Focus Features and Laika released yesterday the second trailer for stop-motion animation ParaNorman. Frankly, it looks awesome giving us a lot more insight into the story courtesy of new scenes, voice-overs, and dialog, the last two being absent from the first trailer.

You know what they say, better short and sweet than long and boring. Running at just 1 minute and 9 seconds, that’s exactly what this trailer is.

As you can see, Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee) can see the dead and speak to them. But unlike Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense this is a comedy and animated to boot, so expect more than a few funny scenes. Besides that, he will have to face ghosts, zombies and grown-ups to save his town from a centuries-old curse.

Did I mention it comes from Laika? Only the guys that brought us the amazing Coraline back in 2009. Also it’s stop-motion in 3D, so what more could you want?

Directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell, ParaNorman features the voices of Anna Kendrick, Leslie Mann, Christopher Mintz-Plass, John Goodman, Casey Affleck and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the titular character.

So again, ghosts, zombies, stop-motion, Coraline, John Goodman, Leslie Mann and McLovin. If you’re not sold yet then I don’t know what else to say. Oh yeah, ParaNorman comes out August 17th (same day as The Expendables 2) so mark your calendar, NOW!

What’s that you say, you don’t have a 2012 calendar yet? Then buy one you cheap bastard.

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Is it a bad thing when the animation tells a better story than the characters’ dialogue? Can voice-over work really hamper a CGI cartoon?  The answer to these interrogatories is both yes and no.

Rio is 96 minutes of splendid visuals and vibrant characters. The flick is flying high until some of them start to open their mouths. More specifically, beaks. Now one should know that yours truly screened this the morning after a healthy night of birthday celebrating.  So although the professionalism of this review will remain high (well, by my standards), I do believe in full disclosure.

Blu (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg) is a macaw who was removed from his natural habitat at birth and happened to “land” in Minnesota. He was found by a young girl, who took the cute little guy in and raised him with an abundance of love. As Linda (voiced by Leslie Mann) and Blu look out for each other in their daily activities, a random young scientist named Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) enters Linda’s book store and begs her to allow him to bring her and Blu to Rio de Janeiro. His reason is a noble one, for he wants to ensure the survival of the macaw species by having Blu mate with Jewel (voiced by Anne Hathaway).

Jewel is very independent and is confused by the domesticated behavior of Blu. All she wants to do is escape the conservation lab and fly free. Blu just wants to hang with Linda, but is suddenly love struck after meeting Jewel.  Meanwhile, a group of thugs are trying to capture the rare species and sell the two non-love birds for a profit.  With the help of their enforcer bird Nigel (voiced by Jemaine Clement), the chase is on for Blu and Jewel. Since Blu is unable to fend for himself in the wild (can’t fly, prefers to stay on the ground), they elicit help from a toucan named Rafael (voiced by George Lopez); who guides them around the city that is currently playing hosts to one of the biggest parties in the world…Carnival.

The animated Rio de Janeiro is depicted and shot beautifully. Your eyes will be fixated on how the cinematography captured the full-scope of the city while following the two birds through city streets and the surrounding forest. Mechanically speaking, there is not one issue to take up with how this was packaged. But the choosing of a few cast members will ruffle your feathers.

Jesse Eisenberg’s voice is just not doing it here. It feels awkward every time he talks. The natural charisma physically shown on screen, is negated by the lifeless dialogue. It’s funny how good actors sometimes fail with these voice over duties (Elijah Wood in 9 anyone?). On the other hand, Anne Hathaway is a prime example on how a voice can enhance a character. Thankfully the script attaches (literally) these two characters together for most of the story, so the audience is not stuck with just listening to the bland Blu.

Speaking of bland, this story is about as fundamental as they come. It reminds one of Lady and the Tramp, but doesn’t have the steady heartbeat that doggie love story/adventure emitted. The most touching scenes occur when no words are spoken in Rio. Especially in the opening and climatic moments. Yet everything between is just blah. If it wasn’t for the enticing camera work, and the colorful supporting cast, all ages would fly away from this piece.

Overall, Rio has the looks that kill (in a good way). Problem is, the story and some of the performances didn’t have the personality to match. The younger audiences will be entranced by the animation and the story is simplistic enough, where it will not zoom over their heads. However, not all the material will penetrate yours.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5

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Alright, folks! I was told by Liam, my fierce English Editor that Funny People, Judd Apatow’s third directorial effort, doesn’t hit the UK until much later even though it opened here last weekend. What does that mean for you Europeans? It means I still have time to save you the price of a ticket by reviewing Funny People.

Funny People is a long film, about 150 minutes long, and commits the cardinal sin of a movie with such a length: it feels that long.

