I've been a podcaster and radio DJ for over 15 years, and an appreciator of my favourite things for my entire life. That includes film, music, food and of course... a nice glass of rum.
The 80s were a boon to the teen movie genre. That was the ultimate launching pad for the genre, and many, many careers. Yeah, Rebel Without A Cause in the 50s and American Graffiti in the 70s also fall into the genre, but for sheer volume and presence of teen films, it’s the 80s. John Hughes and his Brat Pack were of course the poster faces, from The Breakfast Club & Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to Weird Science & 16 Candles. That’s what we think of when we think Teen Movie. Of course there’s also the great Fast Times At Ridgemont High (which is my 2nd favourite of the genre, behind Dazed & Confused from the 90s) and Say Anything… both written by Cameron Crowe. Those are the standards. What’s great about the 80s is sometimes the movies got really weird, or into really specific sub-genres.
My Best Friend is a Vampire starring Robert Sean Leonard and Teen Wolf with Michael J. Fox. Then you’ve got Summer School, Better Off Dead (both two of my all time faves), The Outsiders, Red Dawn, Can’t Buy Me Love, Rockula, Risky Business… I could literally go on for hours. All of which I recommend.
But I want to bring your attention to one that only recently, within the past few months, hit my radar. I’m a big fan of The Nerdist podcast with Chris Hardwick, Jonah Ray and Matt Mira, and a few months ago I noticed them mention the movie Three O’Clock High as a great 80s flick. I hadn’t even heard of this one. But they mentioned it a few times, and I said, “Well shit… I have to seek this out and see it, if these guys who I admire speak highly of it.” I didn’t have to seek long as it was right there on Netflix.
The film stars Casey Siemaszko as Jerry Mitchell, a not popular, but not geek-loser kinda guy, just… cool in the way that he does his own thing. And he pisses off this new kid who’s legendary status as a bully has been passed around before the first bell even rings, warranting a countdown to his death by beating at 3:00pm.
It’s a wonderful riff on the old classic Westerns, “This town ain’t big enough fer the 2 of us. Shoot out at dawn, pardner!” So that thrusts it into the sub-genre category, but it’s also delightfully surreal. It’s a kindred spirit to the equally bizarre Better Off Dead with John Cusack. You’re inhabiting the head and the mindset of the main character, and seeing the world in his skewed way, with his imagination. The principal (Jeffrey Tambor, who has never aged), the cop (Philip Baker Hall, who has also never aged) and the security guard (Mitch Pileggi, he’s aged) are all exaggerated caricatures. That’s not who they are, but that’s how Jerry sees them. And Richard Tyson’s bully Buddy Revell is so gloriously larger than life.
If you like the standard John Hughes teen flicks, this one may be too…. out there for you, but if you’ve seen and loved Better Off Dead (I’m using it as a point of reference since that’s slightly more well-known), then this one is definitely for you.
Starring Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan and Peter Storemare
When entering a film produced by Luc Besson, you can be assured of two things: 1) It’ll probably be completely unoriginal and full of clichés and 2) Number 1 won’t really matter because it’ll be a hell of a lot of fun.
Guy Pearce is one of those actors that never really popped like he should have, but fortunately never really faded into obscurity. I caught both L.A. Confidential and Memento right around the same time, and was instantly a fan of Pearce and anticipated big things for him. His first big budget lead role in the 2002 remake of The Time Machine was a dud, but he’s been maintaining a solid presence in art-fare, including 2010’s Best Picture winner The King’s Speech. He seems to have a lot of fun with his role as ex-CIA agent Snow in Lockout, and he takes the audience along for the ride. He’s definitely channeling some Kurt Russell for this.
Peter Stormare is engaging as always, this time as an assholish head of Secret Service, and I always get a kick out of seeing Lennie James on-screen (when’s he coming back to The Walking Dead?). Maggie Grace has made a career of playing the damsel in distress, and pretty soon they’re gonna run out of actors who can save her.
Major credit to both Vincent Regan and Joseph Gilgun for playing to great villains who would, given a better film, go down as some of the better cinematic villains of the past 10 years.
The biggest problem of the film is definitely the production design. The graphics and CGI are laughably bad in the opening chase sequence. Besson and his team created such an amazing world 15 years ago with The Fifth Element, it’s almost shocking that they couldn’t replicate that look for Lockout.
