FILM REVIEW OF ''DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS" (2010)

“Austin Powers” director Jay Roach serves up a less than appetizing rehash of French director Francis Veber’s 1998 comic masterpiece “The Dinner Game.” “Dinner for Schmucks” (* out of ****) casts sympathetic Paul Rudd cast as the straight man, while funnyman Steve Carell hams it up as a dim-witted idiot. Rudd and Carell have now co-starred in three comedies. Previously, they appeared together in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.” No, “Dinner for Schmucks” isn’t half as hilarious as either “40-Year-Old Virgin” or “Anchorman.” The premise of this half-baked hokum is that our hero’s arrogant boss throws a once-a-month dinner party where his best and brightest employees compete to see who can bring the dumbest dinner guest. Typically, the dinner guests are such incredible imbeciles that they don’t realize that they are being roasted instead of toasted. Essentially, these cold-blooded bigwigs at a private equity firm that cuts up other firms and sells off their assets need something for a good laugh.

Unfortunately, “Dinner for Schmucks” comes up short on yucks. This politically incorrect plate of pabulum concerns an ambitious, young analyst who is prepared to sell his soul to the Philistines so he can realize his dreams, specifically marrying his girlfriend. Along the way, our hero realizes the error of ridiculing idiots so that he can attain his dreams. Long before he grasps what he has done, the humor in “Dinner for Schmucks” has lost its seasoning. The original French comedy concluded before the eponymous dinner. “Dinner for Schmucks,” however, goes in for a seven course meal and wears out its welcome.
Presumably, director Jay Roach and scenarists David Guion and Michael Handelman of “The Ex” must have forgotten that anybody who tries to remake a Veber film is doomed. Every Americanized version of a Veber movie--“The Toy,” “The Man with One Red Shoe,” “Three Fugitives,” “Pure Luck,” and “Fathers’ Day”—tanked and stank. Mind you, it is always a pleasure to watch Carell cutting up, and he seems to be genuinely having fun as an IRS processor and mouse taxidermist who assembles the dead rodents in detailed dioramas. Incidentally, designer Joel Venti and the cult effects Chiodo brothers, Charles, Edward and Stephen , who fashioned the puppets for "Team America: World Police,” whipped up these inventive dioramas. The point is that Carell steals the show, but the show really isn’t worth stealing. When Carell isn’t carrying on his shtick, “Dinner for Schmucks” sucks.

Financial analyst Tim Conrad (Paul Rudd of “Sidekicks”) has been pestering his cute girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak of “The Devil Wears Prada”) to marry him, but she is a career girl who orchestrates elaborate art sales. Meanwhile, Tim lives in an elegant apartment and drives an expensive sports car that he really cannot afford. After the president of Tim’s firm, Lance Fender (Bruce Greenwood of “Star Trek”), pink-slips an executive who took the business down the wrong path, Tim angles for the promotion. Tim concocts a scheme to bring billionaire Swiss entrepreneur, Mueller (David Walliams of “Stardust”), to Fender Financial. Mueller owns a munitions firm with tons of leftover ordnance from World War I, basically bombs, and Tim has figured out a way to convert the bombs into lamps. Of course, Fender Financial will take a bath marketing the bomb lamps, but they will clean up managing Mueller’s portfolio. Fender is desperately searching for ideas to turn his company around when Tim pitches his proposal. Initially, Fender wants to hand the project over to one of his surefire executives, but he finds Tim’s blind ambition so refreshing that he lets him woo Mueller. Fender tells our hero about his super-secret party and invites him to bring the biggest boob. It doesn’t take Julie long to convince Tim that the dinner is a dumb idea. Nevertheless, Tim needs that promotion so desperately so he can sweep Julie off her feet that he sets out to find a loser.

