My RSS Feeds
Apologies, Reviews...Murder?
Due to some sort of Internet Explorer glitch, I can no longer write on this site at "work." This sucks for you loyal readers, because, ironically, "work" is the only place where I have free time. (The only thing I really "do" at "work" is walk twice a day through the office carrying a folder full of construction paper. This way people see me and think, "He's walking somewhere with a folder. This guy must be busy!") When I get home, I am tired, I have lots of other, more pressing writing to work on, and let's face it -- maintaining this body isn't easy. I'm busy.
So I'm sorry, and starting next week I'm going to work something out to get more posts up. In the meantime, I hope you're checking out my stuff at Cinematical, I just posted my first feature: My Favorite Comedy Villains.
I was linked to today by a site I love: mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com . Thank you so much for that, Matt, made my week. Mr. Seitz is one of my favorite writers, a film critic for the New York Times, and he was once one of two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. So let's just say this is a more prestigious nod than my shout-out from chickswithdicks.com. (Not that I don't appreciate the shout-out, CWD, and keep those nasty, nasty shots coming).
I'm way backed up on my movie reviews, so to dip my toe in the water, here's reviews of three comedies. They should leave Mr. Seitz feeling very secure in his abilities.
KNOCKED UP (A)
Knocked Up isn't set to be released for two months, but the advance buzz would have you believe this movie invented laughter. It is a very, very funny movie, but aside from some gut-busters scattered throughout, it's "chuckles of recognition" funny as opposed to "spleen-ripping hilarity" funny. To get the comparison out of the way, it probably doesn't pack half the laughs of Judd Apatow's previous film, The 40 Year Old Virgin, my favorite comedy of recent years. What it does, and what Virgin did, is something far more difficult than just make you laugh, it creates characters who look and talk exactly like real people. It creates characters who are presented with completely recognizable, understandable situations, and who deal with them in completely recognizable, understandable ways. If that makes the film sound boring, let me stress that it is not.
The plot is simple. Immature stoner Seth Rogen (who must be more unattractive than I thought, judging by the groans and near-screams from the females in the audience every time he took his shirt off), has a one night stand with the gorgeous, career-minded Katherine Heigl. She gets pregnant. She decides to keep it. They decide to give a relationship a try. That's it, really, but it's all in the telling. This is a whole movie comprised of nothing but great moments. Every scene works. Every performance is excellent and natural and perfect. Harold Ramis is in it. I don't know what else I can tell you.
Knocked Up is a heartfelt, highly emotional movie that just about everyone should relate to. The friendships and relationships here feel like your friendships and relationships, and the romance doesn't hinge on ridiculous and forced complications. It is not a funnier movie, but it is a far more adult and confident film than 40YOV. No one is making superior, more honest comedies right now than Judd Apatow. This movie is really something special. Go see it.
Oh wait, you can't! It's not out yet! God, I'm cooler than you are!
BLADES OF GLORY (C+)
First, the positive. Will Ferrell is extremely funny as Chazz Michael Michaels, particularly in the movie's first half. Much like Chris Farley could have gone on wringing laughs out of his "Fatty Falls Down" routine forever, Ferrell's "Angry Drunk" might never go out of style. There is a scene where he is playing a wizard in a children's ice show that left me breathless. But the man can only do so much, and he should only be expected to do so much. Amy Poehler and Will Arnett are hilarious actors, but when their first scene falls absolutely flat, you know you're in for trouble. One of the worst things a comedy can do is render funny people unfunny, and this movie does it again and again. Craig T. "You moved the headstones but you didn't move the bodies!" Nelson is wasted, 40 Year Old Virgin's Romany "You're putting the pussy on a pedastal" Malco is wasted, and on and on down the line.