But I will give it to writer/directors James Mather & Stephen St. Ledger for taking what they gave themselves and making it work, barely. I was never able to fully suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride, but when I did… damn what a fun ride it was.
It’s great 80s B-Movie fun, think Escape from New York in space, but with modern filmmaking notions, and a weak plot. It’s fun… but never fully realizes it’s potential, which is disappointing. I say wait till DVD.
The Cabin in the Woods
The Cabin in the Woods
5 stars
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly, Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins
When I first saw a trailer for this one I though, “Seriously? Now they’re just getting lazy with the titles.” Then I saw that it was from Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, who’s written for both Whedon (on Buffy and Angel) and J.J. Abrams (on Alias and Lost), so my next thought was “HOLY SHIT THIS IS GOING TO BE AMAZING!”
It was every bit as amazing as you could hope for for a horror film from these two. As I discussed in this entry here, the Scream franchise is essentially the perfect set of horror films. It dissects, parodies and satirizes the genre, yet still exists entirely within the confines of the genre. It’s the best of both worth worlds, and (at least the first one, there were diminishing returns on the sequels, which is super-meta, I suppose) it’s perfect. The Cabin in the Woods takes it a step further. It turns everything that has become trite and unoriginal in the genre and turns it on its head, making it so all that is trite and unoriginal is entirely the point. They even get jabs in at international horror films, particularly Japanese.
Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins are hilarious and perfectly eerie as the men in charge of the scares, controlling everything every step of the way. It really does bring new light as to why scary shit always happens at dark, secluded cabins. I was positively giddy every time the action cut to these two.
The best part is that with the intermingled action, you really do get caught up with the 5 college kids out for a weekend getaway. Instead of playing “Who’s gonna die next?” you’re actually rooting for them to make it out alive. They’re all fantastic, and while this won’t make any of them stars (Hemsworth filmed this way back in ’09, pre-Thor), it certainly isn’t a blemish on their filmographies like Jennifer Aniston in Leprechaun or George Clooney in Return to Horror High.
Fret not, faithful reader, I won’t spoil the ending for you, but I will say that it is fucking amazing, and if you’re a fan of Whedon at all, you’ll love it as much as I did. Definitely get to the theatre and see this one.
The Raid: Redemption
The Raid: Redemption
3.5 stars
Starring Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian and Joe Taslim
I jumped at the chance to catch this Indonesian action flick in theatres because I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Indonesian film of any genre. I gotta say, it was damn good. But it wasn’t all quite… there.
The action was mind-blowing. From start to finish, just wall to wall (literally) martial arts that will please any action fan. It played out like a video game. Our hero, Rama, works his way up the apartment complex, fighting the underlings along the way, then the underboss, then a showdown with the uber-boss. It’s a video game, but so fascinating to watch.
The reason it wasn’t all quite there, is the plot. I know I’ll probably hear “It’s an action film, who needs plot?!” Well… I do. The overall plot was these were cops going into a complex ruled over by a crime lord to take his empire down. Pretty standard, easy to work with kinda action flick. And that kept the show running through most of the film. And I was OK with all of that. But there were nuances to the story that the didn’t even address till the third act, and by that time, they just had to rush through it to get it all resolved.
I liken the film to an underwhelming firework. It wasn’t a dud that had no spark in the finale. There was just a lot of build up and it just ended. Maybe they’ll hash somethings out in the sequel due out next year, and I’m hoping they do.
If you’re really into action films, I do highly recommend it, as on the action front, it more than delivers. Read fast, though, they kind of zip through the subtitles. If you were on the fence about seeing this one in theatres, you could probably wait for the DVD and be just fine.
Similar to last week’s entry regarding The X-Files and my trip down memory lane, this is about another revisit of my youth, this time in the form of high nerdery, the wonderful mythos that is Star Trek.
I originally conceived the idea of going on a Star Trek binge and watching all the TV Shows and Movies in as short a time span as possible way back when I was unemployed and had literally nothing else to do (aside from job hunting). Disregarding the animated series, if you were to watch every episode of every series, and every movie, in the in-universe chronological order (Enterprise through Deep Space 9), I figured it would take roughly 22.8 days of non-stop viewing. I wouldn’t be able to do that then, nor now, but it was an idea I kicked around, but never fulfilled.
