The Number 23

*/****     THE NUMBER 23 (R)

The 23 Enigma is the Discordian belief that all events are connected to the number 23. American novelist and philosopher Robert Antown Wilson collaborated with Robert Shea on a seminal work of fiction entitled The Illuminatus Trilogy!, in which Wilson uses the number 23 as a means of confirmation bias — meaning an individual’s way of interpretating a preconceived idea. Director Joel Schumacher and debut screenwriter Fernley Phillips have brought the 23 Enigma to the big-screen, with the release of this year’s The Number 23.

Animal Control Officer Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) receives a book for his birthday from his wife Agatha (Virginia Madsen), entitled “The Number 23″ from author Topsy Kretts. After receiving a dangerous animal bite from a stray dog, Walter is forced to spend time at home recuperating, and he uses the downtime to begin reading his new book which details the life of a detective named Fingerling, who soon becomes preoccupied with the number 23 after discovering its importance in a recent murder and suicide.

While perusing the book, Walter begins to notice some distinct similarities between himself and the character of Fingerling, and is also able to correlate the number 23 with significant and personal information of his own, including his address and social security number. Walter and his family soon begin a personal investigation into the book’s author, hoping to unravel the true story behind the number 23, and any real-life murders that the book may have been associated with.

A convoluted and overproduced psychological thriller, The Number 23 has an inticing premise and a strong cast, but director Schumacher (Phantom of the Opera, Phone Booth) goes overboard with his jarring camera tricks and his overstated cinematography in order to establish any likeness to mood or suspense, and never allowing the actual storytelling to take center stage. The movie is told in two separate universes, with one discovering the world that Topsy Kretts has penned and the other following Walter’s obsession with the author’s material. The two alternate universes are then wrongfully blended together by use of Schumacher’s saturated and unsettling directorial habits.

The screenplay from Phillips doesn’t help Schumacher in the slightest, constantly tossing out conspiracy theories and plot twists in an effort to engage viewers throughout, while neglecting to develop the characters who actually become the heart of the story as the narrative starts to unravel. The film’s final act is stretched beyond belief, taking what was already a preposterous but predictable ending and turning it into a long didactic moment for those audience members who are slow to grasp the proceedings, or in all likelihood, had already tuned themselves out of the movie.

Without question, Carrey (Fun with Dick & Jane, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events) has done his finest work to date with dramatic material, but faulters in this serious role by turning in an incredibly stale performance in a leading part that could have used a wide-range of emotions. The rest of the movie’s actors are extremely limited, with the entire weight of the picture resting squarely on Carrey’s shoulders, who appears in nearly every scene.

A murky and disappointing suspense drama, The Number 23 begins with some promise, but culminates in a rather lame and frustrating fashion.

Music and Lyrics

**.5/****     MUSIC AND LYRICS (PG-13)

The formula of a romantic comedy is simple. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl. It’s a genre of film that has been tackled many times, but with very few movies able to stand apart from the rest. It usually takes wonderful dialogue, strong performances and a refreshing and unique take on the obvious subject matter to become memorable.  The latest flick to dabble in this world is Music and Lyrics, which may not be a romantic comedy worth remembering, but it is certainly amusing enough to warrant a look — which is the next best thing.

Hugh Grant stars as Alex Fletcher, a former 1980’s musical has-been from the highly-successful boy band PoP!. But years later, after his career has faded, Fletcher is still trying to live out his glory days by embarrasingly gyrating his pelvis for middle-aged women at school reunions and amusement parks. Down on his luck, Fletcher’s manager Chris (Brad Garrett) lands his only client the big-break he has been waiting for by being personally asked to pen a song for rising teen music sensation Cora Corman (Haley Bennett).

In need of a lyricist to help him create the song in a week, Alex discovers that Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore), a fill-in replacement for the woman who waters his plants in his swank New York apartment, has a wonderful way with words and would be perfect to help him author the song. This plot development is ridiculous, and certainly the most contrived point in the story, but it’s done to simply get the ball rolling as the two collaborate creatively and soon begin falling for each other romantically.

