Strange family battles bad jinx
Bakang Israel | Friday November 21, 2014 13:10
It was a roller coaster ride with all that fast-paced scintillating action from big releases one after another, however with regard to this month it has been rather tranquil simply because there have been less releases to date with only four being The Good Lie, Interstellar, Tarzan and Alexander And The Terrible.
Despite that, it seems like things are swiftly starting to heat up due to this week’s scheduled premiere of hugely anticipated blockbuster The Hunger Games Mocking-Jay as well as Horrible Bosses 2 the week after and more importantly the recent release of family comedy Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Alexander And The Terrible in short), which is causing quite a stir for laughter-filled moments.
This film is a 2014 American comedy film directed by the not so prestigious Miguel Arteta. It is based on Judith Viorst’s 1972 children’s book of the same name and the movie looks attractive with familiar faces giving it an appealing cast.
The movie stars Golden globe award winners in funny-man Steve Carell playing the father figure (Mr Ben Cooper) alongside Jennifer Garner as his wife (Mrs Kelly Cooper). Meanwhile, Carell is at it again with his trademark role of a character that derives humour from awkward situations as often seen in his comedies such as Evans Almighty and The 40-Year-Old Virgin amongst others.
Co-starring alongside the two Hollywood top stars are young Ed Oxenbould (Alexander Cooper) who is the main character, Dylan Minnette (Anthony Cooper) and Kerris Dorsey (Emily Cooper) playing supporting roles as the other young Coopers who add up to this dysfunctional brood.
As far as the movie is concerned, credit has to go to Arteta who has pieced together an amusing screenplay, which has all the ingredients of a rib-cracking film particularly the rude humour from their reckless behaviours and disastrous situations.
This is evident with the movie’s creative yet simple plot as this Disney’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day follows the exploits of 11-year-old Alexander (Ed Oxenbould) as he experiences the most terrible and horrible day of his young life. His day begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by one calamity after another.
But when Alexander tells his upbeat family about the misadventures of his disastrous day, he finds little sympathy and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him.
He soon learns that he is not alone when his mother (Garner), dad (Carell), brother (Minnette) and sister (Dorsey) all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day all as a jinx wish from Alexander.
Hence whoever watches this, will love the movie because of the good execution into screenplay. Even so when watching it, you get that serenading funny feeling you used to get from other smash hit comedies like American Pie, Are We There Yet and The Johnson’s Family Vacation amongst past hilarious family comedies.
One other good thing about Alexander And The Terrible is the consistency element; this film is on point because it kicks off on a high note with the 11-year-old Alexander having a flashback of his worst day, which then introduces us to his family. The director maintained this funny spark up until the end of the movie as throughout there is punchline after punchline of a disastrous event involving a Cooper.
Most notably, as it is always the case with Carell’s characters he this time entertained big screen lovers as the devoted father who looked foolish throughout this comedy by carrying a baby and even introduced us to a new term of ‘Fammy’ (father-mommy) combined parent, this threw people into stitches of laughter.
The other fascinating scene that broke people’s ribs is the point when the Cooper brothers, Alexander and Anthony, naively thought they are sharing a good night conversation whilst as it turned out Anthony was on the phone having a steamy conversation with girlfriend, Celia which did not occur to young Alexander.
Speaking of which it is also fitting to applaud the stunts in this film because they were classy and simple yet delivered the main objective, humour. Above all, the fact that the director fused together certain insanely hideous acts such as Anthony’s driving test mayhem - as car chase element, Ben’s restaurant clothes burning fiasco - as public indecency, Celia going through a prom dance date from hell - as bad romance element, was all funny enough to leave the audience in stitches.
Lastly it is also vital to watch this film as it relays an important message, though the message may not be portrayed in a serious manner.
After watching the Coopers go through all the commotion of a very bad day ordeal, the film teaches us that we need our bad day experiences in order to appreciate the good smooth-all days.
Furthermore, the film is visually clear and clean, which is typical for comedy movies with bright colourful scenery to mesmerise enthusiasts accounting for great cinematography.
At the box office and reception theatres, Alexander And The Terrible enjoyed a wonderful third spot in ranking on its premiere weekend accumulating an impressive US$18,3 million. It gradually slipped to 12th spot last weekend.
With six weeks in theatres (two weeks in Botswana) the film has grossed a whopping US$81,8 million, which is good looking at the fact that this comedy was produced with a budget of US$28 million, which proves that the film is doing great on the market.
Because of that and the fun-filled movie experience, this comedy scores an 8/10 rating because it is one of those films that leave you craving for more. Also worth noting is the fact that the current hot movies on circuit, Dumb and Dumber To as well as Big Hero 6, are also comedies. They are sitting pretty at number one and two respectively at the box office hence movie enthusiasts should brace themselves for more laughter. It is safe to say that Alexander And The Terrible has outshone other recent comedies like Lets Be Cops and Tammy just to mention a few.
Movie: Alexander And The Terrible
Genre: Comedy| Family
Age Restriction: PG
Release Date: November 7, 2014
Director: Miguel Arteta
Main Cast: Steve Carell as Ben Cooper, Jennifer Garner (Mrs Kelly Cooper), Ed Oxenbould (Alexander Cooper), Dylan Minnette (Anthony Cooper) and Kerris Dorsey (Emily Cooper)