Chris Pratt's 'Garfield': A Plateful of Lasagna, Laughs, and Love

Chris Pratt's latest voice-acting venture as the leading lazy cat we know and love as Garfield was very humorous, and it had a few good twists to add more to the one-dimensional character. In addition to said twists, there were funny characters voiced by Samuel L. Jackson and Ving Rhames.

'The Garfield Movie' began showing Garfield's abandonment as a kitten, adopted by Jon Arbuckle (voiced by Nicholas Hoult, Beast from 'X-Men: First Class'), and modernizing his slacker behavior with food drone delivery and Netflix. But his routine, mundane albeit happy life took a change for the worse and better when his birth father, Vic, voiced by Jackson, gets into some trouble and needs his son's help.

The film began as funny with Garfield's usual overeating lasagna and allusion to past Garfield media, such as his birthplace in Mamma Leoni's restaurant and former voice actor Lorenzo Music. Between the poignant piano music score by John Debney and Garfield trying to sort out his family issues, the movie seemed like director Mark Dindal's 'Chicken Little' all over again, just without aliens. On the bright side, it shows Garfield in a better light than just being sloth-like. 

Besides Pratt being comical in his role of Garfield, Jackson and Rhames were funny as their respective characters of Vic and Otto the Bull. Jackson as Vic was amusing in acting like a smooth-talking con man and trying to bring the deeper animal out of Garfield. Their complex working relationship seemed reminiscent of Miles Morales and Peter B. Parker from 'Into the Spider-Verse.' As for Rhames, his character of Otto was like a tough trainer for Garfield when (spoiler alert) he tried to prep him and Vic for a team heist. It was still funny how even in his somber mood, he acted like a foil to the cats and a nod to Rhames' work in 'Mission: Impossible.'

Because it was a higher pitch than I was used to, I couldn't really recognize Hoult as Jon Arbuckle. And Harvey Guillén as Odie wasn't very recognizable to me, either. But in Odie's case, he proved his worth in getting Garfield and Odie to heal their fractured relationship with a little time-out.

'The Garfield Movie' was like 'Open Season', in that Garfield was too domesticated and had a rough time embracing life on the wild side. One really laughable part was his catapulting trip gone wrong when he and Vic planned the heist. Other scenes reminded me of 'Daxter', 'Cars', and 'Toy Story 3'. While I said there was poignant piano music and family drama, it wasn't all sad once I saw Garfield and Vic patch things up, along with Garfield getting some action in him.

To summarize, 'The Garfield Movie' was a plateful of lasagna, laughs, and love. It had some parts I didn't expect, but I still enjoyed the movie. If you want a good "ha-ha" moment and more, go watch 'The Garfield Movie.'

Rain Man-Rocky Start, Good-Natured Finish

Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise in 'Rain Man', directed by Barry Levinson. Copyright 1988, United Artists.

On Sunday night, I watched Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise in the Academy Award-winning 'Rain Man'.

To those who are unfamiliar, Tom Cruise plays Charlie Babbitt, a troubled, shady Lamborghini dealer who's hoping for some inheritance money from his recently deceased, estranged father to pay the bills. But he gets more than he bargained for when he discovers the trustee of said money is his unknown brother, Raymond, played by Dustin Hoffman, an autistic savant with unique memorization skills, but often troubled mannerisms in socializing.

Hoping to get Raymond to give him half his father's money, Charlie attempts to whisk him away to Los Angeles. But when he is forced to drive Raymond from Ohio instead of flying, a bond begins to grow between the brothers.

At first, I didn't like Charlie's exasperated and greedy attitude toward Raymond. I also couldn't relate to Raymond's level of autism compared to mine. Those aside, I grew to like the film because Raymond gave Charlie closure over his fractured relationship with his father and made him realize he can still have a happy life. That was very touching.