Writer and director Marc Lawrence (Two Weeks Notice) has done a great job creating an enjoyable, while at times, flawed romantic comedy. Lawrence’s satire of the music industry from Fletcher’s fall from grace and how he has come to deal with being an aging pop-star, to the exploitation of the blonde teenage sex symbol Cora feels spot-on and the characters are played beautifully for laughs. Several laugh-out-loud scenes in the film help mask the typical plot tendencies that develop, and the true standout moments in the movie come from the tremendous leading performances.

In his finest role since 2002’s About a Boy, Hugh Grant is extremely likeable, exquisitely charming and extraordinarily funny. Grant is exceptional as washed-up singer Alex Fletcher, and he has an uncanny natural ability to make several sarcastic quips easily quotable and funny.  His on-screen charisma and presence is matched by his co-star Barrymore (Fever Pitch), who continues on her career path of staring in a string of Hollywood romantic comedies. But somehow, even though we have this feeling like we have seen this same character played by her before, Barrymore still manages to find a distinct way to make Sophie loveable through her joyful enthusiasm and energy. And the two are able to establish a refreshing bit of chemistry that Barrymore was never able to achieve with former co-stars Jimmy Fallon and Adam Sandler.

Haley Bennett makes her feature film debut as Corman, a stereotypical teen pop sensation with all of the combined characteristics of the Christina Aguileras, the Britney Spears’ and the Shakiras of the pop-music world. Bennett is a wonderful singer and manages her role in the film nicely, although she is required to do little more than openly mock the teen pop queens who have dominated music charts for almost an entire decade.

Garrett (TV’s Til Death) and Kristen Johnston (TV’s 3rd Rock from the Sun) are two of the film’s most recognizable faces starring in supporting roles, with Garrett playing Fletcher’s subdued manager and Johnston playing Fisher’s over-the-top and overbearing sister Rhonda. But both are barely fleshed out on the screen and neither of the two add much to the course of the story.

That hardly matters though, as this romantic comedy is simply another vehicle for Grant and Barrymore to cash-in with. And while the two have spent most of their recent acting careers dwelling in this particular genre of film, the stars’ considerable charm and eagerness to draw laughs and smiles help raise the bar of Music and Lyrics to an enjoyable status.

Ghost Rider

*.5/****     GHOST RIDER (PG-13)

Look up the word inconsistent in the dictionary, and you are bound to see Nicolas Cage’s acting career listed as one of the definitions. Cage is an Academy Award winning actor who was remarkable in Leaving Las Vegas, amazing in Adaptation and stellar in such films as Matchstick Men and The Weather Man.  But along the way, Cage has also appeared in some recent mainstream duds like National Treasure and last year’s unintentionally-whimsical horror remake The Wicker Man.  His latest release Ghost Rider can now be added to the growing list of Cage’s acting disappointments.

In the movie based on the Marvel comic book, teenager Johnny Blaze (Matt Long, who looks more like a young Tom Cruise circa-1986 than he does an adolescent version of Cage) and his father Barton (Brett Cullen) are two long-distanced motorcycle stuntmen. But after discovering that Barton has become stricken with cancer, Johnny is coerced into selling his soul to Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) in order to save his dying father.

Years later, Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) continues his career of performing outrageous motorcycle stunts which invariably go awry, yet Blaze narrowly escapes everytime without injury. Johnny soon discovers he is being kept alive by Mephistopheles, as the contract he signed years ago requires Blaze to become ghost rider — a bounty hunter for the devil who straps on Fonzie-like leather and races through the city with his fiery skull looking for rogue demons.

Cage is incredibly miscast as Johnny Blaze. I couldn’t tell if Cage was intentionally trying to mock the character of Vinnie Barbarino from the 1970’s television series Welcome Back, Kotter, but Cage goes against the very nature of what we have come to expect from recent superhero adaptations, delivering a stiff and wooden leading performance that would make Keanu Reeves jealous.

Most of the film’s supporting performances feel like they have been phoned-in by a cast just looking to earn a quick dollar. Fonda, Donal Logue (TV’s The Knights of Prosperity) and Wes Bentley (American Beauty) merely chew-up screen-time, while Sam Elliott is barely present. Although if you are looking for a narrator for your film and Morgan Freeman is busy, Elliott seems like a suitable replacement.

