New in Theaters
(Both playing at Durango Stadium 9)
The Smurfs 2
(In standard format and digital 3-D with surcharge.)
Time flies when you’re not wondering about the welfare of the Smurfs, those diminutive, animated blue-skinned forest-dwellers. Turns out they’ve been just fine since their 2011 big-screen outing, but there’s trouble brewing in their new adventure-comedy that will require their curious blend of wide-eyed optimism and goofy enthusiasm to peacefully resolve.
A sequel largely unwarranted other than for box office and promotional purposes, the unimaginatively titled “The Smurfs 2” should have little trouble scaling stratospheric heights similar to its predecessor with undiscriminating young audiences and their chaperones, weary from near-unrelenting summertime caregiving.
The occasion of Smurfette’s (Katy Perry) birthday presents the opportunity for her to recall her conflicted origins – rather than a “true-blue” Smurf, she was actually created by the hapless, wannabe evil sorcerer Gargamel (Hank Azaria), who now intends to kidnap her from her enchanted-forest home to obtain the formula for the magical Smurf essence that Papa Smurf (Jonathan Winters) used to originally bestow her with blue-skinned bliss. Once he has the secret, Gargamel plans to power up a host of Naughties, Smurf-sized creatures he’s created, to help him take over the world.
So he dispatches his Naughty daughter Vexy (Christina Ricci) to drag Smurfette through a magic portal and into the real world where he can more effectively manipulate her inherent identity issues. Papa Smurf and his mismatched extraction team consisting of Grouchy (George Lopez), Clumsy (Anton Yelchin) and Vanity (John Oliver) will have to portal to the live-action world to reunite in Paris with the sympathetic young family of Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris) and Grace (Jayma Mays) Winslow, their live-action counterparts from the original movie, if they’re to have any chance of rescuing Smurfette.
Returning the movie to the European locale of the Belgian Smurfs comic-strip originator Pierre Culliford adds some visual interest, with Paris as the backdrop for the Smurfs’ rescue mission, but beyond the classic cityscapes, there’s little innovative in this formulaic follow-up.
The Smurfs director Raja Gosnell (“Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” “Scooby Doo”) has built his career with cute-critter pics and other family fare, and his middlebrow track record remains unblemished with the Smurfs’ big-screen return. With a primarily impressionable young target audience, the returning screenwriting team of J. David Stem, David N. Weiss, Jay Scherick and David Ronn, along with Karey Kirkpatrick (“Charlotte’s Web,” “Chicken Run”), has no problem frequently repeating lines, gags and life lessons to near-numbing effect. Beyond a few chuckle-worthy one-liners and some amusing visual comedy, there’s not much to engage adults, although the wee ones should be distracted enough.
In his final film role, Jonathan Winters reprises the beneficent Papa Smurf with the requisite twinkle in his voice, but takes a backseat to Perry’s bewildered, wounded and ultimately outraged Smurfette. Harris and Mays, as the parents of a young boy appropriately named Blue (Jacob Tremblay), acquit themselves good-naturedly enough, although it’s Brendan Gleeson as Patrick’s well-intentioned but misunderstood stepfather, Victor Doyle, who really shines in an all-out turn that gleefully showcases his considerable comic gifts. Azaria is equally antic as the incompetent wizard beset by the uneven, if unrelenting, team of Smurf rescuers featuring Lopez, Yelchin and Oliver.
With the exception of Gargamel’s awkwardly rendered CGI cat cohort Azrael, the mix of animation and live-action appears fairly seamless in a 3D rendition that helps keep the movie from slipping into the overly saccharine variation favored by the fully animated 1980s TV series.
“The Smurfs 2,” a Sony/Columbia release, is rated PG for “some rude humor and action.” Running time: 105 minutes.
Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter
2 Guns.
“2 Guns”? Please. There are enough guns in this movie to arm a small country. Maybe a medium-sized one.
There are plenty of jokes in “2 Guns,” this summer’s latest variation on the buddy-cop theme, starring the engaging duo of Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. But one of the funniest things about it is that title.
Bullets fly every few seconds. By the end, it’s impossible to count how many people have died; it’s much easier to count who’s still alive.
And that’s a shame, because ultimately the bang-bang in “2 Guns,” directed by Baltasar Kormakur, becomes so tiresome that you forget what should be the main focus of the film: The appealing, easy chemistry between the leads. What should have been an entertaining two hours with this charismatic pair becomes a somewhat exhausting affair that might more aptly be called “Boys and Their Toys.”
And permit us here to express some nostalgia for a recent buddy-cop movie that also had chemistry between its stars: “The Heat,” with Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock. If they could carry a laugh-filled action film without frequent helpings of violence and torture, why can’t the men?
