Review: Away We Go

If there’s one genre of movie I despise, it’s the indie “comedy.” In these movies, the main characters lie constantly and for no reason, they have Wes Anderson-like quirks and aren’t funny at all. Fortunately, “Away We Go” avoids this path and ends up being an extremely enjoyable, and funny, movie.

“Away We Go” starts off with the funniest pregnancy discovery I’ve ever seen, and from there, it moves on to tell the story of Burt and Veronica (John Krasinski of “The Office” and Maya Rudolph of “Saturday Night Live”). After Burt’s parents decide to move to Europe, the couple decides to make their own change of venue.

So after weighing where to live their life, they decide to go on a road trip through Arizona, Wisconsin and Canada. At each stop they run in to a family organized in a different way, making Burt and Veronica to ask if that is the kind of family they want to be.

From start to finish, “Away We Go” has its own style. Krasinski’s bearded and bespectacled character starts out as a bit of a Andersonian character, deciding that he’s going to whittle, just so his son can find him whittling on the front porch. Luckily he evolves past his quirks and becomes a very likable character who yells at his girlfriend jokingly to raise the baby’s heart rate.

Each one of the characters the couple visit offer a different angle for the couple, but unlike last year’s “Four Christmases”, they aren’t drawn out stereotypes. Allison Janney of “Juno” steals the show early on by insulting her daughter and bragging about how incredibly large her breasts were before she had kids. Comedian Jim Gaffigan, Jeff Daniels, Maggie Gyllenhaal and a number of lesser known stars all work wonderfully as the extended family of Burt and Veronica.

The dialogue is also great, thanks to the husband and wife writing team of Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. The balance between the charming and the comical is pitch perfect, moving one time from a stuffed animal play to a serious discussion about the couple’s future without missing a beat, and each scene is written without so much as a hit of bad dialogue.

Director Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”, “Revolutionary Road”) does a great job in his first feature comedy. The way he handles the mix of emotions, the large cast and the strange mash-up of characters should have his critics backing off for awhile.

The last comedy of this caliber that I can remember, in both its dramatic and comedic elements, was “Juno.” This won’t be as wide in its audience, but is easily as enjoyable as the 2007 hit, even if its ending is a bit simple.

Review: Land of the Lost

In Hollywood’s attempt to remake every TV show, movie, play or YouTube video, the executives at Universal stumbled upon the 1970’s children’s show “Land of the Lost.” Just write a goofy script, plug in Will Ferrel and bam, there’s your movie. Luckily the movie isn’t quite that simplistic, but it won’t be setting off a new generation of loopy time travelers.

Mad man scientist Dr. Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell) is in a shameful state after being dissed by Matt Lauer on the Today Show. His wallowing stops when British scientist Holly Cantrell reveals proof that his seemingly insane theories have merit. So the two head to a small theme park in the middle of the desert, where their “guide”, Will, takes them to the spot, which just so happens to be in a haunted water ride. Chaos ensues and the group are transported to the Land of the Lost, an area stuck in between time.

Don’t let the word scientist fool you, because this movie isn’t too smart. Relying almost exclusively on dim humor, “Land of the Lost” keeps it simple stupidly. It’s humor is sometimes funny, but mostly just amusing. It also enjoys being on the edge of going too far in its dim-witted attempts, but never crosses the line. But oh, it gets so close.

There’s a “King Kong” feel to the world, with everything being over-sized. Dinosaurs, mosquitos and even crabs are bigger than their Earthly counterparts. The crab, rather hysterically, gets blown up and eaten by the group while the mosquito sucks a fatal amount of blood out of Ferrel, but without consequence.

Rounding out the cast are British native Anna Friel (from ABC’s “Pushing Daisies”) and Danny McBride (“Pineapple Express”). The group ends up working as a good comedy team. Friel is masked by her natural accent and is generally the meat in cheese in the Ferrel-McBride sandwich. Both of the leading men are goofy, but in different ways. Where Ferrel gets to be, well, Will Ferrel, McBride is a bit more of a lone redneck ranger who doesn’t trust people in tunics.

There isn’t much action to speak of, but there are a handful of chase scenes involving a very sensitive T-Rex. It’s not exactly designed to look perfectly realistic, but then again it is a comedy. The CGI does the trick and looks colorful, but is sure to keep the focus on the comedy.

“Land of the Lost” won’t knock you out like it’s competition this week, “The Hangover”, but it is an enjoyable movie. So if you’re not tired of Will Ferrel movies yet, it might just be worthwhile to check this one out, but being in a goofy mood might help.

Review: My Life in Ruins

According to Nia Vardalos’ character Georgia, “2,500 years ago, Greece was a place of philosophy, art and democracy… then they discovered the nap.” You too will discover the nap should you decide to take incredibly boring trip to Greece that is “My Life in Ruins.”

With the entire country of Greece as its backdrop, “Ruins” follows Georgia, a college history professor turned tour guide, who is at the brink of having a gigantic breakdown. Her tourist groups are always the worst, as are her bus and driver. Her applications to universities in Greece and the U.S. are ignored, and everything else is just going wrong.

One of my cardinal sins of writing is to point out stereotypes before a character is even given a chance to utter a line of dialogue. “My Life in Ruins” breaks this rule in the first five minutes and with all of the supporting characters. ALL of them. If you’re making your characters stereotypes, we don’t need you to tell us what their stereotypes are. That’s why they’re stereotypes!

What’s even more unforgivable is the fact that none of these stereotypes are used effectively in the movie. They’re never funny and they never creep out of their three foot shell that their stereotype sets up. The only person in the group who has any depth of character is Irv, played by Richard Dreyfuss, but even he is all too prone to being put in a box at times.

All of this might be somewhat forgiving if the main character was somewhat amicable. Instead, she complains constantly and wouldn’t command the respect of the most curious amateur historian, let alone the ignorant group of American tourists who are more focused on finding cheap trinkets and ice cream than realizing they are at the cradle of modern society.

Those looking for an update on “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” will be sorely disappointed, and a big reason for is that all of the producers are now executive producers, meaning they weren’t as intimately involved in the story. Vardalos, who wrote the 2002 indie hit, is replaced by Mike Reiss and director Donald Petrie replaces Joel Zwick.

“My Life in Ruins” is all over the place and a complete miscue that isn’t really likable except in select scenes where Richard Dreyfus appears. Avoid this movie if you can because there’s very little to enjoy in this movie full of stereotypes and horrid dialogue. Sorry gals, but this summer isn’t looking good for you.