The Adjustment Bureau

Men without hats.

The Adjustment Bureau is a fine little movie if you find yourself at home on a Tuesday night and all the other HBO On Demand selections are things you've already seen or look even more tedious.  Such was the situation for the wife and I this last Tuesday.  There isn't anything particularly egregiously bad about The Adjustment Bureau, but neither is there anything worth writing home or on your blog about.  Unless you're desperate for content...

George Nolfi directs Matt Damon as David Norris, rogue blue-collar congressman from the Bronx with a bright future, but also a penchant for forgetting he's a public figure and doing really stupid things.  So, not unlike a real life congressman.  Thus far his tomfollery has not cost him politically, but that's about to change.  During his race for the Senate seat, word gets out of some frat boy stunt and Norris finds himself in hot water.  One things leads to another, and the next thing he knows he's in a hotel men's room kissing a ballerina who is on the lam from hotel security.  Which as it turns out, is not nearly as tawdry as it sounds.

Norris is mesmerized by the security-dodging ballerina Elsie Sellas, played by Emily Blunt, and the two attempt to strike up a romance.  I say attempt  because a shadowy group of men in hats are determined to keep them apart.  Yes, you read that right.

The hatted gentleman are members of the--you guessed it--Adjustment Bureau.  Employed by someone called The Chairman, it's their job to keep things going according to plan and to make, ahem, adjustments when things start to go off course.  Who or what they are and who exactly The Chairman is is hinted at, and sorta kinda nebulous, but they are equipped with a few special skills to accomplish their task.  Like the hats, for instance.  And some really spiffy notebooks.  However, they are not all powerful and have rules they must follow as well.

The bulk of the movie is Norris' quest to discover why the Adjustment Bureau has it in for him and why he and Elsie aren't supposed to be together.

The movie is based on Philip K. Dick story The Adjustment Team.  I've never read any Philip K. Dick, but the movies I've seen based on his works (Minority Report and Blade Runner) deal a lot with free will and if  it really exists or not, and this one has themes along those same lines.  It's sorta Matrix-y in that way.

The performances are fine.  Damon and Blunt are fine as the leads, and though I found Blunt's character to be a little annoying and not someone I would want to spend a lot of time with, Damon's attraction to her was believable enough.  The Adjustment Bureau squad members include Anthony Mackie, Terrance Stamp, and Mad Men's John Slattery, who apparently can only take roles where he wears finely tailored suits.  In their roles, all three are just...fine.

Fine.  That about sums it all up.  It's a fine caper-ish mix of sci-fi and thriller, with a dash of romance.  The ending left me a little flat, leaving some lose ends to the imagination, but not in a really satisfying way.  But, it's a fine little movie, especially if you're a fan of millinery, as I am, and find yourself with nothing better to do on a Tuesday night.

Friend of the Program: Does Rock of Ages Rock?

Blogger's Note:  today we at Critical Errors are very happy to present our very first Friend of the Program.  He's a salesman from Ferdinand, Indiana, owner and proprietor of the My AFI Project blog, a father of three, a pisces, and my uncle, Jeff Graves!  Unky Jeff and I have had many a movie conversation over the years and hopefully he'll be a regular contributor at Critical Errors.  Also, check out his movie themed blog, the aforementioned My AFI Project, as he blogs his way through the AFI Top 100 movies.  Without further adieu....


Rock of Ages (based on the 2009 hit Broadway play of the same name) is a nostalgic look back at the big hair, power ballad laden days that were the 80’s. It pays tribute to everyone from Pat Benatar to Twisted Sister in a no holds barred romp that makes no apologies for its excesses. As far as plot goes there is nothing new here. It tells your basic story of a girl from the sticks who comes to the big city to try to make it big, meets a boy and faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles on her way to both love and success. Change the time and setting and one could easily see Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in the lead roles (Though I’m not sure Judy ever climbed aboard a stripper pole). Instead they are filled here by relative newcomers Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta. This is a movie that never met a cliché it didn’t love.

That being said, nobody buying a ticket to see this at the local cineplex is laying down their hard earned money to see the leads or get lost in a deep plot. They came to see Tom Cruise in hair extensions and a cod piece. They came to see Alec Baldwin in a wig. They came to see Russell Brand be, well, Russell Brand (though I’m not exactly sure why). They came to hear their favorite Journey, Reo Speedwagon, Night Ranger etc. songs revamped and retooled into big production numbers. They came because they are fans of the play and wanted to see if director Adam Shankman could recapture the same magic he had with his successful adaption of Hairspray in 2007.

