Movie Review

I Do... Until I Don't is mostly a big don't

In 2013, actress Lake Bell gained extra fame when she wrote, directed and starred in the well-received In a World…, which found her playing a voiceover artist trying to make it in the competitive world of movie trailers. Unfortunately, the only thing her second film, I Do… Until I Don’t, has in common is her odd obsession with the ellipsis.

This time, she’s turned her attention to the institution of marriage. Three somewhat related couples — Alice and Noah (Bell and Ed Helms), Cybil and Harvey (Mary Steenburgen and Paul Reiser), and Fanny and Zander (Amber Heard and Wyatt Cenac) — are recruited by filmmaker Vivian (Dolly Wells) for her documentary about the uselessness of marriage.

Naturally, each couple has its own quirks or issues. Alice and Noah are trying to have a baby, with scheduled sex their only intimacy. Cybil and Harvey have been together for over 30 years, and boredom has settled in. Fanny and Zander supposedly have an open marriage, but strangely balk when opportunities present themselves.

Commenting on different styles of marriage has long been a theme in films, a fact that Bell has to contend with from the start. The biggest problem for her, though, seems to be self-inflicted, as none of the couples feels remotely like people who love — or even once loved — each other. In almost every case, they come off as caricatures, reacting in ways that are much too strange to believe.

Rather than go for a dramedy that would use comedic elements to underscore more dramatic scenes, Bell aims for an all-out comedy. Still, the situations in which she puts her characters aren't all that funny. She goes for wackiness, but winds up with mildly strange, resulting in actors flailing around, hoping to land a good line or two.

The only reason the film is remotely watchable is its talented cast. Each member of the main sextet has done better work, and the memories from those films or TV shows leaves you unable to dismiss their performances. But even that fact is only good for so long; you'll soon find yourself counting the minutes until the film comes to a close.

With these surface-level observations about marriage and barely-believable characters, I Do… Until I Don’t is not going to be Lake Bell's happily ever after.

Ed Helms and Lake Bell in I Do... Until I Don't.

Ed Helms and Lake Bell in I Do... Until I Don't

Photo by Merrick Morton

Ed Helms and Lake Bell in I Do... Until I Don't.

Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first but not by much

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films likeM3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

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