Planes and Proms

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013): adapted by Steve Conrad from the story by James Thurber; starring Ben Stiller (Walter Mitty), Kristen Wiig (Cheryl Melhoff), Kathryn Hahn (Odessa Mitty), Shirley Maclaine (Edna Mitty), Sean Penn (Sean O'Connell), and Adam Scott (Ted Hendricks): Affable 'adaptation' of James Thurber's very-short story goes very, very retro in its contemporary setting -- Mitty is a photo editor at Life magazine. And Life magazine is getting turned into a web-only project by evil corporate exec Adam Scott. It's as if portions of the script had been around since the 1970's! It makes for a fun movie, about as fun as the first adaptation with Danny Kaye. Ben Stiller keeps himself reined in for the most part, not piling the bathos upon his character too much. Lightly recommended.

Blockers (2018): written by Brian and Jim Kehoe; directed by Kay Cannon; starring Leslie Mann (Lisa), John Cena (Mitchell), Ike Barinholtz (Hunter), Kathryn Newton (Julie), Geraldine Viswanathan (Kayla), Gideon Adlon (Sam), Gary Cole (Ron), and Gina Gershon (Cathy): There are enough laughs in [Cock] Blockers to make it worth watching on a slow night. I'd have loved to be in the pitch meeting ("Three parents try to stop their daughters from losing their virginity on Prom Night!"). The movie generally walks the tightrope between 'Stupid parents!' and 'Crazy teens!' pretty well. John Cena is very funny. It helps that he looks like a cartoon, and that the movie takes advantage of this. Third-act sentimentality almost swamps the whole boat. Lightly recommended.

Die Hard 2 (1990): adapted by Steven E. de Souza and Doug Richardson from the novel by Walter Wager; directed by Renny Harlin; starring Bruce Willis (John McClane), Bonnie Bedelia (Holly McClane), Franco Nero (Esperanaza), William Sadler (Stuart), John Amos (Grant), Dennis Franz (Carmine), Fred Dalton Thompson (Trudeau), and Sheila McCarthy (Samantha): While Die Hard 2 lacks the verve of the original, it's still a solid action movie. The main problem is that even three villains don't add up to one Alan Rickman. Recommended.