This week Lon and Farrell discuss the charming new comedy Cedar Rapids and are shockingly in agreement over the new Jennifer Aniston /Adam Sandler film ‘Just go with it’. In an effort to help guide your cinematic cravings through Netflix streaming they highlight a couple new to streaming films in the Blaxploitation spoof ‘Black Dynamite’ and the romantic Irish myth ‘Ondine’.

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Hosts

Farrell Roth
Lon Harris

In Theaters

Cedar Rapids

Directed by Miguel Arteta
Written by Phil Johnston
Starring Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, Anne Heche and Isiah Whitlock Jr.

When sheltered, naive small-town insurance agent Tim Lippe (Helms) ventures to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for an important convention, he falls under the sway of 3 unpredictable veterans who have some lessons to impart about life, friendship and love.

Lon: The film is a delight. A perfect blend of sweet, good-natured humor and jet-black raunch featuring John C. Reilly’s best comic performance since “Boogie Nights.” There’s also a laid-back tolerance that the film seems to represent…If “Cedar Rapids” has an overarching theme, it’s that everyone is human and we should accept them as they are. That’s just nice.

Farrell: Did not love the film as much as Lon, and felt that some of the raunchy humor made it more of a “guy movie.” Nonetheless, she thought the cast was terrific (particularly Reilly and Ed Helms) and agreed that the film was upbeat and likable.

“Just Go With It”

Directed by Dennis Dugan
Written by Alan Loeb and Timothy Dowling
Starring Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Brooklyn Decker, Nick Swardson and Nicole Kidman

Wealthy plastic surgeon Danny (Sandler) gets himself in trouble when he tells his super-hot girlfriend Palmer (Decker) he’s in the midst of a divorce. Now he needs his faithful assistant (Aniston) , her two kids and his dopey brother Eddie (Swardson) to go along with the charade, going so far as to fly everyone to Hawaii for a bonding vacation.

Farrell: The movie is unfunny, obnoxious and far too long. Though she does not blame the young actors, who clearly are trying their best, she hated the film’s child performances, particularly the egregious and unnecessary use of a fake British accent by Aniston’s daughter throughout the entire film.

Lon: “This film is despicable trash. A mean-spirited, ugly, shrill, offensive, unfunny, lazy, hacky mess. I hated spending 2 hours with these people. The performances are one-note, the jokes are barely there and the pacing is inexplicably off in every scene.”

This Week in Netflix

LON RECOMMENDS: “BLACK DYNAMITE”

Directed by Scott Sanders
Written by Michael Jai White, Byron Minns and Sanders
Starring Michael Jai White, Tommy Davidson and Nicole Ari Parker

When the mob kills his only brother, kung fu badass Black Dynamite (White) decides it’s up to him to clean up the streets in this affectionate and note-perfect send-up of ’70s blaxploitation movies.

Lon: This is a must-see for fans of parody films, ’70s movies or blaxploitation. It really might be the best parody movie since the Zucker/Abrams/Zucker crew was at their peak. Truly captures the look, sound and feel of the genre and the era. Plus several great, authentic original songs.

FARRELL RECOMMENDS: “ONDINE”

Written and directed by Neil Jordan
Starring Colin Farrell, Alicja Bachleda and Alison Barry

A lonely Irish fisherman (Farrell) pulls a beautiful, mysterious woman (Bachleda) from the water and on to his boat in Neil Jordan’s contemporary fable. Is she a selkie, a magical seal creature from folklore, or is she guarding some more mundane secret?

Farrell: Neil Jordan builds the film’s central mystery so well, you completely accept it and give yourself over to the narrative. She praised Farrell’s performance and also the tremendous chemistry between him and co-star Alicja Bachleda, which of course led to them coupling off-screen and having a child together.

Closing

Join us next week for reviews of “I Am Number Four” and “The Unknown,” along with more Netflix recommendations!

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! @TWiMovies

Hosts

Farrell Roth
Lon Harris

Guest

Ben Steinbauer, co-writer and director of “Winnebago Man”

Introduction

Lon and Farrell opened the show talking about some of the big Super Bowl movie ads that had shown earlier that day on TV. Lon highlighted the first looks at “Super 8″ and “Captain America: The First Avenger,” while mocking the animated parrot film “Rio.”