I once heard of references to 'Rain Man' in 'The Hangover', specifically Alan talking about Raymond's counting cards in Vegas and the main men pulling into their casino dressed like winners. Even though the plan was for Charlie to get his money, I liked how he found something better. Spoiler alert, he teaches Raymond to dance, Raymond gets to live like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers when dancing in the elevator with Charlie's girlfriend Susana, played by Valeria Golino, and Susanna tells Raymond any woman would be fortunate to be with him. Another thing to enjoy was Hans Zimmer's scoring sounding like worldly 

Raymond may not be your conventional guy, but that's not a bad thing. Whether winning casino money or being good with memories or human calculating, I think the message of 'Rain Man' is that there's hope for people with "disabilities" and they can make us better, too, if we let them. I won't spill any more details until you see 'Rain Man' yourself.

'Romy and Michele'-Funny, Really Places Perspective

Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino from 'Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. Photo courtesy of Dazed.

Good evening.

So, on Saturday night, I finally watched 'Romy and Michele's High School Reunion' starring Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow.

The ladies played two late twenty-somethings returning to Arizona for their high school reunion. 10 years prior, they were "outcasts". And 10 years later, Romy works as a cashier at a Jaguar dealership while Michele is unemployed. On the good side, Michele is quirky yet offbeat like Kudrow's Phoebe Buffay from 'Friends.'

So they make up some lies and dress like businesswomen to fool the crowd. That's where I finally got the quote "Um, I invented Post-its" which I see at my movie theater. But in the end, they dressed as their usual selves, won over their former classmates, and opened their own boutique.

What was great about the movie was the humor with the women trying to come up in their adulting journeys, the cool pop and new wave music from artists such as The Go-Go's or Culture Club, Romy and Michelle's self-empowerment, and breaking down on the dance floor with Alan Cumming. The perspective is that even if it's not the typical way Hollywood presents it, you just got to be yourself and people will learn to love you. And those who won't, that's their problem, not yours. I liked the movie, and I hope you stream it and find some enjoyment for yourself.

‘Fall Guy’-A Wallop of Spicy Stuntman Excellence

 

Good morning, people. 

On Thursday, May 16, I saw 'The Fall Guy' starring Ryan Gosling (also a producer) and Emily Blunt. Based on a show from the early 1980s starring Lee Majors, Gosling played Colt Seavers, a stuntman. Though he had a tough injury that put his job on hold, he got back, but here's the twist: While covering for an actor played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Colt accidentally gets mixed up with some of the actor's enemies and ends up on a 'Central Intelligence' type adventure around Australia. If that's not enough, he's got to patch up some broken romance with Emily Blunt's character, Jody. Jody has more drama than that with a major directorial film debut job and an overbearing producer, played by Hannah Waddingham, pressuring her to make a hit.

The excellent parts came when Gosling's fight scenes reminded me of 'Central Intelligence', 'Scott Pilgrim', and 'Fast and the Furious'. Not only that, I enjoyed how the film directed by Jody gave vibes of 'Guardians of the Galaxy', the hurdles of the romance between Jody and Colt, and how crazy Hollywood is. You'll also relish Jody's occasionally feisty moments trying to prove herself in this profession.

In addition, it shed some light on how stuntman and production work as a whole deserves more credit than the final product itself. And from what I saw of Aaron Taylor-Johnson, given his physique and rude behavior, he looked like he was ready for his role as Kraven the Hunter, but you'll know more when you see the film yourself. Besides the action, acting and humor, you'll be amused when you see music by people such as Kiss or Taylor Swift undercut the tense moments here and there. On another note, Winston Duke, M'Baku from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, can add some more comic relief in the otherwise bizarre action movie world.

As it says in the title, 'The Fall Guy' was a wallop of spicy stuntman excellence. Check it out if you need a good adrenaline comedy mix, with a few twists and turns. And I don't just mean with trying to look cool in an exploding car scene, Thank you to cast, crew, stunt people, and all who made 'The Fall Guy.'