Long Shot (2019) review

by A.J.

Long Shot (2019) 

The summer movie season is a time of big budget special effects heavy superhero movies, action movies, sequels, remakes, and reboots, but, also, a high-profile comedy or two. This summer’s high-profile comedy is the very R-rated Long Shot starring Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen. This unlikely romantic comedy is as solidly entertaining and smart as it is funny and raunchy. Movies for grownups don’t get made too often these days, so when one comes along and it is as good and funny as this it is a treat. Charlize Theron plays Charlotte Field, the popular and successful Secretary of State for idiot President Chambers (Bob Odenkirk), who won the election because he used to play the president on TV. The President tells her that he’s not seeking reelection so he can pursue a film career and he plans to endorse her for president once she gets a global environmental agreement off the ground.

After being informed by a PR firm that people find her lacking a sense of humor, Charlotte hires a crusading journalist, Fred Flarsky, played by Seth Rogen, who recently quit his job because his news outlet was bought up by an unscrupulous conservative media conglomerate to punch up the humor in her speeches. Fred and Charlotte actually grew up in the same neighborhood and she was his babysitter who he very much had a crush on. They reconnect at a fundraiser featuring Boyz II Men where Rogen takes the first of a few slapstick tumbles. Schlubby Fred is jetted of to Stockholm, the first of many global destinations, bringing nothing with him but a garish windbreaker, awkward tapered cargo pants, and some illegal narcotics. He’s a fish out of water to say the least.

Long Shot's screenplay is written by Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah and directed by Jonathan Levine. Seth Rogen is only credited as a producer, but any movie featuring Rogen, whether he wrote it or not, sets up certain comedic expectations. To be specific, an irreverent, raunchy, juvenile, foul mouthed, stoner sense of humor. That certainly describes Long Shot’s comedic sensibility, but its comedy is mostly verbal, though there is one gross out sight gag that the climax of the film hinges on (so be forewarned about that). All of the humor, even the gross out gag, is firmly rooted in the characters, so no joke or gag feels artificially tacked on for shock value

As Charlotte and Fred spend more and more time together so he can get to know her better to add more of her personality into her speeches, they begin an unlikely and entirely believable romance. "Long Shot" refers to Charlotte as a presidential candidate, but it also refers to Fred as a romantic partner for the beautiful high-profile politician. Rogen and Theron are an unlikely pair but they have great chemistry. Rogen delivers his signature clever slacker character and comedic style, but Theron is far and away the star of this picture. She’s done heavy drama, dark comedy, broad comedy, action, and now clever, raunchy comedy, and she’s done them all extremely well. Hopefully Long Shot doesn’t get lost in the shuffle of big budget summer blockbuster spectacles because it is definitely worth seeking out. This foul mouthed, big hearted romantic comedy is bound to delight.

Summer Under the Radar Preview 2016

by A.J.

Summer doesn’t officially start until about a month from now, but it has been summer at the movies since the first weekend of May. Summer at the movies is synonymous with the big budget blockbuster movies (usually superhero movies) that you’ve known were premiering this summer whether you are interested in them or not (Captain America: Civil War, X-Men Apocalypse, Ghostbusters, Star Trek Beyond). There are also some smaller scale movies coming out this summer that not everyone may be aware of, but which I think will be a nice break from epic CGI action:

May 20^th

The Nice Guys

Ryan Gosling takes a break from his roles in more experimental films to star with Russell Crowe as a pair of mismatched detectives in this action-comedy film noir set in 1970s California. The Nice Guys is written and directed by Shane Black, who wrote the screenplays for Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout (to name a few) and has directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (another great noir comedy about a mismatched pair of detectives) and arguably the best Marvel movie, Iron Man 3. So far, his track record as writer/director has been very good and, hopefully, The Nice Guys will continue his streak of clever, quality cinema.

