The Campaign Effectively Spoofs Election Politics

Written by Kirk Baird

Now that the U.S. election is over, it’s time to laugh at the political process. The Campaign is a fairly dependable comedy that never quite reaches the level of truly great political satire.

Jay Roach delivered caustic political commentary earlier this year with HBO's Game Change, an intelligent drama about the McCain-Palin ticket. He also directed 2008's effective political mouthpiece Recount, about the 2000 U.S. presidential election and the recount in Florida. The filmmaker is familiar with Hollywood as political op-ed and so is Will Ferrell, who honed his George W. Bush impersonation to perfection for years on Saturday Night Live, and briefly resurrected the character for a well-received one-man Broadway show.

It's not much of a stretch, either, to see bits of Ferrell's Bush impersonation in his role as North Carolina congressman Cam Brady.

Brady is a five-term Democrat so entrenched in his district that Republicans aren't bothering to run against him this election, until the billionaire Motch brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow) decide they need fresh political meat in Washington.

With the plan of opening Chinese factories in North Carolina powered by cheap labour imported from China, what they call "insourcing," the Motches create and fund their own candidate, Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), an effeminate small-town tour guide and pug owner with aspirations of making a difference in his community.

Brady and his campaign manager (Jason Sudeikis) initially laugh off the no-name challenger, until Huggins's own aggressive campaign manager (Dylan McDermott) mounts an effective political counterattack that has the incumbent on the ropes and trailing in the polls.

Ferrell excels at characters who are bigheaded and clueless (Anchorman's Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights' Ricky Bobby), and Brady successfully sticks to the formula, while Galifianakis plays the doe-eyed innocent corrupted by the political system to good effect.

Sarah Baker as Mitzi, Huggins's June Cleaver spouse, and Katherine LaNasa as Rose, Brady's politically opportunistic wife, generate laughs on their own, while McDermott steals almost every scene he's in with some great lines and impressive comic timing. Roach does his best to keep the film rolling along with no dead zones to deflate the fun.

The Campaign's humour is best when edgy and dark, especially as the grueling election blitz turns nastier and more personal between the candidates, who wage a cold war of dirty tactics. It's only when The Campaign goes off topic for a rather conventional feel-good third-act finale that the laughs dry up, as jokes are replaced by moralisms about the problems in our government and the importance of politicians telling "the truth."

Oddly enough, it's honesty in politics that proves to be the least funny gag of them all.

Fill the Void for Hockey Fans

Written by Kirk Baird

The NHL strike continues. Here are five hockey films to keep your patrons going until the puck tips again.

Mystery, Alaska (1999): Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents) directs Russell Crowe, Hank Azaria, Mary McCormack, and Burt Reynolds in this comedy-drama about a small-town hockey team given the opportunity to play a NHL squad.

The Mighty Ducks (1992): Emilio Estevez stars in this Bad News Bears on ice comedy about a ragtag boys’ hockey team and the lawyer turned coach who helps them go from chumps to champs, and thus a franchise was born.

Goon (2011): In this overlooked comedy, Seann William Scott plays a good-natured though none-too-bright enforcer for a struggling minor league hockey team whose physical play helps turn their fortunes around.

Slap Shot (1977): Paul Newman shows off his comic chops in this wickedly funny and biting comedy about a coach for a struggling minor league hockey team who turns to three goons to generate local interest in the team.

Miracle (2004): The riveting true story of the “Miracle on Ice” 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team’s impossible victory over the heavily favoured Soviets, with Kurt Russell as the man, coach Herb Brooks, who inspired them.

007 - Not Just for the Big Screen

Written by Kyle Slagley

Some boys can recite the entire comic book saga of Batman or Superman at age nine. Other boys might easily rattle off the history between Master Splinter and Shredder of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There aren’t too many schoolboys whose hero was a martini-swilling, womanizing, narcissistic arm of the government.

I always was a little different.

Yes, Bond—James Bond—was the staple (almost super) hero in our house when I was growing up. My dad watched the movie marathons religiously, and that’s probably the reason my 007 collection has its very own shelf in my house.

I discovered the original Ian Fleming novels when I was in my early teens. I’d already been watching Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton for a while, so naturally I had some preconceived notions about the “true Bond.” What I found easily cemented my affection for the franchise. The Bond of the books is a deeply flawed man who can easily be as expensive to the British government as the Six Million Dollar Man but as self-centered and indulgent as Lord Henry Byron. Maybe another way to put it is that he’s as messed up as some of the bad guys he guns down, but you can’t help cheering for him anyway.

