Mum Reviews: Modern Apatow

In our efforts to appeal to a wider demographic, we salute you, the middle aged!
Please enjoy my mother's own take on this production powerhouse.

Anchorman
"It was very silly, but I liked the message, and the newsteam. I thought it was funny"
Translation?: about 3 stars

Knocked Up
"I thought the main character was lovable and charming. the script was long but it was very funny, funnier than the news one."
Translation?: Let's say 4, yes, mum?

Pineapple Express
"Oh that looks awful, don't make me watch that"
I'm inclined to agree, have 2 stars.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
"It's not great. I just don't like the main character as much as I do the ones in Superbad and Knocked up. Russel Brand did well, didn't he?"
Translation?: It doesn't look good, 2 stars.

AND, against all odds, let's hear what she had to say about the least endearing SUPERBAD, the lewd teen film that's subject matter covers nothing but sex and alcohol from a male perspective...

Superbad
"Oh I LOVED Superbad (breaks into giggles) Do you still have that? I'd love to watch it again!"
You're weird, mum. 5 stars.

Not reviewed: Talledega Nights, Step Brothers.


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Review: Planes, Trains and Automobiles

On a cold, satisfying Christmas morning in 2004, I first experienced the delight of the classic film Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
In 2008, I watched it again, on probably about my 15th viewing. Having scratched my previous DVD, this was a new one. I rarely cry at films, in face only one or two have ever made me actually well up. Planes, Trains, on it's umpteenth viewing, made me weep.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles tells the story of Neal Page (Steve Martin) trying to get home for Thanksgiving. After a botched (well, 2) attempts to get a cab, he finds himself bumped form from First Class on his flight, later to be grounded in Wichita due to weather. It's here he meets Del Griffiths (John Candy), an infuriatingly cheerful motormouth with a sincere desire to make friends with Neal. It's got all the real conventions of a 90-minute dispensable cheap-laughs comedy. However, what separates this charming slice of American cinema from today's Scary Movie and Just Friends is exactly what's missing from too much modern comedy flicks. Heart. Right at the center of this outrageously hilarious film lies another, softer, meaningful layer. Fuck Neal's wife, the one bad thing about this film. I'm talking the relationship between these two men as they attempt to travel 791 miles (Thanks, Google Maps) for Neal to get home.

Both Martin and Candy play their roles with class and distinction, but as the film progresses, it's Candy's character who develops more, despite Neal being the more central character. Behind Del's annoying persona, there's great tragedy and sadness in his eyes as he delivers every line. He's the true miracle of the film, and the hero, once all's said and done.

Right, but HOW FUNNY IS IT? It's a comedy after all.
It's hilarious. never before has the "Things can't get much worse" genre been as enthralling. I want to ruin nothing of the actual plot, nothing. But the way the film careers from planes, to trains, and then to automobiles is an absolute delight to witness, even if it's torture for the characters.

I'm halfway through what I expected my review to be but, you know what? It's unreviewable.

This film is a classic, criminally underrated even today. it's the finest example of simple comedy. Watch it, rent it, buy it now.

*****
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DVD Review: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

An unusual Apatow DVD, just one disc (shame) for one of the flagship films of the new Hollywood megastudio, doesn't skimp on the single disc, mind - an extended cut of the film is an option featuring a hilarious yoga scene and an extended plane scene. Deleted scenes are disappointing but the commentary shines, some of it funnier than the copious one-liners we've come to expect from these films. Other extras include a table-read of one of the scenes (I'm a sucker for those), the red band trailer (I'd already watched the film, so this didn't really have much of an effect), a gag reel and a Music Video from Russel Brand's airhead rock-God Adonis.

The film itself is, without a doubt one of the best out-and-out comedies this year, slightly underrated by critics on the back of Superbad and Knocked Up. I personally prefer this to the former, I've always found teenage characters slightly harder to relate to than more adult ones, ironic in that I'm still a teenager. Jason Segel and Russel Brand shine brighest in the flick, but it's not the acting you're going to watch it for, is it? Fear not, it's also very, very funny. Might just tug a heartstring or two as well with anyone familiar with the burn of heartbreak.

****

-An interesting side-note to this film, both Russel Brand and Jonah Hill will be reprising their roles from the film and starring in a spin-off film in which Hill's character joins Snow's troupe on tour.
I hate to say it, but I expect disappointment.
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Pineapple Express Review

Last week i ended up going to the cinema a lot and subsequently i am probably going to be writing a lot of reviews because of it and here is my first of that week (though it wasn't the first film i saw that week it is the one i am most eager to review).



