his role. Maybe they should have given THAT part to Chris Pratt. But it's kind of cool to see Daniel having some fun with a role that isn't Harry Potter.
Brad Pitt steals the show in a short cameo and a mid-credits scene.
Another good casting addition was Oscar Nunez, who played "Oscar" on the TV show "The Office," as the smart-alecky owner of a boat that takes our heroes to and from their great adventure. In this movie his character is also named Oscar. Maybe that's in his contract, he must always play guys named Oscar. Anyway, he's pretty funny in his couple of scenes, and he also gets one of the best lines in the movie as Daniel Radcliffe is trying to escape: "Why would you run? It's a BOAT."
The locations are top-notch (it was filmed in the Dominican Republic) and the story, while kind of improbable, doesn't require too much thought to ride along with.
For good mindless fun movie entertainment, which we could really use a lot of right now, I'll give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
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