Lexington, KY - by tim hill | flick picks Columnist
The highs and lows of summer moviegoing are on ample display at theatres this month. Here are a couple of midsummer nightmares, and one dream of a film.
Drag Me to Hell
In a movie with the most outrageous title of the summer, Alison Lohman plays a bank loan officer trying to prove she's management material. She gets tough and denies a mortgage extension for a mysterious old lady. In revenge, the woman puts a curse on Lohman. She'll be tormented for three days and then, on the third day, dragged off to-you guessed it-hell.
That sets in motion a series of increasingly outlandish scare sequences. They may be designed to frighten, but apparently they're designed to make you lose your lunch. There is copious vomiting, drooling, impalings, assorted forms of bloodletting, and corpses behaving badly. A scene in a rainy graveyard goes way over the top, even for a movie in this genre.
Before he went big-time as director for the "Spider-Man" movies, Sam Raimi acquired a cult following for such films as "Army of Darkness" and "The Evil Dead." He acknowledges those fans, inserting a few humorous touches to remind us that this is all in good fun. But even if you're parodying yourself, you should at least try to make the movie somewhat believable, not cheesy.
Despite a clever twist at the end, "Drag Me to Hell" fails at being frightful or fun. The elaborate process of constructing the scares gets in the way of the scares themselves. And the action scenes are more ridiculous than amusing. Raimi, who should bring a veteran's touch to this, produces an amateurish and forgettable fright flick.
The Hangover
I should tell you right at the outset -"The Hangover" is a raunchy movie with something to offend or gross out just about everyone.
Doug Billings (Justin Bartha) is about to be married. He and his three groomsmen (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis) head off to Las Vegas to celebrate the groom's last few hours of freedom. Fast forward to the next morning. The three guys wake up in a trashed hotel room with a tiger, a baby, a missing groom and no memory of what happened the night before. The movie follows their efforts to put all the clues together and find the groom before the wedding takes place.
If selling a movie in Hollywood is all about the pitch, then this set-up looks like a winner. But the devil's in the details. As the three guys retrace their steps through the seamy underbelly of Vegas, there's a laugh or two, but mostly what you feel is a growing discomfort.
"The Hangover" asks us to laugh at the proverbial train wreck. Normally, I give some leeway to attempts at comedy; it's a tough business to get people to laugh. But watching the horrible aftermath of a night of really bad decisions quickly turned ugly for me.
Still, in the midst of the darkness, there are bright moments. Heather Graham plays the "escort" with a heart of gold, and Rob Riggle's sadistic cop steals a scene involving a taser and a tour group of children.
There are many ways to go with this premise. Director Todd Phillips ultimately backs off and chooses a safe and audience-friendly route. But instead of feeling better, I felt a little morning-after sickness.
On the other hand, if some prospective grooms see this as a cautionary tale and tone down their bachelor party plans as a result, there could be a happy ending for "The Hangover."
Up
The temptation, in describing the movie "Up," is to come up with every word even remotely related to height. Soaring, transcendent, elevating, uplifting, the summit, towering, the top, a mountain-top experience. You get the picture.
They all work, and then some. I'm not sure how Pixar does it, but they manage to take the least likely ingredients - a fish lost from its father, a bunch of toys lying around in a kid's room, a trash compacting robot - and make them into moving film experiences.
The premise here is equally as unlikely. A curmudgeonly old man hooks up thousands of helium-filled balloons to his house and flies off to fulfill a dream adventure in South America. A bizarre concept? Absolutely. A wonderful movie? You bet.
The picture opens with arguably the most beautiful 11 minutes ever put on screen. It tells the life story of Carl Fredricksen, much of it without words, and sets the stage for what follows. From that point on, you're hooked.
Ed Asner voices and gives life to the character of Carl, who has more than a passing resemblance to Spencer Tracy in some of his later movie roles. Other interesting characters and adventures await. But I'll let you discover them for yourself. It's a thrilling ride, and along the way, "Up" deals with nothing less than chasing dreams and discovering the meaning of our lives.
If you can see "Up" in 3-D, it's well worth it. The technology makes the visuals even more stunning. But it's not just the gee-whiz appeal of objects flying at your face. It truly enhances the scope of the picture and makes it a sight to behold.
So, this summer, you can travel to the heights or to hell. Your choice.