If you’re one of the people that was proud to see America elect it’s first African-American President in the last election, join the club. But if you’re wondering why it took so damn long, remember that it wasn’t very long ago that racism was the accepted way of life in the U.S. of A.  The Help shines a light on a period of our history that is at once shameful and uplifting.  It’s a light that shows the beauty of 1960s America, but also turns up a mess of dirt too many people tried to sweep under the rug.  Oh, and did I mention that it’s also laugh-out-loud funny?

Poor little Eugenia Phelan.  Graduated from college without a man.  Can you imagine?  Well, in 1962 that was a real disappointment to your family, especially if you’re from Jackson, Mississippi.  So when Eugenia, or Skeeter, decides to head out to find a J.O.B., you can best believe her momma is hoping she’ll soon wrap up that M.R.S. degree right quick.  But when Skeeter agrees to take over a local newspaper article on household tips she gets a peek at the life of “the help”; the maids, cooks, nannys and other domestics that keep Jackson running like a fine oiled machine.  A peek she’s determined to share with the world, with the help of a few maids willing to share their stories.

Emma Stone (Easy A) continues her path to A-list stardom with her portrayal of Skeeter Phelan.  Those huge eyes of hers can open in total innocence, well up with tears of sorrow and indignation, or narrow with shrewd insight.  Bryce Dallas Howard (Spider-Man 3) as Hilly Holbrook is absolutely boo-hiss evil in her determination to keep things “separate, but equal.  Always equal!”  But even though Hilly is the brunt of the movie’s ire, Howard takes a flat-out baddie and gives a performance with real depth.  But when it comes to in-depth performances, two particularly stand out in this crowd of talent.  Octavia Spencer’s Minnie Jackson is a woman who has had enough and snaps, someone who has had too much done to her to begin to trust anyone.  When she takes a job working for someone who treats her as an equal, you feel every bit of her fear and confusion.  Viola Davis (Eat Pray Love), as Aibileen Clark, Skeeter Phelan’s co-writer/co-conspirator, runs the gamut of emotions in this film, and delivers a performance that is sure to turn the heads of the Academy.  Aibileen is a woman who has raised children as a maid, only to see them grow from  sweet, accepting children to staunch advocates of Jim Crow.  The weariness and frustration shows in all she does, covered by a thin layer of polish that is slowly fading with every new day.  It’s true that Stone gives life and breath to Skeeter, but Davis is the one you can’t take your eyes off of.

Side stories in The Help are just as engaging as the central one.  Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain, Tree of Life), is the new floozy in town, but she has a heart of gold under that peroxide, and she forms a bond with Minnie that “isn’t done” in Mississippi, but is a welcome look at how an outsider in those times might have seen things.  Missus Walters, the borderline senile mother of Hilly, has some growing pains when she moves into her daughter’s home.  Sissy Spacek plays Missus Walters with so much obvious enjoyment she practically levitates, and definitely steals any scene she’s in.

Director/Screenwriter Tate Taylor takes the words of Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling novel and turns them into a fantastic screenplay, full of honest sounding dialogue.  Taylor also does an excellent job of slipping real history into The Help.  We watch and listen along with the characters as they receive news of assassinations and riots, and it reminds viewers exactly how dangerous this funny little story could have been back then.The soundtrack is a basket full of memory lane, with “(You’ve Got) Personality”, by Lloyd Price, “Sherry”, by Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons, and, of course, “Jackson”, by Johnny Cash and June Carter.  The song that sums up the movie is The Orlon’s dance-craze song of the early 60s, The Wa-Watusi, a song white kids in Jackson listened to without giving it’s origins a thought.  To quote Sidney Poitier in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, “you can do the Watusi, but we are the Watusi”.

The Help takes up where Mad Men left off; the serious problem of racism in America’s south in the 1960s.  It was a time of great upheaval, with “one step forward, two steps back” the norm for years.  The Help doesn’t select bits and pieces for your enjoyment, it let you have it all, ready or not.  And in doing so it becomes not only a must-see film, but a story you’ll remember long after the credits roll.

