Movie Nation

In the new film “Stuck in Love,” novelist Dad (Greg Kinnear) is so stuck that he still sets a place for the wife (Jennifer Connelly) who walked out on him, years before, but not so hung up that he can’t carry on an affair with a married neighbor (Kristen Bell).
His son Rusty (Nat Wolff) is stuck on the pretty girl (Liana Liberato) with pretty big (hidden) problems in high school.
His daughter Sam (Lily Collins) is brilliant, publishing her first book at 19. But her cynicism has made her promiscuous — just another way of avoiding love for her — even when Mr. Might-be-Right (Logan Lerman) throws himself in her direction.
All that is, as the many indifferent reviews for “Stuck in Love” suggest, “a lot for one film to handle.” But it is part and parcel of what an aspiring writer-director has to do to get his first film off the ground, says Josh Boone.
“I wanted a story that high schoolers could relate to, kids in college could relate to and adults could connect with,” Boone says of the film he pitched to agents and producers as “Writers.”  “You can hit a lot of audiences when you do that. I hope that people see it, and maybe stumble across it again on Netflix five years later and relate to a different character.”
Boone, 34, was another trooper in the legions of would-be writer-directors who make the journey (from Virginia Beach) to Hollywood with dreams of film fame and movie credits. But after ten years of struggle, Boone hit on something like the magic formula for an indie film breakthrough.
First, pepper your script with a lot of characters covering a wide age range, each with his or her share of juicy, dialogue-heavy scenes. Track down a producer (Judy Cairo of “Crazy Heart”) who has done other first-time filmmaker’s movies.
And get your script into the hands of a hot young starlet (Liberato).
“She and I had just worked together,” her co-star Nat Wolff says. ‘Liana said ‘READ it,’ and bugged me about it until I did.”
Wolff, another rising young star (“Admission”) suggested the script to his friend (who shares an agent) Lily “Mirror Mirror” Collins. With hot young talent on board, Oscar winner Connelly, along with Kinnear and Bell soon followed.
Boone frankly admits that he set out to make a film that would appeal to actors as well as audiences. And after a decade of working in record stores and having scripts optioned but never produced he decided to shoot the moon with this one — using up every clever, heartfelt idea he could think of in one screenplay. He poured all he remembered about his parents’ own divorce, his and his siblings’ reactions to it.
“I didn’t know if I’d ever get a shot at making another film, so I put in everything that I’d ever felt or thought about divorce and love and writing and Stephen King (Wolff’s character is a huge King fan) and the music and books I love.”
Wolff, 18, the son of actress Polly Draper (‘thirtysomething”) and musician Alex Wolff and whose own career is just now taking off, says that many actors are just looking for that first-time writer-director “that we can make a leap of faith with.” An actor doing mostly supporting roles becomes a lead, and a would-be filmmaker finally has enough “names” in his cast to get the movie financed, filmed and distributed.
“I related to the idea of a family of writers, because I come from a family of musicians and actors,” Wolff says. “When you’re in a family that shares the same creative outlet, you have a lot to talk about…
“But when I first saw the finished film, I loved the fact that it’s a romantic movie that’s not trying too hard to be hip,” Wolff says.
Boone says that “I was just trying to make something sincere and honest.”
And, if he’s honest, he was just trying to jump start his career. Which he did. “Stuck in Love” is earning a fairly wide release July 5, based on that cast. Wolff, Liberato and Collins are moving on to bigger, meatier roles as their careers ascend. And Boone has landed the directing job for the film of “The Fault in Our Stars,” based on John Green’s best-selling novel, with Shailene Woodley (“The Descendants”)  in the lead and the “(500) Days of Summer” writers scripting it. And there’s Boone’s own script, “Pretenders,” that will star Michael B. Jordan (“Fruitvale Station”) and Anton Yelchin (“Star Trek”), that will follow that.
“You move to LA wanting to write, and everybody tells you, ‘It takes ten years,'” Boone says. “Turns out, they’re right.”

Roger Moore, left, interviews Nat Wolff, center and director Josh Boone of “Stuck in Love” at Maitland’s Eden Bar/Enzian theater.

The Hollywood Reporter is saying that “conservatives are celebrating” the dismal box office showing of “White House Down,” which has assorted wingnuts, militia nuts and others with “Rush is Right” bumper stickers on their SUVs as villains.

The movie bombed, for sure. Politics may have played a role. More likely, people who might have been interested had already SEEN that movie in March — “Olympus Has Fallen.” And Channing Tatum’s box office stardom isn’t the sure thing some were announcing as that film opened.

