Review: 'When The Game Stands Tall' starring Jim Caviezel, Michael Chiklis, and Laura Dern

When the Game Stands Tall stars Jim Caviezel as Coach Bob Ladouceur who led the De La Salle High School varsity Football team to a 151 record-setting winning streak and what happens as the streak effects his life and those of his family and players. See here’s the thing; most people, me included, are pretty easy to please with a sports movie. Especially a HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL MOVIE! This is America and we love football. Here we have a movie with Caviezel portraying this almost perfect coach in terms of his moral standing and reasoning for coaching these kids. These kids are perfect at least the ones in the beginning of the movie. The seniors that are leaving are great, demigod-like athletes with wholesome attitudes like they all came from Smallville, Kansas. After the first 15 minutes or so just about every bad thing that can happen to the team happens, just as they are beginning to be led by a new group of flawed senior athletes. It’s all serious; old players die, some players lose all their family, and some experience major incapacitating injuries.

It begins to feel like a little too much as major sad events are piled on and a Christian-themed message is forced into the story. They all feel out of place and like the movie doesn’t know what it wants to be. Does it want to be a sports movie or a spiritually uplifting movie? I don’t know if the film makers know themselves. The movie is also totally too long and poorly paced throughout. The movie would’ve been a lot better if they would’ve just focused on the team’s fall from grace and the need for the team to rally together in time for a major game against the country’s best team. What happens is that the story’s true climax happens in the middle of the film.

There are a lot of well-filmed football scenes throughout the movie along with some decent performances. What they are performing doesn’t always make a lot of sense, but what is worse is the team’s triumph doesn’t feel earned at all. It’s a movie where you watch a great high school football program that won 151 times lose a game and then goes right back to winning.  It’s not like watching the underdogs come up and reach the championship or something like We Are Marshall where something completely terrible happens and the whole community comes together to support the players on the field. It’s just like watching Johnny Manziel not get picked first in the draft. Like am I supposed to feel sad? Really?

In the end I’m just surprised that a sports movie could be this lackluster in every way imaginable. Somewhere it’s like a whole lot of people really liked this true story and tried really hard to make a movie out of it. The saddest part is that to me they totally failed at doing it and I think the real people in this story deserve way better.

 Rating: 1.5 out of 5

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First Trailer for 3D 'The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water'

It may not have made quite the noise of Warner Bros. or Marvel's Comic-Con presentations, but there was a pretty substantial crowd gathered for a first look at The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. The first trailer for the film has now been released, and it shows what happens when SpongeBob and his crew head ashore for a superheroic adventure...in 3D CG animation, no less. On dry land they encounter hot chicks, pirate villains, and all sorts of crazy characters.

Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Antonio Banderas, and Clancy Brown lend their voices to The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water on February 13th 2015. 

The SpongeBob Movie- Sponge Out of Water TRAILER 1 (2014) - Animated Movie HD by Shachizonzon

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Comic-Con: First Look at 'SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water'

Fifteen years after the silly but incredibly subversive SpongeBob Squarepants debuted on Nickeleodeon, the character is as popular as ever. A decade ago they released The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie and hauled in a cool $140M, which makes one wonder why they waited so long to do another. That will change when SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water surfaces next year, but for now Paramount and Nickelodeon have released the first image as part of their Comic-Con presentation.

Tom Kenny, Antonio Banderas, Bill Fagerbakke, Clancy Brown, and more will lend their voices to the animated feature, which has the sea-dwelling sponge on shore for a superheroic adventure, if that wasn't obvious enough by the image.

SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water opens February 13th 2015.

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James Franco is 'The Fixer', Ricky Gervais Returns for 'Night at the Museum 3', Daniel Wu Joins 'Warcraft'

* Ian Olds scored an indie smash a few years with his documentary, Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi, winning Best New Documentary Filmmaker in the process. He's been busy working with James Franco on a number of his smaller films and on the Faulkner adaptation As I Lay Dying, and now the two will collaborate on another feature, titled The Fixer. Franco will take one of the leads as an unstable hot-tub craftsman named Lindsay in the story of Osman, "an Afghan journalist exiled from his war-torn country to a small bohemian community in Northern California. When he attempts to turn his menial job on the local police blotter into “Afghan-style” coverage of local crime, he gets drawn into the backwoods of this small town." [TheWrap]

* After the first two films nearly brought in $1B it was only a matter of time before a third Night at the Museum was ordered up, and that's exactly what we're getting. Ben Stiller and Robin Williams are confirmed to return for the sequel, along with director Shawn Levy, with a script by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant that takes the living monuments to London. Now Deadline is reporting Ricky Gervais is also set to return as Stiller's former boss, Dr. McPhee. Night at the Museum 3 is set to open on Christmas Day 2014.

* Daniel Wu (Europe Report) and Clancy Brown (Sleepy Hollow) are the latest additions to Duncan Jones' Warcraft, joining Paula Patton, Travis Fimmel, Ben Foster, Toby Kebbell, Dominic Cooper, and Rob Kazinsky in the video game adaptation. No word on their roles as much of the story is still being kept under wraps. Warcraft powers on March 11th 2016.

