Let’s Be Cops [MOVIE REVIEW]

Let’s Be Cops 2014

Let’s Be Cops is like that friend you have that is overly predictable, yet you love being around them. Watching this film in a semi crowded theater had the audience filling the room with honest laughter from beginning to end. It was the first time in a long time where I watch a comedy that was balanced with jokes and one liners throughout. And yes, if you like New Girl, you will love this film.

Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr.  star in a film that centers around two best friends that tried to ‘make it’ in LA after college, yet had too many flaws holding themselves back. In a moment of boredom and recently discovered old age they decided to act as cops, with finding all the benefits and excitement that comes with wearing the badge. Deciding to keep it up the soon find themselves in real LAPD trouble. The experience helps them find their true calling and overcome their flaws to rekindle their friendship (what a surprise).

I have read some reviews that are not so good about this film. I was just glad it wasn’t another slapstick, or an hour and a half movie of dick jokes. There was friendly chemistry and extended scenes that were worthy of talking about on the car ride home. It is not a Lethal Weapon 5, the film carries its own humor. The plot was simple and there wasn’t a big twist or shocking ending, but it was a feel good ab cruncher. Sometimes the flair in a film is being fresh, its  not like everything else we’ve been watching. I am glad that they used Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans, this will be a starter comedy for both actors as they come into their own. That way we dont have to wait for James Franco and Seth Rogan to come out with a new comedy, and we can again have a varity in our laughter choices.

Soap in Your Soup: Part 2

One of the beauties of film is its allowance for a range of passions to be expressed. Directors can have a passion for taking something on paper and creating the most enlightening way to expose that story. Actors, on the other hand, have a passion for engulfing themselves into becoming another person and accurately delivering the purpose of that character onscreen. Writers have the privilege of taking a thought and molding it to establish a films foundation and purpose. Then there is that special occasion when an actor, writer, or directed drift into another role in the film world. They fall in love with a story to the point that they can’t trust anyone else to deliver the job justice, they must do it themselves. In Part 1 of Soap in Your Soup we revealed multitasking musicians who have become actors. Part 2 will be discovering the all-time greats, and the upcoming actors that take on the role of director, wearing many hats on one project.

Some of the classic comedies we find are flavored with a particular style. Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Charlie Chaplin, when you hear these names originality comes to mind. Each one of those gentleman have mastered the craft of directing and acting in their own films. Together they have made this task look easy, they have challenged the following generations to go to a higher standard of film making. Of course Allen, Brooks, and Chaplin had particular themes and central ideas in all of their films, but what has newer actor/director combos done?

Kevin Costner – Starring and directing Dances with Wolves won him an Oscar for Best Director, Best Picture and a nomination for Best Actor. Kevin Costner turned down the offer for the squeal because he believed it would ruin the original movie, knowing it could never measure up to all that he put into the original

George Clooney – More then just one occasion has Clooney honored us with his many talents. In 2005 not only writing but also making his directoral start with Good Night and Good Luck, nominated for 6 Acadeny Awards. Clooney played Fred Friendly, a man hiding his marraige from the news studio where he so fought to obtain its objectivism. Clooney knew it was just the begining of his love for being behind the camera. He also starred and directed Leatherheads, and Ides of March.

Jamers Franco – Franco is known to dive into many projects at once, currently in the Broadway musical Of Mice and Men, an artist, author, soap star (yes, ABC’s General Hospital) and film professor at NYU. Known mostly for his acting, James Franco has also dove into the role of wearing three hats in his film As I Lay Dying, he adapted the screen play, directed, and starring in. Franco might be spread thin, but his films do not lack character.

Ben Affleck – Sadly dispointing for not wining Best Director for his 2012 film Argo, Affleck has a major fan base on both the acting, but more directing stand point. Argo was just one of many films where Affleck has been both behind the scene as well as the star. With best friend Matt Damon they together wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting with recently passed Robin WIlliams. Not to mention the ‘to close to home’ film The Town.  Affleck has a nack for directing intense escape films, as well as writing a heart warming stories of a poor geniuses, and acting as a regreting bank robber.