Then a few months ago the wonderful documentary The Captains showed up in my Netflix recommendations, I watched it, and decided to get started on watching Star Trek. Though I broke from the original idea by starting with The Next Generation, instead of Enterprise. The titles and images are clickable links to the Netflix stream.
The pop-cultural significance of this piece of film should not go unnoticed at all. It’s nothing fancy. Just the Original Series Captain, Kirk, William Shatner, taking a film crew and discussing Star Trek, one of the biggest franchises in history, with all of the other Trek Captains – TNG‘s Picard (Patrick Stewart), DS9‘s Sisko (Avery Brooks); Voyager‘s Janeway (Kate Mulgrew); Enterprise‘s Archer (Scott Bakula); and new, young Kirk from the reboot movie, Chris Pine.
It’s truly fascinating to see these 6 people together on film, though unfortunately not all at the same time. You get a behind the curtain look at what it was like (for most of them, excluding Shatner, obviously) to enter this phenomenon of a TV/Movie series, coming from their varied backgrounds, and how it impacted their careers. It’s a fun sit-down and chat style interview between director Shatner and his 5 successors (or, predecessor, technically, in Bakula’s case) to the Captain’s Chair. Shatner does focus on himself quite a bit, as he tends to do, and is more than allowed to do. As someone who grew up on Trek, I watched from beginning to end with eager ears to hear the charming stories each would tell from their time in Starfleet.
And then there’s of course what led me directly to that: the shows. I grew up on first The Next Generation, moving straight into DS9 and Voyager. I of course caught reruns of The Original Series back when SyFy was Sci-Fi, and actually showed Sci-Fi. I never watched Enterprise, which is surprising to even me considering I’m a big fan of both Star Trek and Bakula’s previous series, Quantum Leap. But I’ve recently started reliving my time with TNG, even tweeting about (#RelivingTNG). I finally got over the Tasha Yar/Beardless Riker hump and I’m at the point where it’s starting to get good. I’m probably going to keep pushing through TNG, taking each series at a time, and if you want to check out Star Trek, either again, or for the first time, do it.
The original cast comes back for more in American Reunion
American Reunion
1 Star
Starring Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Seann William Scott, Chris Kline, Thomas Ian Nichols, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Eugene Levy
There’s a reason we never revisited The Breakfast Club, Fast Times At Ridgemont High or Dazed & Confused. Everything that needed to be said about the characters, their relevant arcs, was said. Sure, it’s nice to speculate where Stacy and Marc are, what happened to Bender, or what Randall Floyd is up to… but the speculation is fun. Having their futures laid out in an unsatisfying way is not how we want to remember those beloved characters. And that is the undoing of the American Pie franchise as a whole, and American Reunion particularly.
I rather enjoyed the first American Pie. It was unique for a teen movie, in that it directly addressed the issue of sex, and treated it with heart. Sure, there was juvenile humour involved, but they were juveniles… it made sense in context. But that was one thing the first one had, it’s heart. Every entrant since has been a pale shadow of the original that recycles jokes and refuses to allow its characters to grow.
In fact, the most glaring character devolution of the franchise is Seann William Scott’s Stifler. Scott is a talented, capable actor whose work I have enjoyed over the years. But Stifler in the 99 was a cool, party guy, even if he was kind of dickish. And while, through the years, the rest of the characters were allowed some sort of natural maturation, he grew more immature as the years went on, almost to the point that he seems to have some sort of (barely) functional retardation.
That’s the worst, everything else is just… bad. Every situation seems contrived to make the joke, completely clichéd (“It’s not what it looks like!”), and still juvenile. Jim still has problems masturbating, Finch is still pretentious, Kevin is still the lovelorn optimist, Oz is still the dumb jock with a heart of gold. Really? They couldn’t grow as people in the 13 years since they were in high school?
The only enjoyable bit came at the very end, a scene between the great Eugene Levy and Jennifer Coolidge. That’s perfection, and that scene alone is worth one star.
I just couldn’t bring myself to like this one, as much as I wanted to. It’s just a hopeless retread of the original, offering nothing new and everything exactly as expected. Save your money… don’t bother with this one.
