Seven Movie Questions
Hey folks,
So it looks like we’ve got another meme on our hands and I’ve been tagged to partake by Frank and Dan the man. Thanks, guys. I like you. Pretty straightforward stuff this time around, so let’s get to it!
1. What was your first movie-going experience?
Hard to say considering I was probably an infant, but I do recall running out of the theater, screaming at the top of my lungs when Daniel Stern got the tarantula put on his face in Home Alone and a second time when those giant crab soldiers turned up in The Neverending Story 2. The worst part about the crab soldiers incident was that I went to see the movie with my mom, so I peaced out and ran into the next theater where my dad was, who just happened to be watching The Silence of the Lambs. Needless to say, that wasn’t any better and I got redirected right back to the crab soldiers since my pops wasn’t too keen on me watching a guy’s face get eaten. Yeah, bad trip to the movies.
2. How many DVDs do you own?
Used to own a hundred or so, then they got jacked. Now I’ve got around 20 of my personal favs and that’s just fine. The strange thing is that I only miss a handful of those movies from my old collection, and most of those were TV shows anyway. God, I wish I still had Cowboy Bebop.
3. What is your guilty pleasure movie?
Yeesh. Maybe Freddy Got Fingered. What can I say, The Tom Green Show was a big deal for Middle School Aiden. I have a feeling that statement’s gonna come back to haunt me some day.
4. You’ve compiled a list of your top 100 movies. Which ones didn’t make the cut?
I’ll let you know when I make the list. Maybe Road House? I don’t know, hard question.
5. Which movie(s) do you compulsively watch over and over again?
The five movies I’ve literally watched dozens of times in my day are The Matrix, Dumb and Dumber, Memento, The Shawshank Redemption and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Great every time.
6. Classics you’re ashamed to admit you haven’t seen.
Gone with the Wind, even though it’s been sitting on my bookshelf above my TV for months now.
7. What movie posters are hanging in your room?
Now, in my cozy one-bedroom NYC apartment, it’s down to Cool Hand Luke and Harold and Maude. Back in college, it was Robocop, Reservoir Dogs and my cherished poster of Clint. Aiming to purchase La Femme Nikita and For a Few Dollars More at the moment, will worry about where the hell to put them later.
And as for the next two homeys I have to rope into this black hole of memery, I’m gonna go with Darren and Ruben.
Well, that’s a wrap. Now you can all rest easy, sweethearts.
The Blind Side (2009)
VERDICT:
6/10 Southern Hospitalities
Yeah, Sandra deserved that Oscar.
The Blind Side is based on the true story of Michael Oher and how he went from a couch-surfing foster kid with no education, no home and no real family to fall back on to being a college grad and starting front tackle for the Baltimore Ravens after one Leigh Anne Tuohy came into the picture, took him under her family’s wing and eventually adopted him as a second son.
For a while there, I was pretty hesitant to see this movie for a number of reasons. Not only was this the mandatory annual feel-good sports movie of ’09 (and it’s been a while since one of those has been good), but I couldn’t freakin’ believe that Sandra Bullock – the girl who got famous for driving a bus with Keanu for two hours – had nabbed an Oscar nomination for this. In retrospect, it was more just a sense of disbelief that this could in fact be better than my preconceived notions of it that stopped me from seeing it, and even though I hate that quality about my movie-going self, such was the case.
But then Sandra gave her Razzies acceptance speech, then I realized that she’s actually pretty awesome, then she won the Oscar, then I realized she was even more awesome, and the rest is history.
And even though this is the mandatory feel-good sports movie of ’09, Sandra’s the reason this movie works. Leigh Anne is a great character and whether she’s telling off gang members or telling off folks at the DMV or telling off football coaches, Bullock is all-business in the role. Sometimes it gets to be a little much when she keeps on jumping into scenes and sassing folks left and right with that Southern twang of hers, but for the most part she had me thinking, “Wow. The Academy wasn’t kidding.” I still find it somewhat strange that the movie ends up being more about her than Michael, but what can you do when your lead actress steals the show.
So way to go, Sandra!