Pineapple Express starts telling the story of Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) and what his day-to-day life is like, which introduces the character of Saul Silver (James Franco) who is Dale's drug dealer and friend. Saul supplies Dale with a new form of weed described as "the dopest dope", this form of weed is Pineapple Express. Later whilst Dale is doing his job as a process server he witnesses a murder, the murderers unfortunately see him and he leaves the remenants of his joint at the scene pinpointing him to Saul.
The film from herein onwards turns into an on the run film which builds the friendship of Dale and Saul.

Pineapple Express has a well meaning and effective plot in the way that it does show a compassionate charm of having two drug fuelled stoners becoming friends because of a threat on their lives and though this is one of the elements of the film that is pulled off effectively it never seems to create any sort of climax to the friendship, though it tries it doesn't work and just becomes part of the plot instead of being a heartfelt piece of cinema that ties into the plot. Luckily the moments wherein their friendship is building is warmingly funny.

Pineapple Express lacks in the way that it seems too much like it's a film which just describes it's plot to a piece of script that just tries to flow along but fails because of it's lack of jokes that could easily be fitted in to a plot which should have loads of potential for making a laugh out loud movie.
The times at which Pineapple Express does present it's audience with humour it seems to be that it is in no context with the overall script and therefore lacks a lot of amusement about the jokes and dampens the fact that the overall plot idea might just be because it is deemed cool instead of actually being Seth Rogen's idea of a plot bursting with opportunity for comedic excellence.

James Franco does help save the movie from seeming like a dull illustration with a wonderful performance that captures the elements of what the movie should be about and luckily he helps it to allow to hang on to those elements that do make it interesting. One particularly noticeable thing about James Franco's performance is that as opposed to Seth Rogen he can pull off the part of a drug addict successfully in the ways that it's believeable which allows it to be funny and it encompasses those visuals of a drug dealer having a comic aspect to him that actually makes it funny. The problem with Seth Rogen's performance as a drug addict (which he seems to have in all his films) are that he sees them as being funny on script and that if he supplies the audience with a character who just obsesses about how much he loves weed then it will be funny without thinking at all about whether his portrayal is realistic.

Rogen does however pull out of the bag one of the funniest and best chase scenes i have ever seen and it is a shame that the rest of the movie doesn't offer more scenes like this because it perfectly shows how it is possible to bridge that gap between comedy and action and still do something original.

Pineapple Express does portray some enjoyable action scenes and it is in these that the best humour comes and luckily it doesn't go over the top with comedic fights, which could potentially ruin a lot of the movie if they were exasberated so easily. Unfortunately there are a lot of throaway scenes that seem to be centered around just the humour of the movie.

In short Pineapple Express is an enjoyable, slightly heartfelt romp that delivers but nowhere near enough as a movie with this much potential should.


Rating: ***
Best bit: The Chase Scene
Sequel?: No
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The best films of 2008

As we near the end of the Blockbuster season. I'm putting something quite special together for you all. Until then. My top five films of 2008.

1. The Dark Knight
2. RocknRolla
3. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
4. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
5. Cloverfield

Stay tuned.
Tom
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Review: RockNRolla

This film leaves a buzz like no other. Two hours of pure bliss. Thrills, superb plot navigation and some truly hilarious moments.

See it, you'll get a kick.

Real review tomorrow. My brain's just saying:
RockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRollaRockNRolla

Rating: *****/*****
Best Bit: Nice wheels.
Sequel: Hellz Yeah, "The Real RockNRolla", coming 2010.
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The Shawshank Redemption review

Hey, this will currently be a very short review because i'm in registration and quite bored. (i will probably add more to this when i get home or perhaps in one of my frees)


The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) who has been charged with the murder of his wife and the man she was having an affair with. Andy is sent to Shawshank prison where he meets Red (Morgan Freeman), a man who has spent 20 years inside Shawshank, who is also able to get people things from the world outside the prison. Life inside the prison for Andy is atrocious, he has to face frequent attacks from other members of the prison, deal with the harsh ways of the captain of the guard and live in fear.

Though The Shawshank Redemption tells a depressing story it is altogether extremely uplifting and heartfelt, the relationship that grows between Andy and Red is beautiful and extremely well written, all of which includes narration from Morgan Freeman who undeniably has the most warm and loving voice in film. There is a great deal of sympathy felt for all the characters in this film and it will completely throw a lot of peoples opinions of people in jail turning a despised hatred into a sort of sorrow.

