Aliens are about to invade the fictional town of Glenview, Ohio.

The only thing standing in their way is the Neighborhood Watch led by Evan (Ben Stiller). This group of misfits is not quite equipped to handle such a task.

“The Watch” opens with a narration by Stiller’s character, asking, “What’s out there … beyond the great beyond?” From space, the camera zooms onto Ohio, where he walks the audience through his life and various clubs he runs.

“Here, dreams really do come true,” the Cosco manager opines. (While set in Ohio, the film was actually filmed in Atlanta.)

There is an incident in his store and, fearing for the safety of his neighborhood, he forms a Watch to keep a lookout for the area. At the first meeting, three other guys show up — a trio of misfits.

Bob (Vince Vaughn) is a father of a teenager and his wife has recently been on the road, away from home. He’s ready for some guy time, not necessarily on Watch duty.

Franklin (Jonah Hill) is a wannabe cop who couldn’t pass the written or physical tests to join the police force. He is intense in his mannerisms and is the male embodiment of Melissa McCarthy’s character in “Bridesmaids.”

The third member to join Evan’s team is Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade). He’s looking for other guy friends and wouldn’t mind fraternizing with neighborhood ladies.

This group is the only chance the Earth has to survive. Once they stumble upon their first alien, what they do with it is documented in one of the trailers distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Unfortunately, quite a bit of the film’s great moments can be seen in these trailers, especially the funny segments. And some of the jokes left out of the trailers fall flat. The 98-minute film’s R rating also seems wasted.

At times, “The Watch” struggles to figure out if it wants to be a comedy, drama, thriller or action-adventure movie. “Marvel’s The Avengers” earlier this summer was better able to traverse these genres seamlessly.

The movie is, however, well made, technically. It’s pretty to watch on the big screen and the animation of the aliens and special effects is immaculate.

/ 5

Official trailer:

Rated R for some strong sexual content including references, pervasive language and violent images.

Read more: STAR @ the movies

Toledo Free Press Lead Designer and Film Editor James A. Molnar blogs about all things Oscar at TheGoldKnight.com. Watch him discuss movies on “WNWO Today” around 5:50 a.m. on Fridays.

Tags: 20th Century Fox, aliens, Ben Stiller, Comedy, Film, James A. Molnar, Jonah Hill, Movies, neighborhood watch, review, Richard Ayoade, summer movies, The Gold Knight, the watch, Vince Vaughn

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2012 at 7:55 am and is filed under Arts and Life, Film, Star, The Gold Knight.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Aliens live among us. And not all of them want to kill us.

This is the Spielbergian ideal within which the world of the “Men in Black” universe operates.

It’s whimsical and refreshing. Creative and fun.

While the second movie of this trilogy didn’t quite live up to these adjectives, “Men in Black 3″ returns the series to its roots and focuses, thankfully, on the duo that is Agents J and K (Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones).

The person that really shines in this movie, however, is not Smith or Jones, but Josh Brolin, who is charged with playing a younger Jones.

Smith and Jones look visibly older than they did in the last film, which came out a decade ago. It’s almost distracting in the beginning.

In order to save the Earth from pending doom (always the case for the Men in Black), Agent J (Smith) must go back in time — to the summer of ’69. While there, he works with a younger Agent K (Brolin). This is where the movie really finds its groove.

A sworn enemy of K’s ever since he lost his arm, Borris The Animal (Jemaine Clement) goes time jumping to save his arm and get revenge. A Boglodite assassin who has no problem killing people, Borris can shoot spikes from his hand and has claws on his feet. He also has quite the superiority complex.

Along with young K, another character adds life to the movie: a soothsaying alien named Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg), who helps guide J and K and provides some comic moments in the meantime.

The problem with any movie that comes out this summer is that it faces an uphill battle against the creative juggernaut of “Marvel’s The Avengers.” Comparing MiB3 with that film is futile, for the bar was set so high. By itself, “Men in Black 3″ works and is entertaining; it doesn’t try to be too funny, a lesson director Barry Sonnenfeld learned with the last film.

The visuals are wonderful, though the 3-D is mostly bland. The music by Danny Elfman is again whimsical and perfect. Oscar-winning makeup artist Rick Baker successfully created some cool aliens for the film.

It’s time to save the planet from alien scum. And have some fun watching it.

/ 5

Trailer:

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, and brief suggestive content.

Toledo Free Press Lead Designer and Film Editor James A. Molnar blogs about all things Oscar at TheGoldKnight.com.

Tags: aliens, blockbusters, Film, James A. Molnar, Josh Brolin, men in black, men in black 3, Molnar, Movies, review, Sony Pictures, summer movies, The Gold Knight, Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith

This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2012 at 12:01 am and is filed under Arts and Life, Film, Star, The Gold Knight.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.