Literally, Tim collides with a loser. Barry Speck (Steve Carell) is picking up a dead mouse for his mice diorama when Tim hits him. Fortunately, Barry is none the worse for landing on Tim’s hood and then being hurled several feet away. Initially, Tim fears the worst when Barry and he try to reach a monetary settlement, until Tim realizes that Barry plans to pay him for the damage to his Porsche. After Tim breathes a sigh of relief, he asks Barry what he was doing in the middle of the street. Barry shows Tim the dead mouse that he was trying to retrieve from the asphalt before our hero could flatten it with his tires. Barry flaunts a book that contains photographs of the dead mice after he has dressed them up to resemble famous paintings, such as Whistler’s mother. Tim knows a good thing when he sees it and cultivates Barry’s friendship. Meantime, after Julie gets wind of what Tim plans to do, she wants to break up and devote herself to her latest insane art client, Kieran Vollard (Jemaine Clement of “Gentlemen Broncos”), whose art works of himself dressed up in a satyr costume are selling like crazy. As nutty as Barry is, Barry stands no chance alongside the warped, egotistical genius of Kieran. Predictably, Tim learns his lesson, and Barry and he show up Fender for the snobbish ape that he really is. However, before Barry can win the trophy as the biggest idiot, he must confront his intimidating IRS co-worker, Therman (Zach Galifianakis of “The Hangover”), another hopeless moron who constantly overshadows Barry.
Incongruity is the source of the best comedy. The buffoons that Steve Carell, Jemaine Clement, and Zach Galifianakis play in “Dinner for Schmucks” are as funny as this labored comedy gets. What makes these performances work so well is that the actors appear to have no idea how ridiculous they look. Carell looks like he is channeling the comic actor Austin Pendleton of “My Cousin Vinny” with his spectacles, buck-teeth, and wacky haircut that makes him look particularly nerdy. Jemaine Clement scores points for “Dinner” as an eccentric artist obsessed with all things goat, and Zach Galifianakis never misses a chance to make himself look hopelessly cretinous. Despite its interesting characters, “Dinner for Schmucks” belongs in a richly deserved doggie bag, but not as a treat.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE BACK-UP PLAN" (2010)

Admittedly, when some gals can’t find Mr. Right, they resort to artificial insemination to jump-start a family on their own. The premise of freshman director Alan Poul’s chick flick comedy about planned parenthood, "The Back-Up Plan" (** OUT OF ****), is flawed from the outset. We’re asked to believe that drop dead gorgeous Jennifer Lopez has had no luck landing a father material. The irony here is that once our desperate heroine allows her physician to impregnate her with frozen sperm, she meets Mr. Right. Sitcom scenarist Kate Angelo has penned a predictable but frivolous saga about single motherhood that relies incredibly enough on delivery-related gross-out gags and scatological humor. No, nothing in the “The Back-Up Plan” qualifies as offensive. Some guys may find the subject matter uncomfortable, like too much information about the birthing process. Unfortunately, the fair-to-mellow humor doesn’t hoist this bland comedy out of the doldrums. A typical girl-finds-guy, girl-loses-guy, girl-wins-guy-back comedy, “The Back-Up Plan” comes with all the obligatory obstacles but lacks anything like spontaneity. In other words, this J-L0 epic generates only half of the hilarity of either “Knocked Up” or “Baby Mama.” Indeed, the humor here is aimed primarily at women. Poul gets the antics off on the right foot, but the story doesn't go anywhere you haven't been before in a thousand other comedies. Our thirtysomething heroine endures the usual bouts of morning sickness, hormonal episodes, and culinary cravings. Ultimately, the complication that splits up our two lovers drums up nominal drama. Meanwhile, no matter how dumpy J-Lo gets, the diva still looks dazzling. The most interesting but least developed faction of characters is a lesbian support group who have banded together to help single moms through pregnancy.

Zoe (Jennifer Lopez of “U-Turn”) owns a New York City pet shop called Hudson Mutts in Greenwich Village with the usual wisecracking employees. She also owns a small but playful handicapped Boston bull terrier named Nuts hat scrambles around in its own little doggie wheelchair. Basically, whenever Zoe needs to say something at home, she talks to the bull terrier. Undeniably, the pooch is an endearing scene-stealer, and it’s a shame that he’s mute. Having a supernatural pup might have made this movie more entertaining. J-Lo gets to slip in a message about puppy farms and the dangers of inbreeding. Nevertheless, our heroine has to contend with a hormonal clock that is ticking. The problem is she has not been able to land the right man. Basically, Zoe had a traumatic childhood. At age eight, she watched her mother die from cancer and her father abandon her because he couldn’t take the responsibility. Consequently, our heroine doesn’t believe that she can hook up with a guy and keep him. Despite all the warnings that her life-long best friend, Mona (Michaela Watkins of “Inconceivable”) gives her about the trials and tribulations of motherhood, Zoe remains adamant about having kids. No sooner has Dr. Harris (Robert Klein of “Hooper”) artificially inseminated Zoe than she collides with Mr. Right while hailing a cab. Predictably, Stan (Alex O'Loughlin of CBS-TV’s ill-fated “Moonlight”) jumps into the same cab that Zoe has flagged down. Neither can decide who should have the taxi so both get out and the cabbie cruises away. This incident is funny, but like most of the humor in “The Back-Up Plan” falls short of side-splitting. Later, at a Tribeca farmer’s market, Zoe and Stan run into each other again. He sells organic cheese and owns a goat farm. Stan has had little luck with the opposite sex, too. He dreams about owning an organic gourmet restaurant and is currently attending night classes to get his college degree. The two manage to hit it off and move in with each other. They shop for strollers and imagine what the future holds. Suddenly, Zoe fears that Stan will leave her. Guess what, he does. Just when Zoe thinks she cannot trust Stan, her grandmother Nana (Linda Lavin of CBS-TV’s “Alice,” who raised her after her mother died, decides to marry her fiance, Arthur (Tom Bosley of "Happy Days”), after keeping the poor fellow on tenterhooks for twenty-two years. Nana tells Zoe that Zoe and Stan looked so happy together that she had to marry Arthur. Imagine how Zoe feels.