In Theaters

“The Roommate”

Directed by Christian E. Christiansen
Written by Sonny Mallhi
Starring Minka Kelly, Leighton Meester and Cam Gigandet

Aspiring fashion designer Sara (Kelly) bonds with her college roomie, eccentric artist Rebecca (Meester), before discovering that her new best friend has a dark side.

Lon: The film is essentially a scene-for-scene remake of “Single White Female” for the CW set. Only it lacks that film’s R rating, and thus its edge. The film aims for sleazy, trashy fun, and though the two leads are on board, a general lack of creativity or sexiness just make it kind of campy and lame. He also found the film slightly homophobic, a claim that Farrell strongly disputed.

Farrell: The movie is what it is, and Farrell had fun with it. She got more involved than she expected, she did find some of the film’s steamier scenes sexy, and she thought Leighton Meester did an admirable job as the heavy.

“The Other Woman”

Written and directed by Don Roos
Starring Natalie Portman, Scott Cohen, Charlie Tahan and Lisa Kudrow
Based on the novel “Love and Other Impossible Pursuits” by Ayelet Waldman

Snarky lawyer Emilia (Portman) copes with the recent loss of her infant daughter while struggling to be a good stepmom to 8-year-old son, William (Tahan), her husband’s son from his prior marriage.

Lon: Portman and Tahan are the film, and they have great chemistry. Their relationship is believable and has a warmth that the rest of the film lacks. They deserve a more focused movie that takes more time to just explore their interactions.

Farrell: The movie totally worked for Farrell. She loved Portman’s performance and the relationship between Portman and Cohen’s character. She also felt that Kudrow made the most out of a thankless role as Cohen’s shrill ex-wife.

This Week in Netflix

“Homicide” (1991)

Written and directed by David Mamet
Starring Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy and Ving Rhames

A non-religious Jewish detective proceeds with two simultaneous investigations – a manhunt for an escaped cop-killer (Rhames) and a murder at a convenience store that may be rooted in anti-Semitism.

Lon: Mamet’s third film is both a gripping police procedural and a thoughtful consideration on how confronting intolerance and racism changes people. Though this isn’t the showcase for Mamet’s dialogue that, say, “Glengarry Glen Ross” is, Mantegna and Macy are long-time Mamet regulars and know exactly how to get the most out of the writer’s flair for profanity and rapid-fire pacing.

“A Wedding” (1978)

Directed by Robert Altman
Written by John Considine, Patricia Resnick, Allan F. Nicholls and Altman
Starring Carol Burnett, Geraldine Chaplin and Paul Dooley

Everything that can go wrong does during the wedding of Muffin Brenner and Dino Corelli in Robert Altman’s satire of American families and their rituals.

Farrell: The film makes great use of Robert Altman’s technique for drifting through a social environment, making wry observations. She highlighted Carol Burnett’s hilarious turn as the somewhat unsophisticated bride’s mother, and praised the realism that the film brings to its farcical shenanigans.

Interview with Ben Steinbauer

Steinbauer directed the documentary “Winnebago Man,” praised by both Lon and Farrell on previous shows. It follows his attempts to meet and get to know Jack Rebney, a man made infamous when outtakes of a winnebago commercial he shot in 1989 went viral online.

Conclusion

Be sure to join us next week LIVE at 6 pm PT! We’ll be reviewing new films “Just Go With It” and “The Eagle.”

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER! @TWiMovies

NOTE: Starting next week, we’re moving to a new time slot! Sunday nights @ 6 pm PT! Join us live!

Hosts

Farrell Roth
Lon Harris

Guest

Charlotte Ross (“Drive Angry 3D,” “Glee”)

Introduction

Things got off to a raucous start this week, with Farrell asking Lon for compliments on her new feathered hairdo and not receiving the feedback she expected.

Lon and Farrell also admitted that they both saw this week’s films back-to-back, alone, on Friday evening. Sad…

In Theaters

“The Mechanic”

Directed by Simon West (“Con Air,” “When a Stranger Calls”)
Written by Lewis John Carlino and Richard Wenk
Starring Jason Statham, Ben Foster and Donald Sutherland

In this faithful remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson thriller, Jason Statham plays a hitman who takes on an old friend’s son (Foster) as an apprentice. However, Statham’s shadowy and duplicitous employers have other plans for the twosome, who will have to learn to work together to survive.

