CASA DE MI PADRE: Do You Speak American?

Casa de Mi Padre (2012) – Directed by Matt Piedmont – Starring Will Ferrell, Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, Génesis Rodríguez, Pedro Armendáriz, Jr., Nick Offerman, Efren Ramirez, and Adrian Martinez.

CASA DE MI PADRE est un film pris quelque part entre gimmick et de la parodie, et le résultat est un film parvient à être à la fois très bon et plutôt ennuyeux, en même temps.

CASA est une comédie dans le style dit telenovela. Je sais que parce que chaque examen ou débat autour du film dit: «telenovela». Je n’ai jamais vu plus de quelques minutes de toute telenovela particulier, si mon plaisir de la CASA pourrait être entravé (ou aidé, pour autant que je sache) par ce manque de familiarité. Ce que je sais, c’est que CASA est la comédie qui n’a pas rit de très nombreux, mais ne parviennent à être légèrement intéressant. Il a un peu de ce Grindhouse se sentent à lui en ce que le film de fissures à l’occasion ou apparaît pour vous laisser savoir que vous regardez quelque chose avec un budget limité.

Il ya un peu de déconnecter ici entre la performance Ferrell et le reste du film, qui est fait à dessein, mais pas toujours effectivement rendu. Ferrell joue Armando Alvarez, le fils éleveur de Senor Alvarez (Pedro Armendariz, Jr.), qui est fier de sa non-élevage, super réussie, et (comme il s’avère) de trafic de drogue fils Raul (Diego Luna). Raul est rentré chez lui pour annoncer qu’il va se marier à Sonia (Génesis Rodríguez), mais aussi secrètement développer son activité dans le trafic de drogue Onza de (Gael García Bernal) territoire. Armando ne pense pas assez bonne Sonia pour son frère parce qu’elle n’est pas amoureuse de lui, mais il n’aime pas non plus que son frère est un trafiquant de drogue.

Ferrell joue Armando relativement simple, il a quelques bizarreries qui génèrent l’humour, mais beaucoup de rires les viennent de jouer Armando trop dramatique.

Je donne Ferrell et réalisateur Matt Piémont crédit pour se rendre compte que le truc ici – CASA est un film en langue espagnole, y compris une partie Ferrell – ne suffit pas à propulser un film entier, de sorte qu’ils ne mettre un peu d’effort dans de nous donner une histoire. Le problème, c’est qu’il ya il ya quelques morceaux vraiment drôles, absurdes (comme le film de geler le mouvement pour nous dire qu’ils avaient filmé une séquence d’action vraiment super entre une panthère et un coyote, mais ils ne pouvaient pas le montrer à cause des membres d’équipage sont morts), mais certains sur le mélodrame supérieur (qui je pense est le bit de telenovela) et les deux de ceux-ci font CASA un film qui ne permet pas toujours aider tout au long, qui se sent souvent comme ça se combat.

Il ya beaucoup de violence dans le film qui me fait penser qu’ils auraient été mieux de faire un film qui parodie quelque chose comme machette avec caractère littéral Ferrell dans le milieu d’un lot de folie.

Avec tout cela étant dit, cependant, il ya quelque chose d’admirable sur la CASA DE MI PADRE. Je comprends que Ferrell est en place pour essayer quelque chose de nouveau et il ya des moments où l’histoire de la CASA fait vraiment pour une montre d’engagement, surtout quand américaine DEA Agent Parker (Nick Offerman) arrive pour essayer d’obtenir des barons de la drogue mexicains à s’entre-tuer. En fait, les meilleures parties du film sont lorsque le conflit mexicaine / américaine est soit sur l’écran ou en cours de discussion. Armando n’est pas heureux avec des médicaments qui traitent de Raul, mais Raul lui dit qu’il vient de le vendre aux Américains, alors c’est correct. De même, Parker ne pense pas que la justice veut dire quelque chose ici-bas parce que c’est juste Mexicains Mexicains meurtre. Avec Ferrell au milieu du conflit mexicaine / américaine, CASA a du mordant réel pour elle.

