Back & Forth #2: Leaves of Grass, and Nightmares Best Forgotten

In this super-sized installment of Back & Forth, we step back to a week before the first issue to October 8, 2010, where we visit a Nightmarish villain, a hero from DC Comics' past, a historic LA theater, and a well-engineered pot enterprise. No, you're not watching Only In America With Larry the Cable Guy. You're being sent on a trip Back & Forth through time, and I have Just the Ticket.

I saw a few movies on DVD this past week. The new Nightmare on Elm Street was a good effort, but Jackie Earl Haley didn't project the same sick whimsy that Robert Englund famously brought to the role in his day. It is a fairly true remake (actually, the blurbs on the jacket refer to it as a "re-imagining," but as the scenes and dialogue are carbon copies of the Wes Craven original, very little making or imagination went into the new Nightmare). 'Nuff said.
C-

I also saw Jonah Hex, based off of my favorite cameo character from when I watched the Batman animated series in the 1990s (see the episode titled "Showdown"). Basically a live-action drawing-out of said episode, with Josh Brolin putting his Hex character through the one-note tough guy motions while slurping and spitting around a facial prosthesis. Megan Fox is all but useless when not trading her few weak quips with Brolin. John Malkovich outshines the rest of the cast as Hex's nemesis, the Civil War general-turned-terrorist Quentin Turnbull—even when carrying off a domination plot that is simultaneously too comic book-ludicrous and too small of scale to appeal to either classic moviegoers or the younger over-stimulated generation. The action was impressive, the casting was mostly well done, and Jonah Hex was accurately portrayed. Nevertheless, everything about the movie seemed underdeveloped and monotonous.
D

I am a huge fan of anything with Judd Apatow's name on it (except for Drillbit Taylor, which was Apatow's "African Child"—ie: the artist's worst album, movie, or what have you), and Get Him To the Greek didn't disappoint—that much. Cameos galore to keep your eyes busy (not to mention the part of your brain that stores annoying commercial jingles and other useless information), dialogue that is matter-of-fact while being both heartfelt and shockingly funny, and two instant turn-offs' worth of senseless violence and awkward sex are enough to let us know that Greek is Apatow & Co. material.
Music industry intern Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) is chosen, by virtue of having a thought of his own, to get controversial rock god Aldous Snow (Russell Brand, reprising and personalizing his character from Forgetting Sarah Marshall) to LA's Greek Theater for an anniversary concert with his band, which goes by the "where the #?*! did they come up with that?" name of Infant Sorrow. I was surprised to learn that Brand himself sang most of the Infant Sorrow material, and although the lip synching was bad and the lyrics were full of double-entendre, leaning innuendo only to fall into single-entendre with the greatest of ease, the music was catchy and familiar in a way I couldn't quite place. But while we're still somewhere near the subject of movies, I must say the plot was formulaic underneath the shock value and onslaught of industry guest appearances: a "Don't Do Drugs" PSA by way of obnoxious road-trip buddy comedy. Get Him To the Greek is entertaining to a point, assuming you never realize there isn't one.
C

The star attraction this week was Tim Blake Nelson's Leaves Of Grass, in which Edward Norton plays identical twins. Bill Kincaid (Norton) is a successful philosophy professor who left behind his Oklahoma hometown and the questionable reputations of his brother Brady and mother Daisy (Susan Sarandon) for better climes. Returning home for Brady's funeral, Bill finds himself at the mercy of a local drug kingpin (Richard Dreyfuss by way of Andy Rooney's gigantic eyebrows), and his brother far less dead than expected. With Bill back home and his best friend Bolger (Nelson) in for the long haul, Brady hatches a half-baked plan to settle the debt owed on his marijuana enterprise. Goofiness (provided by Norton's Brady and Nelson's Bolger), romance (provided by Keri Russel), and blood that looks suspiciously like watered-down spaghetti sauce follow with entertaining results. The power-player here is, of course, Norton, who calls to mind his leading role as Harlan in 2005's Down In the Valley. Bill Kincaid hints at Harlan as a romantic straight man, while Brady is the good ol' boy who's smarter than he looks. But more than re-hashing a single character, Norton makes the Kincaid brothers polar opposites who interact with one another. Norton could act out the phone book and I'd watch because he's that good.
But in Leaves of Grass, Norton doesn't work alone in his turn as twins. Disappointingly, one Norton never comes in physical contact with the other; a touch (literally) that would have taken the film a technical extra mile. Otherwise, the special effects that put Norton onscreen with himself are seamless, making a goofy independent comedy worthwhile, and making a worthwhile independent film into a thing that impresses.
B+