I see a lot of movies, some in the theater, some on TV pay channels and some streamed to my computer through the magic of the internet. In the month of July, I somehow avoided seeing horrible movies, which had started to concern me. “What if I’ve lost all critical perspective and lowered my bar by actually enjoying Transformers 2, never again to be trustworthy or insightful?,” I selfishly thought to myself. Good news: I didn’t like Funny People, which means I have re-calibrated my critical barometer.

Then again, just trashing the movie for no apparent reason doesn’t make any sense, so I suppose I should back up my claim that Funny People isn’t worth your 150 minutes.

Funny People is the story of fictional comedian George Simmons, played by Adam Sandler because Simmons essentially IS Adam Sandler. George used to be a comedian until he became a studio whore making movies like Re-Do where he’s trapped in the body of an infant or Merman where he is a MerMan. The film even starts off with home videos of Sandler shot by Apatow when the two used to live together. It’s an odd thing to mix real Sandler with fictional Simmons they way Apatow does, because Funny People is a big studio movie directed by hot-shit-Apatow with Apatow-golden-boy Seth Rogen in it featuring cameos by real-life comedians. At some point in the film, you’ll notice that people talk about George Simmons and your brain hears “Adam Sandler.” The guy was everywhere in the late 90s and early 00s, mostly making the kind of crap he’s now apologizing for with this thin “character.”

Simmons gets Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a rare cancerous blood disease I wrote an after-school special about once. Safe to say it’s horrible and can kill you fast. When Sandler decides to go back-to-basics and do more stand up, he hires Ira Wright (Rogen) oblivious when Ira screws his roommate (Jonah Hill as Leo) out of a co-writing gig. Sandler asks for both Ira and Leo, but Ira never makes the offer to his friend, coveting the job for himself because he is a lesser comedian and hasn’t been able to pay rent at the apartment he shares with Leo and Jason Schwartzman’s Mark.

Sandler tells Ira that he’s dying but asks the young comedian to keep it to himself and write some jokes for him.

That is the first movie in Funny People, a film that is actually two movies squished into one premise. The first half of the film is a portrait of the lives of famous comedians juxtaposed against the lives of up-and-coming comedians struggling to get work so they don’t have to serve cold cuts at the local deli.

The second movie in Funny People starts when Sandler tries to re-connect with the love of his life Laura (played by Leslie Mann) who left Sandler when he cheated on her and ran off to marry an Australian businessman Clarke (played by Eric Bana). When Laura thinks Sandler is dying, they re-connect, then Sandler is cured but Laura still thinks she’s in love with him. When Clarke returns from a business trip early, Ira and Sandler are stuck in Laura’s house with Laura’s family as Sandler attempts to steal Clarke’s wife out from under him and his daughters (the Apatow girls, a pleasure as always).

Yes, it’s a very unexpected and abrupt change in plot and tone, but this is Judd Apatow’s “death” movie. His first directorial effort, The 40 Year Old Virgin, dealt with love and sexual innocence. Steve Carrell played that part with enough aw-shucks and childish glee that it worked and played well to a young audience. Knocked Up was Apatow’s way of bringing his Freaks & Geeks mentality into adulthood by having Rogen’s stoner slacker learn responsibility the old fashioned way: by putting his baby up in someone. This film advances Apatow’s themes a bit further. All the characters are trying to make something of themselves (something Virgin and Knocked Up’s leads weren’t doing) and get cut short by questions of mortality.

I can see the appeal in doing a story about death with comedians at the center, but the film doesn’t really work that way. On the outside it seems great: would you rather talk death with a comedian or Al Pacino (with his needless yelling of late)? But the truth of the matter is much more sinister, because anyone who knows comedians will tell you that they are the most profoundly unhappy people you will ever meet. Sandler’s character sums it up best in one of his monologues where he says that he’s been trying to make his Dad laugh all his life and he had to be funny because you have to bring the jokes right before the old man beats the shit out of you. Funny people, REAL funny people not these Funny People, are the product of tragedy. A sense of humor is a survival technique for overweight children and social outcasts. As far as my opinion goes, that’s what kills the movie:

None of these characters are likable.

I can’t feel sorry that someone who was given everything through the trappings of fame is going to die, and I certainly don’t want to listen to 150 minutes of complaining if I think that person is a waste of space. And by the time the movie does decide to end, no one has really changed. They are all the same sad assholes we started the movie with.

I will now tell you why each character is a dick that doesn’t deserve to have a movie based around them.

