Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 6th, 2010
Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) is a 16-year-old in terminal virgin mode. His home life with his mother and piggish boyfriend (The Hangover's Zach Galifianakis) is a nightmare, but when said boyfriend runs afoul of a trio of sailors, an enforced vacation is mandated. At the trailer park, Nick meets Sheeni (Portia Doubleday), a girl who not only speaks to him but shares his tastes. But Nick has a rival for Sheeni's affection, and in order to win her heart, he must be bad. Conjuring suave alter ego François as his guide, he embarks on an escalating campaign of mayhem designed to unite him with his beloved.
Michael Cera turns in a patented Michael Cera performance: the sensitive, intelligent, shy teen. What could feel too familiar, though, is kept fresh by his hilarious incarnation of François, and the humour depends to no small degree on bouncing off the Cera's established screen persona. And work the humour does. There are great sight gags here, some terrific slapstick, and no end of sharp verbal wordplay. The script is an intelligent delight, and the characterizations are quirky and sharply drawn. I have essentially two reservations: Sheeni is a pretty unsympathetic character, unworthy of Nick's devotion, and the more we see of her, the more his love becomes inexplicable; and there are a number of appealing characters who simply drop through cracks in the plot, never to be seen again. Still, all told, this is one sharp, funny comedy.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by BABY on June 22nd, 2010
Hey everybody. Baby, back again to bring you yet another dog movie from a dog's point of view, which is the floor, in case anybody out there really wants to know. You see, Gino won't let me on the furniture in the theater. He says that just because the seats look like chew toys, and smell like chew toys, doesn't mean they actually are chew toys. I mean, really, people. You wanna talk about your special effects, which reminds me of something else I'm not supposed to do in the theater, but let's not talk about that right now.
I wanna play a game we like to call Baby Says. OK, I like to call Baby Says. Baby says take two steps backward. Baby says get back in that delivery truck. Deliver some more DVD's or Blu-rays. Oh-Oh, I didn't say Baby Says, and that spells B A R K. Baby Says send me some treats, and that spells W A G. The truth is no matter how loud I yell, and no matter how loud Gino yells at me, these movies keep showing up on our doorstep. And the latest of these movies is called Air Bud: World Pup. So I guess I better stop talkin' about me and tell you something about the movie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 16th, 2010
Elvis Presley is often referred to as The King Of Rock And Roll, at least to his fans. There's no denying the impact that he had on the music scene. He was the first rock and roll star, to be sure. Colonel Tom Parker, his long-time manager and partner, created many of the marketing traditions that are commonplace in the industry today. He knew the value of his star, not only as a performer, but as a brand. For the first time, a musician's image and name started to appear on everything from bath towels to women's underwear. Fans are often split on their feelings for the self-styled Colonel, but Elvis would not have become the name brand he still is today, without him.
One of those brand expansions tapped into Elvis's own boyhood fantasy. Elvis had worked as an usher at a local movie theater as a teen. He's often related that he would linger in the auditoriums, watching those movies and fantasizing that he was James Dean or Marlon Brando, two of his idols. With the help if Colonel Parker, Elvis would get to see that dream become a reality. The King was to expand his realm to include the movie business and Hollywood. No experience? No problem. After all, if Elvis could go from failing music in high school to becoming the highest paid musician on the planet, he could certainly tackle the world of acting. And he did just that.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 16th, 2010
"What you are about to see has a mechanical gopher in it."
Recently I was having a bit of a playful, and at times aggressive, back-and-forth with a friend over our top 50 films of all time. While we disagreed at almost every turn (of course his list had Speed and Pretty Women and not Jaws, Unforgiven, King Kong, or Gladiator). What we did seem to agree upon was that neither of us was willing to allow very many comedy films into our lists. There's something about a very good comedy that doesn't fit with the likes of The Godfather or Gone With The Wind. Caddyshack wasn't on either of our lists. But Caddyshack did make AFI's funniest films back in 2000. I suspect it made a lot of lists over the years. It should. It's a very funny film.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 25th, 2010
"Evil Is Among Us."
You've got to love a horror film directed and written by a guy named Kevorkian. Johnny Kevorkian is a young director still finding his chops with only a handful of credits to his name thus far. The young talent does have vision, and doesn't go for the obvious. While the film does tend to be a bit heavy on the British sensibilities, you can expect such a thing from an independent low-budget horror film from England. The Disappeared is absolutely derivative of at least 20 films I've seen recently and appears to be substantially influenced by the Asian ghost invasion. Still, there is a style here that might not be terribly original, but it is pretty dang effective, at least on this movie.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 24th, 2010
Mel Brooks has often been called the Master of Comedy. The moniker might be a bit too grandiose, but he was certainly the master of the parody. In recent years that has become more evident than ever. Too often I've been forced to sit through something called a comedy. Not only can I do so without ever actually laughing, but there are far too many titles of late that don't even give me the chance to crack a smile. It's not that I've seen so much that it's hard to find anything original. I can still laugh like crazy when I watch a Sanford and Son episode I've seen at least 50 times or an Abbott & Costello routine that was old before they even got their hands on the material. There is a famous quote that states, "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." Then why does Mel Brooks make it look so dang easy?