Now, I’m an atheist. I don’t get holidays. Sure there are plenty of secular holidays for me to observe throughout the year like Independence Day, New Years, Thanksgiving (there’s dispute on that, but I view it as secular). But I don’t have a Christmas or Easter, a Hanukkah or Yom Kippur, a Ramadan or even a Lycaea. So I thought, what could I, an atheist movie nerd, observe as a holiday?
I put together a tentative list. The rules were quite simple: 1) the day/date had to be significant in the film. 2) The film had to be significant to me.
May the 4th is NOT included, as it’s based on a play on words, not an actual date. As much as I would like to include Star Wars…. it just doesn’t fit. Also, the anti-Empire nature of May the 4th clashes with the pro-Empire nature of Rex Manning Day.
March 24th – Breakfast Club Day
The Breakfast Club
March 24th becomes a day of reflection. You come to the realisation, that despite your differences with the people around you, you’re all fighting the same battles internally, and you actually grow closer because of the differences. It’s a day for the promotion of peace, both personal peace and world peace.
Traditional meals: A Captain Crunch & Pixie Stix sandwich for breakfast; a bag of chips, chocolate cookies, three sandwiches, milk, a banana and an apple for lunch; Sushi for dinner; Vodka whenever
Traditional celebrations: Dancing around a library to a killer 80s soundtrack; Hashing things out, emotionally; Venturing out to get marijuana.
Askew is a 2 day affair of philosophical contemplations. You can discuss a wide range of topics, from the minutia of pop culture to expounding on your relationships with other people.
Traditional meals: Chocolate covered pretzels; Coke; Gatorade; lasagna; at least one meal must be eaten in a mall food court; Skip breakfast to play Sega.
Traditional celebrations: Skipping breakfast to play Sega; Crash a wake; Play hockey on a roof; go to the mall; watch a Dating Game rip-off; Going out on a schooner. Or a sailboat.
Traditional decorations: Magic Eye; poorly made signs written in shoe polish.
It’s a day commemorating the heroes who boldly took a stance against the man and said “DAMN THE MAN! SAVE THE EMPIRE!” Remember those who sacrificed their watches, their life savings, their art to stand up to corporate music stores.
Traditional meal: A shoplifter deep-fried in a vat of hot oil; special brownies.
Traditional celebrations: Taking off to Atlantic City (or Vegas, depending on what side of the Mississippi you’re on) to put everything one roll of the dice; AC/DC party session; late night block parties.
This holiday marks seasonal change. It’s a time of change, moving from one era of our lives into another. We celebrate our accomplishments, and look forward to new challenges.
Traditional meals: Smoked or liquid lunch; Fried bacon; Top-Notch burgers (or similar drive-in burgers)
Traditional celebrations: Taking in a baseball game; Hazing rituals; Whack-a-mailbox; Pool/billiards; Party at the Moon Tower; Aerosmith concert.
A day of jubilation, relaxation and celebrating all that life has to offer. Take a day for yourself and your friends and family. The motto of the day is “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Traditional Meals: Ballpark hotdogs; Snooty french meals
Traditional celebrations: A parade featuring a city-wide dance/sing-along; Baseball game; Going to the top of a skyscraper; driving a fancy, expensive car
November 5th – 12th – Enchantment Under The Sea Week
Enchantment Under The Sea
A week-long event of true reflection of where we came from. As people. Both individually and collectively. A journey through our own personal histories and how everything that happens make us who we are today. And how thankful we are to be who and where we are, knowing that even the slightest changes could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe!
Traditional meals: Delicious diner food; Milk. Chocolate;
Traditional celebrations: Skateboarding through the town square; Zip-lining from the clock tower to the street below; A formal dance at the end of the week.
Beginning at sundown on the 24th, lasting through sunrise on the 25th, Nakatomi is a day of remembrance and reverence for those who would fight to keep us safe.
Traditional meals: Watered down champagne; Twinkies; Swiss cheese; Nestle Crunch Bar
Traditional celebrations: Crawling through an air-duct; Walking around barefoot; Bungee jumping off a building; driving around in a limo
Traditional greeting: “A yippie-ki-yay motherfucker to you!”
So that’s it. The new holidays for all you movie nerds out there. This list isn’t comprehensive, there are plenty I missed and should be added. If you want to see a movie holiday added, let me know! (No Groundhog Day. That holiday already exists).
