REVIEW: The Longshots

STARRING: Ice Cube, Keke Palmer View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 08/22/2008 DATE SCREENED: 08/18/2008 The Verdict OK - Wait for the DVD

If you had told me years ago that Limp Bizkit’s lead singer Fred Durst would make a movie starring my favorite “gansta rapper” Ice Cube, and it would be a family film about a 13 year old girl playing football, I would have thought you were crazy. But here we are in 2008, and Ice Cube has left his “gansta” persona behind, having already made a string of bad family films. His latest, The Longshots does have one thing Cube’s other family films did not have… Keke Palmer. This talented actress/singer made her big splash in Akeelah and the Bee. Playing the 13 year old girl who plays football, I had high hopes that she could elevate this film way above the low standards Ice Cube has set with films like Are We There Yet.

Set in the small town of Mindin Illinois, Longshots is based on a true story. Most of the men in town have been unemployed since the closing of a factory. Curtis (Ice Cube) is one such unemployed male, who used to be one of the middle school’s star players. He walks around in the same clothes every day, carrying a football and watching the middle school team practice in preparation for the upcoming season. His life begins to change when he is forced to watch his 13 year old niece Jasmine every day after school. Her mother has been forced to work later hours, and Curtis is the only family around to baby-sit. Jasmine’s father, Curtis’ brother, had abandoned the family 5 years ago. Jasmine is an unpopular bookworm. When she picks up a football and throws a perfect spiral to Curtis, he realizes that he may have a prodigy on his hands. Soon he is coaching her on how to be a quarterback. She is better than any of the guys on her school's team, and since it’s not technically against the rules, she becomes the team’s back-up quarterback. After a tough loss, she is promoted to the starting quarterback, where she excels and the team begins to win. Jasmine’s father even shows up in town after seeing a story about Jasmine on the news. When the head coach becomes ill, Ice Cube is hired as coach. With Jasmine at the helm, along with an assist from Curtis’ inspirational speeches, the team becomes the first Pop Warner football team to make it to the Super Bowl with a female quarterback.

The Longshots feels like it rushes to its conclusion, only pausing at all the clichéd plot points for movies in this genre. After just a few passing drills with Curtis, Jasmine is on the football team calling plays. When did she learn to run an offense, including running plays? A romance between Curtis and Jasmine's teacher is started but then abandoned. None of the other player’s characters are fleshed out. Jasmine’s mom is in and out of the movie just when her presence is absolutely necessary.

What we do get is the set-up of Jasmine and Curtis as outcasts. Jasmine and Curtis both have to win over the team with their talent and charm. Things quickly move to the “Big Game”, which does have about as much excitement as you can get from a Pop Warner game. They even throw in a moment with Jasmine and her father that will bring tears to some people’s eyes. The audience in the screening ate it all up, clapping and crying at all the right moments. KeKe Palmer is a great young actress and dose elevate this film past Cube’s other family fare, but just barely. This is nothing we haven't seen countless times before. Unless you have kids clamoring to see this movie, wait for the DVD.

REVIEW: Star Wars: Clone Wars

STARRING: Matt Lanter (voice), Ashley Eckstein (voice) View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 08/15/2008 DATE SCREENED: 08/11/2008 The Verdict GOOD - See it in the theater

I fell in love with movies as a 7 year old boy, sitting in Philadelphia's last “movie palace”, completely mesmerized by Star Wars. I've anxiously awaited every Star Wars movie made since. I felt sad after the release of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, thinking that I would never have another Star Wars film to look forward to. My excitement was somewhat rekindled when I read about the upcoming release of the animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The very first battle of the clone wars was depicted in Attack of the Clones and the final battles of the clone wars in Revenge of the Sith. Some of the major events in between where shown in the original Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon aired back in 2003. Although that cartoon was great, I did have some doubts about whether a new cartoon covering more of the Clone Wars would be worth a trip to the theater.

Clone Wars starts off with a WB logo (not 20th Century Fox) and a weak modified version of the Star Wars theme. We are quickly thrust right into a battle, with Obi-Wan, Anakin, and clone troopers defending themselves from an attack by a droid army. The animation is completely different than the original cartoon series. This is a digital 3-D, more realistic type of animation. Unlike the previous cartoon, the Jedi can not do feats that they could not do in the previous films.