Cal is a steady going Dad whose life is turned upside down when his wife Emily brashly confesses that she’s had an affair and wants a divorce.  Thrust into a world of new single-hood, he finds an affable and incredibly stylish womanizing friend in Jacob.  Jacob helps him to reshape his persona and at the same time re-examine the steps that led him to his current state and how recapturing his manhood would inevitably get it back.  Lovelorn for his wayward wife and still seemingly obsessed with fatherly landscaping duties (witness the midnight trips to his old house just to keep the grounds immaculate…hilarious), he embarks on a complete mind and body makeover that not only opens his eyes to a world he never knew, but manages to help him cope and adjust his thinking about his outlook on family and friends.

Crazy, Stupid Love has the star power and plot material to make another great family hugging, love inducing, tear jerking all around feel good movie (like 2003’s Love Actually), but it just doesn’t get there.  I loved the casting though, Emma Stone (Superbad) and Julianne Moore (Short Cuts) are the dynamic redheaded duo leading the female star power, but are aptly supported by Marisa Tomei (Four Rooms) and even Beth Littleford (I still remember her as a delightful spunky correspondent on TV’s The Daily Show).  Steve Carell (Dinner For Schmucks) is solid on the male end, and thankfully transparent of his ‘Michael’ character from TV’s The Office.  Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson) is picture perfect as ladies man Jacob.  Looking practically chiseled both in body and face, I was kindly reminded why he ranks so high on the ladies lists of ‘hotties.’  The subject matter was far from a stretch for him and he’s played vulnerability with much more conviction (do I need to mention that flick?).  Kevin Bacon (Footloose) rounds out the supporting cast as David the recipient of the cuckolding desires of Emily (is it me, or is Bacon aging roughly?).  I had the pleasure of knowing his father Edmund and the similarities are definitely getting closer.

As a family themed drama the film is barely passable.  Ditto for its attempt to be a hip and rowdy display of singles life, and even a teen angst filled throbbing love story.  Let’s not mention its misguided attempt at showing a signals-crossed relationship between Emma Stone’s character Hannah and her would be boyfriend Richard (hey…is that singer Josh Groban).   It has all the means to deliver, it just comes up episodic.  Less of a story of journey and discovery ending in a storybook happy ending, it’s more a piece of a family; a piece of life and only a part of the story that in its third act, just doesn’t end well.  I guess, like cuckolding, you can’t really think it will end on a positive note.  Maybe the filmmakers got it right.

2 stars out of 5

Crazy, Stupid, Love is rated PG-13 for coarse humor, sexual content and language.  Running Time: 118 minutes

When was the last time that we were given a really good sketch-comedy film, packed with big names and famous faces each taking just a few minutes to put us in hysterics and then pass the screen to the next wacky cameo? Remember The Kentucky Fried Movie, the 1977 masterpiece of tastelessness that shocked audiences all the way into risque comedy history? What about Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life? Even Weird Al Yankovic’s brilliantly absurd UHF is considered a classic in its own right these days. So why the significant lack of sketch films in the modern age? They seem like such a perfect vehicle for studios to load with stars and rake in the returns. You’d think more people in Hollywood would be jumping at the chance to revive the genre.

Luckily, there’s a whole slew of names to the sketch-comedy rescue!

Relativity Media has gathered an impressive array of talent for a new sketch movie that’s set to hit production by May. So far, we know that different segments will be directed by Brett Ratner, Peter Farrelly, Bob Odenkirk, Griffin Dunne, and even Zach and Miri Make A Porno actress Elizabeth Banks making her debut behind the camera.

The list of actors signed on for the as-yet-untitled laugh-fest is even more noteworthy. Gerard Butler, Kieran Culkin, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Knoxville, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Liev Schreiber, Sean William Scott, Tony Shalhoub, Emma Stone, Matt Walsh, Patrick Warburton, Naomi Watts, and Kate Winslet are all expected to make appearances, most of them probably pretty brief.

So in honor of this news, Atomic Popcorn wants to know: What’s your favorite sketch-comedy movie?

Against all odds and desire, I have yet to see Zombieland. However, this hasn’t stopped the film from raking in some serious dough, hopefully a sign that more horror comedies will be headed our way.

The $25 million success of the film has led to obvious discussions of a potential sequel. Co-screenwriter Paul Wernicke had this to say on the subject:

“We would love it, and everyone involved creatively wants to do another one. Woody [Harrelson] came up to us after the final cut of the last scene and gave us a hug and said, ‘I’ve never wanted to do a sequel in the previous movies I’ve done until this one.’ “

Wernick and Rhett Reese plan to return to write a sequel if Zombieland 2 gets greenlit, and they claim that Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin and director Ruben Fleischer all have interest in a sequel.