The gorgeous Eva Mendes (Hitch) happily displays the film’s required amount of cleavage as a television news reporter and love interest to Blaze. It still amazes me why filmmaker’s who appear not at all interested in watching a relationship evolve or putting in the proper amount of work it takes to establish some on-screen chemistry between the romantic leads – case in point, here – even bother with the romantic plotline at all.

If it’s done to attract female viewers to the theatres with their adrenaline-craving boyfriends, the horrified end result from Ghost Rider may include a new market place filled with single and lonely guys who would still be in a relationship had they not bought a ticket to this movie.

Norbit

1/2-a-star/****     NORBIT (PG-13)

In 1996, Saturday Night Live-alum Eddie Murphy delivered several memorable performances as seven different caricatures in The Nutty Professor — an absurd, slapstick comedy inspired by the 1963 Jerry Lewis movie of the same name. Eddie’s version of the film grossed over $100 million with Murphy’s performance as the overweight Sherman Klump earning the actor his fourth career Golden Globe nomination. A sequel followed four-years later, and The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps also managed to ascend above the $100 million mark at the box-office.

But Murphy would eventually climb out from under the latex and the prosthetics to headline several lackluster family films like Daddy Day Care, Doctor Dolittle and The Haunted Mansion. Yet, over the last seven years since Eddie chose to hang-up the Klump family apparel, a new breed of African-American comedians have elected to tackle the challenge of playing the black male actor donned in a grotesquely oversized costume. Martin Lawrence managed to cash in with two Big Momma’s House films, while Tyler Perry has established an entire career around his obese female character Madea.

Not to be outdone or forgotten as the comedian who lavishes in the ability to poke fun of the overweight in multiple roles, Murphy again puts on the make-up and excessive gear to play three distinct people in the new comedy Norbit. The only problem is that his role as Sherman Klump in The Nutty Professor has yet to be outdone or forgotten, and that includes by the characters Murphy has created in this latest mess of a film.

Eddie stars as Norbit, a mild-mannered orphan who in grade school wrongfully perceives his need for friendship and family by agreeing to become the boyfriend of overweight Rasputia (played as a 10-year old by Lindsey Sims-Lewis and then in adult life by Murphy). Eventually the two grow to marry, though Norbit appears to have grown tired of Rasputia’s domineering nature and their love for each other becomes disputable.

With their relationship hitting the rocks, Norbit finds comfort in his friendship with the beautiful Kate (Thandie Newton). Kate was raised in the same orphanage as Norbit by Mr. Wong (also played by Murphy), and has returned home along with her fiance Deion (Cuba Gooding Jr.) to purchase the orphanage from the retiring Mr. Wong.

Writers David Ronn and Jay Scherick use the minimal premise described above as a rough outline to lead several characters in the flick into a constant set of circumstances where the filmmakers have apparently deemed it amusing to directly make fun of fat people.  In The Nutty Professor, Sherman Klump was a shy, sweet and good-hearted man who the audience managed to find sympathetic because of the unfair treatment he dealt with due to his weight. In Norbit, Rasputia is an evil, wicked and mean-spirited woman who the audience is asked to openly mock not because of her harmful conduct, but because of her weight.

Where Murphy was good in his abilities to make you care about Professor Klump and hate Buddy Love in The Nutty Professor, he fails to make you despise Rasputia and therefore you don’t feel inclined to think fondly of Norbit. Still, at times Eddie is able to show signs of being a great character actor once again, and the makeup department does a commendable job in being able to distinguish Murphy’s three characters from each other.

Newton plays the only straight-role in the film, and succeeds as one of the few likeable characters in the course of the movie, while Eddie Griffin falls victim to typecasting, once again playing a pimp on screen. And even though his place in the narrative is never truly mapped out, Griffin manages to steal every scene that he’s in creating the movie’s only memorable character.