During a break in the battle, Anakin is introduced to his new Padawan (student), a female named Ahsoka Tano. She is very talkative and impulsive, and quickly gets on Anakin’s bad side by calling him “Sky-guy”. A nice chemistry develops between them as they take out a shield generator, which leads to a victory in the battle. Yoda arrives, and Anakin and his Padawan are soon off on another mission. They must rescue Jabba the Hut’s son, who is still a baby. Obi-Wan is sent to negotiate with Jabba for permission to transport troops through the Hut's trade routes. It turns out that Jabba's son was kidnapped by Count Dooku’s apprentice Asajj Ventress. The Count visits Jabba to blame the Jedi for the kidnapping. The Jedi must get past both Asajj Ventress and Count Dooku in order to get Baby Jabba to his father and prove the Jedi had nothing to do with his kidnapping. Senator Amidala makes a brief appearance in helping to expose Count Dooku’s plot.

Clone Wars is clearly aimed at children, and not the adults who grew up on Star Wars. It’s much more lighthearted and silly than the three prequels. Anakin and his Padawan have a constant, but funny, banter between them. It’s fun to see Anakin get a taste of his own medicine, with a Padawan who doesn’t want to listen and lacks discipline & patience. She is a great addition to the Star Wars universe. The movie assumes you know all the other characters. If you are not already familiar with Star Wars, you will be completely lost. The droids are portrayed as being completely clueless, making silly comments and silly decisions that no droid would ever make. There is not much talking before the next action scene, so the film never slows. We get large scale space and ground battles, plus extended light saber duels between Anakin & Dooku, and Obi-Wan & Asajj Ventress. I enjoyed myself throughout, and I’m looking forward to the TV show scheduled to begin airing in October. The Clone Wars should be able to provide plenty of interesting storylines and characters to support a series. I do wish it had more of a serious tone, but I understand it’s a cartoon and they have to keep the children entertained. Clone Wars is worth a trip to the theater for the entire family.

REVIEW: Tropic Thunder

STARRING: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 08/15/2008 DATE SCREENED: 07/21/2008 The Verdict OK - Wait for the DVD

Ben Stiller hasn’t made me laugh since Meet the Fockers in 2004. After the complete disaster of Heartbreak Kid, Stiller took matters into his own hands, writing and directing Tropic Thunder. With a cast that includes Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black, plus a story that seemed somewhat original based on the trailer, I had high hopes that Stiller’s steak of unfunny comedies would be over.

Tropic Thunder introduces us to the main characters by opening with fake trailers. We see trailers for the latest movies of action hero Tugg Speedman (Stiller), Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr.), and funnyman Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), plus a commercial by rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson). These four stars have teamed up for a big budget war flick. Kirk Lazarus is a playing a black character, in a form of black face. Being committed to method acting he is living as a black person 24/7. Things are not going well during filming. The movie is over budget and the actors are not giving their best performances. An out of control studio executive (Tom Cruise) is demanding results and threatening to fire the director. Acting upon the recommendation of the war veteran on whose book the movie is based (Nick Nolte) the director ships the stars out to a remote area of Vietnam, where they will get a taste of what it’s really like to be a soldier. Things go horribly wrong, and Speedman ends up captured by Vietnamese drug dealers who are familiar with his work. They contact the movie studio, and Les basically tells the kidnappers to go screw themselves. It seems that Les and Speedman’s agent (Matthew McConaughey) are willing to let him die in order to collect the insurance money to recoup the projected loses on the film. It’s up to the remaining actors to band together in order to save Speedman from this dangerous situation.

Tropic Thunder is a mixed bag. Tom Cruise steals the movie, as he is hilarious as the out of control studio executive. I certainly would have never expected this kind of funny, and profane, performance from Cruise. There are also funny moments as the actors wander the forrest trying to figure out if they are in a real dangerous situation or if it’s all an elaborate set-up. And the part in which the leader of the drug gang forces Speedman to re-enact his past role as a retarded kid had me laughing as well.

The main thing I did not like about Tropic Thunder is Downey Jr., as Kirk Lazarus, in black face. This is the year 2008, and the humor in black face is completely lost on me. The movie tries to soften the blow by having the rapper Alpa Chino say things to Kirk that black people will be thinking while watching the movie. Although that may be enough to make most people feel its ok to laugh at the character, it didn’t work for me. I also didn’t find Jack Black’s performance, in which he is either in withdrawal from his heroin addiction or trying to steal heroin, to be funny at all.

Overall, I’d have to say that the film is just OK, and only worth renting on DVD. Downey Jr is lucky he just did Iron Man, as performing in black face is usually not good for one's career these days. Stiller has managed to make a film that made me laugh at times, so the streak is technically over. But there is still plenty of room for improvement in his future comedies.