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
Showing posts with label No Mermen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label No Mermen. Show all posts
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Friday, August 8, 2014
Boyz N the Hood
Where to begin? So much to discuss with this film. A good place to start is with the vetoes.
I really wanted everyone to watch the 30 for 30 on Bo Jackson because he is the greatest athlete of all time. No one could play at that kind of elite level like Jackson and it probably would have been watched until Joe reared his head for the first time of the round to vindictively veto this good film because I vetoed his first choice. Yeah, I still refuse to purchase Amazon Prime for a documentary about soccer - unless it's about Pele. No ragrets!
I had a feeling Joe would do that so I had another 30 for 30 in mind over the 2003 Bartman game. Since he couldn't veto again, I thought I was in the clear and then Bryan surprisingly appears to spend his veto. His reasoning was that he's seen some good movies and wanted to keep that going. Mind you, this comes from the guy who picked a movie worse than Drinking Buddies and said he would never veto. I think it is because my second pick was over the Cubs. That didn't bother me either but I thought it was great when he stated his displeasure of it (score!). I almost picked Four Days in October so Phil could veto but I think everyone had enough of the veto power and I didn't want to read Bobby argue nonsense about Mark "I had one moment and a bunch of errors" Bellhorn. Frickin' Bellhorn.
Then I chose Boyz N the Hood. I saw this awhile ago but needed a refresher and was thrilled Netflix had it. I don't particularly pay attention to directors unless its Whedon, Spielberg, Bay, Bruckheimer, Burton, and Lucas. Outside of them, it matters little to me. "Can you make a good film?" is the only requirement directors have for me. In John Singleton's case, he made a cult classic.
Three years ago NPR did a story on "Morning Edition" on Boyz N the Hood and John Ridley interviewed Singleton about the film. Singleton stated that while he loved the films from the 80s, they did not look like him or his situation. So what Singleton, who was taught directing by Francis Ford Coppola and was 22 years old, made was a film about a group of black friends growing up South Central Los Angeles. What came from it, well, not even Singleton could foretell.
The importance of Boyz N the Hood is opens up the eyes of suburbia, white America to life in of hoodlem, black America. Gang violence, crack heads, single motherhood were all out of surburbia, white America's mainstream in 1991. Watching the film nowadays, there is nothing shocking about it. If a young teen watched Boyz N the Hood today, he/she would think he watched everyday life. For me, on the other hand, growing up in Hicktown, Indiana, this was pretty surreal. I remember watching it for the first time in 1996 and I couldn't believe what I saw. High school students shooting each other because one felt disrespected? For real? For a 14 year old in Hicktown, Indiana, that question was on my mind.
Mostly, the movie had great acting. This film put Cuba Gooding, Jr., on the map. He was sensational. He owned the scene when was confronted by the black cop and returned to Brandi's house. His frustration with his inability to fight with the police glowed. The viewer could sense his anger in that scene. Another great part was when he felt compelled to lie to his father Furious about the girl he did not bang. Viewer had no clue that it was a lie until the next scene when Ricky gets in the blue slugbug.
Next was Laurence Fishburne who absolutely nailed the part of Furious Styles. He wanted to be the father apparently he never had and/or what Doughboy, Ricky, or Chris never had. Was he a rough father? Absolutely but it was necessary. Furious knew what he had to do and he did it but did so in a positive way. You know Tre wanted to please Furious and that was evident when Tre returns home after leaving the car. He walks into the house, Furious sees him, Tre walks closer, Furious turns around into his room and slams the door. No words in that scene, just emotion of disappointment.
Ice Cube playing Doughboy, or Darren, was pretty fantastic. He nailed the hustler role probably because he came from Compton and rapped about it in the N.W.A. and his early recordings. He understood that role and life but more importantly than all of that was his ability to capture it on screen. This was Ice Cube's first acting role and there was no trace of it. I was able to put myself in Doughboy's shoes when he shot those two other guys. They took his brother away from him. When that happens, you want to pull the trigger and in this case he did. Good stuff from Ice Cube.
Angela Basset's role was minor. She was Reva Styles, Tre's mother. She wanted to play a role in his life but she ultimately chose her career over her son. Yes, they had an agreement, which Tre violated, but she could have been there for him. What we don't see is the role she played from 1984 - 1991. We are led to believe, however, that she was absent from Tre's rearing. Basset is a fantastic actress and her best role is when she played Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It?, which oddly enough Laurence Fishburne plays Ike. Definitely worth a view.