Of course, the surprise hit social satire as horror pic “The Purge” gave the one percent and their lackeys a pretty serious beatdown. Conservatives don’t want to hear about that. So it’s all a wash.

Open Mike night — morning — comes early on holiday weeks. With most of this week’s movies opening today, I’ll chat with Mike Bianchi and Brian Kravitz about “The Lone Ranger.”

Mike’s old enough to remember the original.

And we’ll chat up “Despicable Me 2,” which is a hoot. I have yet to see “Turbo” and have only slim hopes for it and Disney’s “Planes.” I think “Despicable” is the kids’ cartoon of the summer.

And we’ll banter about Kevin Hart’s crass cash in concert comedy — “Let Me Explain.” a 75 minute movie where he put more effort into the closing credits than he did in the long, lame prologue, and the short SHORT fat and happy (OK, not fat) concert set he did in NYC? Man’s cashing in, plain and simple.

Enzian has “Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me” opening for a weekend show only.

That’s the scope of the conversation — probably — at 745 AM on 740 The Game. Be there and grow hair.

This Juy 4 sees Disney’s “The Lone Ranger”  taking MASSIVE abuse for its violence, a bloody PG-13 action Western “comedy” with a staggering body count and a serious miscalculation in tone.

I thought Armie and Johnny were fine, but Gore Verbinski may have freed himself from Jerry Bruckheimer’s clutches forever if this thing bombs. As it should.

“Despicable Me 2” is a sunny, silly thing. Pixar’s peeps should be forced to watch it to try and figure out where they went wrong with “Monsters University.” JOKES. Ya need JOKES. LAughs. It’s a kids’ COMEDY. Mostly very good reviews for this one.

“Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me” is earning all good reviews, a comment on the band more than the movie, I feel. The film is overlong and repetitious and doesn’t make the case that they were golly, the greatest cult band ever. Not bad.

“The Way Way Back” is THE coming of age picture of a summer of coming of age comedies. Better, by a smidge, than “The Kings of Summer.” Better than the next film listed below. Not funnier or more original than “The To Do List,” which opens later. But more heartfelt. Very good reviews for this one.

“Stuck in Love” is a coming of age picture that has great characters, a few good scenes and some funny/sweet bits and pieces. It’s just overloaded with characters, whom the first time director loses track of. Middling reviews for this one.

Kevin Hart is just cashing in on how hot his stardom is right now with the SHORT and weak “Let Me Explain” concert film.

She didn’t get much of a bounce from “Precious,” but Paula Patton did land the lead in this romantic comedy about a lovelorn stewardess who re-connects with her exes (her “baggage”) to see if anything of them is marriage material. And free to be her date to her younger sister’s wedding.
Taye Diggs, Derek Luke and Djimon Hounsou are among the suitors.
Jenifer Lewis is the mama. With Adam Brody as the obligatory GBF.
“Baggage Claim” — cute premise, good title — opens this fall.

Saying the new “Lone Ranger” has “tone issues” is just code for “I could have done without the bad guy tearing out somebody’s heart and taking a bite out of it.”
The folks who did the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies go overboard with the violence in what is essentially a playful spin on a myth — or a TV version of a legend.
“Who WAS that Masked Man?”
The U.S. Cavalry carries out massacres, “progress” is an act of venal destruction and corruption and “Stupid white man” is the inscrutably eccentric Tonto’s favorite put down.
No, this is not John Wayne’s Old West.
It’s all in service of a tall tale being told by an ancient Indian (Johnny Depp) who may or may not be Tonto, a sideshow attraction who spins this yarn to a little boy (Mason Cook) wearing a Lone Ranger get-up in a fair in 1930s San Francisco. Tonto remembers the days of yore when he road sidekick to the masked man.
Gore Verbinski’s film is an overlong array of noisy, digitally-assisted chases, shootouts, crashes and explosions with the occasional flash of homage to the “real” Lone Ranger that suggests a better movie than the pricey, jumbled compromise Verbinski delivered.
Armie Hammer is John Reid, the new Colby, Texas district attorney who witnesses the latest and last heroic act of his lawman brother (James Badge Dale) who has “saved the day, as usual.”
Brother Dan is killed by the vile Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner) and lawyer Reid is left for dead. But he isn’t, and when Tonto (who has escaped from the law, charged with being an “Indian”) sees the white horse that saved Reid, he decides that this stranger is a ranger — or “spirit warrior” who cannot be killed. And if justice is to be done, this spirit warrior will need to hide his identity.
“Come a time, Kemosabe, when good man must wear mask.”
There’s a railroad being pushed through, shortcuts being taken in Indian territory by conspiracists whom you just know include fat cat Latham Cole (Tom Wilkinson). Somebody’s got to mount up, put on a mask and sets things to right.
Hammer strikes just the right note with this masked man — naive, valiant and in over his head. It is, of course, Depp’s movie, and the quirks he piles onto poor Tonto make Captain Jack Sparrow look mild-mannered by comparison. A gag that works — his fellow tribesman disavow Tonto, whose makeup and mannerisms are too eccentric, even for them.
Heroic moments scored to “The William Tell Overture” still have the power to thrill. Everyone in this setting is seriously sun-baked and weathered, a nice touch of authenticity. And many of the jokey predicaments — Tonto and Reid buried up to their necks, Tonto and the Lone Ranger forced to rob a bank, Tonto’s attempt to warn his blundering captors of their doom or Reid’s “burial” at the top of a rickety tower — pay off hilariously.
Then Fichtner’s villain does something bloody-minded and psychotic, Wilkinson’s villain crosses a line no sane man would cross or Barry Pepper shows up doing a pompous Custer impersonation (not the character’s name) with an idea for wiping out the Red Man.
And the cheerful cartoon this might have been goes all dark and dismal.

