Spaceballs

Mel Brooks is a comedic genius.  He knows exactly how to spoof a franchise and do so hilariously.  Star Wars is one of the greatest stories ever told but Brooks made Spaceballs into a comedic classic with memorable and quotable lines that fit any situation. 

The quality of the film is pretty good.  The chemistry of the star studded cast is great.  John Candy as Barf was classic John Candy.  His ability to have funny moments was never beyond him and it shined in his supporting role.

This is Rick Moranis' second greatest role - behind Ghostbusters - and he did not disappoint. He captured every scene that involved him and was funny.  The coffee statement and the line about the assholes should be in comedic history.

While the on-film chemistry was great, the thing I learned from watching documentaries on comedians is the importance of timing in the genre.  Jerry Lewis' Bellboy scene is legendary due to its impeccable timing. Moranis, Brooks, (Bill) Pullman, and Candy nail the timing when possible.  That is why Spaceballs is so funny to me.  It is a slapstick with amazing timing. The only one who rushed the timing sequence was George Wyner as Colonel Sandurz.  Maybe Sandurz was a pushy character and Wyner played it great but there were times when I felt Wyner was a step too quick with the line. His sequence with Moranis on the "You're looking at now" bit, however, was pretty great.

The story itself was pretty silly.  Ran out of fresh air?  That was just dumb but Brooks made it work because while it revolved around the actions of the characters, it was never at the forefront of the film. The comedy, which was spoofing Star Wars and the point of the film, was.

Another great thing about Brooks is his ability to include popular culture in his films.  Viewers see the late 1980s throughout Spaceballs.  A Winnebago? An actual lunchbox?  Spaceballs the cereal! The music and so many others are present in the film that I will not mention but the point is made.  Brooks' skill of inclusion is shown.

Now when it comes to comedies, not everyone enjoys the same kind.  As with Bobby's pick of In a World..., I had no idea it was a comedy until halfway into the film.  With Spaceballs, however, this is clearly a spoof and slapstick comedy.  Those are the kind I revel in. To me, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a top ten comedy of all time and with that in mind, Spaceballs gets high marks from me for its comedy.  Its story, however, is another thing.

Was Spaceballs a commercial success?  Well, it had an estimated budget of $22.7 million and grossed $38.1 million in the U.S. Making more than the budget is always a good thing but what do others think of it?  It holds a 7.1 rating on IMDb, which is pretty good, yet RT gives it a 54% but somehow 83% of its audience liked it. Interesting. 

All in all, the comedy was great.  Memorable and quotable lines with a cast that could do no wrong.  The story was disappointing but the comedy drowned it out.

Grade: B

In a World...

In a World... where Bobby picks female lead films which are also written, directed and produced by said female... I think Lake Bell delivers a winner.

To start, I was really attracted to the premise. We get a look at a oft ignored piece of show business centered around a phrase that has been incredibly prominent. Don La Fontaine was a voice that everybody recognized, but likely couldn't put a name to. I thought the resurrection of his famed 'In a World...' line was a brilliant approach to the film. The film presents the voice-over business in a way that appealing and interesting to both movie buffs and general audiences, which is a big part of what makes it such a success for me.

In a World... revolves around Carol Solomon and her relationship to the voice acting world. She's a genuinely likable character... quirky, witty, intelligentWhen we first see her she's simply a voice coach, knowing she has the ability to play a bigger role in the business if it wasn't such an exclusive boys club. I like that Carol getting her first big voiceover gig wasn't made into a slow built climatic event, but just a subtle 'this happened' moment over the phone. It didn't feel like it was forced upon the audience, but a natural show that women do have a voice here... which is clearly a major theme in the movie.

Carol's relationship with her father is essentially the personified version of her relationship to the industry. She's always kept at arms length, and hardly has any support. Of course, there's more to her family dealings that that, but it does come back around when we see Sam dedicate his award to his daughters. It doesn't feel sincere to me, he's just using them as a tool, just as the industry (represented by Geena Davis) used Carol's female voice for the quadrilogy.