The rest of the cast is alright too, even though they all get totally overshadowed. A clean-shaven Tim McGraw (strangely enough) isn’t bad as Leigh Anne’s husband, I’m still debating whether or not Jae Head (cue Aiden laughing to himself as he writes “Jae Head”) is annoying or cute as Leigh Anne’s son, and all Quinton Aaron has to do as Oher is shut up and mope for pretty much the entire movie, so he nails that. And Kathy Bates plays Oher’s tutor, and while I usually love that woman to pieces, it’s kinda weird to see her fist-bumping people.
Just because Howie Mandel does it doesn’t mean you should too, Kath. Still love ya’ though.
But like I said, you take a look at that poster, see the football uniform, the pat on the back and that it’s “BASED ON THE EXTRAORDINARY TRUE STORY” and you know what you’re getting into. The downside to the equation being a formulaic plot, super-sappy dialogue at times, heartstrings a-pullin’ and director John Lee Hancock filming it all like he was phoning it in, and that definitely takes away from the experience. It’s expected, it’s predictable, but hey, sometimes it’s good to go predictable.
In a nutshell, The Blind Side is a nice movie about why it pays to be a good samaritan, and the story of Michael Oher is an inspiring one, but this is Sandra’s show all the way. As much as I thought Gabby Sidibe was the bomb in Precious, Sandra’s apparently no joke and I’m glad I finally wised up and got around to seeing what all the hype was about even if the sum doesn’t quite measure up to its parts.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
VERDICT:
7/10 Bed-Wetters
The scares don’t hold up like they did in ’84, but then again, Freddy’s the man.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is about a group of suburban teens who all start having the same vivid dreams about being chased around a boiler room by a guy with really mean tan, a nasty-ass sweater his grandma probably knitted for him when he was six and eventually grew into twenty years later, and a custom-made glove fitted with razors at the tips to tie the whole getup together. The kids shrug it off as strange, but then – in a totally rude gesture – this nutjob starts bumping them off mid-dream. So the kids wise up, chug some Red Bulls and take it upon themselves to stay the hell awake for as long as they can while figuring out a way to take this guy down before they’re sleeping in a ditch.
With the exception of Chucky who scared the living daylights out of me for most of my youth, I’ve never been all that impressed by a lot of the horror icons like Jason Voorhees or Michael Meyers and I’ve never really understood how two mute, lumbering bastards with some big ol’ blades managed to garner so many shitty sequels. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but I don’t get it. And while I can’t say that I’m all too frightened by our icon of the hour either, Freddy is still a pretty badass idea for a horror movie.
The whole concept of having a guy who kills dumb, horny teens in their sleep instead of in a log cabin in the woods because they’re too damn dumb and horny to simply run away is just freakin’ awesome. It doesn’t quite work like Jaws where you can hardly take a bath without waiting for a great white to pop out the faucet, but since everyone goes to sleep and everyone has nightmares, it does taps into that same realm of inescapable fear in a way that a lot of horror movies don’t. The day I have a nightmare involving Freddy is the day I start downing NyQuil.
But when push comes to shove, a big reason why this movie works is because Freddy Krueger‘s just a cool villain. Even though his backstory is pretty by-the-books, it’s nice that he actually talks and has a sick sense of humor about all the murderin’ he’s up to. The whole “silent killer” thing gets old kinda fast and I like to see a guy who takes pleasure in speeding up social Darwinism one bleary-eyed teen at a time.
Robert Englund’s also good in the role, but I feel like he hams it up a bit too much to the point where he stops being sinister and starts being a joke. Nonetheless, he makes it work and something tells me he gets it down to a science by the 46th entry in the series.
But another of Freddy’s strong suits is that he’s a creative killer, and all the credit there is due to the brains behind this whole operation, Wes Craven. Like I said, this isn’t the scariest two hours I’ve sat through in recent memory, but it’s still easy to admire how original all the kills and dream sequences are, especially considering how limited special effects were back then. Some of the stuff is totally nuts and totally ridiculous, but those are also the kind of things that stick with you after a movie that’s working off a kind of ridiculously nutso premise to begin with.