The ladies that watch this romantic comedy may not be able to take their eyes off virile Aussie heartthrob Alex O'Loughlin who parades around without a shirt. Sadly, the chemistry between Lopez and O’Loughlin registers only minor tremors on the Richter Scale. They are agreeable and pleasant, but they don’t look like they were meant for each other. Some familiar faces from the past flesh out this lackluster romantic comedy. Namely, Linda Laven and Tom Bosley lighten up this meandering mess as a couple who haven't been able to commit to marriage for 20 years. Comedian Anthony Anderson seems restrained in his two scenes with O'Loughlin as an anonymous playground dad who contends with a son who brings him a fistful of feces. The crude humor about human feces doesn’t make you laugh as grimace because the filmmakers struggle to make these poop scenes funny. The bizarre single mom support group that our heroine attends early on in the action contains a scene near the end where a tattooed dame delivers a baby in a wading pool while making goofy barnyard noises. She also lets one go in the pool much to the chagrin of our hero. The outtakes, especially with the wheelchair doggie, are worth sticking around for as the end credits roll. The laughs in “The Back-Up Plan” are mellow just as the drama is soft-headed. Mind you, this movie marks Lopez’s first starring role in a theatrical feature since the 2006 movie “An Unfinished Life.” Clearly, Lopez didn't have much of a back-up plan with she selected this superficial potboiler.

FILM REVIEW OF ''FLUBBER'' (1997)

Tastes and times have changed drastically since 1961 when Fred MacMurray originally introduced the super-elastic stuff called ‘flubber’ to film audiences in Walt Disney’s “The Absent Minded Professor.” In the high-tech, 1990’s Disney remake “Flubber” (*** out of ****) reinvents itself as an animated, gooey-green, silly putty blob of flying rubber that talks and dances. Actually, flubber resembles a combination of the Pillsbury Doughboy crossed with the shape-shifting water creature in James Cameron’s 1989 fantasy thriller “The Abyss.” Inventive, excessive, but tolerably entertaining, director Les Mayfield’s remake of “The Absent Minded Professor” will captivate both young and absent-minded audiences. Happily, “Flubber” succeeds as a resilient special effects laden tour-de-farce. Sadly, the remake lacks the wit, warmth, subtlety, and comedic irony that distinguished its black & white predecessor. The spectacular morphing effects of George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic Company and the visual wizardry of Peter Crosman, Tom Bertino, and Douglas Hans Smith cannot offset the film’s hopelessly befuddled plot.

The John Hughes screenplay based in part on Bill Walsh’s script for “The Absent Minded Professor as well as the Samuel W. Taylor short story “A Situation of Gravity” follows the zany efforts of a scatterbrained university chemistry professor. Dr. Philip Brainard (Robin Williams of “Popeye”) accidentally cooks up a gravity defying concoction called ‘flubber.’ Generating its own perpetual motion, ‘flubber’ has uses limited only by the imagination. Unlike the limp lump of ‘flubber’ in “The Absent-Minded Professor,” the ‘flubber’ “Flubber” radiates a mischievous personality, but the filmmakers never solidify its amorphous character. Not only will Brainard ‘flubber’ rescue Medfield College from bankruptcy and closure, but ‘flubber’ will also redeem him in the eyes of the long-suffering sweetheart that he wants to wed: Medfield College President Sara Jean Reynolds (Marcia Gay Harden.)

