Family Home Theater

Grade: C+/B-
Entire family: No
2016, 86 min., Color
Anchor Bay
Rated PG-13 for language sexual content
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Bonus features: n/a
Trailer
Amazon link

Usually one “sows wild oats” in youth, but this 2016 comedy from Andy Tennant (Ever After: A Cinderella Story, Sweet Home Alabama) flips the script and gives viewers two widows in the twilight of their lives who decide to go a little crazy.

Maddie (Jessica Lange) is more crushed learning that her sixty-something husband dumped her for someone a third her age than she was by his death, and Eva (Shirley MacLaine) feels bereft after her husband—also implied to be a cheater—dies. The set-up implies that what’s good for the gander is good for the goose, and sure enough, when Eva receives an insurance benefits check for $5 million instead of the expected $50,000 she deposits it and talks Maddie into going with her on a Thelma-and-Louise-style binge in the Canary Islands. There they enjoy life to the fullest while unintentionally causing Eva’s daughter (Demi Moore) stress as the media gets wind of their escapades and the insurance company sends someone after them. But don’t expect a Thelma and Louise ending. Wild Oats is a positive film.

There’s a lot of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in Wild Oats, and not just because an older cast of characters decides to really live life and sprint for the finish line rather than letting the finish line come to them. Tonally the films are similar, marked by warmth and a gentle humor, with pacing that befits a cast of sixty-somethings. The question, at least for a site like Family Home Theater, is how broad of an audience a film like this might have. That’s hard to say, especially in 2016, when an irascible old anti-establishment coot like Bernie Sanders captured the hearts and imaginations of Millennials.

There’s an anti-establishment vibe to Wild Oats too, though not a political one. It’s more a film about going against the grain, of living life to the fullest, of taking a chance—in other words, a message that might very well resonate with younger people who have been “feeling the Bern.” That trickle-down effect will probably only go as far as the last two years of high school, though. Younger than that, and I fear that younger viewers who tend to like a film only if they can identify with the characters might not be able to look past the wrinkles to see themes that do in fact speak to a broader audience. After all, they’ve got time. No need to worry about such things as living life to the fullest just yet, is there?

Wild Oats is rated PG-13 for “sexual content,” and I can picture a few “ewwwws” coming from younger viewers when Lange finds herself in a Mrs. Robinson situation and, ripping the shirt off a young man, turns into a bit of a sexual tiger. Nothing is seen, but his bare chest and her writhing send a pretty clear message. So does talk of “doing it,” and when Eva says it’s been seven years it might be a little disorienting for a younger audience who’s been doing the family head count (“Let’s see, three kids means Mom and Dad did it three times!”). So while this is a gentle film and the sex is underplayed, it’s not something pre-teens and under should see—unless Grandma or Grandpa just went off the deep end in your family.

The MacLaine-Lange pairing is good but not great, though I’d be hard-pressed to tell you exactly why. Maybe it’s because you don’t feel any depth to their friendship, and they’re supposed to be best friends. Alan Arkin and Sarah Jessica Parker were originally cast as co-stars, and I can only assume that if they bolted for reasons other than scheduling it was because there’s even less depth to the supporting characters. Moore really has little to do, and the men who pursue these two women (and we’re talking about two very different types of pursuit) have only a little more. It’s really the MacLaine-Lange show, and the women seem to enjoy the spotlight in one of Hollywood’s rare films featuring older actresses as the romantic leads.

Wild Oats debuted on Lifetime before its limited theatrical release, and if you’ve seen Lifetime movies you know what to expect: nothing too complicated, nothing too crazy, nothing too original, and something that borders on the cheesy (especially the humor). That’s what we get here. Like the MacLaine-Lange pairing, the film is good but not great . . . no matter what your age.

Language: Surprisingly, one subtle f-bomb and a handful of other swearwords
Sex: No crucial body parts shown, but one graphic scene of implied sex along with a gentler one; sex talk includes talk of “doing it again” and how good one’s “ass” looks
Violence: Nothing here
Adult situations: The whole premise is a felony, and there is drinking and drunkenness
Takeaway: It’s nice to see the full range of human experience on the big screen, and I hope the Bernie phenomenon paves the way for even more films like this

Grade: C+/B-
Entire family: No
2016, 111 min., Color
Warner Bros.
Rated PG-13 for sexual material and language
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Featured audio: DTS-HDMA 5.1
Bonus features: C-
Includes: Blu-ray, Digital HD
Trailer
Amazon link

I missed seeing Barbershop (2002), Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), and the spin-off, Beauty Shop (2005). But because it’s been more than 10 years since the last one, I wasn’t at a disadvantage. Barbershop: The Next Cut stands on its own, and though it could stand a fresher plot, the cast (old, plus new) is still entertaining.

My wife and I watched with our two teens, and it surprised us how often we found ourselves laughing out loud at the banter between characters that were sometimes a few hairs short of being total caricatures.

But the plot is both simple and formulaic: Calvin (Ice Cube) still owns a barbershop on Chicago’s south side, where old-timer Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer) does more talking than trimming and Raja (Utkarsh Ambudkar) is the only non-black. To keep the business thriving, Calvin has partnered with Angie (Regina Hall), who runs a beauty shop out of one half of the space. But making money and making jokes take a backseat to their big concern. Every day in the neighborhood there’s a shooting, and the violence between rival gangs has gotten way out of hand—so bad, in fact, that Calvin and the rest of the Barbershop “cutters” are facing the same crisis as the rest of South Side Chicago: they can’t even walk the streets without thinking their lives are in danger. Trigger-happy gang members are taking innocent lives and rapidly making that part of the city uninhabitable.

