There's no reason for most people to rush out and see Get Him to the Greek, but when you catch it on late-night cable down the line, you'll laugh. Both Jonah Hill and Russell Brand are pretty abrasive personalities, so putting them front and center just isn't going to work for everyone, but both give pretty solid comic performances here, as does P. Diddy, who exhibits an impressive sense of comic timing (watch for his "mindfuck" monologue). The film is at its best when it's operating in either a wildly absurd mode (drink and drug-induced sprees) or a satirical mode (Brand's "African Child" video is the kind of outrageously pompous thing that any number of self-important bands might engage in during a misguided part of their career). Problematically, however, the film is just as often operating in other, less entertaining, modes (do we really need this much of a sentimental streak to understand that celebrities, deep down, are really quite lonely?).
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Splice gets my vote as the most pleasant surprise of the summer so far. The trailer suggests nothing more than a monster-run-amuck-in-a-lab tale. Yet that element, in actuality, occupies only a small portion of screen time early in the film. What we get, instead, is a bizarre "creature-feature" (with better-than-usual CGI effects) about parental bonds, a film that resembles a more explicitly commercial version of the kinds of "body-horror" films that Cronenberg was making early in his career. Sure, the film becomes increasingly ludicrous toward the end, but it does so in ways that break from the "rules" that modern horror audiences expect (the audience I saw it with reacted with uncomfortable laughter and a few expressions of something that may have been moral outrage!). See it soon, because it's a miracle it made it to the multiplex at all.
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What one needs to know about The A-Team is this: at one point, the team "flies" a tank which they have parachuted out of a crashing airliner. If that amuses you, you will not completely hate the film. But you will still mostly hate it.
Wow, Nog on Film got a makeover. Awesome. One of my lady-gal roommates said her boyfriend has seen it twice already. I suppose I'll only see this film if my hypothetical boyfriend makes me. So basically I'll probably never see it. SPLICE looked really awesome in the trailer, but I honestly thought they showed TOO MUCH of the creature; and like. . .she's all dolled up at some point, which looked kinda weird. . .but hey -- it sounds like this film may surprise me. I do want to see this one. Can't say the same for A-TEAM. What's the word on the latest "SNL" sketch gone to Hollywood?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I never got around to writing about MacGruber. I figured no one cared!
ReplyDeleteI'll give it this: it has the funniest sex scene of the year! (as well as a few running jokes that are mildly amusing).
All in all, very shitty summer movie season!
I kinda want to see Splice, too! Especially after this review. And, let's face it, I'm not really looking forward to any other new movies in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI just checked out season one of The Wire from the library.
Ah, The Wire! Hope you enjoy it. I'm ready for the return of Mad Men (now that Breaking Bad has ended).
ReplyDeleteAnd I stuck with Justified for the season (your boy Walton Goggins definitely the highlight, and he's absolutely awesome in the last part of the season).