May 27^th

Love & Friendship

This is the movie I have been looking forward to the most this year. The films of writer-director Whit Stillman have been described as "comedies of manners” that follow privileged WASP types, but the way I describe his movies when recommending one to a customer at the video store is: it’s like mixing a Woody Allen movie and a Wes Anderson movie together. His latest film, an adaptation of a Jane Austen story, is the moment when critics and fans realized that Stillman has been making modern day Jane Austen stories this whole time. Kate Beckinsale stars as widow Lady Susan who, while staying with her in-laws, seeks to find a husband for her daughter, and one for herself, too. Love & Friendship has already been released in select cities and received many positive reviews. It opens in Austin, TX on May 27^th and I can’t wait.

June 24^th

The Neon Demon

This is the most hesitant I’ve been about seeing any movie for quite a while. Writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn made one of my favorite movies of this decade so far, Drive. He followed that up with one of the most boring and excruciating movie experiences I’ve ever had with Only God Forgives. I’ve watched some of his other films and it seems like Drive might be the fluke in his filmography. However, the casting of Mad Men's Christina Hendricks got me to watch the trailer for The Neon Demon and the trailer is pretty intriguing. Elle Fanning stars as an aspiring model that finds herself in potentially dangerous surroundings. IMDB.com classifies this movie as Horror/Thriller and if the coin flips one way, an intense, psychological thriller along the lines of Black Swan might be in store; if the coin flips the other way, this movie might just be very pretty and very frustrating. I’ll wait for reviews for The Neon Demon come in before I venture out the theater, or just stay home and watch Drive again. Here is the trailer, which, on its own, I highly recommend watching.

July 15^th

The Infiltrator

Bryan Cranston finds himself in the world of illegal drugs again in The Infiltrator. This time he is on the side of the authorities, U.S. Customs to be exact, in this movie based on the true story of a drug and money laundering sting aimed at apprehending Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Cranston is paired with John Leguizamo and they have to go undercover in the dangerous world of the drug trade. The trailer plays up the action, but I’m interested to see what Cranston does with this material.

August 5^th

The Founder

I’m surprised The Founder isn’t being released later in the year, during Oscar season, since this seems like a movie the Academy would look favorably upon. Michael Keaton plays Ray Kroc, the founder (but not creator) of McDonald’s. Kroc finds the small, but fast burger restaurant run by the McDonald brothers (played by Nick Offerman and John Carrol Lynch) and expands their business into a larger and larger franchise. It’s not exactly what the brothers thought they were getting into, but Kroc is determined to make the business as big and successful as possible, and he's not going to let anyone get in his way. The Founder has an interesting subject and a great cast, so I am on board.

August 12^th

Café Society

It’s the new Woody Allen movie, so this might as well be required viewing for me. Allen’s last two films, Irrational Man and Magic in Moonlight, were way under par in just about every aspect, but Allen just keeps churning out film after film and hopefully the odds are in our favor for Café Society. As always, this Woody Allen movie features a talented cast including Jesse Eisenberg, Steve Carell, Kristen Stewart, Cory Stoll, and Parker Posey. Eisenberg plays a young man from the Bronx who movies out to Hollywood to help his uncle, who is a powerful agent (Carell), and falls in love with his uncle’s secretary (Stewart). It’s a period film, set in 1930’s Hollywood, so even if this wasn’t a Woody Allen movie I would still be very excited to see it in theaters.

Classic Movie Picks: August 2013

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

TCM's Summer Under the Stars is back! Because each day in August is devoted to the films of a single actor or actress, this is the perfect time to discover new films featuring your favorite stars. This year's line-up includes S.U.t.S. perennials like Doris Day, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart, as well as never-before-spotlighted actors like Maggie Smith, Wallace Beery, and Mickey Rooney. I've picked out eight stars whose films I'm especially looking forward to watching, including three Oscar-winners. Most of the films I've picked here are new to me, but when one of my favorites, like After the Fox or The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, shows up I can't pass up the opportunity to watch it again.

