June 11, 2009

  • Movies I've seen recently...


    The Hangover (2009)  B+

    It's probably not often that you have to debate whether to leave a baby that you've never seen before alone in a luxury hotel suite, because there happens to be a tiger in the bathroom, and you can't remember how it even got to that point. Well that's exactly the type of situation that the characters of "The Hangover" have to deal with. Directed by Todd Phillips, this take of a bachelor party trip in Las Vegas that involves drunken misadventures is quite entertaining, hilarious, and one that should not try to emulate in real life. It plays off somewhat like a silly mystery, where the characters try and figure out the clues of what happened in their bachelor party, because they all do not remember the events. Stealing a cop car and Mike Tyson's tiger, plus accidentally getting married to a Las Vegas stripper/prostitute, are just a few of the antics that they slowly find out, not to mention the fact that they can't find the groom. The movie moves at a really good pace and doesn't let up on the humor, and the actors from Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis all carry the film perfectly with great chemistry. Galifianakis in particular is an awesomely bizarre odd character and steals just about every scene that he is in, with some of the most funniest lines of the movie. Sure there are some plot points that defy logic, and I suppose the comedy is mostly sophomoric humor, but these do not detract from how fun "The Hangover" is.


    Land of the Lost (2009) C+

    I didn't really know what to expect from "Land of the Lost," except for the fact that it's suppose to be a comedy, and that it's based on an old TV show of the same name. It does star the always funny Will Ferrell so the comedy comes with his involvement, but I definitely was not expecting the movie to be a complete farce. It really felt like a bunch of Saturday Night Live skits strung together into a movie. So what happened with the movie is that it has a lot of nonsensical things occurring, that kind of makes the whole thing kind of stupid, except that it's suppose to be stupid, stupid-funny. Forget the science fiction aspect of the premise, because that's pretty much thrown out the window in favor of sight gags. I admittedly did find "Land of the Lost" to be more or less entertaining and funny, with the best scenes involving the dinosaur "grumpy" (don't insult a T-Rex's intellect or pay the consequences). The character of Cha-ka as played by Jorma Taccone, and of course Will Ferrell as Dr. Rick Marshall were amusing to watch. However, despite the moments of comedy, the adventure aspect of the story, and the good visuals, the movie still felt like it didn't really have much going for it that stood out. "Land of the Lost" ended up being just another average movie, despite the above average production and cast. As much as I enjoyed it, I still felt quite a bit disappointed.


    Twilight (2008)  B-

    Based on the popular book of the same name by Stephanie Meyer, "Twilight" is yet another take on the vampire mythos. In the case of this movie, there's a huge emphasis on the love story between a seventeen years old girl named Bella; as played awkwardly well by Kristen Stewart, and Edward, as played by Robert Pattinson at his best tall, dark, mysterious pretty boy vampire with a tragic heart of gold mode. That's the central core of the appeal for the movie, their forbidden love story. That's also probably my main problem with the film, as the love story between the two felt more like a puppy dog kind of love between two teenagers, as opposed to the true love that the story makes it out to be. I guess that is the point however, the simplicity and fairy tale notion that these two characters can fall head over heels in love with each other from some quite honestly superficial reasons. The movie thankfully has an interesting mythological foundation that grounds the story, and the Cullen family of vampires that do not kill humans is a fascinating part of that. It's however the smaller scenes like the relationship between Bella and her dad; as played by Billy Burke, are what I thought worked the best in this movie. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, "Twilight" works as well as it does as a modestly produced tale, despite the fact that it tries and acts like a huge budget epic saga.