Dans le casting est tout solide, en particulier Nick Offerman et Génesis Rodríguez, mais ce n’est film Ferrell tout autant que Talladega Nights ou vedette .

CASA DE MI PADRE vaut certainement la peine d’une montre, mais finalement c’est un film que j’admire de plus pour sa tentative de son exécution.

1. Thank you, Google Translate.
2. Yes. I know. That’s French.
3. Because it’s funnier that way. Ferrell admitted on The Daily Show that he learned his lines, not Spanish, so there wasn’t much improvisation.
3. I really have no idea if Google Translate did a good job or not. I totally blame their programming as much as my own laziness if it doesn’t make sense.
4. Here’s the subtitled version:

CASA DE MI PADRE is a film caught somewhere between gimmick and parody, and the result is a film manages to be both pretty good and rather tedious at the same time.

CASA is a comedy told in telenovela style. I know that because every review or discussion of the film says, “telenovela.” I’ve never watched more than a few minutes of any particular telenovela, so my enjoyment of CASA might be hindered (or helped, for all I know) by this lack of familiarity. What I do know is that CASA is comedy that doesn’t have very many laughs, but does manage to be mildly interesting. It’s got a bit of that Grindhouse feel to it in that the film occasionally cracks or pops to let you know that you’re watching something with a limited budget.

There’s a bit of disconnect here between Ferrell’s performance and the rest of the film, which is purposely done but not always effectively rendered. Ferrell plays Armando Alvarez, the rancher son of Senor Alvarez (Pedro Armendáriz, Jr.), who’s prouder of his non-ranching, super successful, and (as it turns out) drug-dealing son Raul (Diego Luna). Raul has come home to announce he’s getting married to Sonia (Génesis Rodríguez), but also to secretly expand his drug dealing business into Onza’s (Gael García Bernal) territory. Armando doesn’t think Sonia’s good enough for his brother because she’s not in love with him, but he also doesn’t like that his brother is a drug dealer.

Ferrell plays Armando relatively straight; he has some quirks that generate humor but a lot of the laughs come from playing Armando overly dramatic.

I give Ferrell and director Matt Piedmont credit for realizing that the gimmick here – CASA is a Spanish-language film, including Ferrell’s part – isn’t enough to propel an entire movie, so they do put some effort into giving us a story. The problem is that there there’s some really funny, absurd bits (like the film freezing the action to tell us that they had filmed a really great action sequence between a panther and a coyote but they couldn’t show it because crew members died), but then some over the top melodrama (which I guess is the telenovela bit) and the two of these make CASA a movie that doesn’t always help itself along, that often feels like it’s fighting itself.

There’s a lot of violence in the film that makes me think they would have been better off doing a film that parodied something like MACHETE with Ferrell’s literal character in the middle of a lot of craziness.

With all that being said, however, there is something admirable about CASA DE MI PADRE. I appreciate that Ferrell is up for trying something new and there are times when CASA’s story really makes for an engaging watch, especially when American DEA Agent Parker (Nick Offerman) arrives to try and get the Mexican drug lords to kill each other. In fact, the best parts of the film are when the Mexican/American conflict is either on display or being discussed. Armando isn’t happy with Raul dealing drugs, but Raul tells him he’s just selling it to Americans, so it’s okay. Likewise, Parker doesn’t think justice means anything down here because it’s just Mexicans killing Mexicans. With Ferrell in the middle of the Mexican/American conflict, CASA has some real bite to it.

The supporting cast is all solid, especially Nick Offerman and Génesis Rodríguez, but this is Ferrell’s movie every bit as much as Talladega Nights or Anchorman.

CASA DE MI PADRE is certainly worth a watch, but ultimately it’s a film that I admire more for its attempt than its execution.

MEGAMIND: With Great Power Comes Absolutely No Responsibility

Megamind (2010) – Directed by Tom McGrath – Starring Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Brad Pitt, David Cross, and J.K. Simmons.