8/4: Mary Boland
Boland was a popular character actress in the 30s and 40s, usually cast as a society matron or zany matriarch. In the western comedy Ruggles of Red Gap (8 PM), Boland and her real-life husband Charlie Ruggles play wealthy ranchers who win an English butler in a card game. (But Boland's husband isn't the Ruggles of the title, that's Charles Laughton as the butler.) The silly screwball He Married His Wife (9 AM) stars Joel McCrea and Valerie Randall as a married couple  pulled apart by horse racing and brought closer by divorce; however, Boland reportedly steals the show as a giddy socialite whose home serves as the film's main location.

8/8: Ramon Navarro
After the death of Rudolph Valentino, Mexican-born Ramon Navarro became Hollywood's top Latin lover; however, Navarro's greatest success was as Judah Ben-Hur in 1925's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (8 PM). Navarro's stardom didn't transition to talkies for some reason; it wasn't the fault of his voice - Navarro was a trained tenor. And he's in full voice in the operetta The Cat and the Fiddle (6:15 PM) opposite Jeannette MacDonald. (The New York Times review from 1934 notes that Navarro appeared in person at one of the 2 NYC theaters showing the film, performing several songs on a program which included "dancers, Ruth Harrison and Alex Fisher; George Campo, pantomimist; the Chester Hale dancing girls, and Little Jack Little and his Radio Orchestra." I'd like to request that this sort of personal appearance become standard again. Just think, after a screening of The Wolverine, Hugh Jackman could do his cabaret show!)

8/12: Catherine Deneuve
French beauty Catherine Deneuve is an actress who I enjoy more with each role I see her in. She stars in one of my all-time favorites, the gorgeous and haunting musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (8 PM). She's said that one of her personal favorites is Tristana (10 PM), directed by Luis Bunuel, about an older man's obsession with his young ward. However, critical opinion points to 1993's My Favorite Season (12 AM) as Deneuve' finest performance to date, as a middle-aged woman caring for her aging mother and reconnecting with an estranged brother.

 8/19: Randolph Scott
Last May I really enjoyed discovering Ride the High Country (9:30 PM), Randolph Scott's final film after over a decade of appearing exclusively in westerns. So I'm really interested to see some of his westerns from the 50s directed by Budd Boetticher, which Scott also co-produced with Harry Joe Brown. Though regarded as popular B-movies at the time, these collaborations have gained critical attention in recent years. Ride Lonesome (5 PM) casts Scott as a cowboy seeking revenge and along the way he becomes entangled with a couple of outlaws and a beautiful widow. In The Tall T (8 PM), Scott plays a down-on-his-luck rancher who falls for a woman being held for ransom.

8/20: Hattie McDaniel
It's unfortunate that the immensely talented Hattie McDaniel spent most of her career playing maids. But no matter how small the role, McDaniel brings a wonderful spark to each of her films and she's the only Oscar-winning actress on my list this month. Her award-winning role came in 1939's Gone with the Wind (8 PM); anyone watching that film cannot deny that McDaniel's performance is a highlight. Where that film is epic and heavy, Janie (8:15 AM) is breezy and light; however, both films depict a nation at war and in both McDaniel plays the family maid. This comedy in the vein of the Hardy Family pictures centers around an innocent teen who falls for a soldier when her hometown becomes the site of an army base.

8/24: Charles Coburn
Whenever Charles Coburn shows up in a film, I smile just a bit more. I'm usually already smiling because Coburn's films tend to have really silly plots. For example, in Together Again (1 PM), Irene Dunne stars as the mayor of a small town, an office inherited from her late husband. When a statue of Dunne's husband is accidentally beheaded (!), Dunne's father-in-law, played by Coburn, encourages her to find new love, which comes in the form of sculptor Charles Boyer. The More the Merrier (10 PM) is a cute comedy set during a wartime housing shortage in Washington, DC. A hilarious Coburn plays cupid for his two reluctant roommates Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea, and the performance won him the Best Supporting Actor Oscar of 1943.

