LEFTOVER REVIEWS: AND SO IT GOES & PLANES 2

year: 2014 rating: *

AND SO IT GOES: In a way, the once worthy SPINAL TAP, PRINCESS BRIDE, STAND BY ME and MISERY director Rob Reiner has returned to his ALL IN THE FAMILY roots by making a film in which the main character, played by AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT Michael Douglas, is the type of racist, sexist, grumpy lug that, by the end, you’re supposed to embrace… Especially after reluctantly connecting with a young girl (where we enter the Meathead-free ARCHIE BUNKER'S PLACE territory)...

But Oren Little, a cantankerous East Coast real estate mogul who lives in a dilapidated yet artistic apartment complex while trying to sell his mansion, is no Archie Bunker. Nor is he the kind of antagonistic protagonist that Jack Nicholson brought to life in AS GOOD AS IT GETS, a movie AND SO IT GOES tries desperately hard to imitate.

Douglas isn't peripherally funny enough in his loathsome bickering, and the writing is disjointed and awkward, especially as we progressively learn of Oren's tragic back-story: either through his heroin-addicted son, faithful employees or the tenants inhabiting the outdoorsy complex, including and especially low rent lounge-singing Diane Keaton as Leah. Imagine if Annie Hall, now older, more content and still dreaming of a possible musical career, lacked the right romantic partner to make her quirkiness shine... 

As a love interest, Keaton is wasted in a movie that promises a Rom-Com outlet for older viewers. With a barrage of forced blue humor and extremely uncomfortable sexual discussions, GOES doesn’t seem catered to its target audience, providing a vapid catharsis for the bland couple who have zero chemistry together, or with anyone else. Even when the lead plot is unburied… of Oren and Leah forced to take care of his granddaughter… the story, balancing clichés and frivolous bouts of contrived dialogue, leads absolutely nowhere.

year: 2014 rating: *1/2

PLANES 2: Any movie that has Erik Estrada providing the voice of a cocky helicopter as part of a nostalgic television show called “CHoPS” has to be worth something...

Well PLANES: FIRE & RESCUE is a tad better than the original, PLANES, a CARS spinoff providing Disney a series of relatively low budget programmers for kids: Now taking the main character Dusty Crophopper, fresh from globetrotting race fame, to a new job as part of a fire rescue team, using his former dust-cropping skills for a worthy cause.

Unfortunately, much of the story deals with Dusty having dull conversations with other cutesy machines, and little time is spent on the adventurous premise. Besides the one big rescue scene, reminiscent from any old school Irwin Allen disaster flick, it’s mostly a chance for our poorly-voiced hero (Dane Cook couldn't be more dull) and his new mentor, Blade Ranger, a has-been celebrity helicopter, to gripe about their pitiful lives... And this is supposedly catered to kids!

From sneaking curse words into sentences to random pop culture references, children will not know enough to even scratch their heads about it. They just want colorful characters... who in this case, needed way more color...

In a world without humans, perhaps next time we can find out who actually built the vehicles. The machines are cool enough, especially during action sequences, but as “people” they’re simply not that interesting.