The supporting characters are also well defined and each gives us distinct and fleshed out personalities. Their involvment makes the story feel like more than just a daughter's battle to get out of her father's shadow and limitations.

Bell was great in the lead role. She delivers the personality in detail and has fantastic timing. She provided plenty of comedic moments and, I thought, managed extremely well with her Fred Melamed stood out as Sam Sotto, delivering his lines with the perfect tone and temperment. And look a flip phone like Jon's! Ken Marino does well in a familiar type of role (Wet Hot American Summer, East Bound and Down), but adds something extra with his voice as well. Demitri Martin and Rob Corddry fit in well their normal awkward roles.  Nick Swanson's mustache fell of, but Nick Offerman is always solid. The cast did a suberb job overall, and showed a great deal of chemistry.

I think that chemistry added to an already good dialogue. Conversations felt natural and, more importantly, realistic. The inclusion of some quick wit ('If a beanie baby could talk..') and repeat jokes ('excited or farting') were subtle and well done. They reminded me of the kind of wit we experience in real life... it's there, but not over the top like in something such as Juno.

I'm guessing any major issues with this movie will come with the side stories. Sure, we can do without the romance between Carol and Louis, but it allows her personality to be on full display (away from work) and also Louis comes in as strong support for the female voice... even if in a sort of cliche way from his speech. We don't really care abotu Jamie, but this also fleshes out Sam world. And most of all, Moe and Dani. On its own it can seem completely out of place and a secondary plot altogether. But I think both characters, as well as their relationship, play a very important role in Carol's life and support system. They also round out the entire family plot with Carol, Dani and their father. It's still a slight distraction because it seems so distant from the main focus at times, but isn't a huge negative for me.

Technically, I think Bell did a great job directing. I didn't feel like any shots were off or misplaced. The cuts felt right, with no clunkiness. I mentioned the dialogue, but i really think that was a strong point of her script that deserves attention. I think it's an incredibly strong work, not just for a debut, but in a general light.

I found myself laughing, sometimes audibly others just a light chuckle... which scored major points for the film. We've discussed comedy enough to know how that works if a viewer isn't feeling it's humor. More on point though, I was feeling Bell's message. Extending the female voice in such a well done and intelligent way works well here. While she apparently felt the need to drive it home in the last seen while she's coaching the women, I don't think it was over the top or to strong.. but meshed well with Carol's journey throughout the movie.

I feel like could go on to more, but I need to wrap this up for now. I can see this getting a pretty wide array of grades, and feel I may be higher than most (if not all) here. I initially graded this as an A when I saw it a few months back, and feel comfortable sticking to that. I truly enjoyed this movie.... from the acting, to the humor, to the dialogue, to the plot and overall introduction to the voice over business. From the initial voice mail from Louis and Carol's play on it, to the final moment of female empowerment, I was in. It wasn't perfect or a masterpiece, but it's a damn fine film, and one of my favorites that I've watched this year. Grade: A

Secret of Kells

Did George RRRRRRR Martin copy the Book of Kells (the basis for Secret of Kells) and make it into Game of Thrones? Cold, winter attackers from the north and a huge wall - of course he did.

No, this was not a pick to watch with my daughter. I thought about it, but the previews made it look too dark.

Watching Secret of Kells is like walking through an art museum. It’s beautiful and and I’d probably go back, but I don’t “get it.” There’s more here than what I’m seeing and Chel was into debating its deeper meaning, but my brain didn’t naturally go there.

The art in this movie was phenomenal. I was excited at every turn to see what was next in terms of artistic appearance. The story on its surface was good enough to keep me entertained. The chicken chase was amusing and the scenes in the woods would be terrifying outside of animation.

The moral of the story is where my brain gets lost. How am I supposed to interpret keeping the book inside of the wall, thus preventing the spread of knowledge? Could that knowledge have prevented the attack? Help prepare for the attack? Is the deeper meaning not to build walls in our own lives or hearts? Maybe I’m just reaching here - but I’d watch this one again to think more about these things.