This is the maiden voyage of a new weekly feature here on the blog: A weekly suggestion of something cool to check out online. I’m going to start with Netflix, then expand to include Hulu, Vudu and Amazon Prime, to help you with the full online streaming experience.
I’m going to ease into this with a few TV shows that I feel are all kindred spirits (no pun intended), and are solid entries into the sci-fi procedurals. Clicking the images and headlines will take you to the Netflix page for each of the shows.
I know, I know… “DUH! You don’t have to tell me to watch that. I already saw it back when it first aired!” So did I. I grew up on the show, as did many nerds of my generation. But I don’t think I’ve watched a single episode since it went off the air back in 2002. Not that I’ve been avoiding it, and I may have caught a random episode here or there over the years in the wee small hours the morning during local programming. But I’ve yet to fully revisit one of my all time favourite shows. And that’s what I’m in the process of doing right now (as well as another personally formative show I’ll discuss next week).
I’m a little over halfway through the first season (I only recently started this endeavour), the exploratory season. You can definitely tell that Chris Carter, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are finding their footing on this groundbreaking series. It was a unique program to join the line-up of the then 6-year-old FOX Network, which was still trying to stake a claim in prime-time, and had already found some success with Married… With Children, 21 Jump Street, Beverly Hills 90210 and, of course, The Simpsons. But that’s always been the fascinating thing about FOX, they’ve always been just a step ahead, and quite bold with their programming choices. A prime-time animated sitcom which led to a whole block of animated program. Roseanne got the glory, but Married… with Children beat it to the punch on blue-collar dysfunction. Even into the 2000s, if it wasn’t forboth The X-Files and later 24, we probably wouldn’t have seen Lost. But I digress, back to The X-Files…
As long as there’s been TV, there’s been cop shows, Dragnet started all the way back in 1951. The X-Files took that long tradition of solving cases and threw aliens, ghosts, monsters and demons at it, but rarely strayed into the truly ridiculous. OK… there were a few episodes (mostly in the admittedly uneven 1st season) that got a little off topic, but once you push through the muck and WTF moments, the show really hits its stride.
What always kept my interest was the balance between “Monster-Of-The-Week” episodes, the stand alone stories, and the ones that fell under the purview of the running narrative arc – Mulder’s quest for the truth, specifically as it pertains to his sister’s disappearance, and the alien cover up conspiracy. The addition of the fantastic Mitch Pileggi in the second season gave Mulder and Scully an authority figure to both clash and commiserate with. Skinner was both friend and foe, but not out of inconsistent writing, but out of the intricacies of the character. His arrival was when the show really started to pick up, and just a year after that, Vince Gilligan joined the writing staff, and he would go on to create Breaking Bad, one of the best TV shows of the past decade.
Say what you will about the first season, and there’s a lot to be said about it, but it’s a landmark show and I’m thoroughly enjoying the trip down memory lane. All 9 seasons are available for streaming on Netflix by clicking here. Run through the whole series, or just catch up on your favourite episodes.
I spent a lot of time talking about The X-Files, so I promise to keep the next two relatively short. I was first introduced to Warehouse 13 by my dear friend Joel. I believe his exact words were “Dude, you gotta check out Warehouse 13.” It had just started, so the first few episodes were there for my viewing pleasure on Hulu. I marathoned them all and became an instant fan. I remember discussing the show a few days later and referring to it as “X-Files: The Next Generation.” Federal agents in a sci-fi show tracking down the weird and unexplained… I think it’s an apt description. It’s a little heavier on the comedy than The X-Files was, but it works.
I was attracted to this show because of its pop culture references. Not pop culture references the way Community and Psych (both great shows, Psych is on Netflix, Community is on HuluPlus) make Star Wars jokes. Pop culture references like… Victorian era authors. Centuries old world leaders. The show really hit the ground running, and I think benefits from the shortened seasons of cable. It’s definitely worth a watch, with seasons 1 & 2 on Netflix which you can watch here, season 3 will be released soon, and season 4 starts this summer. Also worth a watch: their sister show, Eureka, which is coming back this summer for its 5th and final season. All 4 seasons are on Netflix.
