Why Him? (15.)
Directed by John Hamburg.
Starring Bryan Cranston, James Franco, Zoey Deutch, Megan Mullally, Keegan-Michael Key and Griffin Gluck. Released on Boxing day. 111 mins.
The title is posing the wrong question. Surely, Cranston should be asking Why Me? Or WTF? After five seasons of Breaking Bad, getting fan letters from Anthony Hopkins acclaiming his work as the best acting he had seen ever, (not to mention being the dad in Malcolm In The Middle) he might reasonably have expected to sit back and say to Hollywood, OK, so wadayagotferme? Hollywood replied – getting killed off in the first fifteen minutes of Godzilla, and then there's a comedy where you play a dad whose daughter (Deutch) falls in love with James Franco. And there's an hilarious bit where you need help working a computerised toilet.
There is a delusion that is passed down through time where each generation believes that their generation gap is wider than any that preceded it. Fifty years ago, Why Him? would have had Spencer Tracy despairing that his daughter had hooked up with stoned, free love, music producer Dennis Hopper. It's all the same isn't it? The cultural references change, but the truths remain universal. Maybe yes, but seeing your daughter, your super smart daughter who is going to Stanford, besotted with foul mouthed, tattooed web entrepreneur James Franco who is considerably richer than you are, seems to be a particularly insidious torment. Hippy Hopper would've goaded the older man, labelled him “square,” but Franco is pathetically desperate for his approval
In Why Him? Cranston's family spend Christmas at Franco's luxury home/ work space in California. Cranston is befuddled and confused by the realities of the current age, made to feel redundant. Franco does everything he can to try and make Cranston like him, can't understand why he doesn't appreciate it There are chuckles to be had; personally not enough to quite push me into the good time mode, but it was OK. Neither star really excels, but the supporting cast are pretty good and Megan Mullally, as the mother, probably steals the film. It is predictable but passable entertaining, if you feel like being passably entertained.
If there's one thing Cranston can do it is empathy. He got you to stay with him as he went from ordinary chemistry teacher to manipulative, ruthless criminal, so getting you to sympathise with him in this scenario is a piece of cake. But he does it too well, you feel his disappointment, and fear, so keenly it's hard to find the humour in it.
Interestingly, the film suggests that the main problem the older generation have with the youth is that they are too honest. “You have absolutely no filter,” Cranston exclaims as Franco blurts out his feelings and fails to moderate his language. “You speak English with resounding amounts of F---,” the mother points out at one stage. Of course, just as with a Tracy and Hopper version, everything turns out OK. How? Because Franco's character is a multi-millionaire and buys his approval, although the film tries to disguise this. Anyway, if he's a multi-millionaire he can't be that bad, can he?
Directed by John Hamburg.
Starring Bryan Cranston, James Franco, Zoey Deutch, Megan Mullally, Keegan-Michael Key and Griffin Gluck. Released on Boxing day. 111 mins.
The title is posing the wrong question. Surely, Cranston should be asking Why Me? Or WTF? After five seasons of Breaking Bad, getting fan letters from Anthony Hopkins acclaiming his work as the best acting he had seen ever, (not to mention being the dad in Malcolm In The Middle) he might reasonably have expected to sit back and say to Hollywood, OK, so wadayagotferme? Hollywood replied – getting killed off in the first fifteen minutes of Godzilla, and then there's a comedy where you play a dad whose daughter (Deutch) falls in love with James Franco. And there's an hilarious bit where you need help working a computerised toilet.
There is a delusion that is passed down through time where each generation believes that their generation gap is wider than any that preceded it. Fifty years ago, Why Him? would have had Spencer Tracy despairing that his daughter had hooked up with stoned, free love, music producer Dennis Hopper. It's all the same isn't it? The cultural references change, but the truths remain universal. Maybe yes, but seeing your daughter, your super smart daughter who is going to Stanford, besotted with foul mouthed, tattooed web entrepreneur James Franco who is considerably richer than you are, seems to be a particularly insidious torment. Hippy Hopper would've goaded the older man, labelled him “square,” but Franco is pathetically desperate for his approval
In Why Him? Cranston's family spend Christmas at Franco's luxury home/ work space in California. Cranston is befuddled and confused by the realities of the current age, made to feel redundant. Franco does everything he can to try and make Cranston like him, can't understand why he doesn't appreciate it There are chuckles to be had; personally not enough to quite push me into the good time mode, but it was OK. Neither star really excels, but the supporting cast are pretty good and Megan Mullally, as the mother, probably steals the film. It is predictable but passable entertaining, if you feel like being passably entertained.
If there's one thing Cranston can do it is empathy. He got you to stay with him as he went from ordinary chemistry teacher to manipulative, ruthless criminal, so getting you to sympathise with him in this scenario is a piece of cake. But he does it too well, you feel his disappointment, and fear, so keenly it's hard to find the humour in it.
Interestingly, the film suggests that the main problem the older generation have with the youth is that they are too honest. “You have absolutely no filter,” Cranston exclaims as Franco blurts out his feelings and fails to moderate his language. “You speak English with resounding amounts of F---,” the mother points out at one stage. Of course, just as with a Tracy and Hopper version, everything turns out OK. How? Because Franco's character is a multi-millionaire and buys his approval, although the film tries to disguise this. Anyway, if he's a multi-millionaire he can't be that bad, can he?