While we're on the subject of masters, you really can't avoid the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Perhaps no one understood his audience more than Hitch did. He's influenced a great many of today's filmmaking geniuses. He's been admired by almost anyone who has ever really studied film. Mel Brooks can be counted among his students. On more than one occasion I have seen an interview where Brooks can't say enough flattering things about Alfred Hitchcock. It would have only been a matter of time before Brooks turned his creative mind to one of his own idols. The result is enough to give anyone High Anxiety.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 19th, 2010
"It doesn't look like they have chicken tenders here."
How can you not like Jackie Chan? If there has been a more versatile action or martial arts star, I haven't heard from him. The man made a name for himself in China's film industry as a remarkable martial arts performer. For decades he's been the closest thing the film industry has seen to Bruce Lee. But, unlike Lee, Chan wasn't content with being the best in a single genre. When he finally came to Hollywood, he decided it was a good idea to work a bit more lightheartedness into his films, something he had already begun to do in his homeland, China. The result made him a unique personality on film. It didn't matter if it was straight-out comedy like the Rush Hour or Shanghai films or more serious action adventures like his Police Story outings. Chan is first and foremost ... Chan, not just an action hero. Not afraid to poke fun at himself, he's become a reliable property at the box office.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 18th, 2010
"You, sir, are guilty of disseminating disbelief. Killing dreams. Committing first-degree murder of fantasy, which by Fairy Law, in order to pay your debt to humanity, you are hereby ordered to serve time as a Tooth Fairy. The normal sentence is one week, but because you have the nerve, the unmitigated gall, to actually call yourself a Tooth Fairy, thus making a mockery of everything we stand for, I'm sentencing you to two weeks Tooth Fairy duty."
Dwayne (once The Rock) Johnson has made a bit of a new career move over the last few years. When he left the wrestling ring to "go Hollywood" the expectation was always that he would become an action hero. It's what his fans expected. It's what Johnson wanted, at the time. Movies like The Scorpion King were created completely as vehicles for Johnson to show off his physique and join the ranks of the big strong action heroes. It didn't exactly work out as well as everyone involved expected. He wasn't a flop, but he wasn't setting the movie industry on fire either. But with movies like The Game Plan and Race To Witch Mountain, Johnson appears to have a knack for working with kids in films targeted primarily at kids. He's become a big teddy bear, and it's paying off quite handsomely. While he still hasn't given up the wrestling gigs and an action role here and there, his biggest success so far in Hollywood has been with the kids.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 18th, 2010
"The Legend Had It Coming."
It seems that pretty much every decade has had its screen version of Robin Hood; sometimes it's on television. Robin Hood is one of the most popular characters in film, and there have been plenty of versions, each with their own particular take on the multiple legends that have made up the character over the centuries. Currently Ridley Scott has just released his own epic version of the tale with perfectly-cast Russell Crowe in the title role. In the early 1990's there were two films on the subject released. The first was the disaster that stared Kevin Costner, so abysmally cast as the titular hero. It was only inevitable that following one of the worst attempts to portray Robin Hood, Mel Brooks would see his chance to lampoon the legend. After Costner's film, the legend truly did have it coming.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2010
"Comrades, I've called you together again because the people of England face a grave crisis. Many years ago as Robin Hood, I led you as an outlaw band. Here in Sherwood Forest, together we resisted the tyrant King John. When he died, we dispersed because we believed that tyranny had died with him. But tyranny did not die. It merely slept. And now it has awakened again."
Speak the name Robin Hood and one immediately conjures images of the swashbuckling hero of medieval England. The character's origins go back as far as 15th century ballads that herald the daring deeds of an outlaw who fought against tyranny and injustice. In some texts the man is given a dual identity as one of the very noblemen that he had most of his fame defending the people against. The most popular modern notions have the figure in tights with a bow and arrow, equally talented with his sword. He robs from the rich to give to the poor. Such populist notions have been a part of the legends in whatever forms they have taken over the centuries. While the early legends and ballads place him at several locations in England, it is the famed Sherwood Forest dwelling that survives the telling to this day. Believe it or not, one of the earliest mentions of the character, Robin Hood And The Monk from around 1450, is actually a story of Little John as the prominent one, and Robin is merely a fanciful supporting character. He was considerably more religious during those days, dedicated to the visage of The Holy Blessed Mother. By the 16th century Robin Hood was the subject of a series of plays written by Anthony Munday. Here Robin's nobility origins are made clear, as is his hatred of tyranny. The character we know today, however, didn't begin to take shape until the 17th century and Martin Parker's The True Tale Of Robin Hood. Still, with all of this rich literary history, Robin Hood's iconic image owes much to the introduction of the motion picture. It is here that the flights of fancy were given free rein, and Robin Hood became one of the world's first superheroes.
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