Ian Fleming died in 1964 after penning 14 James Bond novels, the last of which would be published posthumously in 1966. Following his death, five other authors have taken up the mantle, each putting his own spin on the legendary spy. Here’s a rundown of how 007 has spent the last 50 years.

Kingsley Amis wrote the first James Bond novel following Fleming’s death, Colonel Sun, using the pen name Robert Markham. Colonel Sun was published in 1968 and in it Bond heads to Greece to rescue M, who has been kidnapped. Colonel Sun Liang-tan of China is found to be at the heart of the plot and Bond must team up with a Greek agent in order to rescue his boss. Having been published immediately following Fleming’s novels, it’s no surprise that Amis’s rendition has much of the same tone and many of the same character traits as the original set.

James Bond took a nap during the 1970s and didn’t emerge again until 1981 under author John Gardner. Sixteen novels would be published under the Gardner name, two of which were novelizations of the films Licence to Kill and GoldenEye. Of his 14 original novels, however, none would make it to the big screen. Gardner published his last 007 novel in 1996.

The next six years were huge for Bond and his faithful fans. Raymond Benson kept the franchise pedal firmly on the floor with novelizations for the films Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, and Die Another Day, as well as six novels and three short stories of his own. The Man with the Red Tattoo happens to be one of my favourite post-Fleming Bond novels because Benson did a wonderful job of tying West Nile Virus into the storyline at a time when the worldwide concern about global pandemic was at the highest levels since the AIDS crisis began.

Bond hasn’t really found a stable backing in recent years. Devil May Care was published by Sebastian Faulks on May 28, 2008—Ian Fleming’s 100th birthday—and just last year Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver hit the shelves. Both novels continue to bring Bond into the modern age, tying the villains’ evil schemes in with the global concerns of the day.

Although the traditional Bond novels seem to have hit a lull, the Young Bond series by Charlie Higson has taken off fairly well. It began with Silverfin and follows a much less suave James through the halls of Eton College. James is still daring and fiercely intelligent but without the martinis, the string of women, the swagger and pretentious confidence of the adult with a license to kill. Young Bond is a fantastic series for boys that dread reading requirements but love all the action and mystery of “Dad’s 007.”

With Daniel Craig signed on for another two films, it’s clear that as long as there are audiences waiting for another gun battle in which Bond has a girl in one hand and his Walther in the other, the film franchise isn’t going to die. For those of us that enjoy the depth of a novel, let’s hope that there’s an author out there that can write a good story to go with my martini.

Video Games a Popular Movie Subject

Written by Kirk Baird

Wreck-It Ralph is the story of a video game villain’s quest to be good. Given the success of Wreck-It Ralph in its first weekend – nearly $50 million, a record opening for a Disney animated film -- here are a few other movies with video game-centered plots.

WarGames (1983): A high school computer hacker (Matthew Broderick) nearly starts World War III after gaining access to a military super computer while trying to play a game of Global Thermonuclear War in this John Badham drama.

Tron (1982): Ground-breaking effects highlight this video game-inspired movie starring Jeff Bridges as a brilliant game designer named Flynn who gets sucked into a computer world where he must join forces with user programs to defeat the evil Master Control.

Tron: Legacy (2010): In this sequel to Tron, Flynn has been missing for more than a decade, and his son Sam goes looking for him, only to get sucked into the same video game world of Tron. There he finds his father trapped by a sinister new program of Flynn’s own making.

The Last Starfighter (1984): An alien named Centauri (Robert Preston in one of his last roles) recruits a teenage video game ace to man the weapons of a special spacecraft created to defeat an evil invading force and save the galaxy.

The Wizard (1989): Fred Savage of TV’s The Wonder Years stars as the older brother of an autistic boy who happens to be a wizard at playing video games. The two boys, with the help of a young girl, make their way cross country to compete in a national video game championship.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007): In this funny and occasionally stirring documentary by Seth Gordon, pereinal second-place finisher Steve Wiebe sets out to be the greatest Donkey Kong player in the world, but must contend with the current champion and rival Billy Mitchell.

Star Wars Episode VII: Who Will Direct?

Written by Kirk Baird

The sudden and surprising news of George Lucas selling his Lucasfilm studio and its properties to Disney sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry. Just as big, though, was Disney’s announcement that it would be continuing the Star Wars series with Episode VII due in 2015, with Lucas serving only as an advisor. The man who created the franchise, wrote and directed four of the six films, and produced all of them is stepping away from his franchise to now let someone else carry on the space saga. And so let the rumours and speculating begin about who will carry the torch as director.