Brainard heads up Sara Jean’s you-know-what list. Three times in a row he has left her stranded at the altar! If things aren’t bad enough, Brainard’s old academic nemesis Wilson Croft (Christopher MacDonald of “Thelma & Louise”) lurks in the background. Oil and conniving, Croft plans to pilfer Brainard’s fiancée as well as take credit for his ‘flubber’ formula and the millions of dollars that it is sure to reap. The professor’s next bigger enemy is perhaps his worst: corrupt businessman Chester Hoenicker (Raymond J. Barry of “Mad City”). Hoenicker’s bratty son Bennett (Will Wheaton of TV’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) flunked Brainard’s class. Consequently, Bennett got suspended from the basketball team. Initially, all that Hoenicker sought was a simple change of grade so Bennett, the top hoopster on the Medfield basketball team, could resume playing. When Hoenicker senior learns more about ‘flubber,’ he joins forces with the equally avaricious Croft to rip-off Braniard’s discovery.

Women have come a long way since the 1961 original. Disney has promoted the fiancée from being the college president’s secretary to the college president! Although Sara Jean presides over Medfield, she cannot keep it out of the red without the help of a good man. “Flubber” implies that women indeed have come a long way, but not far enough to get by on their own wits. Moreover, Sara Jean’s romance with Brainard appears to occupy her every waking minute instead of the financial crisis that threatens her small, private college. Her priorities appear demeaningly misplaced. WEEBO, Brainard’s flying female computer, serves as a sort of bad girl here who gets her just comeuppance for tampering with Brainard’s social life. At one point, WEEBO creates a cyber-Siren image for herself to detract Brainard from Sara Jean.

“Flubber” boasts brilliant, state-of-the-art special effects. Brainard has a marvelously nifty gizmo called WEEBO, a multi-media computer housed in a flying saucer that serves as his secretary. Fred MacMurray had to settle for an antiquated housekeeper and a mutt with flying ears. Anyway, WEEBO figures vitally in the plot. As splendid comic relief, WEEBO makes a great foil in the best Disney tradition. Added humor is derived from the anthology of familiar Disney symbols that appear as short-hand on her video screen. WEEBO dotes on a film clip from the 1958 Frank Sinatra potboiler “Some Came Running” featuring Shirley MacLaine. Jodi Benson of “The Little Mermaid” provides WEEBO’s voice.

Interestingly enough, WEEBO has a crush on her creator and deliberately refuses to remind him about his wedding because she is jealous. Here’s an incredibly portable computer that can travel great distances and perform any number of tasks. At one point, WEEBO visits Sara Jean and explains her jealous behavior. Actually, WEEBO resembles gizmos from the 1987 movie “Batteries Not Included.” The professor could have licensed the manufacture of WEEBOs and used the profits to part the river of red ink engulfing Medfield College. The answer to their problems was right under their noses long before Brainard created flubber. That is why “Flubber” is uneven. WEEBO is so much more rational than its creator that the flying computer could easily have replaced flubber!

“Flubber” sounds like a can’t-miss-hit from this description. If anything, “Flubber” proves that absent-minded audiences appreciate movies with an absence of drama. The original movie contained a richer plot with a variety of nuances that heightened its hilarity. “Flubber” smears on obvious slapstick to churn up laughs. John Hughes’ script relies on his tried and true “Home Alone” routines. Hughes deserves the blame for this half-baked farce. For example, Hoenicker’s henchman, Smith (Clancy Brown of “Starship Troopers”) and Wesson (Ted Levine of “Silence of the Lambs”) are clearly stand-ins for the Joe Pesci & Daniel Stern duo from the “Home Alone” comedies. Brainard’s flubber clobbers them literally in the form of a golf ball and a bowling ball. Smith gets nailed by a non-stop golf ball, while a hard flying bowling ball wallops Wesson. When either object strikes them, these goons hit the deck like pole-axed ten pins.

Another previously Hughesed plot device is the little boy who’s frightened of flubber. Every time the little boy’s father assures him that he has nothing to worry about, the little guy gets flabbergasted. Hughes apparently tried to replace as much of the original as possible with his own kiddie antics. Flubber itself might even qualify here as a Macaulay Culkin clone. The entire military-industrial Cold War subplot is gone, along with the prom dance sequence, the warehouse ruckus, and the bouncing villain scene. Compared to the original villain, the scheming insurance magnate Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn of “Dr. Strangelove”), Hoenicker lacks notoriety. Certainly, Hoenicker neither humiliates nor embarrasses poor Professor Brainard as Hawk successfully managed in “The Absent-Minded Professor.”

Not that “The Absent-Minded Professor” was immune to criticism. When Fred MacMurray’s professor mutates into a man of action in the last half hour of the original, there was nothing empty-headed about his dealings with either the villainous Alonzo Hawk or the Pentagon. Unbelievably, director Les Mayfield and Hughes have left out the scene where Brainard tricks Hawk into jumping up and down with flubberized shoes. Wisely, however, the filmmakers have kept in the basketball scene and the flying car. A red 1963 Ford Thunderbird replaces the vintage Model T.

