Trying to beat the holiday crowds on the road this Labor Day Weekend, we decided to take off this past weekend for an extended one in the mild wilds of Burlington, VT. Summoned by the siren call of the annual Montpelier Used Instrument Sale, one cannot visit Burlington in the summertime and not pay a visit to the Sunset Drive-In, a four screen outdoor film screening extravaganza (now with a rather mediocre mini putt-putt golf course) where you cannot fail to be entertained. Our recent visit allowed us to see two of this summer's male bonding comedies, Pineapple Express and Step Brothers!!
Let's start with the latest Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen effort Pineapple Express. Along with their cohort Evan Goldberg, these three have created a new sub-category to Buddy Flicks, The Post-Modern Male Bonding Flick. In this particular instance it is Dale Denton, a pot-head Process Server played by Seth Rogen and his pot dealer Saul Silver (James Franco) who are forced to take it on the lam after Dale witnesses a gangland murder. After a hilariously paranoid evening in the woods of LA, the two run around the city, hither and yon, trying to figure out who knows what, who has killed or will kill, and basically trying to stay alive. There is a hilarious scene with a school guard officer, played by Cleo King, who takes Dale down for dealing drugs to children and lectures him face-to-face while driving him down to the station. Now that one can't have SEX and DRUGS and ROCK N ROLL, Apatow and Rogen seem to be asking us to consider which one IS worse SEX or DRUGS (Dale, who is in his early 30's, has a "relationship" with a 17 year old High School student, and no one, except her Dad (a wonderful cameo role for Ed Begley, Jr.) seems to have problem with this age discrepancy). Rogen has a corner on the market when it comes to hazy heroes; his bearish grin makes me think of Yogi Bear after a weekend in Amsterdam. As in Superbad, the film culminates in the two male protagonists saying "I Love You" to each other and NOT having sex. In fact, the less actual touching during those moments supposedly the better, and a lot is milked out of the emotional and physical effort that NOT touching causes. What made Superbad far more effective as a film was that we knew the two male protagonists, Jonah and Michael, were being torn apart by school, by distance, by social "values", and even by sexuality, whereas Dale and Saul seemed fated to survive together in the cloudy hazy of a cross-joint. ;--{ A few honest laughs and some nice cameo work; worth the $2.50 so far (Did I mention that we snuck someone in without paying?)!!
After some fries, and onion rings, and one of the cheapest burgers in town ($2.50), we settled in for our second feature Step Brothers. Directed by Adam McKay and written by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay from a story by the two along with John C. Reilly, this movie should go over big at the cineplex in Boca Raton. The meeting and mating of Nancy Huff (Mary Steenburgen) and Dr. Robert Doback (Richard Jenkins) comes fast and furious, and both bond over their deep, dark secret; they each have a middle-aged son living with them at home. Nancy's son Brennan (Will Ferrell) is a sensitive, artistic, mamma's boy, while Dale Doback (John C. Reilly) fears the a lose of the all-male dominion he shares with his dad ("We go to the bathroom with the door open!")
The "comedy" comes out of the joining of these two households as one, forcing these two middle-aged adolescents to confront and conform to each others quirks and idiosyncrasies. As opposed to laughs, we are presented a series of peculiar moments of grown men acting out like tired 10-year-olds. When the "boys" are told they can borrow anything out of dad's clothing closet to look their best for a job interview, they opt to deck themselves out in evening clothes, cut-aways, cummerbunds and bow ties. Hilarious perhaps to a 10-year-old, things don't improve for us grown-ups when the two decide to interview for a job as one. And the fight over whether Brennan had touched Dale's drum kit or not is down-right painful. After driving a wedge between mom and dad by wrecking dad's dream boat (and dream of early retirement to sail around the world) while producing their first music video together, the two boy's finally hunker down, get jobs, and ultimately get their parents back together. Fairy tales can come true!!
:-( Amazed I stayed awake for the whole thing! Silly idea, poor presentation and badly written. Skip it if at all possible!!
Finally, we attended a special wine-tasting screening of the small indie film Bottle Shock at the Roxy in downtown Burlington. A poorly planned event sponsored by a new local wine shop, mayhem preceded the screening as people crowded around to sample and vote on their preferences between three pairs of wines, one French, one Californian (we preferred the French two to one). I doubt any amount of alcohol would relieve the pain of this ridiculous dramatization of the "famous" event in 1976 which pitted the best of French wines against those of California's Napa/Sonoma Valleys. Basically an enormous advertisement for the winery Chateau Montelena (an establishment of undeniable quality; will this now allow them to jack their pricey prices up even more?), there is no plot per se, no hero to root for, and no sense to pacing to create any kind of tension. Skilled, talented actors like Dennis Farina, Bill Pullman and Alan Rickman do their best to rise about the mediocre material they have to work with, but struggle is futile and the strong gravitational pull of dullness drags down even these seasoned veterans.
:-( :-( :-( AVOID AT ALL COSTS!! THIS AIN'T NO SIDEWAYS!!!! BOTTLE SCHLOCK!!!!
I don't normally encourage tourism towards my end of New York, but as someone who has lived in NYC for over 25 years and on the Isle of Statten for over 10, I guess I am glad to have lived to see the day of the new South Ferry/Whitehall St Subway station 
