Rapture-Palooza

Directed by Paul Middleditch.

2013. Rated R, 85 minutes.

Cast:

Craig Robinson

Anna Kendrick

John Francis Daley

Rob Corddry

Ana Gasteyer

Thomas Lennon

Ken Jeong

Tyler Labine

Paul Scheer

Adrianna Costa

If you're familiar with the Bible then you know that after the Rapture, things on Earth go haywire. Well, that's where we are. Much of the population has vanished from the planet and taken up residence in Heaven. Those left behind have to deal with locusts, blood rain, falling meteorites, wraiths, and yes, The Anti-Christ in the form of Earl Grundy (Robinson) who prefers to be called, what else, The Beast. He's taken over the U.S. government, dropped nukes on Chicago and Orlando among other places around the world. Now, he's living in Seattle and has taken a liking to local girl Lindsey (Kendrick). Not being the sort of girl that goes for bad boys, but one that does have a boyfriend, she turns him down flat. Unfortunately, you just can't tell the Anti-Christ no. He gives her an ultimatum. Either she marries him or he will kill everyone in her family. She has eight hours to decide. What's a girl to do?

Immediately, we start down the path of religous satire. It's meant to be a rather irreverent one, at that. No problem. A number of good movies have successfully taken on organized religion. Even if you're a devout follower of one or another, you have to admit it's a big target. From time to time, someone is going to take a shot at it. Sadly, even if you were nodding off reading up to this point, nothing as interesting as this review happens in Rapture-Palooza. I'm not just tooting my own horn, either. Travel around to as many different sites and read as many different reviews as you want. I promise every one of them will be far more intriguing than this movie.

Our heroes are just plain bland, and yes, I purposely put two synonyms next to each other for emphasis. Anna Kendrick sleepwalks through her role in the lead. John Francis Daley, who plays her boyfriend Ben, whines his way through his. I really wanted to slap him. Hard. Twice. At least. As our villain, Craig Robinson pretty much does what Craig Robinson does. He isn't necessarily bad, just failed by the writing of his character. In a movie meant to spoof Christianity, the character of the Anti-Christ is ripe with possibilities. There are so many depths to be mined. However, this movie is content to have him talk dirty, really dirty, to Anna Kendrick. Further robbing the character of any power, his behavior, and his race merely exploit stereotypes in hopes of getting cheap laughs. It doesn't. Instead, it just plays like white guy paranoia. Literally, it feels like it's a movie about a big evil black guy out to take an innocent white woman from her loving white boyfriend. That their grand solution is trying to lock him up doesn't help matters. Oops, spoiler alert...not really.

Believe it or not, there are actually three potentially interesting characters in the movie. The first is Lindsey's mom Lora (Gasteyer). She was taken during the rapture, but was sent back. All she gets to do is cry. A loud, fake "movie" cry. Let's move on. Next is Mr. Murphy (Lennon). He's become a zombie, but doesn't try to eat anyone. Neither do any of the other zombies, but that's beside the point. Mr. Murphy seems to have a story that's begging to be told. He just pushes an imaginary lawn mower until he gets a real one. Sigh. Finally, Ben's dad Walt (Corddry). He's one of the few who has managed to make a nice living and has done so by working for The Beast. Hmmm....could be a complex character that gives us some food for thought. Nope. His job is to repeatedly urge Lindsey to marry his boss. Ugh. At least we get an unfunny cameo from Ken Jeong. SMH.

Here is where I usually try to wrap up my review with a nice tidy conclusion summarizing all of my thoughts on the movie. On a good day, I'll end it with a clever sentence. This ain't a good day, boys and girls. Rapture-Palooza sucks and I've spent far too much time on it.

MY SCORE: 0/10

We're the Millers

Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber.

Jason Sudeikis

Jennifer Aniston

Emma Roberts

Will Poulter

Ed Helms

Nick Offerman

Kathryn Hahn

Molly C. Quinn

Tomer Sisley

Luis Guzman

Thomas Lennon

David (Sudeikis) is the local weed man in the Denver community where he lives. Yeah, I know. Circumstances dictate that he desperately needs to repay a debt to his supplier Brad (Helms). Brad tells him all will be forgiven if he goes down to Mexico and brings back "a smidge, smidge and a half" of weed. David hatches a plan to pose as a family hoping that he won't get harassed by Border Patrol that way. Since he doesn't have a family of his own, he has to recruit one. He gets troubled, but very different teens Kenny (Poulter) and Casey (Roberts) to play his kids. To complete the picture he gets Rose (Aniston), the stripper who lives across the hall and is facing eviction, to play his wife. And away we go.

Early on, We're the Millers does what it sets out to do. It makes us laugh. While Sudeikis is getting in lots of great lines, much of the humor comes from Kenny's naivete. Jennifer Aniston continues to poke fun at herself for, of all things, being her age and still looking great (see most of her movies in the last decade). The situations are appropriately zany, giving us the giggles on that front. Finally, Ed Helms is a riot. It all adds up to the first two thirds being fast and fun.

As it must in all movies, the third act eventually comes. When it does, things take a turn for the mundane. It's not really all that bad, just generic. In place of all the sizzle of the earlier parts, we get a steady descent into sentimentality. The filmmakers seem hell bent on making the ending as cute as possible. It comes off as them taking the easy way out. To do this, all of the loose ends are tied too neatly. This leads to predictability. In fact, nothing unexpected happens as the movie rushes toward its climax. Action picks up and the laughs mostly subside. Action and happy endings aren't inherently good or bad, but in the context of We're the Millers they're the expected and, therefore, less satisfying outcome.

Being pretty good for two thirds of the run time, however is a fate that befalls many a comedy. In trying to solve their conflicts, the last third is often filled with shootouts, explosions, and getting everyone happy. This is no different. In fact, it follows that pattern to a tee. Thankfully, WtM successfully humors us early, making it easy to forgive its flaws. It's still not enough to make us completely overlook them. If you don't laugh early, then forget it because it's not getting any better. For those of us that do, even if we have a number of deep belly laughs, we can't help but think it could've been much better.

MY SCORE: 6.5/10