8/27: Martin Balsam
Prolific character actor Martin Balsam is the other Oscar winner on this list (Best Supporting Actor for 1965's A Thousand Clowns). Balsam is a supporting player to stars Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster in Seven Days in May (8 PM), a tense drama about a military coup. Apparently Balsam was made even more tense by director John Frankenheimer's habit of firing off guns during his scenes. In the kooky caper film After the Fox (4 PM), Peter Sellers stars as an Italian thief who uses a "new wave" film production as a cover for a gold heist. Balsam plays the manager of the washed-up Hollywood actor who stars in the fake film.

8/29: Glenda Farrell
Glenda Farrell seems to have found a niche playing tough newspaper reporters. She first tried on that role in 1933's The Mystery of the Wax Museum (9:15 PM), as the sharp-tongued comic relief in a horror film about, well, a mysterious wax museum. Farrell then went on to star in the successful Torchy Blane series, starting with Smart Blonde (8 PM) in which the ambitious reporter investigates a murder alongside her policeman boyfriend. As hardboiled Torchy, "the Lady Bloodhound with the Nose for News," Farrell was even the inspiration for Superman's love interest Lois Lane.

Get the full line-up at http://summer.tcm.com/ - and enjoy the rest of summer!

Summer Movies We Want to See

by AJ and Lani

If the robin is a harbinger of spring, then the first superhero sighting of the year must be a sign that spring has given way to summer. And so, with the arrival of Iron Man 3 in theaters last weekend, summer movie season has officially begun. We've looked at all the  films scheduled for release from May through August and picked out a few that we can't wait to see.

Star Trek Into Darkness (May 16)
A.J.: Large chunks of the internet bemoaned the delay of the next "new" Star Trek movie due to script problems, but I would always rather wait and have a good movie. I'm less suspicious and more excited about Star Trek Into Darkness than the 2009 reboot. Into Darkness follows the crew of the Enterprise as they track down a rogue Starfleet officer (that may or may not be Kahn) played by Benedict Cumberbatch. J.J. "lens flare" Abrams is in the director's chair again and with Star Trek and Super 8 he has proven himself to be a solid filmmaker. From the trailers it looks this is sequel has been given the same care as 2009's Star Trek. I suspect that the action sequences and special effects won't upstage the story and characters. 

Now You See Me (May 31)
Lani: The story follows an FBI agent and Interpol detective as they struggle to make a case against magician supergroup The Four Horsemen, who carry out elaborate bank heists while performing on stage, then give the loot to needy people in the audience. The assembled cast sounds great: Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Morgan Freeman, Mark Ruffalo, Melanie Laurent, and Michael Caine. Plus, director Louis Leterrier, the man behind The Transporter and Transporter 2, knows how to combine action with unabashed foolishness. The moment in the trailer that got me was when Jesse Eisenberg is being interrogated by Mark Ruffalo and Eisenberg magically "throws" his handcuffs onto Ruffalo, then looks at him smugly and says, "First rule of magic, always be the smartest guy in the room." It was so ridiculous that I laughed out loud. I may be alone on this one, but this film looks so silly, so beyond all sense, that I have to believe it will be entertaining.




The Internship (June 7)
Lani: Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn star as salesman who made their careers during the analog age, but find themselves out of job in today's digital landscape. They manage to land internships at Google and find themselves competing with tech-savvy college students for a coveted permanent position. Some of the jokes in the trailer were a bit stale, but it made me laugh, too. Remember Wedding Crashers? Remember Old School? Those were funny movies, right? I'm optimistic that the formula of Vince Vaughn + a Wilson brother will equal comedy once again.

The Bling Ring (June 14)
A.J.: This movie is based on the true story of a group of not-too-bright, fame-obsessed teens that broke into different celebrities' houses and robbed them. The Bling Ring is written and directed by Sofia Coppola; her last film, Somewhere, was big step towards the, unfortunately, dull end of the "art house" movie spectrum. However, The Bling Ring looks like it has more of the lively spirit of Coppola's previous movies. Coppola also brings out the best in the her female leads, so I'm excited to see Emma Watson in this movie, especially after her great performance in The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

The Lone Ranger (July 3)

A.J.: Despite the dubious casting of Johnny Depp as Tonto and way, way over-the-top action sequences in the trailers, I'm still interested enough to give Disney's big budget, big screen adaptation of The Lone Ranger a watch. I'm interested in seeing Armie Hammer in his first leading role in a major movie. He definitely has the screen presence to carry a movie, and I hope that the material doesn't let him, or the audience, down. It's the summer, so big action-packed movies can't be avoided, but with any luck this will be the right kind of summer action movie: pleasant to look at and listen to, and entertaining.