As mentioned before, the plot offers very little here so the success of this movie depends on the performances of its players. In the lead roles of Sherrie Christian and Drew Boley (who meet, fall in love, have a misunderstanding and get lost in their pursuits of making it in this cruel world only to find out that what they really needed all the time was each other) Hough and Boneta do an adequate job. They both look nice on the screen and they sing the songs well. What they don’t have though are the chops or the chemistry to stand out in the middle of a big, loud production with a star studded cast and make you really care about what happens to them. We are far more interested in what the next song is going to be.  They are drowned out by the likes of Alec Baldwin playing worldly wise and financially stressed club owner Dennis Dupree, his sidekick Lonny played by Russell Brand. Katherine Zeta Jones is a vengeful rock and roll hating crusader assisted by Bryan Cranston her mayor husband (who once more indulges in his penchant for appearing on screen in his tighty whiteys). Paul Giamatti is great as usual as a slimy talent manager while Malin Akerman plays a bespectacled yet simmering reporter. All have their moments to shine and when called upon to sing do so with gusto and, most likely with the help of autotune, on pitch.

The key performance though is that of Tom Cruise as aging and possibly fading rock god Stacee Jaxx. The only time I can remember hearing Cruise sing in a movie was his destruction of You Lost that Loving Feeling in Top Gun so I was not overly confident in his ability to crank out some of the 80’s most iconic tunes in a convincing manner. I wouldn’t call his performance over the top but he brings an intensity to it that won’t diffuse any notions that he is possibly a bit unhinged. He commits to the role and he makes us believe in it too. He also carries off the singing very well. I’m not sure how much help he got from the boys in the sound editing room in post-production but I don’t think fans of Guns and Roses and the other bands covered by his performance are going to take to the streets in protest. I can honestly say I can’t think of any other actor who could have carried this part and with it the weight of the movie as well as Cruise did.

As for the music itself, I don’t have any real complaints. There are plenty of sing along moments and even some standout performances. I particularly liked Katherine Zeta Jones and her church ladies’searing rendition of Hit Me With Your Best Shot and the Greyhound bus occupants spontaneously combusting into Night Ranger’s Sister Christian. Also you won’t be able to forget Baldwin and Brand’s interpretation of I Can’t Fight This Feeling (though they may have ruined the song for me forever). What I never got though was a goose bump inducing moment that one would expect to get from this kind of movie. At times I felt like there was so much going on during the musical numbers that the music got a little lost. I have never seen the play but something tells me that over all this would work better in a live performance. So while the songs were fun I didn’t find myself totally engaged.

If you’re looking to be totally blown away then Rock of Ages is going to be a disappointment. But, if you can keep your expectations to a reasonable level there isn’t any reason why it can’t be a fun night at the movies. Rock on!

Hasfit

We all get a little softer around the middle as we get older.  Busier schedules thanks to kids, jobs, lawns needing mowing, and vehicles needing maintenance, leads to eating junk on the go.  On top of that its been said that if you live more than five minutes from your gym, you'll never go, and who really lives less than five minutes from a gym?  Its all a recipe for a chubby, flabby disaster.

Not long ago I was in pretty good shape.  The best shape I'd ever been in, actually.  At least since high school.  But due to the circumstances of life, now not so much.  I'd been looking for some sort of workout routine to help stem the tide of my expanding waistline, but was coming up empty.  Due to those samcircumstances of life time is of the essence.  I don't have the time or money to go to the gym.  Hiring a personal trainer is just as time consuming and pricey.  I've tried doing exercises on my own, but without any sort of guidance, it's too easy to quit.  I thought about buying some videos, but what if I don't like the workouts, or they're too hard or too easy?  I needed something that was going to be affordable, with different levels of difficulty, and that wasn't going to take a lot of time.  What's the solution?

Enter Hasfit.com.

I was doing some searching on YouTube for some decent workout videos, and came across a bunch of videos from the team at Hasfit and have been hooked ever since.  Joshua "Coach" Kozak and his fellow trainers have posted tons of videos on YouTube of assorted crossfit style workouts.  The trainers do the workouts along with you so you can see exactly how to do all the exercises.  Most of the videos are between 10 to 20 minutes long, and there are difficulty levels for all stages of fitness, from Beginner routines to videos with words like Warrior and Blitzkrieg in the titles.  I haven't worked my way up to those just yet.