Here are some of the sure to be top candidates, with reasons why they will or won’t be attached to Star Wars: Episode VII.

Christopher Nolan: He reinvented the superhero movie with his billion-dollar-plus Batman franchise. He also made one of the smartest summer blockbusters not involving a pop culture icon, Inception. He even helped develop the story for the upcoming Superman reboot, Man of Steel, and currently has nothing else in the works.

Why he wouldn’t do it: Nolan would be a fanboy’s dream as director for the next Star Wars installment, but after tackling Batman he may want to go easy on the major studio franchises for a while. Or maybe not.

Peter Jackson: He specializes in bringing beloved stories to the big screen in threes. His Lord of the Rings trilogy was a triumph with audiences and critics and earned him several Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Next up is his film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s first work, The Hobbit, beginning Dec. 14 with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Why he won’t do it: Jackson’s wrapped up in The Hobbit series — recently announced as a trilogy — through July, 2014, which wouldn’t give him the chance to begin production a new Star Wars film until well after it should have started. Plus, he’s already committed to directing the next The Adventures of TinTin film, with Steven Spielberg producing. And after six Tolkien movies, would he really want to tackle another fanboy obsession such as Star Wars?

Brad Bird: Bird made his reputation directing animated films: the overlooked The Iron Giant in 1999, and two successful Pixar movies, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. But what really got everyone’s attention was his work behind the camera for last year’s Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, arguably Tom Cruise’s finest action film.

Why he won’t do it: Next up for Bird is his long-in-development live-action film 1906, about the Great San Francisco Earthquake. IF this movie ever gets made — and that’s a big if considering the concerns over the film’s $200 million budget and its epic script — it’s likely to consume Bird for a while. But if 1906 gets placed on the backburner again, Bird may emerge as the frontrunner. Plus, how could he turn down Star Wars?

Zack Snyder: Snyder scored big with 300 in 2006, but he’s struggled since then with his ambitious adaptation of the graphic novel Watchmen, which no one thought could be made anyway, and the flops Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole and Sucker Punch. Next up is Man of Steel.

Why he won’t do it: It’s really not a question of if Snyder won’t do it, rather if he’ll have the opportunity. A Man of Steel box-office and critical success will certainly aid his cause, but if Superman flops again, as with Superman Returns, then consider Snyder out of the running.

Bryan Singer: And speaking of Superman Returns…Singer is still smarting over his attempted reboot of the classic superhero in 2006. But his resume is impressive with X-Men and X2: X-Men United, and producing X-Men: First Class. Next up for his directing work are Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014).

Why he won’t do it: Singer has a full plate through much of 2014, which wouldn’t give him much time to devote to launching a new Star Wars trilogy. Plus, his biggest successes have been mutant superheroes, which is a different kind of genre film than a space fantasy.

J.J. Abrams: He made his homage to Spielberg with last year’s Super 8. He also successfully rebooted the Star Trek franchise with a younger cast, which is, presumably, what it will take with the new Star Wars trilogy, which again focuses on Luke, Leia, and Han.

Why he won’t do it: Tackling one beloved space franchise should be enough for anyone. And would he want to suffer through a fresh set of fanboy angst and nitpicking for another film series?

Jon Favreau: He changed the fortunes of Marvel films with Iron Man in 2008, a superhero movie that set the template for all the comic book maker’s films to follow. And then there was Cowboys & Aliens in summer 2011, an ambitious adaptation of a comic book series that bombed with critics and audiences.

Why he won’t do it: The failure of Cowboys & Aliens will hurt his chances, though how much of it was his fault versus a story that simply didn’t lend itself well to a two-hour movie. He is also attached to direct the Jersey Boys adaptation, which is in pre-production.

Joss Whedon: Whedon was already a familiar name to some for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but 2012 has put him on a new level of success: first as co-screenwriter of the horror genre-bending Cabin in the Woods, and with The Avengers, the year’s biggest hit (so far), which he wrote and directed. Up next is The Avengers 2 for 2015, which is he again writing and directing.

Why he won’t do it: The Avengers 2. Making a sequel that comes close to duplicating the critical and box-office success of The Avengers is going to take a lot of work, focus, and dedication. So who has time to juggle two major franchises?

Read the Movie

Written by Kyle Slagley

A few days ago a friend of mine commented to me on Facebook about a class we took in college called Shakespeare and Film. The class covered exactly that, Shakespeare’s plays and their various film adaptations, some of which I enjoyed and some of which I did not.