The Wolverine (July 26)

Lani: I'm fully aware that with each pick my cred as a serious cinephile continues to diminish. However, I will not apologize. X-Men Origins: Wolverine wasn't that good; however, this film has kept what worked about the last one -- Wolverine as a character and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine -- and changed everything else. The setting is modern-day Japan, where Wolverine meets someone from his past who offers him mortality at long last. The trailer has ninjas, katana swords, Yakuzas (maybe?), weird medical equipment, a blond mutant lady, and, of course, Jackman waving his claws around and yelling. I think these are all good things. Maybe I'm just a Jackman fan, maybe I want the X-Men to take back the spotlight from the Avengers; nevertheless, I remain cautiously optimistic.

Summer Movie Short List

I realized that since it's already May and the Summer Movie season officially starts this Friday with Iron Man 2, I should make my list of movies to see this summer. It's a very short list. The reason for my list being so short has already been covered in Lani's Remakes, Reboots, and Retreads entry, not to mention sequels. Since the movies that interest me this summer are so few I thought I would give my thoughts on the ones I'll be seeing.

First up, Iron Man 2. I enjoyed the first installment a lot more than I thought I would. I liked the feel and the tone of Iron Man. It was set it in real world, taken seriously, but stayed out of the "dark" territory that the Batman franchise has embraced. I'd like to see what the sequel does.

Get Him to the Greek: Forgetting Sarah Marshall was one of my favorite movies of 2008 and Russell Brand as Aldous Snow stole many scenes and had some of the funniest moments of the movie. The trailer for this not-really-a-sequel looks like it could all go terribly wrong. Still I'm fan of movies where a responsible guy in a suit has to look after a wacky guy and I'll admit I'd like to see more of Russell Brand as Aldous Snow, so I'll see this one too.

The A-Team: Starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, and Not Mr. T. I think this movie of a TV series sounds ridiculous (I mean it's a movie of a The A-Team, one of the TV shows you'd watch when you had to stay home sick from school), but the trailer makes it look more than decent. And, just maybe, I really would like to see how a big budget movie version of The A-Team will hold up on a big screen.

Toy Story 3: I was 10 when I saw Toy Story, the premise is interesting (the toys are donated to a day care), and Pixar has yet to make a bad movie so I will watch Toy Story 3. This is one movie this summer I can't wait to see and I will not see this movie in 3-D because a good movie doesn't need 3-D to be good.

Knight and Day: Not to be confused with Killers, which is like Mr. and Mrs. Smith mixed with Suspicion, except the the husband is trying to kill other people. I may change my mind on this one, but the trailer showed me an entertaining, funny, action-packed movie and that's what you expect from a summer movie.

Inception: This and Toy Story 3, are the movies I'm dying to see this summer. I'm still not sure if I understand what this movie is about, but that actually feels great. I'm so tired of movies that are sequels, remakes, rehashes of plots that have been used a hundred times before that I'm delighted by something that seems so unique it confuses me. You can watch the trailer here. Even better, it's by director Christopher Nolan whose films I've enjoyed very much.

Get Low: It's a little movie for the summer season, but if you look between the blockbusters you can find really good movies. I heard about this movie because, like many, I'm a big Bill Murray fan, but the star is Robert Duvall, who plays a 1930's hermit that decides to have his funeral before he dies and invites everyone, even though he doesn't know them. The trailer shows some offbeat charm and with luck it'll live up to its trailer and be a nice respite from all the action-packed blockbusters.

The Expendables: Just look at the cast list; I shouldn't have to say anything more, but here's the trailer.