And as far as the acting goes, it sucks, but it’s got a perk or two here and there, the “here” being a super-young Johnny Depp and “there” being a guest appearance by a much younger Magda from There’s Something About Mary. The rest sucks.
By the time the movie ended, I was pretty close to giving this one a 6 because it does feel totally dated 26 years down the road, but there’s also enough original and effective horror elements going on here to warrant it a 7 and the last thing I need is to get into an argument with Freddy fanboys about how wrong I am about this movie. The point is, there are only so many horror movies out there that truly stand the test of time, and while A Nightmare on Elm Street might not be setting the bar or anything, it’s easy to see why so many consider it a horror classic.
Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)
VERDICT:
7/10 Filthy Rich White Guys
Not the best thing Moore’s ever done, but it’ll still get that blood boiling.
Capitalism: A Love Story is about Michael Moore doing his best to break down how capitalism operates in the US using specific examples of how we’re getting effed in the a, why it’s probably not the Swiss watch of a system that the wealthiest of the wealthy make it out to be and how it allowed (and continues to allow) for some outrageously immoral and greedy bastards to reap the benefits of landing our economy right smack in the shitter.
Fun times!
Writing reviews about Michael Moore movies are always an interesting process for me. Well, just talking about Michael Moore seems to be an interesting process for pretty much everyone, similar to meeting your girlfriend’s parents for the first time and immediately asking them why they voted for McCain. The thing is, I like the guy, I think he’s made some damn good documentaries on some really important issues that border on required viewing (mainly Columbine, Roger & Me and The Big One), but I’m also kinda suspect about his journalistic…strategies.
I’ll save specific examples for specific movies, but even though Moore seems to be a voice of reason in politically driven documentaries nowadays, there are times where I gotta wonder if he’s coming off more as the far-left version of FOX News. Alright, maybe that’s pushing it, but Capitalism: A Love Story isn’t the first time I’ve watched one of his movies and felt a bit emotionally manipulated. Maybe it’s the overly-sympathetic tone of his narration when introducing a victimized family or his occasional tendency to stray from the subtle, but that kind of reporting rubs me the wrong way.
But by the same token, these are real victims we’re seeing and even though Moore might not always go about making his point in the best way possible, the point is made and the point is effective. Some of the points he brings up were things that I already knew, like how the top 1% of wealthy Americans make more money than the lower 90% combined, but hearing it again while seeing hard-working or out-of-work folks get evicted from their homes because they’re being royally screwed by people with power is nevertheless an eye-opener. There are also a handful of other examples like this that I wasn’t aware of, like how some of the biggest companies in America have been making a habit of taking life insurance policies out on their employees so that they get all the money when the said person dies instead of the victim’s family, and that stuff sticks with you because that stuff ain’t right.
But for all these moments that make you shake your head and want to punch out the first suit on Wall Street, I’m still not really sure what the hell capitalism is. The main problem with Capitalism is that it’s just unfocused and for all Moore’s efforts to explain this corrupt economic system to a simpleton like myself (my words, not his), my definition of it more or less boils down to “the rich get richer while the poor get poorer”. Could be that I just wasn’t paying close enough attention or what, but it’s still somewhat discouraging to sit down and watch a movie about capitalism yet still not feel like you actually understand capitalism by the end.
Then again, my being out of the loop on this might happen to be a testament to just how effective capitalism is as a system when it comes to hoodwinking the masses, but like I said, it sucks to feel stupid.
While Capitalism: A Love Story is a wake-up call in many regards and has enough moments of appalling realism to drive its message home early on, it unfortunately stands as one of Moore’s more forgettable efforts. Those interesting tidbits of corruption stuck around with me when all was said and done, but the final product didn’t have me utterly fuming like I had hoped it would, nor did it have me laughing all that much, and by the next morning I almost forgot I even saw this.
Nonetheless, our economy sucks and it’s nice to know the names and faces of some of the bigwig, selfish mother effers who got us here, but I don’t think it’s gonna be converting anyone who think Moore’s an asshole.
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
VERDICT:
8/10 Killer Reflexes
Kurt Russell and John Carpenter, Kurt Russell with a mullet, Kurt Russell in a wife beater, Kurt Russell fighting Chinese sorcerers, Kurt Russell Kurt Russell. Need I continue?
