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Horrible Bosses
Quick Overview: Three men with life-ruining bosses agree to murder each others’ overlords.
Quick Review: Cast-driven comedy of many laughs and little longevity.
Horrible Bosses is a terrible title. If you can get over that, then you will really enjoy this movie.
The cast is so stellar that the film would have to try really hard to fail. The three leads, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, and Jason Bateman, are all credible comedians in our cynical film world of fallen stars (O Eddie Murphy, wherefore art thou Norbit?). The bosses, (Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Anniston, and Colin Farrell) are deliciously vulgar, and Jamie Foxx, the “murder consultant,” is fantastic too.
Despite the plot being predictable and the premise flimsy at best, the film flew by and I laughed out loud many, many times. I have a huge spot in my heart for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and as far as I’m concerned Charlie Day is the highlight of the movie. His boss is Jennifer Anniston, who is my favorite supporting role in this cast, shedding any lasting vestiges of Rachel innocence for a foul-mouthed, sex-crazed, oft-naked dentist.
The movie does have a few slow moments, but for the most part the constant barrage of talent (including cameos by Julie Bowen of Modern Family fame and Isaiah Mustafa, the Old Spice Guy) keeps it afloat. Mostly, I felt like Sudeikis, Bateman, and Day were pallin’ around, making rape and murder jokes.
This film is not for those offended by language and content and fun.
One last thing: I mentioned the title, but really I think the whole movie was marketed so effing badly. You’re going to splash the posters with bro buzz words like “psycho, maneater, tool” ? Really? Bros are going to see your movie, bro. Bro it has Colin Farrell in it bro! And they like, are going to kill each others bosses bro and I hear Jennifer Anniston is soooo hot, bro.
One actual last thing: I just realized over the course of writing this review how many of the stars/featureds/cameos are television stars first. That warms the cockles of my heart. Put more TV stars in movies, Hollywood. They still have their souls somewhat intact.
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Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Quick Overview: Scott Pilgrim must defeat the girl of his dream’s seven evil exes before they can be together.
Quick Review: This movie is why people should aspire to make movies.
The music. The jokes. The spectacle. The references. The cinematography. The message.
There’s about a million reasons why I liked Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. And by ‘liked,’ I mean “walked out of the theater babbling and shaking with the awesomeness of it all.”
Michael Cera plays Michael Cera (Pilgrim), a Canadian 22-year-old unsure of what he’s doing with his life. I have to admit, even though he gets criticized for playing himself in every role, Cera is perfect for Pilgrim. And as the film was more than anything an ode to folks around my age, all of us expected to fit in by being different, he rocked it.
I have now seen Scott Pilgrim twice. The first time, I was surprised by how gosh-durned funny it was. There’s all sorts of humor, but what shines is the one-liners. In an all-around clever script, lines like “what’s that from?” “My brain!” and “Basically, being a vegan makes you better than anyone else” had me laughing a bit too loudly than is courteous in the movie theater. Props to Ellen Wong, who plays Pilgrim’s high school girlfriend before the girl of his dreams shows up, for overdoing it without overacting it. A weaker Knives would have made the exposition drag.
I absolutely loved the soundtrack. I’m not very hip when it comes to music; I like what I like, rarely pursuing new, fancy bands because Pitchfork told me to. Pilgrim is a wonderful balance of indie beats, and by incorporating a lot of the tunes into the film itself (there are several bands that play live throughout) they avoid the Juno soundtrack trap of “OMG LOOK HOW HIP WE ARE DO YOU HEAR HOW HIP WE ARE WE ARE HIP.”
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World creates a whole new world with its own rules, most of them coinciding with retro video games. And while a lot of these border on the absurd (the exes, when defeated, burst into coins), director Edgar Wright does a good job of easing into it. At first, the characters earn floating name plates with their name and age, as if giving their stats. A few sound effects pop up in unexpected places (WHICH, BY THE WAY, IS AWESOME. THANK YOU EDGAR WRIGHT). After Scott meets Ramona, time becomes less linear, and the bizarre more normal. Each ex has increasingly absurd abilities that poor, powerless Scott must overcome, culminating in a electronic samurai sword battle with Ex #7 (Jason Schwartzman).
Yes, I will admit, Scott Pilgrim is not for everyone. Anyone with a sour disposition for the new and/or a lack of appreciation for video games will probably not love the film. But while I understand the target demographic may not be big enough for wild, sweeping success, I hope that everyone can appreciate how freakin’ different the movie is. What Edgar Wright has done is something that no other movie, based on comic books or otherwise, has even attempted, and that is to fully take advantage of the graphic medium of film. Bizarre, out-of-place text, the aforementioned sound effects, and the ludicrous fight scenes—none of them “realistic” within the relative normality of the outside world, but each a wonderful mesh of medium that only film can give.
