The Way Way Back is Way Way Charming

If you were to go down a checklist of all the standard characteristics of a coming-of-age story, you'd discover that nearly every single one applies to The Way Way Back. It adheres to a rigid formula and manages to hit just about every one of the genre's obligatory story beats before it reaches its conclusion. You've got your main protagonist: the awkward teenage boy searching for his identity; you've got the mean 'stepfather' who tries to bully him into submission; you've got the cute girl next door who said protagonist pines over and who, for some explicable reason, seems to take a liking to him; you've got the zany, outgoing friend who helps him overcome his awkwardness and the summer job they work at together, which will contribute to the main character building his confidence. The list goes on and on and on. And yet, almost despite itself, The Way Way Back succeeds at overcoming its more generic tendencies and ends up being a rather poignant little tale thanks to its first-rate performances and some solid writing/direction.

The story involves a 14-year-old social outcast named Duncan (Liam James) who is stuck with his mom (Toni Collette), her overbearing bully of a boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell) and Trent's daughter (Zoe Levin) at a beach house for a summer excursion. The excursion is mainly an excuse for Trent to meet up with some old buddies and get drunk and high on a regular basis. Duncan's mom reluctantly joins him for these activities, leaving Duncan to fend for himself. Seeing as how he doesn't have much of a place amongst the group (A fact he is reminded of constantly by everyone around him), he spends most of his time alone listening to music and belting out REO Speedwagon tunes like it's nobody's business. The closest thing he has to a friend is his next door neighbor's very pretty daughter Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb), but his attempts to converse with her are more embarrassing than anything else. After he finds a bicycle in the garage and takes an extended ride, he stumbles upon a water park and its goofy, fun-loving manager Owen (Sam Rockwell) befriends him, offering a job at the park and helping Duncan discover his self-confidence in the process.

The Way Way Back starts off rather awkwardly, taking far too much of its time setting up the situations and characters before the plot actually progresses. But, not unlike Duncan himself, it overcomes its initial gawkiness and manages to come into its own. The script, penned by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash and directed by the pair as well, is simple and entertaining even as it's plagued with the more common pratfalls that regularly infest this genre. It's unfortunate that Faxon and Rash all-too-often resort to contrived sequences in order to elicit an emotional response from the audience. (Typically right as whatever song is playing over the soundtrack reaches its most celebratory point) They are both clearly very invested in the material, so one wishes they had spent some more time developing its story structure. Regardless, its heartwarming nature and excellent cast help it get over these little bumps in the road.

The performances are especially to thank for The Way Way Back's overall success. Liam James does a superb job playing the troubled teen Duncan. On paper, the character is practically a blank slate, doing little to make him appealing in any way, but James' sincere performance makes him empathetic and even charming. Carell is surprisingly good at playing the total jackass that is Duncan's mom's boyfriend Trent; AnnaSophia Robb is delightful as Duncan's crush and she's super cute to boot. Everyone plays their parts with great gusto, but the real standout is Sam Rockwell as Duncan's friend Owen. Sure, it's easy for Rockwell to be the standout seeing as how his character is the most inherently energetic of the bunch, spouting hysterical one-liners as if it's a regular pastime. But Rockwell keeps his performance grounded and makes the character totally believable with a passionate, thoughtful performance.

Jim Rash has stated that The Way Way Back is very autobiographical and it's clearly a passion project of his. It may not reach the heights it so frequently aims for, but its heart is in the right place and it has enough going for it to make it an endearing moviegoing experience. Your life might not be changed, but you'll certainly walk out of the theater with a smile on your face.

CONCLUSION: The Way Way Back doesn't revolutionize the coming-of-age genre due to its over reliance on familiar story beats and characterizations, but thanks to a decent script and some excellent performances, from Sam Rockwell in particular, it manages to charm its way out of its conventions.

FINAL RATING: 3.5/5

Pacific Rim is Monster Mashing Mayhem at its finest!!