Both Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman deliver exceptional performances and emphasise their roles and portray them better than perfectly, so much that they push them beyond limits of anyones normal acting career allowing anyone to say the words 'if these performances aren't oscar worthy i sure as hell don't know what is'. An excellent choice in casting i must say, Morgan Freeman is the ideal man to portray a worn old man who still clings to hope and Tim Robbins is ideal for a suspicious but friendly and righteous man who relies on planning and a good will.

The Shawshank Redemption is packed with loads of unforgettable lines and scenes that it isn't hard to say why this film is considered one of the all time greats. As a film it really reaches it's limit and tries to break that limit without seeming ridiculous or off the point.

Rating: *****


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Review: Step Brothers

It was ineviateble that at some point, Will Ferrell would break his downward trend of the quality of his films. Starting from the comedy classic Anchorman, weaving through the acceptable Talledega Nights, before releasing the unremarkable Blades Of Glory, and finally crashing and burning in Semi-Pro. Step Brothers had "average" written all over it. The comedy duo of Will Ferrel and John C. Reilley reunite once again to bring you the story of two forty-year-olds still living at home, who are forced to live together after their respective single parents hook up and marry. It's a very wide-appeal, and despite the R (or 15 in the UK) rating, a first for Ferrel, it still manages to wade through the fart, vomit and nutsack jokes and become quite a sweet, enjoyable family film. (And by that I mean a film about a family. Don't take the kids)

Right from the beginning, Ferrel and Reilley's man-child characters are on top form. Ferrel's loveable loser Brennan waves goodbye to his mother as she goes to work, before sticking his hand down his pyjama bottoms as soon as she's out of the door. Reilley's character plays Guitar Hero in his room as his dad goes to work that day. Already we see this is the duo's domain. A quirky comedy with a paper-thin plot, but plenty of gags to fill the void. It's something about the entirely cliched nature of this film that's so charming, however. A genuinely-funny-for-once sleepwalking scene makes for good laughs (and they use that one twice) as does the coming together of the two brothers as they try to put off potential buyers of the house they aren't ready to give up slacking in. It has to be said the pair truly do save the film. The prepoeterousness of two single 40-year-olds behaving like children living with their parents is something only a select hollywood few could pull off.

As Brennan's psychiatrist observes near the end of the film: "You realise this is totally fucked-up, right?" Hell yeah, we do. But this film has magic despite the plot holes and cliches. Ferrel's back, ladies and gentlemen.

Rating: ****
Best bit: The funny-for-once sleepwalking scenes
Sequel?: No.
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Tom and Chris' cinema adventure

Chris and I attended the cinema this evening. It was a fun night, we originally had planned to see RockNRolla, A film I am still looking forward to. Chris and I are huge Lock, Stock fans.

We decided, it's all about you the blog readers, and you'd much rather read a review of us tearing Disaster Movie to pieces. Let's face it, it's going to be awful. However, approaching the ticket desk we couldn't actually bring ourselves to ask for a ticket. Instead we opted for Step Brothers. Expecting nothing, we took our seats for 100 minutes of an expectantly average film.

Instead, we got a fun, fast comedy. I was pleased we chose Step Brothers. I'll review it tomorrow but it's safe with a joint 4-star rating from us. All will be revealed in good time. Until then, dear reader, thank you.
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The Brave Little Toaster

All toasters toast.............utter crap (and bowser)

Okay, this is partly because i don't have time to do my Little Miss Sunshine review right now but also because it just made me think ".....what,why,ahhh!!?!". (But i will tomorrow-hopefully)

Earlier today i got bored so i decided to watch about 3 minutes worth of The Brave Little Toaster (i don't own it, i watched it on youtube) and it's extraordinarily messed up, it's about a toaster who is on some crappy adventure, probably to return to his master (a four year old boy who really seems to get some strange sort of a kick out of over-using household appliances (i blame the parents)). The toaster is accompanied by a lamp, a hoover, a radio and a electronic heat blanket thing which the toaster seems to fall in love with in this short scene i watched.
What made the whole thing extraordinarily weird for me, was a) how the toaster and the lamp described love. The toaster described it as "like seeing a new loaf of bread" and "that warm toasty feeling inside" whereas the lamp described love by the so called pleasure he gets out of a four year old boy changing his bulb.
b) this is what mainly freaked me out, and it's the fact the toaster has a nightmare and in this nightmare a clown dressed as a fireman petrifies the toaster by saying the word "run" which causes me to completely re-think my life whilst watching a toaster attempt the well known skill of running.

