Tag: Ben Stiller

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is a paint-by-numbers spectacle with manufactured profundity.

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is a family friendly movie about dreaming big, acting spontaneous and being adventurous. That it has a patterned, scientific, literal mindedness to its approach is part of this perfectly coifed film’s problem. Ben Stiller has made a film where the magic and the life lessons are all paint by numbers.

Walter Mitty (Stiller) as described here and in James Thurber’s famous short story from 1939 is a daydreamer, constantly getting lost in the clouds with fantasies of rescuing puppies in a burning building for the girl of his dreams (Kirsten Wiig) or having an epic, super power driven fight with his boss (Adam Scott).

But his real life involves processing film prints for the dying Life magazine, and he finds himself unable to think of anything he’s done notable or interesting as he fills out an online dating profile. When the prized photo intended for the cover goes missing, he sets off on a quest to track down its elusive photographer (Sean Penn). Continue reading “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”

The Royal Tenenbaums

Wes Anderson doesn’t make deliberately quirky indie comedies or inscrutable art house films. He makes fantasies. “The Royal Tenenbaums” is just the story of a dysfunctional family, not an epic voyage to the bottom of the sea or the tale of an adventurous talking fox, and yet it feels as wonderfully strange and exotic as any of those.

That’s because just about every Wes Anderson film ever made is the most wholly Wes Anderson-y movie you’ve ever seen. His style drips over every moment in his framing, his tone and his quirky imagination. “The Royal Tenenbaums” more than any of Anderson’s films perhaps is like visual poetry in the way the film’s offbeat dialogue punctuates his quick cuts.

His shots are exploding with wild imagery. None of it is natural or has a purpose; it is merely beautiful to look at. One room has two giant murals on the wall featuring tigers and hunters, and another room reveals the head of a giant stuffed badger to be mounted on the wall. Continue reading “The Royal Tenenbaums”

Tower Heist

 

It’s probably not a mistake to feel somewhat robbed after “Tower Heist.”

Brett Ratner’s movie is too rigid and bland to be a good comedy and too goofy and tame to be truly thrilling.

We learn a lot of mundane details about the inner workings of a New York building that is essentially Trump Tower, including security policies, elevator codes and its many tenants.

Why we have to know so much about a building of all things is frustrating when “Tower Heist” refuses to develop its characters or even begin to get comically creative. Continue reading “Tower Heist”