May I ask a personal query? How badly do you want to see building-sized robots beat the living crap out of even bigger monsters? If the mere notion of this is enough to send you into fits of nerd-fueled frenzy, then Pacific Rim will be a filmgoing experience sent straight from the heavens. If you're seeking anything more than that, you may want to sit this one out. I wouldn't recommend it though because despite its generally shallow story and characterizations, Pacific Rim is a visual marvel and an absolute blast at the movies. IMAX 3D was practically invented for this kind of madness.

So what's the movie about, you ask? (If you're actually asking, that is) If you haven't already gathered from the previews, mankind is facing its biggest (Pun intended) threat yet: The Kaiju, ginormous, ferocious beasts who have broken into our world using a dimensional rift in the Pacific Ocean. The sole purpose of these monsters is to ensure the total annihilation of mankind. In order to combat this colossal threat, humanity has united to create gargantuan, humanoid fighting machines known as Jaegers. Two pilots connect via a neural link, a process known as 'The Drift', in order to control these giant metal contraptions and perform all kinds of cool wrestling moves. The stronger the bond between pilots, the better they'll do in battle. The Jaeger program is the only thing standing between the Kaiju and the obliteration of the human species and our last hope.

If the bare bones plot description I've offered you seems like nothing more than an excuse to get giant robots and monsters bashing the crap out of each other in $200 million form, then you wouldn't be too far off. Pacific Rim's storyline is about as rudimentary as you can get and its characters can't quite transcend their generic stereotypes to become anything particularly memorable. But, good Lord, those robot/monster showdowns are insane! As Charlie Day's character Dr. Newt Geiszler would say, 'It's pretty cool.' It certainly doesn't hurt when you have a visionary director like Guillermo del Toro at the helm. del Toro is a spectacular filmmaker and one of my personal all-time favorites. He's the kind of director who can go from making low-budget, critically acclaimed fare such as Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, or Pan's Labyrinth to the fanboy pleasing splendor of Blade II and the vastly underappreciated Hellboy films.

Regardless of what the subject matter may be, del Toro instills each and every one of his films with an extraordinary amount of passion, making exactly the kind of movie he wants to make, critics be damned. There's something incredibly admirable about his total lack of ego and love for whatever subject matter he takes on. His full devotion to making the biggest, baddest Robots vs. Monsters movie, embracing the story's simplicity with zeal, is both the movie's greatest strength and its greatness weakness. Even with its flaws though, the visuals are stunning beyond all reason (The colorful Hong Kong footage is particularly impressive) and the epic battles deliver in spades. It's exactly what I was hoping the original Transformers movie would be before the reality of Michael Bay's travesty brought my expectations crashing down. del Toro fills each and every frame with childlike joy and ensures that we are consistently captivated by all the spectacular visuals without totally losing focus on the humanity at the heart of the thing. Mr. Beaks of Ain't It Cool News described it best:

"Bay's the kind of hyperactive brat who'd come to your house and break all of your toys; del Toro is the good-hearted dreamer with boundless imagination who'd spin out some crazily expansive narrative incorporating every action figure at your disposal, no matter how disparate. You have fun with del Toro; you get grounded because of Bay."

This is the primary reason why del Toro's Pacific Rim succeeds where Bay's Transformers franchise has failed. It also might have something to do with the fact that del Toro is actually talented. That certainly helps a bit.

But enough Bay bashing. On to the rest of the review!

The cast does well with the limited amount of material they have to work with. Charlie Hunnam as Jaeger pilot Raleigh Becket makes for a fitting lead hero (As do his abs) and Rinko Kikuchi is adorably badass as Mako Mori, a Japanese girl with a tragic past and excellent fighting skills. You've got Idris Elba giving a spirited performance as Becket's commanding officer Stacker Pentecost and Charlie Day to offer some levity as a zany Kaiju-obsessed scientist. Even del Toro regular Ron Perlman makes an appearance as a shady black market operator who specializes in selling Kaiju organs and body parts. (And, let's be honest, what's not to love about Ron Perlman?) With such an outstanding cast, it really is a shame that del Toro and co-writer Travis Beachem couldn't have invested the amount of time they spent designing the monsters and robots into developing a more involving story or more interesting characters. Still, there's something resembling an emotional core here and the characters are likable enough to keep you interested in what's going on even if you aren't totally invested.

