REVIEW: "Chef" (2014) Jon Favreau, Sofia Vergara. Dir. Jon Favreau

I should confess right away that I'm not particularly subject to the extremely popular genre now known as "food porn," that a lot of people seem to go nuts over. I like food as much as the next person, and sure, lots of shots of food being made and cooked will probably make me hungry right away, but as far as a movie goes, that can't be the only aspect of entertainment involved when you're watching something, and with Jon Favreau's pet project Chef, I suspect that that is entirely the reason that it's proved to have such staying power since it came out back in May. Which frankly, given the fact that at least 70% of what's shown cooking in this movie is fried, greasy food truck product, I have to admit I'm a little grossed out by what that implies. No wonder this country is so obese.

But that was a total digression and has almost nothing to do with the film itself, which is a fluffy, simple, crowd pleasing story of a father-son bonding experience that comes across as completely sincere and from Favreau's heart- even if that heart has way too big a tendency toward fried, fattening foods. Favreau wrote, directed and stars in this small movie that he recruited several of his pals to be in with him (see Scarlett Johansson in a completely pointless role), and he's chef Carl Casper, who's bored by the way his life is going and disappointed that he can't cook his own food at his restaurant, along with being a neglectful dad towards his 10-year-old son, who only wants to spend quality time with him. So, after getting himself fired from his restaurant and blowing up at a food critic who lambasted him online, Carl finally brings himself to stop whining and accept his ex-wife's suggestion that he take up an offer from her other ex (Robert Downey Jr. in a very funny, scene stealing cameo) of a food truck that he will drive across the country and cook his own stuff in.

That leads to a long, family bonding road trip where he brings his kid and the two start up a quickly booming business with Carl's buddy and fellow cook John Leguizamo along for the ride. Despite the heavy focus on all the grease and carbs in these scenes, I actually much preferred watching the road trip part of the movie to the setup of Carl's life crisis at the beginning. As cheesy as the bonding stuff is, I bought it in this case, and to me the father-son aspect of the film was the more honest place that Favreau was coming from. You can see and feel that he really cares about repairing that rift with his kid, although it's a little bit tough to figure out why it's there in the first place, given that he has such a fantastic relationship with his ex-wife (Sofia Vergara). That brings me to the somewhat phony first half of the movie- why on earth are these two people divorced in the first place? We are given no backstory, no cause of separation (even though the split appears to be somewhat recent, less than two years) and Favreau and Vergara get along so well that she spends the whole first hour begging him to let her help him get set up and figure out a new career move- which she can also help him with in any way he could possibly need, because she's apparently so wealthy she has her own cooks, nannies and a publicist whose services she cheerfully hands over to him.

Given that very ideal divorce situation, I think I can be forgiven for thinking that Carl's self-pity is a little out of place (and kind of annoyingly smug actually), especially when the catalyst for his success comes from him finally being humble enough to simply accept her help. Given where it all ends up as far as the "broken family" goes, the only thing standing in Carl's way seemed to be some kind of misplaced pride that we are never privy to the reasons for. But hey, I was probably distracted by this kind of nitpicking because I wasn't as completely drawn in by all the food porn scenes as everyone else will be (there's a LOT, don't worry). I think most people will love this movie for the food closeups and not so much for the kid getting along with his dad, but it's a mostly pleasant, harmless little movie and for the sincerity alone, that makes it worth a look.

* * *

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Y Tu Mama Tambien" (2001)

In perfect timing, our blu ray pick this week happens to be one of our movie recommendations for August as well. Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien is now on Criterion Collection and is still a great movie that is often listed as one of the very best films of world cinema you can find. A smart, funny, sexy road trip movie that's a perfect choice for capping off the end of summer. In fact, even after Gravity, I still think this smaller, more personal film from the director is probably his best movie- it'd be interesting to see him try to make something in this vein again.

Original Trailer:

TEASER: "Men, Women & Children"

Jason Reitman's latest movie is set to premiere at Toronto next month, and from this it looks like it's going to be darker than his usual fare (Juno, Up in the Air, Young Adult). But it's only a teaser and you don't actually get to see any real scenes from the movie yet in this, so who knows. But part of me wonders if Adam Sandler has sunk so low these days that even showing up in a serious drama won't cut it unless he does the world a favor and stops making his own terrible movies. Like forever.

POSTERS: "Dumb and Dumber To"

The publicity campaign for Dumb and Dumber 2 is ramping up, starting with these new posters that do a takeoff on Scarlett Johansson's Lucy, asking what would happen if Lloyd and Harry use just 1% of their brain.