Eventually the toaster is attacked by a Tsunami of forks and falls from a great height into a bath tub, oh and to make it even more scary.......THE TOASTER BURNT THE TOAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! shock horror!!!! not only is this every toasters nightmare it's also every film critics. Yet i do find some pleasure for hating a film about a living toaster, and even more for it's sequel (the brave little toaster goes to mars, which i haven't seen, but to be honest i don't think i need to).
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A moment of your time, please

Find things quicker and easier with the new naviagtion feature, just go to the sidebar and look! Snazzy categories to select from. The archive will remain, mind in case you can't find what you;re looking for.
Don't forget to leave your comments on what your reading :)

Oh, and if you could click your mouse once in a desired spot for our poll, I'm sure we'd appreciate that plenty, too!

Remember, still early days and we are just two students. not too much is going to get covered around here just yet.

Tom
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Give a hoot!

Support the blog!
Follow in the footsteps of 2 people and leave a comment on one of our pieces of work, it gives us a little perspective and even makes coming to the blog more enjoyable for us!

thanks for coming here in the first place, leaving a few words on what you think really does make all the difference to us Blogmasters. I appreciate we're spotty on coverage on plenty of things, bear in mind we're just two people both with part-time jobs and full-time education timetables.

Thank you, again and remember, make yourself heard! I'd happily review any film someone suggested and more, we're all about the interaction :).

Tom.
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Review: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Just how big a factor does the overall jist of a film play in it's appeal? Would the Dark Knight have done as well if Heath Ledger still walked among us? "Of course" the fanboys will cry, "Absolutely not" say the cynics. In the case of horror films, the genre is enough to have punters flooding to opening weekends and buying grimly-titled DVDs on the bottom shelf of the A to Z at Blockbuster because "they like a good scare". So when presented with a big red demon, who carries a massive gun, smokes and trash-talks to otherworldy villains, how do they react?

"Seriously, guys, go see Hellboy II, it's really good!"
"Isn't that the one with the red demon saying "Awh crap?"
"Well, yeah, but-"
"Go away Tom"

Okay, fine, it's not a film for the casual cinema-goer. A disappointing opening-weekend gross of just over $30million shows this. But the positive reviews have been flooding in thick and fast. I say to you, casual cinema-goer: Believe the professionals. Give Hellboy two hours of your time, go out on a limb, you will not be disappointed.

Hellboy II Starts with a cutesy (albeit slightly cliche) opening scene of a teen Hellboy being read a bedtime story by his father (John Hurt, killed in the first film) telling of an ancient feud between man and the paranormal beings, and of a dormant, unstoppable army that can only be controlled by a crown. Oh and big shocker: It's split in three. Two for the elves, one for man. Did I mention the elves are normally a peaceful bunch, but the vengeful prince (next to the throne) can't wait to get his evil little hands on said headgear and fuck our unsuspecting little world right up? Oh, he's also bound in a magical way to his twin sister, he can read her thoughts, and when she gets hurt, so does he and vice-versa. He also speaks in your classic throwaway-villain way. He's got an RP English accent, of course, dresses flamboyantly and gives little monologues before executing any part of his plans, no matter how small, insignificant or illogical.

But on seeing it, these problems melt away. Del Toro's script is, yes, ropey but builds on it's predecessor to such an extent this almost isn't a sequel, but a far superior standalone film happening to feature and center around the same protagonists in the same time line in the same world. The humour is predictable and easy, but the characters are so likable that the niggles seem trivial in comparison. "I would give my life for her, but she also wants me to do the dishes" laments an inebriated Hellboy on seeing his sleeping girlfriend, before, obviously engaging in a Barry Manalow singalong with his psychic amphibian sidekick Abe Sapien. This film is ridiculous to the point of ridicule, but is so aware of it and just tries to make things fun. It succeeds, as well. The plot roars through an extended troll market scene, an excuse for Del Toro to cameo some of his otherworldly creations on a scale, I suspect, he could never have imagined. His creative flair for "Holy shit!" monsters continues all the way to the finale, where a breathtakingly beatiful-yet-horrific angel of death hints at a third film. If it's anywhere near as superior to Hellboy II as Hellboy II was to the first, I will be first in line to see it, believe that. Sadly, we'll have to wait 'til Del Toro has finished his upcoming Hobbit film(s). f he still can be bothered on the back of that, and if the cast can come back, Hellboy III could shape up to be one of the definitive fantasy films. Ever.

In short: Succeeds Del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" only in scale, with the dark Spanish flick still his finest creation. But builds on the Hellboy franchise in such a grand way you can only marvel, once again at Guillermo's work. No annoying evil elf is going to stand in the way of this fun, fantastic sequel.

Rating: ****/*****
Best moment: The Troll Market, and Big Red's ruck with burly troll-henchman Mr. Wink.
Sequel?: Read the article, jackass.
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