So, sure, Pacific Rim might not live up to the loftiest of expectations and with del Toro at the helm it's a bit natural to be disappointed by that. But, despite this, it succeeds as wildly entertaining blockbuster escapism and in the wake of Man of Steel's slightly exhausting self-seriousness, a big summer movie that isn't ashamed of its roots is wholly refreshing. Pacific Rim knows just how goofy it is and it's proud of it. del Toro has designed this picture to appeal first and foremost to the twelve-year-old soul buried deep beneath our cynical adult outlooks and that is something to be applauded.

CONCLUSION: Pacific Rim won't wow anyone with its simple story or hackneyed characterizations, but it's got enough rock 'em sock 'em robots and monster mashing action to ensure you'll walk away feeling satisfied.

FINAL RATING: 4/5

This is the End is nonstop madness in the best way possible

Oh goodness, I've been slacking again. This much-delayed review is long overdue, but I wanted to get it out of the way before Pacific Rim rears its glorious, monster-bashing head. Enjoy!!

I'll keep this short and sweet: I will be truly shocked if we see a comedy this year that's more hysterical, outrageous, or insane than This is the End. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost's alien invasion sure-to-be-masterpiece The World's End and I'm sure Anchorman 2 will provide us with some end-of-the-year laughs; but honestly, I don't think anything could measure up to Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's take on horror/comedy. Seriously. This movie is so funny that my body hurt from laughing so hard. I'm already a fan of the Apatow crew, but this is above and beyond anything I could have possibly imagined. (And yes, I know Judd Apatow wasn't actually involved, but practically everyone in this cast has been educated in his comedy school for gifted youngsters)

The plot is simple enough. Jay Baruchel is visiting his good buddy Seth Rogen in Los Angeles, hoping for some quality bro-time. (Yes, the actors are playing themselves. I'm sure you knew this already) Much to Jay's dismay, Seth decides the two should attend a raucous house party at James Franco's new pad. Jay isn't a huge fan of Franco, nor the crowd he runs with. Nevertheless, he obliges Seth's request and they head over. The next fifteen minutes or so features one of the most absurd celebrity parties that has ever graced the silver screen. I won't reveal all the cameos or what makes them so funny, but I will mention that the standout is probably Michael Cera who spends most of his time blowing cocaine in people's faces and getting all sorts of inappropriate favors from babes in guest bathrooms.

Before long, strange events start to occur: People get sucked into the sky by bright beams of light; huge sinkholes leading straight into the depths of hell appear all over the city; monsters begin prowling the streets, picking off people left and right. The survivors - Jay & Seth joined by James Franco, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, and Danny McBride - hole up in Franco's concrete fortress and non-stop hilarity and madness ensues as they face the coming apocalypse.

I would be doing you a disservice if I were to attempt to lay out all the jokes and surprises that await you in This is the End. Simply know this:

You will laugh your ass off.

The cast lends themselves to all manner of embarrassing acts and self-deprecation. The chemistry everyone has with each other is flawless and the improvisational tirades they frequently go on are consistently gut-busting. There are plenty of cameos from people you'd expect to be in this movie and plenty from those you couldn't possibly imagine. Whatever you do, don't let ANYONE ruin these surprises for you. No matter what!!

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have crafted plenty of screenplays, but as far as I'm aware this is the first time they've actually directed one. I would never have guessed. They have such a natural sense of pace and timing and expertly balance comedy and scares to create a unique and endlessly enjoyable moviegoing experience. I can only hope they continue to challenge themselves with such inspired material. Sure, it may be a vanity project and an excuse to get all their friends together to act like idiots, but if every vanity project was this entertaining, I wouldn't say no to seeing a few more.

CONCLUSION: If you are a fan of comedy in any form, you can't afford to miss this one. Do yourself a favor and rush to the nearest theater with a large group of friends and get ready to laugh forever and ever and ever. Amen.

FINAL RATING: 4.5/5