Edgar Wright, having made my favorite movie of all time (Shaun of the Dead) and with Scott Pilgrim renewing my faith in comic-based films (I’m looking at you, Iron Man 2), I dub thee My Favorite Director Ever. Sorry, John Carpenter.
PS. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a stone-cold fox.
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Highlander
Can we take a second to talk about Highlander?
Pop the DVD in. You are greeted with Sean Connery’s voice. Oh, of course he’s in the movie, but not yet. First you have to learn about another Scotsman, by the name of Connor MacLeod of the clan MacLeod. In a related note, I am 400% more likely to date someone with the last name MacLeod on the off-chance we could get married.
What makes Highlander one of my top five favorite movies of all time? So many things. The first, which is incidentally why I watched Highlander in the first place, is the soundtrack. Some of Queen’s best tunes are inspired by and incorporated into Highlander: “Who Wants to Live Forever,” “Princes of the Universe,” “It’s a Kind of Magic.” Look out for a metal version of “New York, New York,” as well. Although with Freddie Mercury on vocals, does it count as metal?
Second, it’s Christopher Lambert, the Highlander himself. This man is not attractive. In fact, he is downright boorish, like some sort of love-child between a Cro Magnon and Jean Reno. Originally French, he plays a Scot with some sort of lilting, ever-changing accent. Over 400 years old, and he can’t take a class at NYU, make him sound a bit less conspicuous? He’s been in America for 200 years. His African friend and the Kurgan himself managed to perfect the nuances of language, but not Mr. MacLeod.
Connor is supposed to be Scottish, and when we are introduced to Sean Connery’s character, he’s supposed to be Egyptian (!?), but also Spanish (?!), but he makes absolutely no attempt to disguise his real accent. Connor calls Ramirez (Connery) a french accented “haggis,” and Seany asks, “Haggis? What’s that?” REALLY SEAN CONNERY? YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT HAGGIS IS? THEN HOW DO YOU HAVE THAT RICH, LUXURIOUS SCOTTISH CHEST HAIR, HMM?
Highlander also provides one of the best villains in the history of cinema: Victor Kruger, aka Sgt. Zim of Starship Troopers, aka Cpt. Hadley of Shawshank Redemption, aka the voice of Mr. Krabs, aka THE KURGAN. Folks well-versed in pop culture will know the tagline, “There can be only one!” Spoken by the Kurgan, who has safety pins holding his neck together, it is simply epic.
Highlander employs flashback to tell the story of Connor MacLeod’s discovery he is immortal and his subsequent training by Ramirez. There are two historical flashbacks, however, that have nothing really to do with the storyline. I mention them because you should pay attention when they come onscreen. One takes place during World War II and the other during 18th-century USA. They are awesome.
The females in this movie are ehhh, although next to Christopher Lambert they’re freakin’ super models. The main squeeze is obsessed with swords. And guess what the Highlander has a whole lot of? Ancient weaponry. Including a samurai sword that’s over 1500 years old, but somehow is in almost perfect condition despite losing chunks of metal every time it connects with something solid. The love story, however, provides what is perhaps the best pick-up line of all time:
Connor: Do you cook?
Brenda: Why?
Connor: I thought we might have dinner.
That. Is. How. It’s. Done.
The film embodies some 80s staples, per liberal amounts of fog gushing from the streets of New York and some crrRRARRrrraaaazzZZyy camera angles. Also, swords are apparently capable of causing explosions and destroying buildings made of stone.
You know, I’ve never seen the Highlander sequels nor the TV show. I’m afraid it might change my love of the original, this perfect 80s cast of all-stars swinging swords at each other across the hills of Scotland and through the alleyways of New York City. I’m afraid it will pervert the picture of Sean Connery in a puffy red outfit running barefoot down the beach with another man. I’m afraid Christopher Lambert’s accent gets better. Basically what I’m trying to say is, I’m afraid it will MacLeod my judgement.
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Inception
Quick Note: I’ll be as spoiler-less as possible in this review.
Quick Overview: A team headed by Leonardo DiCaprio infiltrates the dreams and minds of others.
Quick Review: I would tell you, but you’re in my subconscious anyway so you know.
First off, I think I need to see this movie again to fully enjoy it. Your brain is working the whole time while you’re watching it, and the very end was like letting the air out of a tire in terms of your nerves and your thoughts.
Secondly, fan-fucking-tastic job, Christopher Nolan. The beauty of this movie is wonderfully layered—the plot, the visual, the unexpected. The spectacle, while marvelous, did not distract from the story. The way the script unfolded, dropping hints of what was to come and what has already happened, was grade A in it’s subtlety.
Inception is kind of like The Matrix meets Waking Life meets Shutter Island. All of these movies are great, but Inception lifted the best elements and sloughed off the heavy-handedness.