As a student of art I really got into the symmetry and color of this movie. Any Irish out there know if a circle has a more significant meaning to their culture? As an anti-philosophy student I struggled to connect on a deeper level. I’m starting at B+, but the more I write and think about this movie the more I lean toward A-. I’d like to pick up The Book of Kells, but I’m not sure I’d open it.

Mad Max

Mad Max

Somebody call Jay Beckham because “a few years from now” Australia is going to be no fine place to live.

The tone setting opening sequence provides everything we need to know about this dystopian near future.  Starting with a cop getting his voyeur on through the scope of his rifle, he’s no less excited to get a call about the Nightrider riding wild.  We get the classic, I’m driving cop conversation and the alpha male switch of drivers after the failed first attempt but best of all we get the introduction of our “hero” Max.  The tight shots on the aviator glasses, the dashboard, the exhaust, all of this is basically copied to a T a few years later by Sly Stallone in Cobra but it makes for a badass entrance. 

To me Mad Max is a morality play based on one man’s dive into the depths of hopelessness.  His friendship with the Goose and relationship with his wife and son maintain Max’s humanity and as they are stripped away his snaps into vigilante mode.  The framing of the shot as he passed the sign reading “Stop Restricted Area” is a little too on the nose for me as we don’t need any more to show us what Max has set out to do and become. 

I feel like the score was something that was a major plus for this movie in 1979 but felt very dated.  

Each time the panned to the gates to The Halls of Justice and played the same tune I was transported to watching the Super Friends on Saturday Morning Cartoons.  (Meanwhile at the Legion of Doom…) I get what they were doing, but I only needed to see the Halls of Justice sign falling apart and the Halls themselves in ruin once to understand this was no ordinary police force. 

I did wonder during the family vacation how responsible it was to leave his wife and kid alone so often given that he knew this biker gang was in the area especially after her first run in with them.  Oh well, Aussies are pretty not smart. 

I thought the script left something to be desired  with a number of areas.  First, I like dialogue this movie didn’t have much.  Maybe the dubbing from the busted Aussie dialect “strine” held that back who knows.  Second, we got handsome and crazy Mel Gibson when everyone knows the best Mel Gibson is, handsome charming and crazy.  Hard to be charming without more words.

Disjointed review over, I want to say C but it did make me want to watch The Road Warrior (which is even better reviewed) so I’ll bump it into the no man’s land of C+

Up in the Air

Up in the Air

Phil and I discussed this movie and he described it as the perfect definition of a B+ movie. I knew this movie was nominated for Best Picture, so I assumed it’d be a bit higher (not that the Academy always does a great job). I had no idea what the movie was about until after I nominated it and realized I just nominated a rom com. I just don’t normally like rom coms and for a rom com to get over a B+ it really needs to do something extra in addition to merely being a believable story with believable relationships and believable people doing reasonable things. Rom coms usually fail at these things, especially on people acting in reasonable ways.

So I was presently surprised that this movie succeeds in breaking through the B+ ceiling, though I’m not certain it is actually a rom com.

I don’t care to go through the performances too terribly much here as everyone did a fantastic job. I still don’t know if Anna Kendrick is attractive or not, but I can say that she is definitely not attractive with the pulled back hair. But I guess that’s a bit misogynistic. But it’s not misogynistic to not how handsome George Clooney always is. (Even made fun of his eyebrows!) Whatever, I refuse to check my privilege at the door.

The relationships are what make this movie go beyond a B+.

I thought the dialogue here was superb. These characters interacted in natural ways. I thought the development between Kendrick and Clooney was impressive. I like that they didn’t necessarily agree with each other, though they definitely began to respect each other. That’s how real life works. I feel like on television that either you agree completely or you’re enemies. There’s no in-between. But in real relationships, it’s just not like that. (I also loved her line about not wanting to be anti-feminist. It sounds exactly like something any current recent college graduate might bring up. Bravo.)