Admittedly, I initially dismissed this show as “Great… another Buffy retread featuring guys who are way too good-looking, and it’s on the CW, so whatevs. GIRL SHOW!” But then I started hearing really positive things about it. From people whose opinions I trusted, and I wouldn’t have normally pegged to have enjoyed my perception of what kind of show Supernatural was. Then the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon kicked into high gear, and I started seeing it recommended on Netflix, on Hulu, I saw it mentioned a lot on Reddit, Facebook and Twitter, it even showed up in Fark. So I said, “FINE! I’ll give it a shot!”
Holy shit! I totally should have been watching this from the beginning. It’s a damn good sci-fi/fantasy/horror show that very much follows the mold of The X-Files in that it does the aforementioned “Monster-Of-The-Week,” but also balances it with an overall arc. Since I’m watching this one in tandem with The X-Files, I’m still only on the first season with this one, as well. Though there are a few later season episodes I’m looking forward to, including the S5 finale set in Stull, KS, which as any good Kansan (like myself) will tell you, is allegedly one of the gates to hell. And there’s a S6 episode that gets really meta, which I’m looking forward to watching.
Mostly I’m disappointed I ignored this one for so long. It’s a really good show and if you aren’t watching it, catch all 6 seasons on Netflix here, and it’s currently in its 7th.
Starring Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Armie Hammer and Nathan Lane
Fairy tales, particularly Snow White have become a new hot thing. Grimm on NBC, Once Upon A Time on ABC, another Snow White film out in June and a few Beauty & The Beast projects in the works. Mirror Mirror gets the jump on the cinematic offerings with Indian director Tarsem Singh’s take on the classic story.
Singh’s got an interesting eye. His films have a unique visual style that’s aesthetically pleasing and immersive. I really enjoyed his 2000 debut, The Cell, and 2006’s The Fall. This film is just as enjoyable, with a fun quirkiness that doesn’t feel insulting to the source material, or the audience.
What I liked most about the first Shrek film is its ability blend in modern jokes with the medieval back drop. In that respect, Mirror Mirror is a live action Shrek, though not as unrelenting with the wink & nod.
The relatively green Lily Collins is absolutely engaging as Snow White, perfectly capturing the wide-eyed innocence and optimism, and balancing that with the she-warrior the character becomes to battle the Evil Queen. Already, I can tell I enjoy her performance more than Kristen Stewart’s blank reading of lines in June’s Snow White and the Huntsman. Collins is just so sweet.
I quite enjoyed Julia Roberts tapping into her sinister side for the Evil Queen. It’s a side of her we haven’t really seen before, and there’s a delightful campiness to it. Armie Hammer is charismatic and wonderfully witty as Prince Alcott.
Unfortunately, no matter how visually pleasing the film is, nor how entertainingly funny the actors performances are, the film never quite reaches the level of being “Must See.” It’s a good piece of cinematic fluff, but is ultimately forgettable. Though I am hoping it gives both Hammer and Collins a push towards more solid work. Do see it if you’re so inclined, but you’ll be OK to wait to check it out as a rental.
Wrath of the Titans
Wrath of the Titans
1 star
Starring Sam Worthington, Rosamund Pike, Toby Kebell, Edgar Ramirez, Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes
Ahhhh unnecessary sequels. I didn’t particularly care for the first one. It was passable, but underwhelming, and the 3D was terrible. It was one of the last films I elected to see in 3D. That was general consensus 2 years ago, so naturally they made a sequel.
I have nothing against Sam Worthington, he’s a perfectly capable actor, but it doesn’t seem like the push to make him the next big thing will come to fruition. I just don’t buy him as Perseus, the half-god, half-human son of Zeus. I don’t know what it is, but he just doesn’t have that spark.
Wrath ends up being a complete waste of everyone’s talents. There isn’t a single member of the principle cast whose work I don’t enjoy, especially the prestige British actors. I suppose even they must have blemishes on their filmographies, and they can’t always do the important stuff. Big budget pays out big, too. It’s just… It was an exercise in wasting time.
The most confounding performance was Bill Nighy. I honestly didn’t think it would have been possible for him to retread his Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean, but the mannerisms are quite similar, to the point that I think he didn’t even bother coming up with a new way of playing Hephaestus because he knew that this movie was going to pass mostly unseen. I will give major kudos to Edgar Ramirez for being a total badass Ares, and in a better film he would have been more exciting.
