Sam Weisman
9 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
(The idea is reminiscent of a subplot in the nearly-forgotten 1995 dramedy “Bye Bye Love” that featured Ed Flanders.)
In a comic movie tradition that goes from “Date Night,” “After Hours” to Neil Simon’s “The Out-of-Towners,” this nice suburban couple find themselves venturing out into the dark side of the city, trading bullets with bad guys, infiltrating an underground fight club, and trying to get bloodstains out of an adorable little dog’s fur.
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)
Directed by Brad Peyton
influenced by George of the Jungle (1997)
Fraser is gone -- he heard a "George of the Jungle" reboot calling his name -- but we still have Josh Hutcherson, the teenager who played his nephew in "Journey."
The drug case goes down some rather gritty and unforeseen avenues, introducing a number of normally comedic actors in effective straight roles?former "MadTV" standout Michael McDonald (2003's " Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star ") is memorably vicious and steely-eyed as wrong-element Julian?but most of this is filler, an excuse to let Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy play off each other in fish-out-of-water situations.
In one fell swoop, and a pretty swell fell swoop it is, the new "Godzilla" makes up for the 1998 Godzilla movie, the one with Matthew Broderick up against the sea beast klutzing around New York like Jack Lemmon in "The Out-of-Towners."
She, meanwhile, invites a “literary” friend named Kim (Jenna Kanell) to a party at the house and, of course, the friend wears a hat indoors and is also a psychic who holds a seance, during which the audience began to giggle at the obvious contrivances, including the use of a cover of the Everly Brothers’ 1957 hit “Bye Bye Love.”
However, this trajectory is weighed down by a stone-faced performance from Johnson, who can’t seem to decide whether he’s a conflicted anti-hero, with his numerous lines of dialogue about how he isn’t really a savior, or whether he’s George of the Jungle, with occasional hints of naivete as he gives his one-liners a test run.
We're the Millers (2013)
Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber
influenced by The Out-of-Towners (1999)
Plot
They manage to pick up the weed without much difficulty, actually, but the trouble comes after, in the kinds of obstacles that are familiar from every family-adventure comedy from The Out-of-Towners to National Lampoon's Vacation.
But its superficiality is finally annoying, it says nothing new or profound about the Italian mystique and writer-director Audrey Wells (who wrote "George of the Jungle") never raises the humor above a sitcom-cute level.
The disparity between the features might be because the first was independently produced, but even Wells' giddy screenplay for the studio hit "George of the Jungle" plays more real than this film.
An established screenwriter ("The Truth About Cats and Dogs," "George of the Jungle") before she began directing, Wells supplies plenty of welcome quirks and wry repartee for the movie's winning supporting cast.