What I like about the videos is that they remind me of the ones I was doing at the police academy that helped whip me into shape a couple years ago.  Most consist of a series of exercises you do for a minute or so each back-to-back for the duration of the workout.  You're always moving and working different parts of your body, but switching up the exercises keeps it from getting repetitive and dull.  And you will sweat.

The trainers on the videos are personable enough, clearly explaining and demonstrating the exercises and encouraging and pushing you along the way.  It's almost like having your own personal trainer.  Only cheaper.  Everything Hasfit has available online is free.  The videos, the meal plans, everything.  The best part is if you have a wi-fi equipped TV or Blu-Ray player with a YouTube channel, you can throw the videos up on your big screen.

Currently I'm about a quarter of the way into Hasfit's 30 Day Challenge, and while its still a little early to start seeing major results, my wife did tell me I looked skinnier this morning.

Hasfit has been a revelation for my physical fitness "journey" (as Coach Kozak likes to say).  It has helped me stay the most consistent I've ever been in my workouts without actually being on a team or academy.

Here's a sample of one of the workouts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sxsUPbtiys

The Avengers

The Avengers are like a professional sports team.  They are a group of massively talented individuals with the massive egos that often go hand in hand with such talent.  As individuals, they are capable of extraordinary feats, accomplishing things your average, nay, even your above average Joe's could never dream of.  There is no question as to their abilities as single entities.  But can they play well with others?  Each other?

As anyone who has followed USA basketball over the years knows, a mere grouping of superstars a team does not make.  Superstars aren't used to playing second fiddle, much less third and forth and especially fifth.  And we're just talking about basketball players here.  Imagine trying to wrangle a super-genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, a physical ubermensch war hero, a brilliant scientist with anger management issues, a couple of skilled assassin/spy types, and a Norse god into one cohesive squad of team players.  Even the Zen master himself, Phil Jackson, would have his hands full.  But they didn't have Phil Jackson, they had Sam Jackson.  With an eye-patch.  And if Sam Jackson with an eye-patch can't get the job done, then I don't know what to believe anymore.

Our saga begins with cyclops Sam, playing the role of S.H.I.E.L.D. top dog Nick Fury, in a presumably super secret and super secure location, where scientists in his employ are analyzing a glowing cube of pure energy called the teseract.  Apparently the teseract is really awesome and is capable of all kinds of awesome things.  However, there is a small downside.  The teseract is also a portal to another dimension where a horde of nasties with bad complexions are chomping at the bit to unleash themselves on earth and enslave the human race.  The nasties are lead by Loki.  The name sounds sort of soft for a super villain demi-god, but make no mistake Loki is a bad dude with a major inferiority complex and a cool horned helmet.  Never underestimate someone with a horned helmet and an inferiority complex.  So anyway, Loki leaps through the portal to Fury's super secret hideaway and absconds with the teseract and causes a bunch of havoc.

Needless to say, things are looking grim.  So Fury does the only thing he can.  Assemble a dream team to hunt down Loki and get the teseract back.  Action/adventure thrill ride ensues.

Up to this point, I was not overly impressed.  Yes, it was still very early, but I was nonplussed by the previous couple of solo Avenger movies, so I remained circumspect.  I liked Captain America ok, but I thought Thor was dull and fell asleep during Iron Man II.  In in it's defense it was late, but I was unimpressed enough to never go back and finish it.

However, once the set-up was over with, The Avengers really took off and the remaining two hours flew by.  When you think about it this was quite a feat pulled off by writer/director Joss Whedon. Enormous expectations and hype; depending on how you look at it, as many as eight(!) main characters; the very real possibility of a geek revolt if things didn't go well.  The deck was definitely stacked against Whedon.  But he pulled it off and then some.