MEGAMIND is a completely daft film that has two ridiculous messages:

1. That you can only be a good guy if there’s a bad guy around, and
2. That if you have great power you’re only responsibility is to do whatever’s best for you.

Megamind (Ferrell) and Metro Man (Pitt) are sent away from their crumbling planets by their parents as babies, because they’re huge fans of Jor-El’s parenting skills. On their way to Earth, Megamind’s capsule is headed for a mansion but then knocked off course by Metro Man’s capsule and ends up in a prison, where he’s raised by the inmates because the film needs him to be raised by inmates.

OK, look, it’s completely stupid, but it’s a kid’s movie and if they want to be stupid with their set-up, then fine. I’ll play along. The prisoners teach him that good is bad and bad is good and when he’s old enough they send him to school where Metro Man and the other kids make fun of him because he’s got a big head and blue skin.

Get it? This is a movie that’s about FATE. Megamind isn’t a bad guy, but FATE has conspired against him to make him the bad guy and Metro Man the good guy. As a kid, Megamind decides to embrace his DESTINY and become a bad guy. And so a life of Megamind versus Metro Man ensures, with the bad guy always inevitably losing and the good guy inevitably winning. Their life has become predictably cliche: Megamind breaks out of prison, commits some evil scheme, fights Metro Man, loses, and gets sent back to prison. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. When he captures Roxanne Ritchie (Fey), she’s completely bored by the experience.

Metro Man leaves the dedication of a museum to himself and goes to save her, only Megamind has holed her up in a different observatory and “traps” Metro Man in the regular one. We find out that Metro Man’s weakness is copper, which Megamind thinks is completely ridiculous. He fires his death ray and kills Metro Man.

Bad guy wins. Bad guy takes over city. Bad guy becomes bored with his unchallenged life. Bad guy builds a new hero. New hero becomes new villain. Old villain becomes new hero.

MEGAMIND could have been a clever, multi-layered film about how a person can overcome the life they’re born into, but it’s just a stupid kid’s movie where loud things happen and funny things happen and I don’t care about a single character in the movie.

The big twist is that Metro Man faked his death in order to follow his heart and become a singer of bad acoustic songs.

The hell?

The city is going to crap and he’s living underground in a secret hideout writing bad songs. This is a superhero? No, and MEGAMIND is no more a superhero movie than Kick-Ass is a superhero movie. Yeah, they’re superhero movies because the characters wear costumes, but there’s got to be something more to it than that. Like, people doing things for the right reason. Like, sacrifice. Yet here, even when things are at their bleakest, Metro Man never makes an appearance to save the day.

What a f*cking dick.

Meanwhile, Megamind is conflicted because he’s pretending to be a regular guy to get close to Roxanne and his new hero, Titan (Hill), is turning out to be a selfish dick on a level that Metro Man only dreams of being. Titan decides he wants to take over and Megamind eventually stops him and becomes Metro City’s new hero and gets the girl and blah blah blah. He could have been the hero at any time but he only “sees the light” when he falls for Roxanne, so he’s not being good because it’s the right thing to do as much as he’s doing it to get the girl – and realizes it’s the right thing by proxy. Chalk that message up, too: bad guys never get laid, kids, so eat your vitamins and save the day, and you, too, can win the girl of your dreams.

It’s such a crap story. It’s an absolute pity, too, because the animation here is gorgeous. MEGAMIND has great visuals, beautiful, vibrant colors, and plenty of action. The look of the film deserves a better story than it gets.

MEGAMIND’s main characters all play with the Superman mythos (Metro Man = Superman, Megamind = Braniac, Roxanne = Lois, Titan = Jimmy) but they don’t do anything with that except borrow the concept.

If I was a parent, MEGAMIND is exactly the kind of movie I’d be very wary of showing to my kids – beautiful to look at and funny to listen to, but completely empty at its core. I don’t think kid’s films have to have messages, but when they do, and they’re as off-the-mark as are offered up in MEGAMIND, there’s plenty of other options to show the little ones.