The tagline for Norbit reads: “Have you ever made a really big mistake?”  With the release of this film immediately following Murphy’s first-ever Golden Globe win for his work in the musical Dreamgirls, I think it’s safe to assume that in the case of Eddie Murphy’s career, a resounding “Yes” would be the appropriate response.

Stomp the Yard

*/****     STOMP THE YARD (PG-13)

A fresh new group of filmmakers have teamed up with a cast of fresh new actors to tackle a fresh new genre of film — the dance movie. But the end result of Stomp the Yard is neither anything fresh nor new, and hopefully the dance movie genre will soon find itself laughed out of the pop-culture landscape for good.

Back in 2001, Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas headlined the utterly predictable, romantic dance film Save the Last Dance. Based off that film’s success with a large teen fanbase, a straight-to-video sequel was released last year. Also along the way, film goers have been subjected to the reprehensible You Got Served, and the slightly better yet still formuliac work of Step Up and Take the Lead.

Much like all of those movies, Stomp the Yard does encase a small dose of charm and brings about a high-level of energy that you would expect these sorts of films to provide. But, aside from the style of dance, the movie offers the audience nothing new and you will leave the theatre with a knowing been there-done that feeling.

Former Britney Spears choreographer Columbus Short stars as DJ, a troubled street dancer from Los Angeles who ends up fleeing the city following the murder of his brother and decides to enroll at Truth University in Atlanta, Georgia. Once the two campus fraternities catch a glimpse of DJ’s dance moves, each of the rival groups begins courting DJ in an effort to win the national step show competition.

Prior to the theatrical release of Stomp the Yard, Short landed a prominent gig as writer Darius on Aaron Sorkin’s new NBC drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. And while trading lines back-and-forth with television heavyweights Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford will help Short develop in the longrun as an actor, it’s obvious in his role of DJ that the former American Choreography Award nominee has a wonderful love for dance and Short was perfectly cast in this role that required his exact level of charm and passion.

Yet, outside of Short, the only other actor worth noting is the beautiful Meagan Good who has found herself type-casted recently as the attractive female eye candy in films like Roll Bounce, Waist Deep and even You Got Served. Good showed off some acting promise in 2006’s independent film Brick, but here she has found herself once again resorting back to the stereotypical roles that demand that she look pretty and do very little else.

It was only a matter of time before a movie was made highlighting the world of step dancing that has become a popular art form at several predominately African-American universities in the United States, and this film serves almost as a companion piece to Charles Stone III’s 2002 film Drumline.

While step dancing itself is oftentimes a joy to watch, director Sylvain White’s decision to use erratic camera work and at certain moments his decision to focus the lens from the dancers point of view distracts the viewer away from Dave Scott’s phenomenal choreography.

And because the dancing can’t fully be appreciated, you lose the only honest selling-point of Stomp the Yard.

Smokin’ Aces

**/****     SMOKIN’ ACES (R)

It’s been a little over four years since Joe Carnahan first found success with the low-budget crime thriller Narc, which garnered Carnahan an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Director and a Supporting Actor nod at the same award show for longtime actor Ray Liotta. But for those hoping to find the same wonderfully-crafted character study that Carnahan showcased in Narc, you will ultimately be unhappy with his follow-up film Smokin’ Aces.

Liotta reteams with writer and director Carnahan in this film as Donald Carruthers, an FBI agent sent to track down a Las Vegas magician named Buddy “Aces” Isreal (Jeremy Piven), who has decided to turn government witness and rat on his mafioso friends. Liotta and partner agent Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) learn of a million-dollar bounty that has been placed on Isreal, and try to halt the plans of several hitmen who intend to kill Isreal at a casino he is visiting in Lake Tahoe, with each of these hitmen destined to literally rip Isreal’s heart out of his chest.

Boasting an esemble of Hollywood elites like Ben Affleck (Hollywoodland, Jersey Girl) and Andy Garcia (The Lost City, Ocean’s 12), and intertwined with recognizable faces such as Jason Bateman (The Break-Up, TV’s Arrested Development), Taraji P. Henson (Hustle & Flow, Something New) and rap and R&B stars Common and Alicia Keys, Smokin’ Aces is Carnahan’s first big-budget affair with the ability to put an audience in the seats based off names alone. But while Carnahan has a wonderful — albeit a little ludicrous — premise and an all-star cast, you end up with no emotional attachment to any of the characters who are painted on the screen with a one-dimensional brush.