Big Trouble in Little China is about a hotshot trucker who unloads his latest shipment of assorted livestock in Chinatown, CA, gets involved in some friendly back-alley gambling and, whaddayaknow, finds himself caught in the middle of an underground war between various ninja clans and mythical warriors who are trying to steal his friend’s mail-order bride because she’s got green eyes.
Apparently Chinese girls with green eyes were a big deal in the ’80s, right up there with acid wash jeans and Rubik’s cubes.
Not surprised. Typical ’80s behavior.
So if I didn’t know any better, I’m pretty sure I’d read that synopsis up there and file this bad boy under “Stupid As Hell” without thinking twice. But lucky for me, I’ve seen The Thing and I’ve seen Escape from New York and I’m well aware of the wonderful things that happen when director John Carpenter teams up with our man Kurt Russell. And after finally getting around to seeing this way later in life than I should have, it only makes me pine that much more for the day when these two icons of awesomeness finally wise up, settle their petty differences over making Kurt wear the same boots as Xena and make their much-needed, long-awaited comebacks.
But even knowing that I was gonna like this going in, it’s a pretty ridiculous movie and there’s no two ways about it. Maybe I’m overstepping my bounds a bit here, but truckers and wizards don’t tend to make for the best movie pitches, then again, it’s evident that everyone involved in this movie is hip to that sad truth and they use it to their advantage.
The most glaring example of this was deciding to cast Kurt Russell as the trucker of the hour, Jack Burton. Part of the reason Burton’s awesome is simply because Kurt is awesome and he was always in his element when he was working with Carpenter. This is Snake Plissken we’re talking about, you get the idea (hopefully). The other reason he’s awesome is that he’s got all the best lines of the movie, talks a huge game, walks about half of it and the only advantages he’s got over the competition are his reflexes and his big brass balls.
Jack Burton’s hilarious, Jack Burton’s a badass, and the best part is that Jack Burton knows it. A great main character for a movie that’s about as cool as can be within in its own limitations.
It also features every Asian actor who’s ever been a movie outside of Mr. Miyagi and Shang Tsung. Most notable are Victor Wong (aka: the grandfather from 3 Ninjas) as Jack Burton’s right-hand, lazy-eyed sorcerer, Egg Shen, and James Hong (aka: the guy who ran that weird eyeball sushi shop in Blade Runner, the voice of Eddie from those Nissin Chow Mein commercials, and about a thousand other odd gigs) as our evil villain, David Lo Pan. So that’s fun.
And as far as the action is concerned, it’s actually not half bad. It all feels intentionally corny, and, strangely enough, that makes it all work that much more. There are some truly epic fights to be had with magic and flying dropkicks alike, there’s a boat-load of pain to be dished out and it is freakin’ awesome when Burton’s reflexes finally kick into gear. For those who’ve seen the movie, you know exactly what I’m talking about and I think we can all agree that that was one of the best deaths ever.
Look, Big Trouble in Little China is the kind of movie you take with a grain of salt, but it’s also the kind of movie that was made with a grain of salt. The script might have an absurd premise to go off of, but it’s filled with great one-liners, a totally entertaining cast of characters and it’s just a lot of fun if you’re not taking it at face value and can appreciate it for all its bizarro glory. Still not my favorite Russenter collaboration (might need to work out the kinks on that one), but any Russenter collaboration is one worth seeing and thoroughly enjoying.
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
VERDICT:
9/10 Rude Hosts
Only gets better with age.
Beauty and the Beast is about a teenage prince with a mean chip on his shoulder who acts like a jerk to a sorceress in disguise and gets transformed into Sasquatch as a result. Then one day an aging inventor gets lost in the woods and winds up on Big Foot’s doorstep, so the inventor’s daughter rolls on up to the castle and agrees to be the angry yeti’s prisoner in exchange for her father’s freedom. Then they start spending more time together, the peculiar girl starts to see the prince as more than just a glorified werewolf, and so begins their race against time to fall in love before the sorceress’ spell solidifies over Fido, Sr. and his wait staff for the rest of their days as France’s most musically inclined collection of inanimate objects.