The aspect that bugged me was what I call the go betweens - when someone talks at one location and then the viewer sees another person saying something else in a different location but apparently they are saying it at the same time. For instance when Doughboy was talking to the crew about something I forget and Tre was talking to Brandi about their relationship, that sequence of go betweens was choppy and bad. It made me squirm and I couldn't deal with that. In its defense, it was 1989/1990 and that sequence can be fine tuned today but regardless, it annoyed me.
I also didn't appreciate the misogynistic nature of Doughboy. Cube did fine playing it but it played up to the stereotype that black men are stupid sexists. Doughboy had a different upbringing than his half brother Ricky and maybe he felt slighted by his mother for that but that is no reason to consistently tell a woman those things.
All in all, it was a raw story that opened up the eyes of white America. This film came out before the O.J. trial, before the Rodney King incident, and before gangster rap emerged into mainstream radio. Boyz N the Hood was really good.
Grade: A-
I really wanted everyone to watch the 30 for 30 on Bo Jackson because he is the greatest athlete of all time. No one could play at that kind of elite level like Jackson and it probably would have been watched until Joe reared his head for the first time of the round to vindictively veto this good film because I vetoed his first choice. Yeah, I still refuse to purchase Amazon Prime for a documentary about soccer - unless it's about Pele. No ragrets!
I had a feeling Joe would do that so I had another 30 for 30 in mind over the 2003 Bartman game. Since he couldn't veto again, I thought I was in the clear and then Bryan surprisingly appears to spend his veto. His reasoning was that he's seen some good movies and wanted to keep that going. Mind you, this comes from the guy who picked a movie worse than Drinking Buddies and said he would never veto. I think it is because my second pick was over the Cubs. That didn't bother me either but I thought it was great when he stated his displeasure of it (score!). I almost picked Four Days in October so Phil could veto but I think everyone had enough of the veto power and I didn't want to read Bobby argue nonsense about Mark "I had one moment and a bunch of errors" Bellhorn. Frickin' Bellhorn.
Then I chose Boyz N the Hood. I saw this awhile ago but needed a refresher and was thrilled Netflix had it. I don't particularly pay attention to directors unless its Whedon, Spielberg, Bay, Bruckheimer, Burton, and Lucas. Outside of them, it matters little to me. "Can you make a good film?" is the only requirement directors have for me. In John Singleton's case, he made a cult classic.
Three years ago NPR did a story on "Morning Edition" on Boyz N the Hood and John Ridley interviewed Singleton about the film. Singleton stated that while he loved the films from the 80s, they did not look like him or his situation. So what Singleton, who was taught directing by Francis Ford Coppola and was 22 years old, made was a film about a group of black friends growing up South Central Los Angeles. What came from it, well, not even Singleton could foretell.
The importance of Boyz N the Hood is opens up the eyes of suburbia, white America to life in of hoodlem, black America. Gang violence, crack heads, single motherhood were all out of surburbia, white America's mainstream in 1991. Watching the film nowadays, there is nothing shocking about it. If a young teen watched Boyz N the Hood today, he/she would think he watched everyday life. For me, on the other hand, growing up in Hicktown, Indiana, this was pretty surreal. I remember watching it for the first time in 1996 and I couldn't believe what I saw. High school students shooting each other because one felt disrespected? For real? For a 14 year old in Hicktown, Indiana, that question was on my mind.
Mostly, the movie had great acting. This film put Cuba Gooding, Jr., on the map. He was sensational. He owned the scene when was confronted by the black cop and returned to Brandi's house. His frustration with his inability to fight with the police glowed. The viewer could sense his anger in that scene. Another great part was when he felt compelled to lie to his father Furious about the girl he did not bang. Viewer had no clue that it was a lie until the next scene when Ricky gets in the blue slugbug.
Next was Laurence Fishburne who absolutely nailed the part of Furious Styles. He wanted to be the father apparently he never had and/or what Doughboy, Ricky, or Chris never had. Was he a rough father? Absolutely but it was necessary. Furious knew what he had to do and he did it but did so in a positive way. You know Tre wanted to please Furious and that was evident when Tre returns home after leaving the car. He walks into the house, Furious sees him, Tre walks closer, Furious turns around into his room and slams the door. No words in that scene, just emotion of disappointment.