The minimal narrative and storytelling exists at the start of the movie, with the plot of corruption and greed slowly beginning to take shape, but that all soon tapers off as the film decides to quickly rush to its bloody resolution with enough over-the-top violence and carnage to satisfy anyone with an extremely high-level of testosterone.  So anybody hoping for a complex story to go along with their action is sure to be disappointed.

The performances in the movie range from very good to, at-times, embarrasing laughable caricatures. Ryan Reynolds (Just Friends, Waiting) finally climbs out of the sophomoric hole he has set-up residence in since his break-out role in 2002’s Van Wilder, and is one of the few actors in the film who is given the proper time to provide a little bit of depth to his character. Reynolds succeeds in the serious role, and he will be an interesting actor to watch if he decides to delve into more complicated dramatic work in the future.

Motion picture major players Affleck and Garcia are underused and utilized in what feels like mere cameo roles, while Bateman does a decent job in trying to provide fhe film’s only comic relief.  Common, Henson and Keys are adequate in their roles, and they provide the flick’s only romantic moments that don’t involve hookers and/or cocaine.

But outside of Reynolds, the overall scope of all of Smokin’ Aces‘ characters never evolve past anything more than typical action-flick imitations, and what could have been an interesting discovery towards the characters’ motivations and reasons are instead hurridly tossed aside as Carnahan decides to leap directly towards an exhausted ending.

Because I Said So

*/****     BECAUSE I SAID SO (PG-13)

Nicole Holofcener’s 2006 film Friends with Money brought together an extraordinary group of female actresses to headline a dramatic ensemble. But even in the hands of talented actresses like Catherine Keener and Frances McDormand, wonderful acting fails to result into a wonderful film if the actors are forced to work with a shoddy story and script.

Less than a year later, that same disappointment is achieved when a tremendous female quartet who have each shown to be adept actresses in the realm of romantic comedies, are brought together in one of the most underwhelming films in recent memory that was unable to deliver either the romance or the comedy.

The often quirky Diane Keaton stars as Daphne, a mother of three who never hesitates at the chance to rudely intrude into the personal lives of her daughters. With daughters Mae (Piper Perabo) and Maggie (Lauren Graham) already settled down in married life, Daphne elects to take out an online personal ad to help find her youngest daughter Millie (Mandy Moore) a life partner.

Daphne belives she has found the perfect match for Millie in wealthy architect Jason (Tom Everett Scott), but also draws some unwanted attention from local musician Johnny (Gabriel Macht). Through planned circumstance on the part of the men, Millie begins a relationship with each of the characters while Daphne unexpectedly finds herself falling for the father (Stephen Collins) of one of the suitors.

Keaton, who was great as a romantic interest in 2003’s Something’s Gotta Give and was excellent in the motherly role of 2005’s The Family Stone, is too over-the-top as the overbearing mother in Because I Said So. In fact, Keaton is oftentimes irritating to the point of dislike.

23-year old singer-turned-actress Mandy Moore is the only actress allowed an honest opportunity to shine throughout the course of the film, with Moore once again showing an inherent likability that is a neccessary condition for these sorts of movies. But after stellar performances in Saved and A Walk to Remember, Moore has stumbled a bit in this film because of a script that requires very little range and performance to tell the stale story.

The casting in Because I Said So is all for naught, as the story also offers very little screentime for Graham and Perabo, who have proven in the past their abilities to succeed as light, humorous characters in film and television. Graham is restrained from delivering the rapid-fire dialogue that her fans have become accustomed to from her lead role in the television series The Gilmore Girls, and the adorable Perabo is simply utilized as nothing more than background scenery.

Young, adoring teenage fans of Graham’s and Moore’s might also find themselves shocked by some of the frank and sexual conversations between the four ladies in this PG-13 affair that at times closely mimics that of HBO’s Sex and the City – but Because I Said So is certainly an inferior piece of entertainment, should any comparisons be made.