I like Kevin James, but I don’t like Here Comes the Boom (2012).

It’s an inspirational comedy starring and co-written by James, and, although the comedy is reasonably funny, the inspirational content is spurious and ridiculous.  Sometimes I thought the movie was simply an excuse for showing a man getting pummeled in a mixed martial arts ring.  That goes on before we’re pummeled by inspiration.

*

Now for a year-end list.  The best films I saw in 2012 are, in no particular order: Bernie, Lincoln, Moonrise Kingdom, Damsels in Distress, Chronicle, and probably Silver Linings Playbook.  Honorable mention: Atlas Shrugged Part 2 and The Avengers.

Clifton Adams’s The Last Days of Wolf Garnett, published in 1970, is a fine Western.  It’s mostly well written, though Adams does incorrectly use “disinterested” (which means “impartial”, not “uninterested”), and it eschews becoming formulaic.  Up to a point I like the Western formulas, but non-formulas are even better so long as the book is sane and entertaining.

Here, the driven Frank Gault does not believe the barbarous man who murdered Gault’s wife is dead, even though he is supposed to be buried in New Boston’s cemetery.  Gault intends to avenge himself on the brute, Wolf Garnett by name, by and by encountering a terrible and dangerous conspiracy.  It’s a mystery story as well as an action novel.  Some startling material is here, in fact, in this a gritty portrait of obsession and the worst possible corruption.

Something needs to be done with Andy’s charming toys now that Andy is 17 years old and bound for college in the outstanding Toy Story 3 (2010).  Almost all of them are supposed to go in the attic (which is good—it’s still the owner’s house) but they’re somehow transported to Sunnyside Daycare instead (which is bad).  A pink toy bear there has grown malevolent and becomes the enemy of Woody the cowboy, Buzz Lightyear, et al.  He is unfortunately aided by Ken, who falls in love with Barbie, another toy at Andy’s house; she belonged to Andy’s preteen sister, Molly.  The adventure proceeds apace.  Led by Woody, the band of good-guy toys must fight for freedom and survival, thwarting the will of the bear-despot.

Yes, Lee Unkrich’s animated film is funny, but it is not as funny as it is entertaining in its drama.  And moving.  It more or less sheds tears over the harshness of reality.  When the pink bear, a big baby doll, and a toy clown discover they have been unintentionally left behind after a family vacation, they are shown in all their sad vulnerability.  Later, all the toys of Andy find they must resign themselves, for a while, to dying in a terrifying inferno.  Toy Story 3 has no politics, albeit it does have victimization—and a penal colony for toys in Sunnyside Daycare.

Still, this is a powerful comedy, wildly fun.  Risque humor in a family film was never more hilarious.  The funniest joke is when Mr. Potato Head finds he must transfer his parts to a tortilla.  The flick is every bit as good as The Incredibles—nay, better.

Sheriff Woody (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cover of Leoš Janá?ek

Leos Janacek, a Czech composer, completed his Sinfonietta just a couple of years before his death in 1928.

It is over 20 minutes long and consists of five movements, the first of which is bold with horns.  Timbre and harmony delight during the second movement, a brightly sweeping andante creation.   The slower third movement offers romance and gravity, and in the 7-minute fifth movement there is a marvelous Finale.

Janacek wrote Sinfonietta in honor of the Czechoslovak military, but it is much more than a martial opus.  There is something mysterious about, and in, great art, and this piece is no exception.  It’s a wonderland of sound with its own profundity.