BAD WORDS  3.0***

 

        “Bad Words” is a dark comedy with instances of pure vulgarity and vileness that is at the same time, heartwarming–yes, you read that right.

The film opens with an unexplained 40 year old genius Guy Trilby (Jason Bateman) entering himself in a regional spelling bee, with a brief flashback explaining how he has been able to register legally. From the moment the movie starts, Bateman at first shocks you with his attitude and profanity but then quickly has you laughing. He easily wins the regional bee sending him off to the finals of the super bowl of spelling bees, The Golden Quill. Trilby meets "Chaitanya Chopra" played by Rohan Chand (“SlumDog Millionaire”) on the airplane to the competition and is quite annoyed but later is befriended by him at the hotel . Trilby uses mean dark humor as a strategy against some his young competitor spellers to throw off their concentration, which helps give him an edge and get him to the final spelling showdown with Chopra.

The mystery behind Trilby's anger with the world, constant bitterness and his obsession with winning the bee is at the center mystery of the film.   .

 

You will find some of the humor to be harsh, rude, and even racist, but if you can look past all that, it's really an enjoyably and quite funny.  And the envelope is constantly being pushed and with  each character Trilby interacts with, whether it be for an extended period of time or briefly,, Bateman nails each and every scene with a natural sense of arrogance.  

Bad Words is surely one of the most memorable comedies of the year. And the only thing bad about it, is how much you will find yourself laughing at some of the most inappropriate things.

Rated R for very crude and vulgar language  and some sexual content plus brief nudity.

 

Clark

NOTE: The title of this movie is misleading except to the extent he uses a lot of bad words and the movie poster is ridiculous… neither give you any idea what the movie is about.

 

 

  MUPPETS MOST WANTED 3.2***

 Somehow the world is just a better place with the Muppets in it. “Muppets Most Wanted” marks the eighth Muppet  movie and the second since their successful 2011 reboot “The Muppets.”

This new movie may not be as hip as the last one, which opened with a sarcastically sunny number and kept its ironic tongue in cheek throughout.  Instead, the new film feels a little more like a look back to earlier installments like "The Great Muppet Caper," which were less self-referential than just plain silly, with a variety of guest stars (mostly in cameos) fearlessly joining in the childlike fun.

The movie starts with a big production music number about sequels (which, it cheerfully admits, are "never as good"), then moves to a corny plot about an international master criminal ( Constantine), who just happens to be a dead ringer for Kermit. And in a flash there's a frognapping — and poor Kermit is off to a Russian prison (actually, a gulag) while the devilish Kermit look-alike Constantine is leading the Muppets on a European concert tour (which conveniently hits a string of cities with some begging-to-be-robbed museums).

Admittedly, most of the songs  go a little on too long and the movie itself is a little too long (just under 2 hrs.). But as the human villains, Ricky Gervais, as Constantine’s Number 2 accomplice, is surprisingly bearable and Tina Fey, as a Nadya, the Russian gulag warden, is very funny. And although some of the big celebrity cameos fall a little flat, most of them are delightful.

Of course it's the most fun for Muppets fans. But if you don't love the chipper Kermit, the self-involved Miss Piggy, the sweetly foggy Fozzie — not to mention the hard-to-explain Beaker, Animal and the Great Gonzo — well, please, sit over there, I don't think I quite trust you. But if you do — well, then you'll  be glad to see them back. And you’ll agree with Disney that — as long as they keep the quality up, and the guest stars coming back - it is easy being green. Or at least raking it in.

Clark

NON-STOP  2.5***

 

          Another year another Liam Neeson action thriller. First his daughter got “Taken”, then he and his wife got “Taken 2”  and now his plane gets taken .But this year the new concept is "air marshal threatened by mysterious on-board texter threatening to kill a passenger aboard a 6 hour transatlantic flight every 20 minutes unless $150 million is paid into his account. Who is the mystery killer? Who can he trust? What is the bigger picture behind events?"

 

 

The name of the game is "guess who?" And to that end we are fed a lineup of shifty individuals who may or may not be the mystery attacker/s.  Making a thriller  is rather like performing Magic and the secret is misdirection and sleight of hand and the movie does an OK though not spectacular job. Action is naturally limited given the confines of an airplane packed with passengers but they do use the tightness to create good  close quarter combat between Neeson and various opponents.

The villains motivations, when revealed, are quite interesting if somewhat lacking in logic.  Some reviewers have complained about the fact that a Muslim doctor is shown positively while the terrorists this time are not Islamic, but in its defense a real Muslim terrorist would not have gone through all this twisty- turny misdirection plot stuff but would simply have blown the plane to bits 10 minutes after takeoff, which though more realistic frankly wouldn't have made for much of a movie!

Reminiscent of those mostly forgotten airliner thrillers from the early- mid 90s, this will doubtless share the same fate but may amuse for now, and Liam Neeson still looks and moves great for a 62 year old .

 

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, some language, and drug references… but a “soft” PG-13.