The film is a loud display of action sequences and fight scenes with not enough meat on its bones to make it worthwhile. I wouldn’t even recommend waiting for the rental. It’s completely skipable.
Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Woody Harrelson
Studios have made a mad dash to find the next hot book property to turn into a film franchise, following the wrap-up of Harry Potter. Despite being pretty decent, Percy Jackson didn’t really land with audiences. Despite being terrible, Twilight‘s the only one that managed to become a hit. That all changes with The Hunger Games, based on Suzanne Collins wildly popular book trilogy.
I will admit that I haven’t read any of the books. Though I only read one of the Harry Potter books, and maybe a paragraph of a Twilight “novel,” it didn’t affect my ability to judge the films. When a friend first described The Hunger Games to me, my immediate thought was “So it’s The Running Man meets The Giver?” After experiencing the story, I stand by that initial reaction. And that’s not a bad thing at all.
I’ve long lamented that the problem with the popularity of Twilight is that it’s empty calories for the mind. Despite featuring a female lead in Bella, she’s poorly written and has no real value. Were I to have daughters, she’s not a character I’d want them to look up to. Katniss Everdeen, of Hunger Games, is the complete 180 opposite. She’s a strong-willed character, who shows a lot of compassion for her fellow citizens and fellow competitors in the Games. She’s smart, clever and capable.
And Academy Award® nominee* Jennifer Lawrence captures that perfectly. She quickly became “One To Watch” following Winter’s Bone and X-Men: First Class, and her clout will only continue to rise following the impressive outing in The Hunger Games.
I was more than a bit skeptical at the prospect of this film. It was a young cast anchoring a hot book property that featured a love triangle. Very reminiscent. But when you get a solid cast in there, they’ll be able to do great things. Josh Hutcherson was fantastic as the conflicted Peeta, Katniss’ partner in the Games and possible love interest (it’s a little… up in the air, still). Liam Hemsworth wasn’t given much to do in the first film, but with the $155 million opening weekend, we’re all but assured the sequel.
My favourites were the supporting cast of familiar faces that would pop up. My inner 90s rock fan geeked out when Lenny Kravitz showed up as image consultant(?) Cinna, and I’m a little ashamed at how long it took me to recognize Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket. The two supporting shining stars though were Woody Harrelson’s Haymitch Abernathy, the world-weary Games coach for Katniss and Peeta, and Stanley Tucci’s colourful Caesar Flickerman, the Ryan Seacrest of the Games.
The only real fault to find in this film is Tom Stern cinematography. The shakey-cam. If done right, it can add to the film. Paul Greengrass had Oliver Wood over-utilize, but it didn’t really hurt his two Bourne films. J.J. Abrams likes to use it, and has had Daniel Mindel use the technique for Star Trek and M:I 3, and it usually adds to the excitement. Gary Ross was stepping into the fantasy action genre for the first time and it just seemed a way to cover up his lacking as a director (as is almost always the case with shakey-cam). It felt like he couldn’t properly film the action sequences, or even any sequence, really. I spent the first 20 or so minutes thinking an earthquake was happening.
Get to the theatre early and sit towards the back, you’ll avoid headache and nausea that way. Otherwise it’s a terrific film, and I can’t wait for the sequels (how often is that ever said?).
Starring Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson and Ice Cube
The box office is littered with failed big screen updates of long gone TV shows. For every The Fugitive, there’s an I Spy. Fortunately for us, “21 Jump Street” wasn’t a television icon, and the film version is a surprisingly daring comedy.
Both Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are treading new water. Hill’s not known for action, Tatum’s not known for comedy, but both are able to keep the other afloat in their respective genres of expertise, which in turn allows each to shine their unfamiliar genres. Hill is completely capable as an action star, though I doubt he’ll make that his career focus. Tatum surprises. I’ve tried over the years to give him a chance, but has yet to impress until now. Amongst some very funny people, including Hill, Rob Riggle and Ellie Kemper, Tatum holds his own, and shows that he’s actually got some talent under those chiseled good looks.
The biggest obstacle this film had to overcome was creating a plausible scenario, especially in this day and age, for two 25 year-olds to be able to pass as high schoolers. And they address this issue in some very hilarious ways, with various characters calling Hill’s Schmidt and Tatum’s Jenko out for being overly physically developed, having antiquated views on high school, and their tastes in music.