I enjoyed the relationship between Clooney and Vera Farmiga’s character as the main love interest. It was an interesting role reversal to have Clooney missing all of the signs that she just wasn’t interested in a legitimate relationship. She was pretty blunt about what she expected and we just went along for the ride with Clooney. I thought they might be together and was ignoring the voice in the back of my end saying it wasn’t happening. I think we’ve all had a relationship like that. In the end, I love that she doesn’t apologize either. Just a “what the hell is wrong with you” despite the fact that she’s the adulterer. Another nice and realistic touch.

The next relationship is Clooney and his job. This is what he happily filled his time and soul with. His job was his identity, as it has been for countless people throughout history. It’s a relationship that he’s comfortable in and perhaps takes it for granted. He assumes it’ll always be there for him. But he’s ignoring that all relationships grow and change. As he’s firing all of these people, they keep saying how much time they’ve put in to their work. The time sacrificed. They sound like scorned lovers, taken by surprise that their significant others are leaving them for the cabana boy. They didn’t see it coming and their anger comes from all the time they thought they were building something. But a relationship is simply what you have in the moment. You don’t get to keep score. Clooney’s character is as blind to the fact that his job could change as the people that he was firing. He’s put in all this time and is building toward that frequent flyer mile goal, but his job doesn’t care. It’s growing and changing with or without him.

The final relationship is with Clooney and his family. Here he is, a jet-setter flying all over the country and visiting interesting places. He’s a big man. He’s successful and interesting. He motivates people. So here he comes home, a conqueror of the world. He expects to be lauded as a hero by his family. I LOVE that they don’t give a fuck at all. They don’t know him. Here’s another relationship where Clooney just isn’t being honest with himself. Eventually he gets his chance at saving the day and delivers a speech so well that he buys it himself, which is what really gets him in trouble with Farmiga. And he’s right. A job can keep you warm at night by paying the bills, but not as warm as someone in your bed. For most people, a job provides some fulfillment, but it’s the relationships, romantic or otherwise, that are truly fulfilling. Having those relationships is much more satisfying than hitting an arbitrary frequent flyer mark. This is why the family man in the suburbs driving a Dodge Stratus can be just as happy as Will Ferrell. Money/a job can make you more secure and comfortable, but it can’t do anything about you being lonely. (This reminds me a lot about addiction as well.)

Another theme I thought was important was the battle between new and old. This is a movie all about firing people as they’re no longer needed because the business is moving on to new things. It’s about Clooney’s job being updated to the modern era and being present only on a computer. We have a hard time embracing the new, though the new is always going to win out. (Here, Clooney’s job is merely saved temporarily by someone’s suicide, the change is inevitable.) I like that the movie showed us the importance of human interaction, but at the end of the day, a person fired is a person fired. It’s upsetting. Honestly, Kendrick’s business plan is an excellent one.

Speaking of the people being fired, adding people who had just been fired to explain how they feel was risky because not everyone is natural behind a camera. I could tell who the actors were, but that's because the non-actors were giving us real emotion and were more persuasive. Well done.

The last thing in the positives I’ll talk about is the camera work. I loved how slick and tight the shots of the travel were. It is Clooney’s fine-tuned ritual. He knows how it’s done by heart. And he can provide fantastically witty remarks and anecdotes to go along with the shots we’re seeing. But then when he begins to touch into his family, the director (Jason Reitman) goes to a hand held camera that is shaky and softer. I thought it wasn’t an easy path, but the Reitman succeeds here and the contrast is enjoyable.

For negatives, I got a little bored during the second song/montage. Long musical montages are just not my cup of tea.

Also, I didn’t like how he walked off of stage. This is the type of silliness normally seen in rom-coms. Had he said, “I have to go fill my bag with love you guys,” it would have ruined the movie. Glad he only quietly walks away. Glad they didn’t have him change his speech into something rousing on the fly as well. That’s been done and is just as silly. He should have done what we all do every Tuesday: Mail it the fuck in at work because you’re crazy distracted.

