Grown Ups 2

      

This is the first Adam Sandler movie that is a sequel.  Unless you consider that basically every movie he’s every done is a sequel of a Man-child (Billy Madison) with a beautiful wife/girlfriend (Just Go With It) and his goofy friends (Steve Buscemi and Allen Covert) in a Northern town (Mr. Deeds) seeking to relive their youth (Grown Ups).  Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke is his motto.

Our hero finds himself just a few months after moving back to his hometown basically doing what a Man-child does:  not much, hanging around K-Mart, walking around town, hanging out with his friends and their parents. 

The other Men-children are along for the ride:  Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade.  The movie gets slow to start then the second half is filling with a ridiculously –themed 80s party (Wedding Singer).

Something to see if you’ve got not much else going on this summer.

** of 4

Only God Forgives - opens 7/19

By the team that brought you Drive  director Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling - this one set in Bangkok

The Lone Ranger

It's tough to take a genre like the American Western and reinvent it.  So much history and so little room for imagination.  The Lone Ranger does a pretty good job of it.  $225 Million in special effects wtih ILM helps a lot.

The movie is told a flashback by Tonto who is in a diorama straight out of A Night at the Museum.  A boy (a real live Woody) asks "I thought the Lone Ranger was a good guy".  And so the story starts with a meet-cute on a speeding train  between Tonto (Johnny Depp) and John Cane (Armie Hammer).

To its credit/detriment, there are many nods to the John Ford era of The Searchers, including being smack-dab in the middle of Monument Valley.  The Indian Raids are taking a toll on the white settlers.  A posse must be formed.  They walk right into the valley next to a mountain....

And the fun begins.  The evil villian must be tamed by a superhero.  Quick, put on this mask! Disney tries hard to make the Lone Ranger a western Batman but with mixed results.  The monologue-ing,  the unwillingness to kill, the secret identity, it just does not quite translate to the anything goes era of westward expansion, Indian removal, gunfighting and carousing.    So no deeper meanings here

This one is all about the special effects and the fast pace which make for a good ride.  In fact, the next Disney ride into the cave is already previewed here.  Look for it soon in Orlando.

* * * of 4