Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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NOVEMBER 5-11, 2014 UCW 21 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM I never read the book, but given the length of the original I'm guessing the film adaptation of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (81 minutes) takes quite a few liberties with the narrative. Alexander Cooper (Ed Oxenbould) is the middle child of four (the fourth is a baby, making him even more of a middle child). His parents, Ben (Steve Carell) and Kelly (Jennifer Garner), are very positive people, but between running his older siblings around and keeping his younger brother from playing in traffic, they don't have much time left over for Alexander. His older sister Emily is in the school play and seems to spend her days doing voice exercises. His older brother Anthony (Dylan Minnette) is a popular guy with a superficial girlfriend ready to get his driver's license and rule the world for a few years, before inevitably discovering that life is hard even if you look pretty. Alexander wakes up the day before his twelfth birthday to find gum stuck in his hair, the first in a series of misfortunes. Over breakfast, his mother talks about her work publishing a new children's book while Ben, a stay-at- home Dad, talks about his job interview the next day. While it is nice to see a working mother and stay-at-home Dad I would like to sit down with the screenwriters and have a serious discussion about what a middle class family of six might actually manage to accomplish in a single day, and how many bathrooms they might have in their suburban mansion that they can somehow afford. I think I might be doing my budget wrong. In fact, I think I may be doing life wrong. Alexander joins his carpool and makes it to school with no permanent damage, but lots of embarrassment, as his head has been photo shopped onto a series of sexy ladies, which were then Instagrammed to the entire school. To make matters worse, he finds out that his best friend is ditching him to go to someone else's birthday party, along with everyone else he knows. When he tries to commiserate with his family they are less than sympathetic. That night, just like in Liar, Liar, Alexander makes a supercharged wish on a birthday candle and the next day wacky hijinks ensue. His family wakes up late and yells about sharing the bathroom while the baby runs around naked peeing on everything. I must say, this is a much more realistic version of life. Especially the bit where the baby pees all over the kitchen. Ben is forced to take the baby to his job interview because when you live in the suburbs there are no friendly neighbors or helpful friends to assist you in an emergency, though there are apparently readily accessible Australian themed petting zoos. Kelly finds out about an embarrassing misprint in the book she was responsible for proofing, and because she has never heard of cellphones or any other means of communicating with people who are not standing right next to her, she commandeers a bike from an assistant (because she has never heard of a car service either) and pelts towards a local bookstore to stop Dick Van Dyke from telling children to take a dump in the pool. Everything works out alright, with mistakenly hired Australian themed male strippers arriving at the kids birthday party to serve as the final cherry on top of the day gone wrong. If you're in the mood for a family film with a happy ending you could do worse, but there's nothing especially exciting going on here. Consider ditching the pre-adolescents in the theater with some popcorn while you play arcade games in the lobby. Now showing at Wynnsong 7, Market Fair 15 and Carmike 12. An Adequate, Tolerable, Passable Film Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Rated PG) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. The ultimate feel-good show! Thursday, November 13 7:30 p.m. You Already Know You're Gonna Love It! Get tickets at 910.521.6361 Discount available for Groups 10 or more Order tickets online at www.uncp.edu/gpactickets Givens Performing Arts Center