It’s gotten so bad that Calvin and his wife, Jennifer (Jazsmin Lewis) are considering abandoning the shop his father once owned because they are worried their teenage son, Jalen (Michael Rainey Jr.), might not live to see 21 if they remain. Calvin is even looking at properties on Chicago’s safer north side—though he’s keeping that a secret from his cutters, stylists, and regular customers. They include a caterer (Anthony Anderson) who tries to profit any chance he gets; a fast-talking entrepreneur named One-Stop (J.B. Smoove); a goofy nerd (Lamorne Morris); and a hunky cutter (Common) that draws the wrath of his wife-stylist, who also happens to be Calvin’s sister Terri (Eve), when he appears to flirt with stylist Draya (Nicki Minaj), whose rear-end is the “butt” of many jokes. No subject seems off-limits for comedy, including Black Lives Matter and Michelle Obama. And of course there are Bill Cosby and Justin Bieber jokes.

Director Malcolm D. Lee seems comfortable blending comedy and serious issues, though the latter is rolled up in a main plot that feels too easily resolved. Barbershop as social center? Totally believable. Barbershop as town hall meeting site? Also believable. Brokering a ceasefire between the rival gangs, with a free haircut day to draw attention to it? Considerably less believable, but not as hard to swallow as a facile ending. Still, the message is a good one, and the jokes wrap the package nicely.

But parents be warned. Some PG-13 movies come closer to PG and are acceptable for younger-than-teen viewers as well. Barbershop: The Next Cut will have you raising your eyebrows at a few risque scenes that seem closer to an R-rating, as when a man’s wife presents her fully clothed bottom, wiggles it around, and says something like, “Go ahead, put it up there.” Though there are no nude or sex scenes, there are a number of sexual references like that (including talk of big butts and masturbation) which could make for uncomfortable viewing for some families.

Lanaguage: Mild swearwords throughout, along with at least one F-bomb and liberal use of the “N” word.
Sex: Nothing shown, and no nudity, but multiple instances of sex talk
Violence: Talk of a young boy being killed, along with a few gunshots and in-your-face pushing, but no blood
Adult situations: Mostly sex talk and gang confrontations
Takeaway: Rotten Tomatoes critics gave Barbershop: The Next Cut the highest rating of the four franchise films, with the original Barbershop coming in second; our family was split along gender lines, with the males giving it a B- and the females a C+

Grade: C+/B-
Entire family: No, but darned close
2016, 94 min., Color
Universal
Rated PG-13 for some suggestive material
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: DTS-HDMA 5.1
Bonus features: D
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD
Trailer
Amazon link

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is cute enough, but as with so many sequels there seems to be a play-it-safe mentality at work: Hit those referential touchstones that remind viewers of the first film, and rely on a familiar plot that feels like comfort food.

The math doesn’t quite work out, but 14 years after longhaired Anglo Ian (John Corbett) wooed shy and awkward Toula (Nia Vardalos) away from her you-must-marry-a-Greek family, the pair has a 17-year-old daughter named Paris (Elena Kampouris) who’s facing similar pressures. But that plot is as lukewarm as microwaved food, and it turns out to undercooked.

The main plot centers on the patriarch and owner of the Dancing Zorba Restaurant, where Toula now works. Gus (Michael Constantine) notices all these years later that his and wife Maria’s (Lainie Kazan) marriage certificate isn’t signed . . . meaning they’re not legally married. And the movie tracks the tension between them after they feel themselves suddenly “single.” So basically screenwriter Vardalos turned to a standard sitcom plot, rather than trusting that a new generational culture clash could shoulder the load again.

As a result, this much-awaited 2016 sequel isn’t as entertaining as the 2002 original, but it is, as I said, cute enough. For that, credit the characters that Vardalos created—characters based on her own life. The patriarch, Gus, still thinks of Windex as a panacea, still insists the Greeks invented pretty much everything, and still seems only to tolerate his non-Greek son-in-law at best. The closeness of the Portokalos family is both celebrated and gently ridiculed to the point where they become a collective character and running joke. They’re fun to watch. Are they also a bit much? Well, in all honesty, the overly familiar main plot wears on you more than they do. I mean, we’ve seen it before on TV shows like I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Gilligan’s Island, Happy Days, Scrubs, and more recently Good Luck Charlie. That’s how familiar it is. And a second underdeveloped sideplot about the romance going out of Toula and Ian’s life doesn’t help much.

So you walk away from My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 having been entertained by the characters and the competent screenplay, but thinking it could have had more laugh-out-loud moments and been more original. Such is life in Sequel Land. But you know what? Our family still liked it enough to put it on the shelf so we can watch it again some night.

Language: None at all
Sex: One brief aborted lovemaking session in a car
Violence: None—unless you call getting hit by a ball violent
Adult situations: Male genitals are referred to as “the plucky” and a teen is told to hurry and marry before her eggs dry up; drinking and one episode of drunkenness
Takeaway: Some PG-13 films could be rated R; this one could and maybe should have been PG, because it’s really pretty innocent