Although Robin Williams captures the essence of this addle-pated protagonist, the role stretches his character beyond the limits of reasonable behavior. “Flubber’s” professor acts more acid-minded than absent-minded. When Williams’ professor explains his foggy memory, he justifies it as his consuming love for Sarah Jean. How all consuming his love be if the guy keeps leaving the girl standing at the altar? Granted, the jealous WEEBO throws a cyber wrench of sorts into Brainard’s calendar. The happy ending pulls a slick variation on Brainard’s incorrigible absence, but tarnishes the luster of his self-professed love for Sara Jean. Williams seems relatively sedate throughout “Flubber.” He delivers a straight-faced, in-character kind of performance. Obviously, he bottled up his madcap improvisional talents so as to underplay his looney professor in a way that offsets flubber’s scene-stealing special effects. Brainard demonstrates a chemical dependency astronomically off the scale. He’d rather labor in his lab than confront the realities of life. Arrayed with many computer-driven robots and novel gimmicks, the house where Brainard lives recalls Pee Wee’s domicile in “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.” Inexplicably, the filmmakers have changed the professor’s name from Ned to Philip. Why such an insignificant change? Presumably, Disney assigned flubber top marquee value because audiences might have confused its original title “The Absent-Minded Professor” with the Eddie Murphy comedy “The Nutty Professor.”

Director Les Mayfield of “Encino Man” and “Miracle on 34th Street”) and scenarist John Hughes cannot make up their own minds about flubber. Flubber has endless possibilities, and its embryonic personality can be playful but occasionally snappish, too. WEEBO accuses Brainard of giving flubber “too much free will.” Flubber never seems to live up to its potential unless it is exploding, flying through rooms, and cronking noggins. Most of the humor comes from how flubber reacts to different situations more than how Brainard applies it. Because they never define the nature of flubber, its wide open character lacks dramatic clarity. For example, the filmmakers don’t set any limits to what flubber can do. Perhaps Mayfield and company chose green as flubber’s lime-green color because the special effects were so expensive.

Flubber seems like a mild mannered gremlin, and the filmmakers spend the better part of “Flubber” devising its myriad applications. Wesson’s squirt gun antics with Brainard are probably the most relentlessly unfunny example of a movie that overdoes itself. Every time Hoenicker orders Wesson to hand over Brainard’s water pistol, Wesson appropriates the mob land meaning of Hoenicker’s commands. When Hoenicker tells Wesson “to let him have it,” Wesson drenches Brainard in flubber water. This joke goes on far beyond what the scene required. The gratuitous, kaleidoscopic Busby Berkeley dance sequences that interrupt the story are gorgeous, but how to do they relate to the story? Why didn’t the filmmakers use the opening credits as a stage for this elaborate terpsichorean masterpiece? Ultimately, flubber’s potential seems half-formed.

Credit goes to director Les Mayfield for the get-up-and-goo pace of dizzy Disney film. He does a find job of seamlessly integrating the over-the-top special effects with live action, too. “Flubber” is aimless but predictable fun. The villains seem less villainous this time around, and Christopher MacDonald’s bad guy appears simply to give flubber something through which to fly. The bowel humor here and there adds little to the humor and seems out of place in a juvenile movie. Parents may find themselves in a curious moral dilemma trying to explain to their kids why Brainard’s cheating tactics should be condoned. He applies flubber to the basketball team’s sneakers to help them beat their tall, merciless opponents on the court. Danny Elfman’s lively music emphasizes the fast, bouncy pace of “Flubber” and helps the film scoot right along to its inevitable happy ending.

FILM REVIEW OF ''BOLT 3D"

The new animated 3-D Walt Disney family flick “Bolt” (*** out of ****) is pretty doggone funny. Combine elements of the Arnold Schwarzenegger epic “Last Action Hero” (1993) with the dogs trekking across America in the 1963 Disney classic “The Incredible Journey,” and you’ll have a fair idea about what this cute canine comedy delivers. “Bolt” is the first Disney animated feature produced by the Mouse House since Pixar genius John Lasseter of “Toy Story” fame assumed creative control. Like previous Lasseter movies, such as “Cars,” “A Bug’s Life,” and “Monsters, Inc.,” the animation in “Bolt” is something to bark about. The incomparable 3-D digital projection is what distinguishes this lighthearted flick. Meanwhile, “Mulan” co-scripters Byron Howard and Chris Williams, who teamed up to helm this hilarious hokum, drum up a lot of jokes about a deluded doggie who dreams that he possesses super heroic powers. “Pulp Fiction” star John Travolta furnishes the voice for the feisty German shepherd puppy, and Disney singing sensation Miley Cyrus voices Penny, the teenager who adores Bolt at first sight when she spots the little nipper at an animal shelter.