Lon: The film is faithful to the Bronson original, to a fault. Both films have trouble really explaining the motivations of their characters. Seems like that’s the sort of thing you would have solved in a rewrite. Still, Foster is a better pick for the apprentice than Jan-Michael Vincent in the original, and there’s a lot of well-executed action.

Farrell: It was fun, but extremely disposable. There’s really no good reason for the film to exist. The ending is also a cop-out.

“From Prada to Nada”

Directed by Angel Gracia
Written by Fina Torres, Luis Alfaro and Craig Fernandez
Starring Camilla Belle, Alexa Vega and Wilmer Valderrama

In this re-imagining of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” two Mexican-American sisters from Beverly Hills are left penniless following the sudden death of their father. Now living with their aunt in East LA, they get in touch with their roots while figuring out who and what they want to be.

Farrell: The movie is charming and intensely likable. As well, it avoids the usual pitfalls of the genre by skipping on cheap stereotypes and easy jokes. She was very pleasantly surprised.

Lon: Totally agreed with Farrell. He expected to find it cheesy and juvenile, but was won over by the movie’s good-natured sweetness and upbeat tone. He felt it worked a bit better as a coming-of-age drama than a fish-out-of-water comedy, but was entertained by the movie even when it stumbled a bit.

Commentary on Commentary

This week, Farrell discussed highlights from Jesse Eisenberg’s commentary track on the “Social Network” DVD.

Included are behind-the-scenes stories from many of the cast members, a look at David Fincher’s directing style and a look at how some of the special effects sequences were accomplished.

This Week in Netflix

“Dogtooth”

Written and directed by Giorgos Lanthimos
Co-written by Efthymis Filippou
Starring Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley and Aggeliki Papoulia

In this Greek drama (nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film), an unnamed couple keep their three grown children locked up in an country estate. The two sisters and one brother live in total ignorance of the outside world, isolated through mind games, deception, brainwashing and fear. When the father begins to bring in an outside woman to relieve the son of his natural urges, it upsets the delicate balance of the household.

Lon: The film is fascinatingly ambiguous, and could potentially serve as a variety of metaphors, depending on your perspective. The film is a bit too dark to be truly funny, and too strange and alien to be entirely successful as drama, but it’s interesting and ceaselessly compelling.

Farrell: This was perhaps the most unpleasant, off-putting movie experience of her life. She was disgusted by the film’s sex scenes, horrified by the graphic violence and irritated by the director’s peculiar, seemingly nonsensical choices (such as shooting the actors with their heads out of frame.) Nevertheless, she concedes that the film had a visceral impact on her, and was memorable.

Interview with actress Charlotte Ross

Charlotte is the star of the forthcoming supernatural Nicolas Cage vehicle (no pun intended) “Drive Angry 3D,” and a regular on “Glee,” “NYPD Blue” and a host of other shows.

Charlotte and Farrell discussed the making of “Drive Angry 3D” (from the groundbreaking director of “My Bloody Valentine,” among the first of Hollywood’s new crop of features shot in 3D). They also touched on Charlotte’s work in “Glee” and her recurring role on the soap opera “Days Of Our Lives.”

Closing

Next week’s show features “Winnebego Man” director Ben Steinbauer! Tune in at our new time, 6 pm PT!

Follow us on Twitter: @TWiMovies

Hosts

Farrell Roth
Lon Harris

Guest

Natasha Bedingfield, Recording Artist

Introduction

Farrell opened the show by discussing a run-in she had with actress Cameron Diaz at her gym. Lon noted that she goes to a particularly star-studded gym, which Farrell explained is the reasoning behind her membership.

In Theaters

“The Green Hornet”

Directed by Michel Gondry
Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
Based on the radio series by George Trendle
Starring Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, Tom Wilkinson and Christoph Waltz

In this comic take on the superhero genre, Britt Reid (Rogen) uses his recently-deceased newspaper magnate father’s fortune to fight crime as The Green Hornet. Along with his trusty sidekick, the mechanical genius and karate master Kato (Chao), he battles LA’s underworld kingpin, Chudnofsky (Waltz).

Lon: The film is lazy and directionless. It plays as comedy not because there are any jokes, but because it so completely fails to invest in its own characters, story or fantasy universe. Writer/star Rogen essentially revisits both his script and his character from the mediocre “Pineapple Express” to even lesser effect. Avoid.