Getting back to that team analogy.  Two ways that it's relevant (see, we're coming full circle):

Number 1:  as far as the actual storyline, what really made the movie click for me was the way the characters didn't just all of a sudden gel into the super hero Dream Team that is The Avengers.  They bickered, they backbit, their egos got the better of them.  Whedon's screenplay took the time to flesh out the characters a little bit.  Sure they're super, but they're vulnerable and damaged goods.  Captain America/Steve Rogers doesn't know where he fits in in the present day.  Bruce Banner/The Hulk is embarrassed and terrified of what he may become at slightest irritation.  Tony Stark/Iron Man lets his arrogance get in the way of his brilliance.  And Thor...well, it's gotta be tough to be a god among men, even super ones.  Black Widow and Hawkeye are the least compelling of the group, but they were at least serviceable.  There was one scene in particular which captured the tension of bringing all these super-egos together.  They sniped and bickered, just like a sports team with all the talent and none of the chemistry, not living up to its potential.  It was almost like being in a fractured locker room, only with fewer towel snaps.

Number 2:  Whedon's other big accomplishment was to juggle so many main characters effectively.  Many a hero franchise has been brought down by too many villains or good guys.  The last of the Sam Raimi/Tobey McGuire Spider-Man movies tried too hard with both Sandmand and Venom (among other issues).  The last of the first run of Batman movies had about 14 villains and a few too many heroes to actually give them time to do anything.  Eventually all these types of franchises become little more than cash cows, bloated with pointless special effects and excruciating one-liners.  The Avengers gang will themselves be there eventually I'm sure.  But this time around the formula worked.  Each member of the team had a role to play, and and like a good coach, Whedon managed to give all the characters sufficient time to give them some depth and the actors all answered the call.

Of course, when it gets down to it, The Avengers is all about the action.  And it was fantastic.  I mentioned in a prior post that its hard to put your finger on what exactly makes one action movies action better than another action movies action.  Is it the tension generated?  Is it new and creative ways of blowing things up?  I don't really know.  But the action in The Avengers was always exciting.

All the actors did phenomenal job.  Robert Downey Jr continues to kill it as Iron Man, Chris Evans is pitch-perfect as Captain America with his naivete about this modern world, his role in it, and his burning desire to do good.  Mark Ruffalo is terrific as the tortured and brilliant Bruce Banner.  I liked Chris Hemsworth's Thor better in this movie than in Thor, and same probably goes for Tom Hiddleston's Loki.  Jeremy Renner and Scarlett Johansson were fine as Hawk Eye and Black Widow respectively, though their characters were the least compelling.  And Samuel L. Jackson is, well, Samuel L. Jackson.

Finally, one of the major strengths of the movie is that it is funny.  I mean, seriously funny.  We all know action movies are renown for their one-liners, but in The Avengers the one-liners are actually funny.  And not in that cheesy, Commando way, but legitimately clever, funny lines.  All delivered by actors with some serious comedic chops.

The Avengers definitely lived up to the hype and is right up there amongst the best superhero/comic book adaptations (along with Spiderman 2 and The Dark Knight, in this humble bloggers opinion).  It's everything you want in a summer blockbuster.

We Apologize For The Delay

We at Critical Errors--that'd be me--apologize for the lack of content you have no doubt been crazing for lo these past several weeks.  I have been in the process of moving my family to a new homestead, and as such have had little time or energy for reading/watching/using/eating.  Even less for writing about it.

But good news!  The moving process is now winding down and I've got some items in the hopper I am eager to critique and share with the unsuspecting interwebbing public.

In the meantime, to whet you appetite, here is a brief review of the aforementioned new homestead, in the style of a real estate listing (and what they really mean).

Spacious and roomy (cavernous), this three bedroom two bath ranch style (non-descript tract) home was built in 1977 (old) and boasts plenty of great natural light (no overhead lighting).  Mature landscaping in the front and backyards is teeming with exotic plants (weeds) and flowers (which are poisonous).  The home backs up to one of the best middle schools in town (noise, traffic).  The cozy (small) galley-style (narrow) kitchen has newer cabinets and granite(like) countertops.  Home also features a wood burning stove (which you can never use because the EPA will hunt you down), central heat, two car garage (which you will never be able to fit one car into due to your recent appearance on Hoarders), and new water heater.

I kid, though.  We love our new place.  I mean seriously love it...despite the lack of overhead lighting and poisonous flowers which I spent this afternoon removing with extreme predjudice.  It sure beats our old two bedroom two bath charmer (cracker box sized) with potential (kiss your weekends goodbye) and acerage (untameable jungle) close to shopping (highway running through front yard).