Kinda funny I guess, although it's no more true than the myth that people use 10% of their brain either. People still believe that, don't they? Yeah, that's pretty sad.

BOX OFFICE 8/15-8/17: 'TMNT' Stays On Top; 'Expendables 3' Bombs

The Ninja Turtles movie and Guardians remained at No. 1 and 2 this weekend, respectively, while none of the new releases made much of a dent at the box office. Guardians has now crossed $200 million and looks like it could become the biggest grosser of the year, and end up passing Captain America and The Lego Movie's $250 million totals. Meanwhile, Let's Be Cops opened in third with $17 million, which was more or less expected, as the movie had opened earlier this week and now has $26 million overall, which means it's already successful on a low $17 million budget.

The Expendables 3 opened with just $16 million in fourth place though, as the previous entries had both earned above $20 million opening weekends. It may have suffered from a leak online, which probably diminished its box office a tad. Finally, the children's book adaptation The Giver opened to just $12 million and bombed with critics as well, so overall it was a not so exciting weekend for new releases.

Top 5:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- $28.4 million
Guardians of the Galaxy- $24.7 million
Let's Be Cops- $17.7 million
The Expendables 3- $16.2 million
The Giver- $12.76 million

In limited release, Boyhood cracked the top ten this week and has now made $13.8 million total, while A Most Wanted Man has gotten to $12 million and Magic in the Moonlight looks like it will be one of Woody Allen's lowest grossers as its expansion has been middling. Other new release indies included The Trip to Italy and Frank, which both opened in just two and three theaters, doing well in both, but Daniel Radcliffe's What If faltered as it expanded wide and earned just under $1 million. Next week it's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and the teen melodrama If I Stay as August looks to go out on kind of a whimper.

One Last Look...

Here are a couple of video tributes to the two legends we lost this week. First here's Lauren Bacall in a TCM tribute from Kelsey Grammer:

And here's a montage of Robin Williams' best moments from Mashable:

REVIEW: "Neighbors" (2014) Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne. Dir. Nicholas Stoller

Neighbors is a hit and miss comedy from director Nicholas Stoller starring Seth Rogen in his typical improv heavy referential mode, but one of the nice things about it is the relative brevity involved. When the jokes are hit and miss, but the movie is nonetheless fast-paced and comes in at 90 minutes (a rarity for anything associated with the Apatow crew) you can forgive a lot of the stuff that doesn't work, because you're being fairly entertained throughout and quickly at that.

Of course, if the movie also has a problem staying in your mind for any length of time after you've seen it (I think its lasting power with me was maybe 15 minutes) it may not be worth a repeat trip, but I do recall laughing at a few moments along the way. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne are thirtysomething couple Mac and Kelly who we are quickly introduced to when they're trying and failing to have sex "spontaneously" without the new baby getting too corrupted by what she might see and yet not understand, as Kelly argues to no avail with the skeptical Mac. We then observe how they are at the point in life where they're trying to settle into being that "old couple" with a kid, a house and responsibilities that necessitate leaving the partying ways of their youth behind, and neither is particularly okay with it yet, scared of becoming boring and bored by the status quo that's starting to shape out. This is exacerbated when a fraternity led by Zac Efron and Dave Franco move in next door, which at first tempts them to try to get along with the guys to retain their youth.

The two are invited into a rager (Kelly brings the baby monitor with them, so I guess it's ok that poor infant Stella is left alone all night multiple times in this movie) and at first have a great time, but then when the noise continues for days on end, resort to calling the police for the sake of the baby they occasionally are concerned about. This leads to all out war between them and the frat, as one prank escalates to another as Mac and Kelly try to get them kicked out however they can manage it. That may seem like a lot of setup, but trust me, all of that only takes about 10 minutes before the war starts, and from that point on it rides the same joke pretty much into the ground until the movie's end. And as I said, some of the scenes are good (I liked when they pay a tortured freshman pledge to wear camera sunglasses into the frat) and some are just stupid, like the guys stuffing air bags into Mac's work place desk chair that sends him flying into the ceiling with some really cheap CGI effects that are deployed three times and are distractingly awful each time.

Seth Rogen brings his usual, pop culture obsessed, riff-heavy self to play here, and I'll admit I've always enjoyed his everyman persona, but once again this crew falls down in terms of developing the female character. Rose Byrne is fine in the movie, and clearly they wanted to draw her into the proceedings by making her a participant in the prank battles, but instead of giving her a personality of her own, what they've done is turn her into the ultimate cheerleader for her hubbie, parroting everything he says and nodding along to all his plans, so that the clear implication is that the perfect wife for any of the schlubby Apatow gang is a non-nagging woman who likes everything they like without the slightest deviation or individuality of self. Ugh. As for the frat guys, Dave Franco continues to be a winning and charismatic presence on screen in these movies (could he possibly turn out to be the greater Franco?) while the sculpted Ken doll that is Zac Efron makes the perfect fraternity president who always seems to be giving off a slightly psycho vibe in the intense stares thrown at every peripheral character on the screen.