The premise of “Bolt” is as fetching as it is far-fetched. Bolt—complete with a jagged lightning insignia across his ribs—becomes the top dog of a prime-time, Google Generation, sci-fi TV show. The contemporary equivalent of Lassie, our four-pawed protagonist shows no fear in a crisis. In the context of the show, Penny desperately searches for her father who has been abducted by an evil Bond-type villain, Dr. Calico (Malcolm McDowell of “A Clockwork Orange”), flanked by two haughty cats. Before Penny’s poppa got kidnapped, he enhanced Bolt with cybernetic powers that make this man’s best friend as powerful as Will Smith’s “Hancock.” Bolt’s prime directive is to protect his ‘person,’ Penny (Miley Cyrus of “Hannah Montana”), from Dr. Calico’s black-clad henchmen. Bolt is so strong that he can smash head-first into a car and send it spinning end-over-end 50 yards in the air. He can turn eyes into molten lasers and burn through anything. Furthermore, he can hightail it down a street faster than a greyhound on afterburners and leap above a hovering helicopter’s whirling rotor blades!

In reality, however, Bolt is nothing more than an average bow-wow. Network TV executives have fooled our hero into thinking that he has cybernetically enhanced brawn. After Bolt has dealt with the villains and gone back to his trailer, the technicians step in and remove the debris. The dead and the wounded get up and brush themselves off. Network executives refuse to let Bolt out of his trailer for fear that he will discover the truth about himself. Nothing Bolt does is real; it’s the result of carefully staged special effects. You can see the resemblance between Bolt and the “Toy Story” character Buzz Lightyear. Everything changes radically for Bolt when two sarcastic cats lure him out of his trailer. During a frantic chase, Bolt traps himself accidentally in a box of pink Styrofoam that is shipped off to New York City. In the Big Apple, three moronic pigeons lead Bolt to a cynical, declawed, black alley cat, Mittens (Susie Essman of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”), and our deluded hero takes her hostage so that he can find Penny. Leashed together like Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier were in the 1958 civil rights thriller “The Defiant Ones,” Bolt drags a reluctant Mittens across America to Hollywood. Along the way, Bolt realizes that he is an ordinary mutt. He succumbs to hunger pangs and begs for scraps at an RV park in Ohio. Infinitely wiser than Bolt, Mittens helps the whelp make his transition from super dog to normal hound.

At the Ohio RV park, Bolt and Mittens encounter Rhino. Rhino (voiced by Mark Walton of “Chicken Little”) is an energetic hamster who rolls around in a transparent plastic exercise ball. His favorite pastime is watching TV with his sphere balanced on the remote control so he can channel surf. The clueless Rhino worships Bolt as the super hero of his dreams and accompanies Mittens and Bolt to Las Vegas where they dine off left over casino buffet food in dumpsters. Along the way, Bolt discovers the simple pleasures of riding with his head stuck out a window of a moving vehicle, his ears sailing in the breeze, with his tongue trailing from the corner of his muzzle like a pennant. Just as Bolt is ready to surrender to the brutal, harsh grind of everyday life, Rhino refuses to let his hero sink into self-pity. Actually, this highly strung little hamster steals the show once he joins them, especially in a scene where Bolt and he rescue Mittens from an animal pound.

The biggest problem with “Bolt” is its anticlimactic plot. Nothing after the electrifying first scene can match Bolt’s clash with Dr. Calico’s attack choppers and the phantom motorcyclists that blast away with missiles at our genetically-altered hero. The finale at the studio where Bolt finds that he has been replaced by a doggie double is particularly heartbreaking, but co-directors Howard and Williams don’t let us down. The animators do a splendid job of replicating Travolta’s facial expressions on the snout of the heroic canine and Travolta reads his lines with admirable restraint. Children should enjoy the antics of these talking animals, and the fantastic 3-D digital projection will knock the eyes out of the adults who are worried about surviving this 81-minute comedy without reward. Watching “Bolt” in any format other than 3-D is a waste of time.