The script, written by Blake Masters and based on the BOOM! Studios graphic novels by Steven Grant, is complicated – perhaps unnecessarily so. We begin with Bobby (Washington) and Stig (Wahlberg) plotting a small-town bank robbery, each believing the other to be a disposable criminal, and each trying for his own reasons to seize the loot of drug lord Papi Greco (an excellent Edward James Olmos).
They soon discover that instead of the couple million bucks they were expecting to find, there’s upward of $40 million in the bank. To whom does it belong? Well, wait, because first we need to tell you that each man also learns the other’s real identity. Bobby, you see, is a DEA agent. And Stig? Navy intelligence.
Both are now on the run, pursued by a shady character, Earl, who says the money’s his and wants it back (Bill Paxton, amusingly sleazy). Earl, who’s always surrounded by henchmen, has an unnerving interrogation method: it’s called Russian Roulette.
But it’s not only Earl who’s after the duo: Stig is persona non grata with the Navy now, after running afoul of a corrupt boss (James Marsden, his usual charm untapped in this role).
In short, the boys are in all kinds of trouble, and we haven’t even told you about Bobby’s girlfriend, Deb (Paula Patton), who also works for the DEA and loves Bobby, but might be dating somebody else who ALSO might be big trouble.
Confused? Well, at least you’ll find yourself laughing often at the Washington-Wahlberg banter. These guys are funniest doing little things, like quibbling over how much you should tip a waitress – just after they’ve set a huge fire to the diner she works in and the place is about to blow. Or discussing their relationship – Stig’s the touchy-feely one, hoping, he says, for an “Ebony and Ivory” sort of union. He wants to work “together.” Bobby wants to work “in the same area code.”
But for each amusing exchange, there’s a gratuitous scene that dampens the proceedings. One of the worst involves the torture of chickens. Yes, that’s what we said.
There’s also a juvenile obsession with male private parts, and guns aimed at said private parts.
It all ends in an orgiastic shootout, of course. Will there be a sequel? Well, we’d like to see more of Washington and Wahlberg together. Hey, maybe they could join McCarthy and Bullock in THEIR sequel?
“2 Guns,” a Universal Studios release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for “violence throughout, language and brief nudity.” Running time: 109 minutes. HH out of four.
JOCELYN NOVECK, AP National Writer.
Still Showing
Durango Stadium 9
(Next to Durango Mall, 247-9799, www.allentheatresinc.com)
Blancanieves. (Wednesday only.) A retelling of the Snow White story set in 1920’s Spain with a few more twists: It’s a silent movie, and the Snow White character follows in her bullfighting father’s footsteps. No MPAA rating.
The Wolverine. (In standard format and digital 3-D with surcharge.) Hugh Jackman has played Logan/Wolverine six times now. If it ain’t broke ... Rated PG-13.
R.I.P.D. Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds play cops in the afterworld who protect the living from souls who aren’t willing to exit the earthly realm quietly. Rated PG-13.
The Conjuring. A couple who specializes in de-haunting houses bite off more they can chew when they take on the demons possessing a rural farmhouse. Rated R.
Pacific Rim. Just a few years into the future, Guillermo Del Toro would have us believe that we’ll be operating 25-story killer robots to save humanity from monsters or robots or some hybrid of the two. Rated PG-13.
Grown Ups 2. If you hated “Grown Ups,” just wait ’til you see “Grown Ups 2.” Rated PG-13.
Turbo. (In standard format and digital 3-D with surcharge.) Some animated thing about a snail that gets into the racing circuit and wants to go to the Indy 500, but who really cares anyway? Rated PG.
Despicable Me 2. (In standard format and digital 3-D with surcharge.) The Steve Carell-voiced Gru completes the transformation from supervillain to good guy when he’s recruited by the Anti-Villain League. Rated PG.
Back Space Theatre
(1120 Main Ave., 259-7940, www.thebackspacetheatre.org)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist. A Pakistani man graduates Princeton and looks forward to pursuing the American dream with his American fiancée (Kate Hudson). Then Sept. 11 happens, and 10 years of prejudice and mistrust drive him back to his homeland and some un-American thinking. Rated R.
Gaslight Cinema
(102 Fifth St. Next to the railroad depot, 247-8133, www.allentheatresinc.com)
Red 2. In one of the more unnecessary sequels we’ve seen, a bunch of has-beens try again to relive the past glory they tried to relive in “Reds.” Rated PG-13.
The Lone Ranger. Johnny Depp is Tonto, who tells the tale of how mild-mannered John Reid (Armie Hammer) became the famous masked man. Rated PG-13.
Ted Holteen and Associated Press