“It has lived in our heads for four-and-a-half years,” Wernick said. “We developed it and wrote it as a spec TV pilot in the summer of 2005. We’ve got a long brainstorming document that still to this day gets updated on a near-weekly basis with ideas. We’ve got tons of new ideas swimming in our head.”

If the gang’s all back, I’m all for it. Hopefully Fleischer goes and does another interesting project in the interim though — I hate when talented directors get stuck in the rut of their first film’s success. It works for some (Eli Roth, for example), but many, like Sam Raimi, have the desire to move on to other pastures.

Wernick and Reese have also been working on Venom for Sony.

More news on Zombieland 2 as it develops here on AtomicPopcorn.net!

First of all, it’s all-cards-on-the-table time.  Zombieland is only the third zombie flick I’ve ever seen.  I know,  I know.  I’m sorry.  28 days later and Shaun of the Dead are the other two.  Not even one of the real “Dead” series.  They’re on my Netflix queue and have been for quite some time.  I just haven’t gotten around to them.  Things come up, y’know?  Wha’d’ya do?  I also saw Planet Terror, but I’m nearly done blocking that from my memory so it doesn’t count.  That all being said I got to go to an advance screening of this film, sat down with some popcorn and soda (as is appropriate) and thoroughly enjoyed Zombieland.

Before the film started, a gentleman, I’m assuming from the studio, got up in front of the theater, asked for our attention and told us we were one of the first audiences to see this film.  He said that the film was incomplete and had imperfections that would be fixed before it gets released.  I did notice some CGI that needed work, the color correction wasn’t finished, some night scenes were very grainy, and there may be some editing and music cues that will be fine-tuned.  None of it was really distracting, but I am intrigued to see how different the final product will be.  The CGI that was there looks like the computer jockeys were taking a page from the “Zack Snyder Style of Filming Violence” – extreme slow motion and blood that looks like cherry Jell-O.  Even the opening credits’ style was nearly identical to what Snyder did in Watchmen, except that each vignette shows either a zombie kill or a zombie chase – all set to “Knights of Cydonia” by Muse.  It is effective, so I don’t blame them for ripping it off.  I am led to believe that zombies come in two flavors: fast and suh-low.  The ones in this film are fast, sprinting at people and ripping them apart in gory ways, all while bodily fluids of all disgusting sorts spew from their gaping maws.

Our narrator (yes, there is heavy voiceover throughout the entire film and somewhere Robert McKee is shaking his head) is Jesse Eisenberg as Columbus.  This being Jesse’s second “–land” film of the year, he is making a nice niche of being Michael Sera’s understudy.  However, I prefer Eisenberg over Sera since Sera seems to be unable to get past an awkward stammering shtick.  In this film Jesse does the unconfident shtick but he adds in personality – some heart and some guts added convincingly when the story calls for it.  I see Eisenberg someday being Woody Allen’s alter ego in one of Allen’s films.  When we meet him, Columbus is on his own as the zombie apocalypse has turned everyone he knows into a flesh-eating monster.  Along the way, he has created 32 rules for staying alive.  These rules get posted on the screen as they are used, often to very comic effect.

Before the film gets too far into Omega Man territory, Columbus meets Tallahassee.  All the main characters are named for the cities they come from… or are heading to, it was unclear.  This is supposed to keep them from getting too close to one another in case one of them gets bit and the rest need to put him away.  Woody Harrelson, no doubt summoning Mikey Knox back up from where he lays, plays Tallahassee to Snake Plissken perfection.  He is an unapologetic sociopathic badass with a heart of gold, played to the hilt, and he will go down in history with the best of them.  Pure fun.  As Columbus is being dragged on Tallahassee’s ongoing quest to find one more Twinkie to consume, they meet sisters, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin).  There are many trust issues between the four survivors that threaten their wobbly alliance throughout the rest of the flick but the girls become the motives for the guys for the rest of the film.

This film is not a horror film – it’s a action/comedy in the Shaun of the Dead vein.  On top of that, it’s a road trip and their destination is wherever they see hope on the horizon.  Wichita and Little Rock are on their way to an amusement park near Los Angeles called Pacific Playland.  It is a place that held good memories for them both and it becomes the main set piece for the finale.  But before getting there they decide to crash in a Beverly Hills mansion they believe is unoccupied.  This leads to one of the funniest parts of the film and one of the best cameos I’ve seen in a long time.  I’ll say no more here, for to do so would spoil the fun.  Suffice it to say this movie is filled with all sorts of pop references which may date the film, but which will not take anything away from it.

