It was funny. Like really funny, with genuine laughter, not those half-laugh, half-huff things that so many comedies settle for. In key moments, Easy A went for the gut-buster (such as Olive and Brandon’s fake sexcapades at a party) and the movie achieved big laughs each time it reached for them. Emma Stone (Zombieland) showed off her star stuff—and she has oodles of it—as she carried nearly every frame of the film. Her comedic timing is superb and she can slide from gorgeous to whacky and back so fast as her facial expressions change that I was strongly reminded of Lucille Ball.Continue reading “Easy A: Funny, quality, confusing”
Category Archives: Movies
Scott Pilgrim vs. Mass Appeal
It was going to be a problem. I knew as I left the theater that there was a fundamental flaw in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. A problem I overlooked because the any-and-everywhere ad campaign seemed to override the inherent issue. Scott Pilgrim has no mass appeal.
Kick-Ass hit the same wall earlier this year—pushing a fanboy fantasy on the masses and the masses met it with resounding indifference. To be fair, Kick-Ass has done very well on DVD, so word of mouth will eventually pay off for Scott Pilgrim, but the theatrical box office echoes the message Kick-Ass (perhaps even last year’s Watchmen) started. The public at large is not interested in real-life superheroes. Give them alternate universes like Gotham or fantasy futures like X-Men and the public will eat that shit up, but the “real life” superhero stuff ain’t selling.Continue reading “Scott Pilgrim vs. Mass Appeal”
The difference between a good movie and a good comedy
My life is in a constant state of upheaval right now. Working, writing, moving—there’s a lot going on. On top of that, a small gig I’ve had over the last few years editing the fiction section of an arts journal has grown exponentially this year after someone said something nice about the publication on the internets. So now add a couple hundred stories to read to the list of crap I have to do. Hopefully this will all settle down soon and I can get back to posting 2-3 times a week on here. Anyway, this past weekend found me desperately seeking an escape so of course I headed to the movies, and this time I wanted to see something funny. I just wanted to laugh, so I bought a ticket for The Other Guys.
Was it a good movie? No. Does that matter? No.Continue reading “The difference between a good movie and a good comedy”
Yes, Inception really is THAT good
Warning: SPOILERS. Don’t cry to me if you read on and get plot-spoiled.
I am an admirer of Christopher Nolan, so I was interested in Inception from the beginning. The natural follow-up to his first two films, Following and Memento, Inception was Nolan’s baby for a decade. As the marketing machine went into gear earlier this year, the question wasn’t whether or not Nolan made a good movie, but whether or not audiences would be able to comprehend it. Then came the salivating critics, heaping praise so high on it that I started thinking, It can’t be possible. It can’t be THAT good.
Well it is. It really is THAT good.Continue reading “Yes, Inception really is THAT good”
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was just plain dumb
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice opens with a prologue set in 740 AD (director John Turteltaub missed a moment by not opening in 747 AD). We see Merlin’s apprentices Balthazar and Veronica rushing to save the old wizard from his arch-nemesis Morgana le Fay (man, there is a mythical woman whom literature and history have wronged greatly) and the betrayal of Merlin’s third apprentice, Horvath (played by Alfred Molina, who is, as per usual, better than the movie he’s in). Veronica sucks out Morgana’s soul but Morgana kills Veronica from the inside. Balthazar shoves them both inside a magic doll. Merlin dies, giving Balthazar final instructions, and Horvath has scampered off somewhere unscathed. This all happened in about three minutes and I watched in slack-jawed amazement. Not because it was cool, but because it was incredibly stupid. Nicolas Cage’s (Balthazar) ridiculous wig, the pedestrian concepts for Merlin and Morgana (bearded, wizened old man and snakey woman), the Renaissance Faire costumes and sets. It was so dumb. It played like a trailer for a Magic: The Gathering movie. I cross my heart, I sat there in the opening three minutes of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and thought: This is probably what a movie for Magic: The Gathering would look like. And then, halfway through the movie, one of the characters is portrayed on a poster advertising Magic: The Gathering. I laughed so hard I almost cried.Continue reading “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was just plain dumb”
Eclipse wasn’t totally awful
Which isn’t to say it was completely great, either. Like pretty much everything this summer, it falls somewhere between trash and treasure. Yet another merely mediocre movie. I’ll admit to being disappointed. I had Hopes for Eclipse. Hiring David Slade (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night) to direct the third installment of the ubiquitous Twilight Saga struck me as a good decision. A promising one even, given Slade’s indie-horror roots meant he could probably get the most bang from Summit Entertainment’s notoriously cheap bucks. So I thought, If anyone can turn this franchise around, it’s gotta be David Slade. By all reports, Slade did, in fact, deliver a wildly different Twilight movie earlier this year. So different, in fact, that Summit and Twilight creator Stephenie Meyer, or She of Zero Taste, loathed it and demanded Slade re-cut, reshoot, and re-edit his film. Slade’s frequent collaborator and editor Art Jones was sacked and replaced with Twilight editor Nancy Richardson. Then came the reshoots-but-maybe-just-pickups-no-it-was-totally-reshoots just six weeks before theatrical release. That is never a good sign and had my Spidey senses tingling the same way Jonah Hex’s lack of a trailer signaled looming disaster. Except things went much better for Eclipse, because despite the post-production drama, the movie wasn’t a total loss.Continue reading “Eclipse wasn’t totally awful”
Knight & Day Makes No Sense, or, Why Scripts Matter
I close on my first home next week. STRESS. All I want is to move into my new place but there is some work to be done first. Am trying to figure out how to squeeze it all into a couple of Saturdays so I can just move already. I hate moving. It’s so much work and effort, and I hate exerting myself. I always wanted to be Samantha in Bewitched so I could just twitch my nose and have my shit taken care of instantly. With the stress levels through the roof right now, I sought out my favorite form of escapism over the weekend. I went to the movies. Did I see Toy Story 3? No. For the second week in a row I went to see something I knew would be inferior (latent masochistic streak?). I saw Tom Cruise’s career Hail Mary Knight & Day.Continue reading “Knight & Day Makes No Sense, or, Why Scripts Matter”
Cinesnark 