So, is this a rom com? Is my A- unreasonable? Am I overthinking the themes here? Did you guys notice the camerawork? Does anyone else feel like those little liquor bottles are cooler than pouring booze out of a big bottle? Would this be a good pint night selection? 

Good movie. Rewatchable. Enjoyable. A-

John Dies at the End

Ha this movie was fairly fun. It suffers slightly from a lack of consistent tone. It seems to be trying to be comedy one moment, immediately followed by feeble attempts at deep philosophical questions. The script had some surprising intricacies, and plot turns (not quite twists). This was just enough to keep me interested. The fatal flaw of this movie was a slightly shitty flavor of teen movie ala the dumb fucking party scene complete with band... ugh.

D

Don Jon

Don Jon

Glad I changed my mind and had us all watch this instead of "One Day" (which I did end up watching anyways..that movie would not have resulted in any kind of good discussion).

I enjoyed Don Jon. I've liked Joseph Gordon Levitt ever since he was in 10 Things I Hate About You. He directed, wrote and starred in this movie and it was a pretty big departure from the sweet, nerdy, hipster characters he usually plays. And he does a great job at playing that Jersey Shore meathead stereotype that everyone loves to hate. Minor thing (and Shane pointed this out to me)- in the scene where he is lifting weights, he is only lifting 30 lbs. Minor. But kind of dumb for a guy who is super into working out. Scarlet Johanson is fine, as usual. She's always just kind of fine. The gum chewing and the accent got a bit tired and started to annoy me. But then again, pretty sure we were supposed to be annoyed by her character. Julianne Moore is always great. Tony Danza is perfect as Jon's dad. We get a glimpse at where Jon's superficiality may come from through his character.

This had a solid plot, good premise and a few surprise twists thrown in. All things that make for a good movie in my book. I loved the way that they repeated certain plot elements to keep a common thread through the movie. The confessionals, the gym scenes, even the sounds/sequences they used when he was watching porn (that's the first time Ive use the word porn in a review about movie featuring a porn obsessed guy. Crazy). And of course the sequences changed slightly throughout the movie to reflect the current state of Jon. Love that. As he becomes a better person he becomes less and less meathead looking and more like a normal human with better hair. And again the sounds really did it for me, specifically the repetition of certain sounds. This movie could have gone into cheesy or classless territory with the subject matter, but it didn't, at all- which I would credit to excellent writing.

The scene where they are arguing in the Wal Mart (or wherever they are in front of the curtains) about cleaning was bizarre. I get that the scene was used to give us our first inclination that Barbara isn't as perfect as she's initially made out to be, but it seemed awkward and forced. I'm sure there could have been a better way to indicate that she was a little nutso without a weird argument about Swiffers. I was sort of shocked to see that side of Barbara's character come out. I didn't see it coming that she would be crazy.

Julianne Moore's character is perfect. Initially, I thought she would just be a side character with no real major part in the film. She seemed too old to be a potential love interest for Jon and frankly, a little weird. As the movie progressed, I started to think she would become a confidant for him. And once I started to see where they were going with her character and I got over my thoughts on the age gap and I liked their story line (plot twist!). Liked that she knew everything about him and fell for him anyways. Loved that when Jon was with her, he found what he was looking for and started to fill the hole (no pun intended) that was empty. He finally got a glimpse of what meaningful sex with someone you care about can be like.

I read a few Rotten Tomatoes reviews on this (because, duh) just to see what critics were saying after I watched. A few of them pointed out that the climax (again, no pun intended) wasn't super dramatic. I agree- and on that point it was also pretty predictable. Of course he was going to get caught eventually (who doesn't know to clear their browser history every now and again?). However, I thought he would get caught, she would eventually forgive him, and then they would live happily ever after. So glad this didn't happen. A few critics called it a comedy, which sort of confused me. I can't really recall any points where I laughed out loud. Maybe a quirky drama? But not a comedy...

Overall I liked this movie. I'd give it a B. Only because I don't really want to watch it again for some reason? I really can't justify WHY I wouldn't want to watch it again, it's just one of those movies where once is enough. Good movie, good actors, good story.