Zombies on film are often used as metaphors.  From indictments of the Vietnam War, commentaries on the Civil Rights movement or critiques of our own consumer-based culture, zombies have been stand-ins for many many things.  So what are the filmmakers trying to portray with the undead here?  Thankfully, they obliterate any uncertainty in the last line of the film.  “Without other people, you might as well be a zombie.”  And with that they set up a sequel very nicely.  If it comes, I’ll be there on opening weekend.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Zombie movies have been one of the staples of horror cinema for years, known best through George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Horror and comedy rarely make a fine mix; one of the very few exceptions was the 2004 hit Shaun of the Dead. A new film enters that exclusive list, Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland. Tying in a proper balance of gore and laughs, this movie is blood-gushing roller coaster ride that you will not want to get off of.

The story follows ‘Columbus’ (Jesse Eisenberg), a soft spoken college student who is one of few survivors of what’s better known as Zombieland. Quickly he joins an unlikely group of people, like the zombie-killing machine Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), the seductive Wichita (Emma Stone) and the clever Little Rock (Abigail Breslin).

One of the stronger points of the film is not the comedic timing, but the overall pace. There is not a single dull moment that takes place in this movie, leaving you at the end of it wanting more. The story is predictable to a degree, but with the colorful characters and direction, that does not become much of a factor.

Jesse Eisenberg’s character Columbus is timid yet brave, and he plays it out to its full extent. Even though he’s already well-known for being the soft-spoken hero, his chemistry with the rest of his co-stars works perfectly. Woody Harrelson, taking on the role of the gun-toting Tallahassee, is the most enjoyable part of the film. He’s the crazy bad ass person you love to cheer for as he carries on his quest for the last Twinkie. Emma Stone sticks on as the sassy and strong female lead, bringing her own persona and proving that she is an actress to keep an eye on. Abigail Breslin continues to slowly blossom in her own acting abilities, showing she is well able to hold her own among some more seasoned actors.

Ruben Fleischer proves that he can take the lead, driving us head first into the terrifying alternative present. Though his style may not stand out to an excessive degree, he gets the job done and tells a well-rounded story. The cinematography from Michael Bonvillain worked on all levels, not only in his depiction of this bleak apocalyptic world but the connection of unity (or lack thereof) between the four main characters. The production design from Maher Ahmad was simple yet effective, being able to better showcase the utter chaos that ensues scene after scene after scene throughout the film.

What originally was an all-but-dead time for zombies has re-emerged through comedy with this film. Zombieland packs the laughter, action, and horror all into one movie that has been long overdue.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

More adventure than Adventureland

In the most ridiculously awesome news of the day, the kind souls at Columbia have released the undead trailer for their upcoming horror-comedy Zombieland.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer and starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, Zombieland takes place in a world overrun by zombies. It’s fiction, just so you know…

Harrelson and Eisenberg (Adventureland) play two dudes who seem to have the keen ability to stay alive in a world run by the living dead. They join forces with two other survivors (Stone and Breslin) and the two teams are forced to work with each other…or face being zombie food.

Zombieland opens in theaters October 9th.

Enjoy the trailer below:

Many fans of Watchmen director Zack Snyder will be happy to know that he’s still going strong in the live action movie circuit, despite him helming the Warner Bros animated feature, Guardians of Ga’Hoole. His latest original creation, Sucker Punch, has finally found the actress to fit the bill for the lead role. Previously the role was offered to Mamma Mia’s Amanda Seyfried, but unfortunately the blue eyed actress had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with the latest season of HBO’s Big Love. Now, Snyder has re-casted the lead to be Emily Browning (The Uninvited).

Sucker Punch is set in the 1950s, circling around a girl who is trying to hide from the pain caused by her evil stepfather and a lobotomy. She ends up in a mental institution and while in there starts to imagine an alternative reality. She plans to escape from that imaginary world, but to do that she needs to steal five objects before she is caught by a vile man. (Courtesy of IMDB)

Those among the cast so far are Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical 3), Evan Racheal Wood (The Wrestler) and Emma Stone (Superbad). The film is set to release on October 8, 2010.