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First Images from Sylvester Stallone's 'Homefront' Starring James Franco and Jason Statham

There's a pretty good chance you may have forgotten about Homefront, but once you hear the hodge podge of big stars and C-listers assembled for this action flick it's going to rocket to the top of your must-see list. First of all, it features a script by none other than Sylvester Stallone (!!!), based on a book by acclaimed crime novelist Chuck Hogan. And because Sly is never too far from any of this homies in The Expendables, Jason Statham is starring joined by the seemingly-random cast of James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth, Frank Grillo, Vincent D'Onofrio, Clancy Brown, and Mischa Barton. Friggin' Mischa Barton.

So is it a train wreck or decent testosterone-fueled B-movie schlock? There's a chance for either, and unfortunately the first batch of images don't tell us much. Directed by Gary Fleder (Kiss the Girls), the film has Statham as a DEA agent whose quite family life is upended when he runs afoul of a violent drug kingpin. Franco gets to add to his growing list of oddly-named thugs by playing Gator, the guy giving Statham's character fits, and hopefully we'll be treated to the surreal sight of watching them come to blows. My money's on Franco, and judging by what Statham had to say to USA Today, he took the villain role in an unexpected direction...

Staham: "He's a great actor and didn't go down the usual path of being a 'scary' villain. He has the ability to bring out the quirkiness and eerie side to this character."

Quirky and eerie Franco? Sign me up. No, this won't be heading straight to a Wal-Mart DVD bin near you, but will actually wind up in theaters on November 27th.

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Review: 'At Any Price' starring Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron

How much does the American Dream cost? What is one willing to give up in order to achieve it? The answer is pretty much right there in the title of acclaimed director Ramin Bahrani's At Any Price, a brilliant morality tale that further establishes him as one of today's finest filmmakers.  Bahrani's first three films, Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, and 2008's Goodbye Solo, told uniquely American stories through the lens of the immigrant experience. But here he turns his insightful eye on the small-town Midwest, where family legacy is of paramount importance, and success is measured by hard work and desire.

What happens when the next generation has no intention of following in prior's footsteps? What happens when the pervasive influence of big business and steeper competition begins to encroach on one's ability to survive? In the heartland of Iowa, Henry Whipple (Dennis Quaid) is a reasonably successful farmer, tending land that has been in his family for generations. It's his dream to be the top grower in the entire state, but he's constantly chasing after the top guy (Clancy Brown), who always seems to have the upper hand. After splurging on an extra 200 acres, Henry hopes to pass it off on his sons to tend as their own, but his oldest son Grant has skipped town for parts unknown, and his other son Dean (Zac Efron) has a dream of racing in NASCAR.

Henry wishes Dean were more like him, while Dean isn't as different from Henry as he thinks. They butt heads over everything, and Henry isn't exactly the most attentive listener. He's a salesman through and through, someone who puts on a false smile and is always looking for a way to close a deal. Taught by his father "When a man stops wanting, a man starts dying", Henry cheats on his wife (Kim Dickey) with the sexy Meredith (Heather Graham), and schemes to cheat the giant agribusinesses by reusing his genetically modified seeds. Dean enjoys his life as a big fish in a small pond, hanging out with his girlfriend Cadence (Maika Monroe) and racing the dirt tracks in hopes of winning a contract.

It's a simple story of family melodrama told in the classic, intimate style of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, or better yet, All My Sons. Bahrani has always been good at making the location an integral character in the story, unearthing the many truths and myths of the local culture. He explores, in much better fashion than Matt Damon's Promised Land, the soft underbelly of our farmer class. Swallowed up and twisted by the expanse of industry, what had been a respectable, fundamentally American building block is now just a cold business like any other. You either evolve or die. Destroy the farmer next to you, or be destroyed by him. Their dreams can never be allowed to stand side-by-side with yours. This obsessive need for competition is an integral piece of the intricate puzzle Bahrani weaves, and we see it play out between father and son in many different ways.

Dennis Quaid rarely disappoints, but he gives the performance of his already-great career. The charm we've come to know and love from him is there, but corrupted and phony. He's perfect in every single frame, and the film is made instantly better whenever he's on screen. Contrary to popular belief, Zac Efron can act when given the opportunity, and he does good work here when Dean is enjoying his time as a local celebrity. Efron doesn't do brooding malcontent quite as well when called upon, though. The real find may be Maika Monroe as Cadence. She's had a few small roles here and there, and will appear opposite Emma Watson in The Bling Ring, but her time on screen, whether its with Quaid or Efron, are simply electric. Cadence is a girl many would presume has no future beyond the town's city limits, but she's smarter and more ambitious than is readily apparent.

Bahrani can get a little heavy-handed with the metaphors, and sometimes the melodrama steers into All My Children territory. A final act twist changes the complexion of the entire film in a bad way, piling on one final hurdle that is about ten shades too dark. Bahrani doesn't ask any easy questions, and certainly doesn't offer up any easy answers. Tough, engaging, and brutally honest, At Any Price is one of those quiet gems you hope others will have the opportunity to discover for themselves.

Trav's Tip: Be sure to check out my interview with Ramin Bahrani where he talks about his inspirations for At Any Price, how it relates to his earlier work, and his love of Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master.

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