Farrell: It’s not a perfect film, but it’s fun, particularly in the humorous, bromantic interplay between Reid and Kato. The film is a light, harmless romp.

“Barney’s Version”

Directed by Richard J. Lewis
Written by Michael Konyves
Based on the 1997 novel by Mordecai Richler
Starring Paul Giamatti, Rosamund Pike, Scott Speedman and Dustin Hoffman

This film, based on a novel by acclaimed Canadian writer Mordecai Richler, traces 35 years in the life of the irascible, unpredictable but ultimately good-hearted Barney Panofsky (Giamatti). During this time, Barney gets married 3 times, has kids, is suspected in the disappearance of his best friend Boogie (Speedman) and faces illness and old age.

Farrell: The film is well-acted, and it had kept her interest before the first hour before just running out of steam. She felt like too much time passed before introducing Barney’s primary love interest, Miriam (Pike), and that not enough time was spent developing his relationship with Boogie.

Lon: Though Giamatti and Hoffman both give great performances (particularly Giamatti’s, whose role involves a good amount of realistic aging on-screen), the movie is overstuffed with incident and ultimately unsatisfying. Rather than allow any of these stories to play out, Konyves and Lewis race from storyline to storyline trying to squeeze 35 years of a guy’s life into one 2.5 hour film. As well, the loss of Barney as narrator (the novel is written as his auto-biography) robs the story of its perspective and its comic voice.

Hollywood Headlines

Golden Globe Winners Announced

Lon and Farrell discussed some of the notable winners, including “The Social Network’s” wins for Screenplay, Director and Score. Lon also lamented that “The Fighter” seems poised to perform well at the Oscars, with both Christian Bale and Melissa Leo taking home honors for the film in the Supporting Actor and Actress categories. Both Lon and Farrell agreed that Natalie Portman, winner of the Globe for Best Actress in a Drama for “Black Swan,” is a lock for Best Actress at the Academy Awards.

First Photo of Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander

The “Social Network” star will appear in David Fincher’s film versions of Steig Larsson’s “Millennium Trilogy” as Lisbeth Salander. The first photo of Mara in her Salander costume appeared on the Net this week. Farrell and Lon both agreed they are eagerly awaiting these films, the first of which – “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” – opens in December of 2011.

“Tetsuo: The Bullet Man” Trailer

[CAUTION: The trailer contains some disturbing imagery]

The trailer for the third-film (and first English-language film) in Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo series of films has hit the Web. Each film features an ordinary man experiencing some kind of accident or trauma that triggers a transformation into a hideous metallic creature. “Bullet Man” will feature a score by Golden Globe-winner Trent Reznor.

DVD and Netflix

“Winnebago Man”

The story of documentarian Ben Steinbauer and his search for, and eventual discovery of, YouTube sensation Jack Rebney. Rebney stars in a collection of profane, hilarious outtakes from an ’80s Winnebago ad that has been in underground circulation throughout America ever since.

Farrell enjoyed the film, which is not only funny but instructive about the impact that online infamy can have on a person’s life. Though Rebney and the film are frequently funny, she also found the story of someone so excited by yet unable to process attention and fame kind of sad.

“Wolfen”

An alcoholic NYPD detective (Albert Finney) and his new partner, a terrorism expert (Diane Venora), investigate a string of murders that appear to be the work of a wolf, or possibly a shapeshifter

Lon recommended this 1981 werewolf feature, which is now available via instant streaming on Netflix. One of 3 werewolf films released in 1981, “Wolfen” is the most straight-forward and serious. In some ways, this makes it the least fun. But it does feature a great performance from Albert Finney, a creepy almost post-apocalyptic New York setting, some well-developed tension and a few well-done gory sequences. Definitely recommended for werewolf and horror fans.

Interview with Natasha Bedingfield

Recording artist Natasha Bedingfield stopped by the studio to chat with Farrell about her background and music career, as well as her love of movies.

Her songs have been featured in multiple hit films and TV shows, including “Bride Wars,” “Morning Glory,” “27 Dresses” and, perhaps most memorably, “Easy A.”

Closing

Farrell said goodbye and reminded everyone that you can subscribe to our show on YouTube or iTunes! See you next week!