FILM REVIEW OF ''EARTHWORM TRACTORS'' (1936)

Before comedian Jim Carrey came along with to tickle us with his elastic-faced antics, there was Joe E. Brown. This hilarious 1936 vehicle "Earthworm Tractors" (**** out of ****) shows Brown in top comic form as Alexander Botts, a boastful character in the stories of author William Hazlett Upson, who touts himself as 'a natural born salesman and master mechanic.' Born in 1891, William Hazlett Upson worked as a service mechanic and trouble-shooter for Holt Caterpillar Tractor Company. In 1923, Upson started writing short stories. In 1927, the nationally published general interest magazine "Saturday Evening Post" published his first yarn about caterpillar tractor salesman Alexander Botts. Upson wrote his stories in the form of letters and memos between Botts and his boss. Alexander Botts wants to marry pretty Sally Blair (Carol Hughes of "D.O.A."), but he faces stiff competition from broad-shouldered Emmet McManus (brawny Dick Foran of "The Petrified Desert") who drives a nice car. Botts demonstrates the latest product that he sells. This gadget is a pipe that you blow into that sends a little cork up a string and attaches itself to a hook. Grandiosely, he describes this contraption as "a little novelty that opens the pores, clears the eyes, takes the mind off business worries, and last but not least brings laughter back into the life of the working man."

Predictably, Sally's father (Olin Howland of "The Paleface") is appalled and contemptuously calls him a 'peddler.' Emmet laughs uproariously, too. Sally refuses to wed a salesman who sells frivolous items. Together, they scan the pages of a magazine to find something 'big, important, and worthwhile' for him to push, and Botts settles eventually on selling bulldozers for the Earthworm Caterpillar Company. He hopes that Sally will delay any trips to the altar until he can prove that he can sell these bulldozers.

Back in his hotel room, equipped with a phone, Botts types out a letter to the Earthworm Tractor Company and the boss, H.J. Russell (Charles Wilson of "The Mayor of Hell") likes the letter. "It shows the kind of nerve it takes to make sales," proclaims Russell and he sends George Healey (Gene Lockhart of "Northern Pursuit") t0 meet him in Cypress City, Mississippi, to demonstrate the Earthworm Tractor. When Healey meets Botts, he suspects that Botts isn't everything that he has stacked himself up to be as a mechanic. Healey only wants him to demonstrate the Earthworm to a Mr. Jackson, but he guzzles a bottle of what appears to be whiskey but turns out to be shoe polish and winds up sick. Cheerfully, Botts takes his place to make the sale. Healey has told him to look up a Mr. Jackson, but of course, Botts gets Jackson mixed up with Johnson and heads off to sell Johnson. In town, Botts helps a damsel-in-distress, Mabel Johnson (June Travis of "Circus Girl"), who has gotten her convertible sedan stuck in the mud. Botts wraps a rope around her bumper, around a nearby light pole and ties it off to a taxi. The results are hysterical. The back end of the cab is pulled off. The light pole crashes through the glass doors at the bank, but Mabel's car is freed from the mud. Botts tells one and all that the Earthworm Tractor Company will pay for all the damages.

Mabel gives Botts a lift to see her father, cantankerous Sam Johnson (the irrepressible Guy Kibbee of "Babbitt"), who suffers from a hearing loss problem and constantly reprimands his one employee for watching the clock. Johnson hates all things automotive, because he brought a truck and got it stuck in a swamp where it's still sets. Botts comes up with a stratagem to entice Johnson to buy his tractor when he offers to pull Johnson's truck out of the bog with an Earthworm tractor. Johnson and Botts ride to the railway depot in Johnson's horse and wagon. Botts and he climb aboard the Earthworm and Botts—who has never driven a bulldozer—promptly demolishes everything in sight at the depot and then takes the Earthworm down to the swamp. Again, he destroys Johnson's truck. However, in the process of all the mayhem, Botts convinces Mr. Jackson—the man that he was supposed to see—into buying six Earthworms. Before news of the sale reaches Russell, Russell has fired Healey and Botts, but he rehires Botts.

This is only the first half of this wonderfully funny movie. Ray Enright never wastes a moment. When Joe E. Brown doesn't have you in stitches, then Guy Kibbee has you laughing until you want to burst.