One complaint? Leo was not all that great. He was good, of course, but he played the exact same character as Shutter Island*, and part of that is the casting director’s fault and perhaps the script’s itself.
For me, the highlight of the film was the layering of time. I won’t go into specifics, but for my two readers, I’ll say: “Van, gravity, snow.” You’ll get it.
*MINI-SPOILER: In that he was chasing his wife that he loved so much that is really kind of evil through various forms of reality.
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Toy Story 3
Quick Overview: With Andy going to college, Woody, Buzz and co. try to find a new home and wind up in a daycare center run by tyrannical toys.
Quick Review: Totally Toy Story-ish. It was better the first time around.
Am I the only person in America that left Toy Story 3 dissatisfied? Perhaps that’s too harsh. But I just don’t think it lived up to the hype.
Now, I didn’t see it in IMAX nor in 3D, and of course everyone had already told me how GREAT it was, how much I would CRY and how PERFECT Pixar is. I love Pixar. I think they’ve made things unfair for everyone else in the last 10 years trying to do animated movies. With the exception of maybe Cars (and to be fair, it was the most consciously kid-friendly of all their flicks), I would recommend everyone watch all of their movies. And to watch Finding Nemo a quintillion times.
For one thing, the antagonist was exactly the same as last movie. What does Pixar have against unassuming, elderly Southern toys? For another, Woody was all “We are Andy’s toys! We have to go back to Andy!” a billion times all movie, and I was so surprised. Except the opposite of that.
Buzz gets reset at one point in the movie, and returns to his old antics. Luckily Pixar called themselves out on it, (“Oh no, not again”) and quickly redeemed themselves by changing him to “Spanish Buzz.” By far my favorite, favorite part of the movie is when he was seducing Jessie with dance.
The Barbie + Ken subplot was wonderful, really a glimpse into what Toy Story 1 was like. The dynamic of “what if these things were real?” rather than “you know the characters, now watch them do basically the same things they did the last two movies.”
I suppose it’s worthwhile to mention the animation itself. I was startled by how incredible it was… moreso than I can remember with most animated movies, because the movement of everyone, especially Woody, was so precise and so unlike regular humans.
I did not dislike this movie—far from it. I gladly shucked out my $5 to see it (student discount), and would have been fine spending $10. I am just a little sad that Pixar didn’t expand much from their source material. I wept like a baby, but I also cried during a commercial for deoderant once. Or twice.
Tonight’s Inception. Oh baby oh baby.
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Dead Snow
Last night I went to see “Dead Snow,” based on the fact that it was about zombies. Incidentally, these zombies are NAZIS. I’m sorry, did you just read that correctly? That’s right. Zombie Nazis. Zombie SS. The works.
Quick Overview: A group of Norwegian medical school co-eds vacation in a secluded mountain cabin. Zombie Nazis attack.
Quick Review: While nothing was particularly original, as a whole it was very, very fun. Great balance of gore and film.
Probably my favorite element of this movie was the setting. The egregious amounts of snow gave everything a muted, eerie feeling, and there was no doubt that these kids would have neither cell phone service nor working heat. Plus, I’m sure you can think of about a dozen ways that snow can add to horror films (zombies popping out? Avalanches? hypothermia? oh baby oh baby Dod Sno’s got ‘em all).
The entire film took place over a span of about 3 days, and it clocked in at just over an hour and a half. Near perfect for a one-trick pony plot (all zombie movies are one-trick pony plots. The trick is called “zombies.”)
Right off the bat you get a death scene, which sated my appetite and got me on edge. Then the characters and storyline were introduced. Okay, okay, none of these Norwegians are going to win an Oscar, nor is the screenwriter going to win a Fjordie (what I assume is the Norwegian equivalent), but they didn’t distract from the point (zombie Nazis).
There was a great build-up of gore, too. Never too much, and always a little more than last time. The Undead Germans seemed to have a hold of all their human faculties except speech, which means there were wintry chase scenes galore.
There was a thin current of humor throughout the whole movie, but it was balanced and never took away from the focus (re: zombie Nazis).
The special affects were absolutely top-notch, which helps in a film that had what can only be called a severe intestine fetish.
So what if it was a tad predictable, and so what if the shtick has been done in a dozen other zombie films. It was a hell of a lot of fun.
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Welcome!
Welcome to my new blog!
My name is K-K, and I love movies. I love good movies and bad movies. I love gore and guts and cheap laughs and nudity. I love references in movies to other movies.
Most of all, I love zombies.
Being in college at The Ohio State University, I have a lot of free time to go to the talkin’ pictures. I figured, why not start a blog? All the cool kids are doing it.
Mostly it will just be enthusiastic rants of what I thought was awesome.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy.
PS. Here is my other blog, where I mostly reblog things that are awesome: zombee.tumblr.com
