Action Point

2/4

Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Eleanor Worthington-Cox, Dan Bakkendahl

Rated R for Crude Sexual Content, Language, Drug Use, Teen Drinking, and Brief Graphic Nudity

Everyone from New Jersey knows what Action Park was.  A theme park from hell where the rides were subject to breakdown, injuries were so common it was given nicknames like "Class Action Park," and the employees were drunk, stoned, and/or incompetent.  Possibly all three.  Johnny Knoxville, the Jackie Chan of frat humor, has turned this into a comedy.  There are laughs to be had, to be sure, but they are far too sporadic to be worth sitting through the dross to see them.

D.C. (Knoxville) runs Action Point, a run-down theme park where anything goes.  The employees are drunk, the guests are one step away from killing themselves, and there's an alcoholic bear running around.  An example of how bad things are at Action Point is when a guest tries to go faster down a water slide by jumping onto it from a tree, the portly daredevil puts a hole in the slide.  D.C.'s solution?  Repair it with duct tape.  D.C. is a litigator's best friend and an insurance company's worst nightmare.  Unfortunately for him, a new corporate park has opened up right next door and wants to buy Action Point for their own ends.  D.C. and his buddies aren't willing to give up their slice of anarchy up without a fight, so...

Well, you know the rest.  The problem with the film is that not only does it have a plot, it has the same plot that has been used in every other summer camp "battle of the underdogs" movie since they invented summer camp movies.  And director Tim Kirkby is apparently oblivious to the fact that no one in the audience is going to care one bit about whether or not Action Point is saved.  They just want to see the slapstick and crude stunts gone wrong.

Watching "Action Point," a thought occurred to me.  In a movie like this, that's generally not a good thing (this movie is far too dim-witted to even encourage, much less demand, the use of one's brain).  But my brain was less concerned with the hooey of a plot and more about its star.  I got to wondering if Johnny Knoxville is some sort of masochist.  I've seen "Jackass 3D," and while the painful pratfalls and practical jokes are funny, to what purpose do they serve?  Jackie Chan showed off his martial arts skills and comic aptitude.  Knoxville simply wants to up the ante for pain and humiliation.

Apart from Knoxville, the only actor worth mentioning is Eleanor Worthington-Cox, who tries her best to create a character worth caring about.  That's admirable since the bare minimum in this movie would be to say her lines without being so cute or annoying that you wish the bear would get inspiration from "The Revenant" and maul her.  The rest of the ensemble, which are made up of the usual "colorful" misfits and weirdos who show up in movies like this, are boring and forgettable.

So the question remains.  Did I laugh?  Yes.  More than a few times.  The film's downfall is that it concentrates too much on a worthless plot that no one will give a damn about.  The stuff at the park is funny.  Everything else is crap.

Save the good stuff for YouTube.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Desert Flower

2/4 Starring: Liya Kebede, Sally Hawkins, Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson Rated R for Some Violent Content, A Scene of Sexuality and Language The problem with "Desert Flower" is not that Waris Dirie's story isn't suited for the cinematic treatment or that the actress playing her isn't acceptable.  The problem is that director Sherry Hormann doesn't do a good job of telling it.  This is a poorly focused film that can't decide what it wants to be about or what it wants to say. As is the case with many a true story, the life of Waris Dirie is too amazing to be made up by a Hollywood screenwriter.  This woman fled an arranged marriage as a child, spent years as a servant to a Somali diplomat in England, survived on the streets, and was discovered by a fashion photographer while working as a janitor.  Then she became a supermodel and UN Ambassador in the fight against female genital mutilation. Waris experienced a lot in her life.  Telling it all in a...
Read more

The Road

3.5/4 Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron Rated R for Some Violence, Disturbing Images and Language "The Road" has to be the most downbeat, depressing and cynical movie I've ever seen.  That's not meant as a criticism, but a fact.  This is a tough movie to get through, but not a chore.  Those who venture in will find their time well spent, albeit not in a necessarily pleasant way.  Then again, if a movie is based off a novel by Cormac McCarthy, "pleasant" isn't a word one would hope to be used to describe it. The film takes place after the world has ended.  How it happened is not explained because it doesn't matter.  But any hope of the Earth recovering from what happened has long since gone.  A man (Mortensen) and his son (Smit-McPhee) are travelling together, trying to "get to the coast."  There are few people left, although considering what many are doing with the goal of survival, that's a good thing...
Read more

My Left Foot

 2/4 Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Ray McAnally, Fiona Shaw, Alison Whelan Rated R (probably for Language and Brief Violence) "My Left Foot" feels like one of those movies designed to win Oscars and nothing else.  In fact, it did win two Oscars for the immortal Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker, but apart from their strong work, there's not much else to remember about this movie.  It's well-acted, but all in all it's pretty dull. Christy Brown (Day-Lewis) is getting recognized for his work in order to raise money for the disabled.  Despite being a talented artist and writer, Christy is not the ideal candidate for the job.  He's an alcoholic jerk who makes no secret of his lust for women nor is he above using his disability to manipulate people into doing what he wants.  Interspersed with his attempts to seduce a woman tasked with looking after him while he awaits his entrance are vignettes from his childhood.  Most notably how his mothe...
Read more