That a successful book will be made into a movie is almost an assumed fact these days. I can’t help but think that filmmakers consider this both a blessing and a curse because as the success of the book increases, the room for creative license and interpretation decreases – particularly when a film adaptation is made almost immediately following the publishing of the book a la Fifty Shades.

As we approach the final Twilight movie release I started thinking again about the book-to-film process. You could create a program for your library that focuses solely on book-to-film titles; in fact you may already have a club like that. If you don’t, allow me to make a few recommendations to get you started.

For adults:
The Firm – This John Grisham novel is about a young man fresh out of Harvard Law School who accepts a position at a very powerful firm in Memphis. Like most Grisham novels, the book is a thrilling read. The film starring Tom Cruise is just as thrilling as the book and is a faithful interpretation until about halfway through, where it veers off to an ending that makes Cruise’s character look much better than in the novel.

The Time Traveler’s Wife – I broke the cardinal rule with this one and saw the movie before I read the book. I was genuinely surprised to find that I enjoyed the film just as much as the book despite the pounding it took from critics. This title will make for great discussion on how the concept of time travel works on the screen, particularly when it jumps all over the place.

There Will Be Blood – Daniel Day-Lewis was simply fantastic as Daniel Plainview in the film adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s Oil! and earned himself a hoard of Best Actor awards for the role. The film is only loosely based on Sinclair’s novel, with differences in both plot and character names but the loose adaptation leaves plenty of room for discussion. With 80 years between the publishing of the novel and the release of the movie, this is a good opportunity to discuss creative license as it relates to timing of the film release.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – I know it sounds ridiculous to plug this title for a book club, but I know a lot of people that didn’t realize this movie was based on a book. The book reads like a biography; the movie is, well, the movie. If nothing else, it’s good for a few laughs!

For young adults:
Stardust – Neil Gaiman did a fantastic job with this relatively short novel. Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, and boy discovers girl is actually a fallen star. Simple enough, right? The novel is a dark and haunting fairytale for adults whereas the film is a lighter, cheerful movie geared more toward children. Because the novel ventures into more adult topics, this book would be better for teens than young children.

Inkheart – I was unaware that this film was based on a novel until recently, so I saw the movie before I read the book for this one too. This is a typical case of “the book is better than the movie” even though I thought Brendan Fraser did a decent job playing Mo and Paul Bettany was as good as ever in the role of Dustfinger. The ending to the movie is completely different from the book, but even still, I didn’t think the film was nearly as bad as the critics said it was.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – This title is perfect for a book-to-film club because there are two films based on Roald Dahl’s 1964 children’s book. The film starring Gene Wilder from 1971 will always be one of my favourites, as I suspect is the case for millions in their 20s and 30s, but deviates from the book quite a bit. The 2005 film starring Johnny Depp is faithful to the book and was a box office success, but failed to claim a devoted following like its predecessor.

Political Movies for U.S. Election Night

Written by Kirk Baird

The 2012 U.S. presidential election is Tuesday. To get in the spirit of democracy in action, here are a just few politically themed movies.

The Candidate (1972): A young, inexperienced candidate for senator (Robert Redford in a brilliant performance) learns the inside-outs of big-stage politics, and the price it takes to win.

Election (1999): Reese Witherspoon is the annoying high school overachiever determined to be class president. Matthew Broderick is the high school history teacher determined to stop her. Alexander Payne’s debut comedy is dark and spot-on.

All the President’s Men (1976): When celebrating the election of a president, here’s a thrilling account of what brought one down. Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein helped inspire a new generation of journalists.

Bulworth (1998): Warren Beatty plays liberal politician Jay Bulworth whose ideals of making a difference were long-ago trounced by the realities of Washington. But then something snaps in his soul, and Bulworth fights back against the system.

Primary Colors (1998): Don’t kid yourself: John Travolta is Clinton in this thinly disguised behind-the-scenes look at a presidential campaign race. As an addendum, check out the fascinating documentary The War Room (1993), a real-life account of Clinton’s 1992 campaign and those who ran it.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939): Jimmy Stewart is the U.S. senator everyone wishes they had in Frank Capra’s stirring classic of an incorruptible new voice in D.C.

The Ides of March (2011): George Clooney directed, cowrote, and costars in this campaign thriller about a progressive presidential candidate and his young campaign press secretary (Ryan Gosling), who must inevitably choose between his boss and his soul.