The movie leaves reality behind pretty fast, as it makes no sense to leave the baby alone all the time, or that literally no one else in the neighborhood is bothered by the all night ragers at the frat house. Sometimes in these one joke premise movies, it might be better just to jettison reality entirely and escalate to full on farce or black comedy, like Animal House or There's Something About Mary, which both reached further for bigger laughs altogether. But this one wants to maintain that lesson about maturity in the end, which feels a little tacked on and prevents it from reaching the delirious heights of those other comedy classics. Still, it's good for some amusing chuckles and it's over in swift fashion- just don't expect to bust a gut or anything.

* * 1/2

TEASER: "Mortdecai"

A first look here at Johnny Depp in the comedy Mortdecai, based on the first of a book anthology called The Mortdecai Trilogy. Looks like it's got a good cast and could be fun, but I really don't trust that release date. If this is any good why would they be releasing it in February? That's a pretty notorious dumping ground for new movies (it's where Channing Tatum's Jupiter Ascending was moved to at the last minute). It's directed by longtime Hollywood screenwriter David Koepp (who actually directed Depp back in 2004's Secret Window), but I'm a little wary of this one overall.

Lauren Bacall 1924-2014

We just can't catch a break this week, can we? Screen legend Lauren Bacall, once the wife of Humphrey Bogart, died today of a stroke at age 89. A great beauty who made her big screen debut at just 19 years old in To Have and Have Not (1944), her first film with her future husband. The two became the famous Hollywood couple known as Bogie and Bacall, and her best films came in the 1940's and 50's and included The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948), all with Bogie. She then continued to act in films right up to the present day and shared the screen with other legends like Marilyn Monroe in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), Rock Hudson in Written on the Wind (1956), John Wayne in The Shootist (1976), and well into her later years she was nominated for an Oscar for the Barbra Streisand directed The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). She was one of the last remaining stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, and received an Honorary Oscar in 2009 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1997.

The famous "do you know how to whistle" scene with Bogie in To Have and Have Not:

Being honored with the lifetime achievement Oscar in 2009:

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Out of the Past" (1947)

One of the all time great film noirs is out on blu-ray today, and this one is right up there with The Big Sleep, Mildred Pierce, and Double Indemnity as a prime example of the genre from the 1940's, when it was at its peak. Robert Mitchum shows off his iconic screen persona as the PI caught up in a complicated mystery involving what else, a devious femme fatale (one of the very best, and by that I mean most evil, played by Jane Greer). It's also an early villainous role for the up and coming actor Kirk Douglas. Trust me, you should check this one out- it's truly one of the greats.

Scene from the film:

Robin Williams 1951-2014

I can't believe it. In what is, for me at least, probably the most shocking celebrity death since Michael Jackson, legendary comedian and actor Robin Williams has been found dead of an apparent suicide at the age of 63. The cause of death has been attributed to asphyxia, and his publicist has confirmed he'd been suffering recently from his years long battle with depression. Williams had been open about his struggles with depression, as well as alcohol and drugs, but this is a real blow to fans and anyone who was familiar with his work (which, let's face it, is pretty much everyone). From his start as a standup comedian whose routines resembled no one else's, to his days on the 70's Happy Days spinoff Mork & Mindy, to his films, of which there are more than I could ever name, but let's try just a few- The World According to Garp, Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poet's Society, The Fisher King, Hook, Aladdin, Mrs Doubtfire, Jumanji, The Birdcage and Good Will Hunting (for which he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1997). For a kid of the 90's like me, it seems like he was in almost every movie you grew up watching. There will never be another like him.

Here he is winning the Oscar in 1998:

One of his most iconic roles as the Genie in Aladdin, which arguably redefined voice acting in animation forever:

And here's an example of his one of his inimitable stand-up routines. He was one of a kind:

TRAILER #3: "Maps to the Stars"

Another new trailer for Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars drops today. This is the international one, because unlike here, the movie has secured an actual release date of Sept 26th in the UK. It still looks good, so I'm wondering what's going on with the U.S. release in that it hasn't been scheduled yet. The movie appeared to get divisive reviews out of Cannes, but did the UK critics really like it that much better than the American ones? Julianne Moore was the most buzzed about performance in this, so if the movie ever comes out, I guess she's the one to watch out for.