FILM REVIEW OF ''SOUL MEN'' (2008)

Samuel L. Jackson and the late comedian Bernie Mac team up as blues singers in “Undercover Brother” director Malcolm D. Lee’s new movie “Soul Men” (** out of ****), a raunchy, R-rated, musical comedy that co-stars late rhythm & blues legend Isaac Hayes. The camaraderie between the cantankerous Jackson and the comedic Mac surpasses their half-witted shenanigans as they embark on a cross-country trip to pay tribute to a dead lead singer with whom they once shared the limelight. Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone's episodic script trots out all the obligatory jokes about Viagra, rectal exams, and infidelity. Our heroes emerge from obscurity and find redemption and success where they least expected. Ironically, “Soul Men” fares better as a drama about two washed-up blues brothers struggling to make a comeback than as a comedy of errors. Although neither Jackson nor Mac can tote a tune in a bucket, they conjure up more than enough charisma to compensate for their lack of vocal talent. Basically, “Soul Men” boils down to an African-American spin on “The Sunshine Boys” meet “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” with a hefty part of the plot taking place in Memphis, Tennessee.

“Soul Men” unfolds like a VH-1 music documentary as we learn about the soul trio Marcus Hooks and the Real Deal. These fellas start out warbling on Memphis street corners and wind up in the big time. Eventually, Marcus (Johnny Legend, a.k.a. John Stephens) abandons his back-up singers, Louis Hinds (Samuel L. Jackson of “Pulp Fiction”) and Floyd Henderson (Bernie Mac of “Transformers”), to pursue a solo career. Marcus finds fame, but our heroes—the Real Deal—burn out as one-hit wonders. Creative differences drive them apart in 1979 and they go their separate ways. Floyd reaps greater monetary fame promoting an L.A. car wash with bikini-clad babes soaping up bumpers, while Louis botches a bank robbery and serves time in prison.

“Soul Men” shifts from the past to the present. Floyd finds himself put out to pasture in a luxurious retirement village by his goofy son Duane (Mike Epps of “Next Friday”) who has taken over his father’s business. Predictably, Floyd gets bored playing golf and has to gobble Viagra galore to keep up with a voluptuous neighbor who wants his body more than his soul. Floyd suffers from insomnia. One night while watching television, he learns that Marcus has died during a concert performance in Stockholm. No sooner does Floyd hear about this tragedy than record label owner Danny Epstein (Sean Hayes of “The Bucket List”) rings him up. Epstein wants Floyd and Louis to perform at Marcus’ tribute at the world famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Naturally, Floyd leaps at the offer and looks up Louis.

Louis, on the other hand, doesn’t jump at the offer. Out on parole, Louis toils as a mechanic and lives in hopeless squalor. After a tough day at the garage, Louis comes home to his depressing apartment to find Floyd rummaging through his things. Before Floyd can say something, Louis decks him with a right cross to the jaw that crumples Floyd to the floor. When he recovers, Floyd tries to reason with Louis and begs him to appear at the Apollo so that he can reboot their blues singing career. Louis flatly refuses until Floyd tells him that they can pick up an easy twenty grand. Shrewd, cynical Louis reluctantly agrees to join Floyd, but only if Floyd gives Louis sixty per cent of the split and they drive across country rather than fly.

A frustrated Floyd caves in to Louis’ demands. They hit the road in a lime-green Cadillac and do a series of one-night performances at motel lounges across Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma. Things get complicated along the way when they try to visit an old girlfriend, discover that she is dead, and meet her beautiful daughter, Cleo (Sharon Leal of “Dreamgirls”), who contends with an abusive boyfriend. Louis and Floyd rescue her from the boyfriend, Lester (Affion Crockett of “Compton Cowboy”), and she accompanies them. She finds her voice as a blues singer on the road. When our heroes chill in Memphis, local sensation Isaac Hayes offers Cleo a contract. While things soar from Cleo, everything goes south for our protagonists. Louis and Floyd get into trouble, end up in jail, and then Floyd pulls a real boner. The Memphis Police release Floyd, but they hold Louis since he has violated his parole. Floyd realizes he cannot sing solo at the Apollo, so he breaks his old partner out of jail. The surveillance camera footage makes the news. Now, our heroes are the object of a nation-wide manhunt, so when they arrive in Harlem, they have to dodge the N.Y.P.D.

Predictably, everything works out. “Soul Men” qualifies as neither a great movie nor a good movie, more like a minor movie. However, you cannot take your eyes off either Samuel L. Jackson or Bernie Mac when they do their routines. They spend most of the film’s 100 minute running time hurling hardcore expletives at each other. Depending on your sense of humor, you'll either hurt yourself laughing when they badmouth each other or you will hang your head in despair. Jackson and Mac are fun to watch, especially when they don their flashy outfits and perform choreographed dance numbers. Isaac Hayes pretty much plays himself in a subplot. Bernie Mac deserved a better film than “Soul Men” to conclude his career. Spike Lee's younger brother director Malcolm D. Lee wraps up the film with a tribute to Mac’s career.