Crisp Criticism - "Ted 2", "Minions", "Far from the Madding Crowd", "Live from New York"

by

Julien Faddoul

Ted 2 *

Ted, the taking teddy bear, must prove he is a person in a court of law.

Vaguely amusing sequel, much the same as before, with a humongous cast and about 1/5 of the jokes landing, though Wahlberg is at his most annoying here.

d – Seth MacFarlane

w – Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin, Wellesley Wild

ph – Michael Barrett

pd – Stephen J. Lineweaver

m – Walter Murphy

ed – Jeff Freeman

cos – Cindy Evans

p – Seth MacFarlane, Jason Clark, John Jacobs, Scott Stuber

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Jessica Barth, Patrick Warburton, Morgan Freeman, Michael Dorn, Dennis Haysbert, Lexi Atkins, Sam J. Jones, Nana Visitor, Tina Grimm

Minions

The Minions from Despicable Me are recruited by a super-villainess who hatches a plot to take over England.

Illumination Entertainment providing their usual tonic that the public has evidently embraced: mixing inspired European character designs with humor of the lowest common denominator. Jokes include old ladies who beat characters up, overweight people without clothes and moments of breaking into contemporary song for no apparent reason.

d – Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda

w – Brian Lynch

pd – Eric Guillon

m – Heitor Pereira

ed – Claire Dodgson

p – Chris Meledandri, Janet Healy

Cast: Pierre Coffin, Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Steve Coogan, Jennifer Saunders

Far from the Madding Crowd *

In Victorian England, an independent and headstrong farm owner attracts three very different suitors: A sheep farmer, a reckless Sergeant and a prosperous and mature bachelor.

Another adaptation of the Hardy novel that is elegant enough but so slackly handled. An hour shorter than the 1967 version, it truncates Bathsheba’s dilemma so that the whole thing feels like a modern romantic comedy in period garb.

d – Thomas Vinterberg

w – David Nicholls   (Based on the Novel by Thomas Hardy)

ph – Charlotte Bruus Christensen

pd – Kave Quinn

m – Craig Armstrong

ed – Claire Simpson

cos – Janet Patterson

p – Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich

Cast: Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge, Juno Temple

Live from New York

Documentary on the history of the late-night sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live and its impact on the culture.

A total, self-congratulating farrago: providing no insight whatsoever to the series’ messy and contentious past. It does nothing but lionize its subjects, in particular Lorne Michaels, with whose consent the film was clearly made.

d – Bao Nguyen

ph – Caleb Heller, Bao Nguyen

pd – Eric Guillon

m – Heitor Pereira

ed – Mari Keiko Gonzalez, David Osit

p – Sarah Cowperthwaite, Hyunjoo Kim, Owen Moogan, J.L. Pomeroy