The Trip to Italy - 1 frown

“The Trip to Italy,” the sequel to The Trip starring British comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, who play fictionalized version of themselves, is a boring waste of time. The main problem is Brydon, who was mildly irritating in The Trip, but now, he is uncontrollable. In addition to an impersonation of Michael Caine (which in the first movie was tolerable), he carts out poor imitations of Al Pacino, Christian Bale, Richard Burton and Hugh Grant. Half the time he has to tell us who he’s imitating for fear we won’t get it. And when he and Coogan start on their ‘schtick’ together, for sure it’s only entertaining to them.

The food looks appetizing and the Italian vistas are beautiful, but all these guys do is talk, talk, talk. It all feels wasted on them. And in spite of the numerous quotations from Byron and visits to the places Byron visited, the movie grows more tedious as the minutes pass. Why watch these people? What’s the point? And that’s the problem with “The Trip to Italy.” There is no point. 9/15/14

November Man - 3 smiles

Pierce Brosnan still has it. In his latest actioner, “November Man,” Brosnan plays a retired spy who’s pulled back into the game for one last caper. It’s unfortunate that his script, written by Michael Finch & Karl Gajdusek and based on There Are No Spies by Bill Granger, uses every spy cliché imaginable and mixes them with shoot-outs, fight scenes and chases. But Brosnan is good, giving us a version of what his Bond might have looked like after retirement. Here Brosnan is Peter Devereaux and his employer is the CIA. The movie opens with a prologue set in 2008. Veteran spy Devereaux is in charge of teaching his hotheaded pupil, David Mason (Luke Bracey), the tricks of the trade. During a mission, Mason makes a mistake and, because he disobeys a direct order, a child is killed. Disillusioned and unable to shake the image of the dead boy, Devereaux opts for retirement. Meanwhile, Mason becomes a top agent, effectively filling Devereaux’s vacated position. The main body of the story jumps forward by five years. Devereaux is called back into action by his old handler, Hanley (Bill Smitrovich), to protect a Russian informant who has valuable intel about soon-to-be-Russian president Arkady Federov (Lazar Ristovski). Things don’t go well for Devereaux, probably because there’s a conspiracy afoot with a mole in the CIA (as there always is) and the informant (who coincidentally is the mother of Devereaux’s child) is killed. Devereaux is blamed and the CIA puts out a hit on him, sending (of course) his former student. Devereaux begins sifting through Federov’s past and finds Alice Fournier (Olga Kurylenko), a social worker who once helped the underage sex slave Federov was linked to. As Devereaux gets closer to unraveling the conspiracy, Mason is hot on his trail.

Director Roger Donaldson (who previously worked with Brosnan in Dante’s Peak) does well with the action scenes although you have to suspend disbelief when you see the older Brosnan fighting the younger Bracey. The plot has a few holes and the characters are not well developed (but you really can’t expect that much characterization in an action movie). Brosnan is a compelling figure and he is surrounded by a group of capable character actors, making “November Man” an enjoyable afternoon matinee. 8/29/14

When the Game Stands Tall - 2 1/2 smiles

“When the Game Stands Tall” tells an interesting story about the impact of a loss on a team, its players and the community. And although it’s based on a true event, the movie is too cliché-riddled and predictable to be a top sports movie. The critical defeat, which occurs early in the proceedings, serves as little more than a plot point and its ramifications are handled in a perfunctory manner laced with a lot of ‘losing builds character’ homilies. In the late summer of 2004, the De La Salle Spartans, the varsity football team of a Concord, California high school, held the longest winning streak in organized football: 151 games over 12 undefeated seasons. On September 4, De La Salle had the streak snapped after falling to the underdog Bellvue Wolverines. Director Thomas Carter includes enough background to bring the uninitiated up to speed: during the summer following the Spartans’ march to their 12^th state title, a star player is shot to death, Coach Bob Ladouceur (Jim Caviezel) suffers a heart attack and most of the team’s top talent departs for college glory. After their loss, Ladouceur must refocus his players so their legacy becomes greater than that of ‘the boys who broke the streak.’

The film’s most entertaining and exciting sections of the film are two football match-ups – a pivotal game against powerhouse long Beach Poly and a state championship contest. Unfortunately, when the action moves off the field, the narrative gets overly sentimental with clichéd dialogue, stock situations and trite characters. Plus Carter is so manipulative that you’re sure to need a tissue. Jim Caviezel, currently one of the stars in Person of Interest on CBS, rarely emotes, delivering his lines in mostly a monotone. You would think that a coach would have a little more energy. Laura Dern has the thankless role of the supporting wife and Michael Chiklis, as Ladoucer’s assistant coach Teddy Edison, steals just about every scene he’s in. “When the Game Stands Tall” is too intent on influencing our emotions that it loses sight of some potentially powerful issues about hero worship and how the pressure to succeed can be damaging. Nonetheless, it’s a feel-good movie that you might want to see before it leaves the theaters. 8/24/14