The film has a sloppy first 20 minutes, that really struggles to capture your interest. The set-up feels rushed, and feels lacking. It just jumps straight from “We’re not friends in high school,” to “let’s be best buds at police academy” without any real intermediate exposition. But once it gets over that hump, it’s perfectly paced and keeps the laughs coming non-stop. It just could have used with a little bit more upfront.
Definitely worth a look in theatres, and when you do, keep an eye out for some fun cameos from the original TV cast.
Will Ferrell in Casa de mi Padre
Casa de mi Padre
1 star
Starring Will Ferrell, Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal and Genesis Rodriguez
Grindhouse cinema has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, much to my delight. And with a genre’s popularity, comes parodies. Unfortunately for parodies, there’s a fine line between brilliance and utter stupidity, and Casa de mi Padre falls into the latter.
One of the numerous Grindhouse sub-genres was Mexploitation, films focusing on Mexican characters and plot lines (similar to Blaxploitation and Ozploitation) and Will Ferrell takes aim squarely at the genre. The film provides some decent enough laughs, as well as such respected actors as Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna getting silly, but over all, it just completely falls flat.
The problem comes from the fact that this doesn’t lovingly take the conventions and turn them on its head. It more makes fun of them. Where as 2009’s Black Dynamite not only serves as a parody, but could also actually exist inside the genre, Padre just looks at the camera and says “Look how goofy these movies were, huh?!”
Major props to Ferrell though, for stepping outside his comfort zone and try something new. He even did his whole role in Spanish. It’s commendable, but he soon dives into his usual bag of tricks, and just becomes “Will Ferrell… EN ESPANOL!” Which is somehow more annoying, even though I can’t understand him.
The most enjoyable parts are Bernal when he’s letting loose, being funny. It’s a side of him we don’t normally get to see. That’s the only nice thing I have to say about Padre. Don’t even wait for the DVD on this one. If you find yourself bored on a Saturday afternoon in a few years, and this comes on cable… maybe watch it. If you still have cable by then.
Friends with Kids starring Maya Rudolph, Chris O'Dowd, Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott and Jennifer Westfeldt
Friends with Kids
3 stars
Starring Adam Scott, Jennifer Westfeldt, Maya Rudolph, Chris O’Dowd, Kristen Wiig and John Hamm
As an old friend once said “I don’t like romantic comedies, they’re usually never very romantic. Or comedic.” I’ve seen this maxim proven right more times than proven wrong. Friends With Kids doesn’t completely prove it wrong, but it does an admirable job, especially with the comedic part.
Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein) writes, stars in and makes her directorial debut with Friends With Kids, and with the help of her longtime significant other, Jon Hamm, she’s able to arrange a terrific cast of funny people to bring her cliché riddled script to life.
From the moment you meet the characters, you know exactly how the film is going to end. If you’ve seen any romantic comedies in the past 10 years, you can accurately predict the path this is going to take. You know who’s going to split up, who’s going to stay together, and, more importantly, how Jason and Julia’s (Scott and Westfeldt, respectively) relationship is going to turn out.
Fortunately for Westfeldt, the aforementioned terrific cast makes the journey to the inevitable end much more enjoyable. Scott ably handles leading man duties with a spark not usually seen in the genre. He doesn’t seemed resigned to being just OK, and really gives it his all. Westfeldt, on the other hand…. let’s just say no one’s ever going to accuse her of being a great actress. She’s not terrible, but she, unlike Scott, does seem resigned to being just OK.
Rudolph and O’Dowd are delightful as the level-headed married friends who really want to see the baby experiment between Jason & Julia work, while Hamm and Wiig are intense, despite being given too little to do.
I think had Westfeldt not split her focus between directing and acting, either one of those duties would have been better. Some actors can direct themselves in starring roles, Westfeldt just couldn’t. I have a feeling she may get to that point eventually, and this was an admirable job for her directorial debut, but maybe she tried to do too much.
The actors rise above the mediocre script, but overall the movie suffers from an overworked lead. I recommend if you’ve got nothing better to do and want to catch a matinée, but this is probably a rental at best.
The Empty Theatre 
You must be logged in to post a comment.