Joseph Gorden-Levitt – Recently unvieled his first writing , directing, and starring in film opposite Scarrlett Johansson and Julianne Moore in Don Jon. Definately a film to be proud of, Don Jon breaks bounderies with creating stapel character with unchangable characteristics and watching them develop into something less culterally acceptable but more gratiying and fufilling. Just look past all the masterbation.

Multi-taskers can often lose sight of important tasks at hand becasue they are spread so thin. But for these entrepreneurs who go all in with directing and starring in their own films, well that is just a over achiever, a dreamer and doer. Look at Sylvester Stallone, one of the best all-time action film writers. His start to fame with Rocky is an inspriation to many writers. After writing the scrpit Stallone refused offers from major film producers because he wouldn’t settle without being the star of the film. That is dedication to your project. A new up and coming director is the heart throb Ryan Gosling, who will soon release River Lost, a film about a boy who finds a secret town under water. Even though Gosling is not starring in the film, it is his first take on writing a directing. Down the road we might find our next Clooney or Affleck. These fellas on and off screen have proven they can provide film with flair, and that it is possible to multi-task without getting soap in your soup.

Looking for Family Fun…

Its easy for adults to find their inner kid. Movies can sometimes offer that escape. Family fun movies are films that provide laughter for all ages, while entertaining the children they bring the adults back to the little things. Laughing over the simple things such as, talking animals is all a family needs.

These types of family fun films have a flair about them that is unique. Its usually packed with geeky jokes and a comedian that has stop their stand up and original adult humor. These films can be compared to Dr. Dolittle, Click, Bedtime Stories, and the newest of all Zookeeper.

Kevin James, known for his sitcom The King of Queens, has broken through film making audiences laugh, but not so much run to the theaters. Hitch was a successful movie, but Kevin James was not Will Smith. Grown-ups was a disappointment for some, but entertaining for redbox. Seems Zookeeper might change that direction for James.

Zookeeper is a family fun movie, where James plays a zookeeper about to leave his job for a girl. The animals at the zoo love him so much they decide to talk to him, literally. Talking animals is one of those qualities in a movie that brings adults back to childhood making the movie enjoyable for all. Not to mention the physical humor provided by James to add some more flair.

Zookeeper is set to be in theaters for all July 2011.

Radcliffe Finding His Flair

Radcliffe in The Woman in Black

Daniel Radcliffe is Harry Potter. Radcliffe has been under the incredibly large limelight of J.K. Rowling’s masterpiece for 10 years.  How can an actor escape? Are Radcliffe’s fans his or do they remain loyal exclusively to Harry Potter?

In order to independently establish a singular fan base for himself Radcliffe must ease his way out of Hogwarts and into more films. The audience needs to notice Radcliffe’s flair in a film, without Potter being a guide. As of now Radcliffe is ‘flair-less’ because Harry Potter holds a strong clientele that supports it’s unique style in a majestic world.

Curious to see what Radcliffe’s next project is?

The Woman in Black will be released in February 2012. Director James Watkins, a fresh face to the horror department, will be sure to leave a lasting impression having Daniel Radcliffe tackling the leading role with this thriller-drama. The movie includes a captivating ghost story that a lawyer discovers while investigating a woman’s death.

Is this film, for Radcliffe, enough to linger away from the Harry Potter world while keeping an already firmly mark footprint in the film industry? Will his impression fade and just become a memory in this generations childhood?

This is a the risk that many actor must take in their careers in order to get where they want to be. Some are content being just being ‘that guy who played that character in those films’. Others like Daniel Radcliffe, jump, and continue to establish their flair.

For Radcliffe and millions of fans, the Potter series is coming to a close. His career now has a chance to leap into greatness. Harry Potter could be Radcliffe’s trampoline and catapult him into other movie opportunities, or it could be his one hull-a-hoop and fall after 10 years of managing that one great moment.