Failure To Launch

The reviewers at the Internet Movie Database gave Failure to Launch a mediocre rating of 5.5 out of 10. Maybe the movie caught me off guard, or maybe it’s just because I’m a sucker for running gags, but I liked it.

It’s light, the performances… even Terry Bradshaw’s… were good and the running gag involves various wild animals, including a geographically-displaced chuckwalla, biting the World’s Sexiest Man. And what’s not to like about that?

Failure to Launch stars Matthew McConaughey as Tripp, a happy-go-lucky 35-year-old yacht salesman who’s too comfortable and maybe too emotionally damaged to leave home. His mother, played by Kathy Bates coddles him and his father, played goofily by Bradshaw, just wants the house back for his own odd purposes. So they hire Sarah Jessica Parker (Paula) a professional interventionist experienced in such matters to induce him to leave home.

Of course everything seems to be going fine. Paula’s well-refined methods have Tripp ready to leave, but she is also falling in love with him, a professional no-no. Of course, everybody in the theater knew where this movie was going (dollar movie theater patrons are pretty smart, after all) because, as we all know, ‘the course of true love never did run smooth.' But getting there was fun.

Considering how bankable Parker and McConaughey are, Failure to Launch turns a lot of the movie over to the co-stars including Zooey Deschanel (Elf), Justin Bartha (National Treasure), Bradley Cooper (Alias), Bradshaw and Bates. BTW, when are we going to see Kathy Bates in another role like Misery, where she's so convincing as a menacing psychopath?

All that said, Failure to Launch could have been a Rock Hudson-Doris Day romp — light, funny and clean—but it’s not. The PG-13 rating… for sexual content, partial nudity and language, including the "R-word"… is legitimate. It’s not appropriate for young teens.

Because Failure to Launch too often aims low, Dollar Movie Review grades it as a solid C.

The Dollar Movie Review Grading System: The Dollar Movie Review grades on a curve. Movies that make choices to be course or vulgar are downgraded a full to a half grade or more. Likewise, movies that don’t gross out or offend too much can be upgraded as ‘a thanks for trying’ attaboy. In my view, Failure to Launch was a solid B without the strong language, the sexual content and Bradshaw's oft remarked-upon bare butt.

Ice Age: The Meltdown

Going to Ice Age: The Meltdown, was a little like going to the library. I don’t mean it was quiet. Libraries aren’t really quiet anymore.

No, Ice Age 2 was like the library in the sense that the kids I saw it with were entertained just enough to keep them from playing their PSPs. The pace is rather glacial.

The movie, which only shows brief glimpses of the genius of Pixar or the ironic humor of the Shrek franchise, is not a dud by any stretch. There are two pretty good setpieces and the makings of a third. The movie also has a couple of touching moments. And the intercuts with Scrat, the hardest-working squirrel since Rocky, are all funny, even inspired.

The cast from the first movie returns with Ray Romano (Manny), John Leguizamo (Sid), and Denis Leary (Diego) in the lead roles. Queen Latifah adds some spice as Ellie, a Mammoth raised as a possum. But Ray Romano plays better when you can see his sad face. The kids probably didn’t care, but Leguizamo’s spitting lisp wore a little thin for me. Unfortunately, Leary’s Diego, the saber-tooth cat, has been declawed since the first movie.

There are the mandatory nods to other movies. I saw MI:2 and Matrix, for instance. And there are the mandatory fart jokes. Nothing else tells you the writers are phoning it in quite like fart jokes. There’s also an unfunny ‘mean kids’ segment that goes nowhere s l o w l y.

In short, Ice Age: The Meltdown is a perfect example of why we go to Dollar Movies. It’s not a great movie, but at a Dollar Movie price it’s a “good-enough” movie.

Ice Age: The Meltdown is rate PG for mild language and innuendo by the MPAA.

DollarMovieReview.com grades it as a B+.

The Dollar Movie Review Grading System: Movies targeted at young kids, that don’t gross out or offend too much get a full grade bonus. A C+ became a B+ in this movie, for instance. How much is too gross or offensive? I decide on the fly.

The Dollar Movie Reviewer

If you're like me, you love movies. I've definitely spent many, many meaningful hours in movie houses across North America. And I've spent too much time watching duds.

Like Brad Pitt, I'm a dad now and I'm tired of "thinking about myself." With a wife and two little girls, it's harder than ever to justify the time and expense of the duds. That's why I go to 'Dollar Movies.' If the movie's a dud, I don't feel bad about walking out on it. And if it's good? Well then I figure I just saved $6 or $7 a head (or more)!

So in The Dollar Movie Review in most cases I'll be reviewing movies that have demonstrated some staying power. Most of them are hits. A few are movies which my local Dollar Movie theater operator figured might have some staying power in my market.

I review these Dollar Movies on a curve. Elements in movies like sex, violence, profanity and the like (all things that, frankly, didn't bother me as much when I was still single) won't fare as well in my reviews. Moreover, kid-friendly movies will get the benefit of a doubt in my reviews; a kind of 'thanks for trying' attaboy. It's possible to make movies that manage to be engaging and entertaining without being coarse or debasing. Pixar does it all the time. And I want to do my small part to encourage better movies.

That raises one final point. I once heard Gerald Molen talk about his experiences as a Hollywood producer and he mentioned that the only R-rated movie he'd produced was Schindler's List (for which he won the Best Picture Academy Award in 1994). Someone piped up and said, what about Rain Man? He said, when he started the movie, it was a PG or PG-13 movie, not an R movie. The director, Barry Levinson, had made choices during the course of the production that turned it into an R movie.

I believe Hollywood is capable of producing splendid movies. But too often the first sensibility of modern Hollywood screenwriters, directors, producers and actors is to make movies that cheapen and degrade. When filmmakers make those kind of choices, The Dollar Movie Review will say so.