MPAA Rating: PG-13  for  sequences of intense action and violence and some suggestive material.
Cast: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Ruth Wilson, William Fichtner, Tom Wilkinson, Helena Bonham Carter
Credits: Directed Gore Verbinski, scripted by Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. A Disney release
Running time: 2:29

“Despicable Me 2” is a gag-filled delight from start-to-finish. It’s got more laughs in its first five minutes — from its larynx-bending voice actors, its loopy, goofy  design and its milling, mewling Minions —  than “Monsters University” managed over its entire length.
And if much of the message, the warmth and the “changed villain” character arc of the original film is missing,  the giggles and laughs make up for it.
Sort of a “How Gru got his Groove Back,” this farce sees our former Evil Genius living the straight life, out of diabolical plots and raising the three “leeeeeetle goils” who melted his wicked heart in the first film. His life is all about making sure the bouncy house and balloons are inflated and that a fairy princess shows up at his youngest’s birthday party.
Gru, voiced to giddy effect by Steve Carell, and his mad scientist pal Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) and their Minions are making jellies and jams now.
Then a secret agent, Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig) nabs Gru and hauls him before Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan), head of the Anti Villain League. Some evildoer has used a gigantic magnetic hovercraft to swipe an entire Russian arctic research station and has some evil-doing formula that cannot fall into the wrong hands. Might Gru help track him down?
“No thank you, Meeester Sheep’s Butt.”
“That’s RAMSbottom.”
“Like that’s better.”
When Nefario leaves Gru’s employ and some of his Minions go missing, Gru teams up with the fetching Lucy to hunt for this villain, who apparently works in the local mall. His suspects? The zany wig-shop owner (Ken Jeong) and the gregarious Eduardo (Benjamin Bratt), the salsa-and-tango dancing owner of a Mexican restaurant.
The babbling Minions move front and center for this sequel, tapping into the kid-friendliest element of the first film. Their workplace mishaps, combat style and a sort of Minion Island where they’re taken all suggest “Let’s put stuff in that could be turned into Universal theme park attractions.” But beyond that, they’re the perfect sight gag.
See a Minion sit on another Minion’s shoulders so that he’s big enough to be a coxswain burbling a Minion-speak version of “Stroke STROKE” to Gru as he rows them ashore. Watch the Minion millions go all Oompa Loompa as they sing and dance and eat way too much sugar.
Carell positively revels in his simple voice role and the film’s design of the character — wide-shouldered, skinny legs, ungainly but light on his feet — complements that. Among the new voice actors, Bratt dials up the Latin charm past hilarious, also matching his gracefully rotund character’s perfect design.
Here’s a 3D movie that makes actual gimmicky, joking use of the 3D medium, with a splashy production design full of Bond Villain Lairs and bright, noisy colors.
And Minions. Don’t forget the Minions. They’re what make “Despicable Me 2” the funniest kids’ cartoon of the summer.

MPAA Rating:PG for rude humor and mild action.
Cast: The voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Russell Brand, Steve Coogan
Credits: Directed by Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud, written by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul. A  Universal release
Running time: 1:38