Ice Cube playing Doughboy, or Darren, was pretty fantastic. He nailed the hustler role probably because he came from Compton and rapped about it in the N.W.A. and his early recordings. He understood that role and life but more importantly than all of that was his ability to capture it on screen. This was Ice Cube's first acting role and there was no trace of it. I was able to put myself in Doughboy's shoes when he shot those two other guys. They took his brother away from him. When that happens, you want to pull the trigger and in this case he did. Good stuff from Ice Cube.
Angela Basset's role was minor. She was Reva Styles, Tre's mother. She wanted to play a role in his life but she ultimately chose her career over her son. Yes, they had an agreement, which Tre violated, but she could have been there for him. What we don't see is the role she played from 1984 - 1991. We are led to believe, however, that she was absent from Tre's rearing. Basset is a fantastic actress and her best role is when she played Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It?, which oddly enough Laurence Fishburne plays Ike. Definitely worth a view.
The aspect that bugged me was what I call the go betweens - when someone talks at one location and then the viewer sees another person saying something else in a different location but apparently they are saying it at the same time. For instance when Doughboy was talking to the crew about something I forget and Tre was talking to Brandi about their relationship, that sequence of go betweens was choppy and bad. It made me squirm and I couldn't deal with that. In its defense, it was 1989/1990 and that sequence can be fine tuned today but regardless, it annoyed me.
I also didn't appreciate the misogynistic nature of Doughboy. Cube did fine playing it but it played up to the stereotype that black men are stupid sexists. Doughboy had a different upbringing than his half brother Ricky and maybe he felt slighted by his mother for that but that is no reason to consistently tell a woman those things.
All in all, it was a raw story that opened up the eyes of white America. This film came out before the O.J. trial, before the Rodney King incident, and before gangster rap emerged into mainstream radio. Boyz N the Hood was really good.
Grade: A-
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Drinking Buddies
Participants: Drew, Sean, Bobby, Joe, Shane, Phil, Bryan, Jon
Initiator: Drew
My biggest reason for choosing this film is due to Olivia Wilde. She is gorgeous and I have been a fan of hers since "House." I figured it would be, at the very least, somewhat entertaining. Somewhat it was.
Its theme is clear - the gray line between male and female friendships. Having been in this for most of my life, I quickly spotted and related to the situation. For those of you who never been in this situation, you may not have caught on as fast or at all.
Having been in the situation, the movie was predictable. The dude (Luke) and girl (Kate) have feelings for each other but both in relationships. They hangout and constantly flirt with each other to the point where it is obvious but no one wants to admit it. Everything comes to a head when Luke helps Kate move out of her apartment. They make formal plans but it all goes to hell when Luke cuts his hand and cannot really help Kate anymore. She calls Dave, the douche who she slept with after Chris called things off with her, and he casually invites her to go out. When she would rather do that instead of something formal with Luke, he loses it. That is when their friendship is called into question but is settled in the end.
The acting was OK at best. There were some funny parts but they were subtle. Was anyone else wanting Sudeikis to do a Mitt Romney impersonation? He was really good at that. Jake Johnson (Luke) plays in "The New Girl," which isn't completely out of Drinking Buddies' theme, and essentially played the same character. Olivia Wilde (Kate) was above average too. She got naked so that was cool but played the everyday girl who has the bartender's charisma and seemed like the cool chick with whom people want to hangout. Ron Livingston (Chris) is the prick cool chicks like. Why? No clue. Anna Kendrick (Jill) is the girl who wants a commitment. Luke was unsure of the commitment because of his feelings for Kate and Kate probably liked him romantically but was not ready for what Luke had to offer.
This leaves the question about male and female friendships hanging. Is it possible? Well no, actually. Huffington Post and other media reported of a study published two years ago on this subject. The research suggested men think more of women than vice - versa when they attempt to be "just friends." Perhaps Luke should have read this.
While I understood the theme, the story, however, was unappealing. I was not drawn in by the film. I found myself checking fantasy baseball stats, social media, texts, the fridge while the movie played. Those are not exactly the best ingredients for a good film.
There were some aspects of Drinking Buddies I omitted. When Chris and Jill took the hike and kissed and how Jill felt guilty about it. Another one was the amount of beer in the movie. Yeah, they work in a brewery and it's the name of the movie but damn, that was a lot of beer.
All in all, not bad but not good. Liked the theme and Olivia Wilde. OK acting mixed with an uninviting story makes for a decent grade. Grade: C+
Sean, on to you.
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