George Simmons (Adam Sandler): The guy knowingly tricks star-fuckers into having sex with him, lives in a huge house with a large and faceless staff, treats Ira like crap, can’t actually emote to anyone and is SO selfish that he tries to break-apart Laura’s family without any thought of her kids and life. Worst of all, he ends that snafu by blaming Ira. Maybe it’s that Sandler has profoundly annoyed me with everything after “Piece Of Shit Car,” but if Adam Sandler were to really be diagnosed with cancer, I think we’d all agree that his great contributions to comedy are behind him.

Ira Wright (Seth Rogen): Not only does the guy refuse to share his job with his much funnier roommate, but his love story with female comedian Daisy (Aubrey Plaza) consists of two scenes of arguing and one scene of a SINGLE kiss. I understand this guy wants to be a comedian real bad and doesn’t want to work at the deli to make ends meet, but HEY that’s life, Ira. Suck it up. There’s also a part that barely gets referenced where Ira takes credit for one of Leo’s jokes. Joke thief as well? Usually Rogen’s characters have some degree of nerdy likeability to them, but Ira is a doormat until the last 10 minutes of the film. I wanted to slap him around several times in this movie (and even more so in the second movie squeezed into this movie).

Laura (Leslie Mann): Not only is Laura a bitch the first time we see her on screen, but she glows red like she just got a chemical peel when we see her again. Outside of this being Leslie Mann’s worst role in one of her husband’s movies, Laura is a miserable portrait of a woman. She’s the pivotal character in the film’s tonal switch, because when she shows up the film stops being a mediocre comedy and begins being something resembling a mid-life crisis drama. She’s ready to kick her husband out of the house and move her kids to LA so she can re-start her acting career and somehow never manages to see through George’s exterior to notice that he’s not a family person.

Clarke (Eric Bana): Bana works his ass off in this role. At first we’re supposed to hate him, then we’re supposed to sympathize with him, then he’s supposed to make us feel better about his home life just in time for the movie to end. He tries, he tries so hard. But – again – his character ends up right back where he was at the beginning of the movie when the credits roll thanks to some sudden “karma” lines that are supposed to make everyone forget they’re all traumatizing his kids.

There’s one good character in the film, and that’s Eminem as himself. He tells Sandler that death was George’s way out of the lifestyle his stardom has brought about. Hearing those words come out of Eminem’s stoic mug rung true. If the film’s overall message had a face, it’s that of Marshall Mathers: You may be successful, but no one is ever actually happy and no one can change.

What happened, Judd? This movie is populated with characters I couldn’t root for. The title promised comedy, but only delivered for the first 30 minutes. Everyone was the same at the end of the film (you might say Sandler had changed, but we never saw him cancer-free, so how will we know that?). It’s just a mess that has been assembled into a movie thanks to Apatow’s talent. The guy knows how to shoot a film and whatnot, but Jesus, this movie made me sad.

Judd Apatow films are usually comedies with a very real heart to them, but in Funny People that heart has been replaced by cameos and meta-humor. Then, about half-way through the heart dies and we’re challenged to root for either the selfish asshole trying to break apart a family or the cheating, borderline neglectful husband who is still an asshole, but a different kind.

What the hell?

What. The. Hell.

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It’s been four years since The 40 Year Old Virgin had everyone talking about the return of the R-rated comedy. Two years ago, I accidentally took a date to Knocked Up, not expecting to actually have a conversation about my personal habits that didn’t make me “father material.” Judd Apatow has since spawned comedies from Seth Rogan and Jason Segel, bringing the term “bromance” to the forefront the modern adult comedy cinema vernacular.

And all it took was Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox story for people to start doubting, those doubters and their doubting doubts.

Well, doubt no more, because Apatow is back and in a decision that threw me at first, he’s brought Adam Sandler back with him. Yes, Adam Sandler, who I swore off after I Pronounce You Chuck And Larry turned out to be the most offensive and pointless thing I’ve seen in theaters in all my years of film-going. Don’t Mess With The Zohan wasn’t my cup of tea, but it was the first Sandler project that Apatow’s name popped up on (Judd got a writing credit).

Now, we have Funny People, Apatow’s directorial follow up to Knocked Up. It’s described thusly: When seasoned comedian George Simmons (Sandler) learns of his terminal, inoperable health condition, his desire to form a genuine friendship cause him to take a relatively green performer (Rogen) under his wing as his opening act.

That doesn’t even mention that Jonah Hill, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, RZA, Aziz Ansari, Jason Schwartzman, and some comedians appearing as themselves (Sarah Silverman, Andy Dick) will be appearing to bring their funny.

To me, the Red Band trailer manages to be funny while keeping the subtle undertones of the mortality drama this flick could have become. Did it work for you as well?

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