But the movie's biggest problems are the amazingly bland performances of Jon Heder and Jenna Fischer. Heder did a great job as Napoleon Dynamite, but maybe that should be it for the guy. He is a complete void here, sucking laughs out of every scene he's in. I defy you to even smile at anything Heder does or says in this movie. There may have been no saving School For Scoundrels (D), but Heder certainly didn't help matters. If he's not stopped now, he's going to ruin much better comedies than these in the future. As for Fischer, she's harder to criticize. Her work on The Office is a masterpiece of minimalism, but somebody should have told her that style of acting wasn't going to translate to a big-budget/big-star comedy where everyone's firing on all cylinders. She is genuinely dull here, and her romantic scenes with Heder are punishing. And why do we give a shit about them? They meet, talk for a few seconds, and suddenly the whole plot is hinging on a romance between them that never really exists onscreen? It gives new meaning to the word "forced."
Worth a rental for Ferrell, but pair it with hooch.
I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE (C)
Rock's got no one to blame either, this is his vision, the way he wanted it to go. I saw Rock on Charlie Rose the other night talking about how Woody Allen's work, particularly Hannah and Her Sisters, was a big influence on this film. I'll buy that he used Allen as an influence, but it looks as though he studied the disastrous "comedies" Allen's been making for the last ten years instead of his classics. Rock is straining so hard to be taken seriously here that he seems to forget he's making a comedy. Joke after joke reaches its logical punchline place, and then…doesn't deliver a punchline. It's almost like he's scared to be funny, like he doesn't realize a movie can do both things. It's the kind of movie where, while watching it, you're forced to come up with better jokes on your own.
And if it wasn't bad enough that he wasted not one but two of my favorite actors from The Wire (Wendell Pierce and Michael K. Williams), he had to go and commit the ultimate movie crime: wasting Steve Buscemi. Even Sandler doesn't waste Buscemi! Don't bring the greatest living character actor on board and give him nothing to do! Buscemi doesn’t get one moment or scene to shine, he spends the whole film asking Rock to go to lunch. He's supposed to be this womanizer, but they don't have any fun with that at all. What's the point of telling us a character is sleazy and then not having him do anything sleazy? It's a comedy, right? Right?
I don't know, and Rock doesn't either. This movie is a tonal disaster, lurching from serious to slapstick like a drunk, and succeeding at neither. When the ending rolls around, (I'll just say that there is singing), it is so misguided, so embarrassing, so against everything that came before it, so painful to watch that I actually had to turn away. How can a man this funny have such terrible instincts for comedy?
Pat I also suggest in looking busy you take the george costanza approach
and everytime someone comes around you just look really stressed out. Hell
maybe you'll even get to go out with some "Bastards" from texas.
Is there a way to do an RSS feed of just YOUR Cinematical articles?
I'm really looking forward to Knocked Up.
And I have a thing for Seth Rogen. But I also used to have a crush on
Philip Seymour Hoffman so clearly I don't have my finger on the pulse (in
the groin??) of my generation.
Dale,
Sounds like the IT dept is cracking down at your job – sucks.
6+7? These arithmetic problems to post comments in your journal are
getting to be THOUGHT-PROVOKING!
HEY! Watch your mouth when you subtly slam Pootie Tang.
-M
perhaps you should add a cinematical link to your 'sites I love' section.
Gotta look out for yourself.
Rob,
Yeah, I'd say that Knocked Up is the best movie I've seen so far this year.
What's really amazing is that, even though it's slightly over two hours
(long for a comedy) it never drags and kept me totally engaged the entire
time. So many wonderful scenes. (The one with the bouncer might've been my
favorite). And even though it's obvious that the movie has to end with a
birth scene, Apatow even manages to make that original by adding a few
insert shots that we normally don't get to see in Hollywood movies. Man,
this movie was so honest, funny and moving.
Oh, my bad. However, I think Rob and some other readers are very lazy and
when we click on the cinematical link we want that sucker to go right to
PW's posts - hence the lookn' out for yo-self... now if you don't mind...
it is baseball season and March Madness ends tonight - so I'm off to more
important websites!
p.s.
Thoughts on the new Arcade Fire album? I haven't gotten my groin-tainted
mitts on it yet.
JJ, I'm not only so lazy that I want to go straight to Walsh's work ("the
good stuff"), I'm a step lazier, insofar as I want it to come to me.
Hopefully it can be done; the source code of Cinematical's website suggests
that MAYBE it's a possibility. HERE IS HOPING!