For a while there, this is one of those movies I never thought I’d see again on my own free will without having kids of my own to watch it with. See, as little Aiden grew up he decided to write this movie off as “childish” and “girly”, completely suppressing the memories of hours spent sitting too close to the TV wearing through his VHS copy of Beauty and the Beast. Such are the tragic side effects of puberty.
So sad…
Fast-forward to Aiden at 23, he goes with his good buddy Fred to see a documentary called Waking Sleeping Beauty and those childhood memories start to climb back to the surface. Fast-forward a week later, Aiden borrows his four-year-old nephew’s copy of the movie without asking, watches it from start to finish and curses puberty from a mountaintop as the end credits roll.
It is a rare and amazing treat to be able to entirely forget about how great something is and then re-discover it years down the line, only to realize that it’s so much better than you ever remember it being. Seeing this movie again at an age when I could fully appreciate it for all its strengths and slowly start to remember the lyrics to all the wonderful songs I thought I forgot was a nostalgic experience the likes of which hardly ever occur. But even if you’ve never seen this movie before or know it by heart, Beauty and the Beast is simply amazing.
And the music really is out of sight. Everyone loves “Be Our Guest” for good reason, but I could not believe how much that song had me howling with laughter while I was tapping my foot in unison, and the same goes for the even funnier song about Belle’s persistent manly-man suitor, Gaston. When it’s trying to be funny, the lyrics are an absolute riot, and when it’s trying to be beautiful, it’s exactly that. Just great music all around that will inevitably get stuck in your head for a long time after, and that’s a good thing.
The characters are all fantastic, too. Belle and the Beast are obviously the emotional weight of the movie and their story sucks you right in, but the side characters kinda steal the show. Jerry Orbach is great as Lumiere, Angela Lansbury is great as Mrs. Potts, Cogsworth is great, Chip was always my favorite as a kid and Gaston is such a great stereotype/villain. Yup, they’re all great, not a weak character to be found and that’s not an easy thing to pull off, animated or otherwise.
It’s also nice to take a trip back to the good old days when folks were actually drawing movies instead of teaming up with HAL 9000 to do the trick. Not to bash CG or anything, but there’s something to be said for the way you can really see the heart of the animators come through in the final product when it’s done the old fashioned way. Nearly twenty years later and it still looks fantastic; can’t even imagine the kind of carpal tunnel those guys must have gotten.
The only complaint I have is that I wish it were longer. I feel like Belle and the Beast go from catty to thick as thieves a little too quickly, but my good buddy Fred thinks I’m crazy in this regard and he may very well be right. Nevertheless, I still wish it were longer and that’s actually more of a testament to how much I liked it more than anything else.
So kick your preconceived notions in the head and see this movie. Beauty and the Beast is one of those things that will draw you in, make you fall in love with it and have you running the emotional gamut no matter how old, young, macho or feminine you may be. I’m getting strangely emotional just writing this review, but it really is special and it’s no wonder that this is one of the few that put Disney back on the map.
Oh, and this is my 300th review! WHO LET THE DOGS OUT!
And the worst trilogy is…
STAR WARS: EPISODES I – III!
Barely edging out Brett Ratner – The King of the Hacks himself – at the eleventh hour, we have ourselves a winnah!
George Lucas, man. What in the eff happened? First Jar-Jar, then little Ani, then Hayden Christensen crying like a bitch…yeesh. Times best forgotten.
Hard to fathom how a series can fall so far from the tree, but Episode III was pretty solid, I’ll give you that.
Good voting, folks! You make me happy!
RESULTS:
– Star Wars I-III: 16 votes
– The Matrix: 2 votes (thank God for that first one)
– Pirates of the Caribbean: 7 votes
– Underworld: 10 votes (amazing they managed to get three movies out if this)
– Austin Powers: 2 votes
– Rush Hour: 15 votes
– The Mummy: 12 votes
– Other: 1 vote for Twilight (commendable, but unfortunately there’s one more movie to go after Eclipse) and 1 vote for High School Musical (well played, good sir).
Count your blessings, Brett. You won’t get off so easy next time.
Lost in Translation (2003)
VERDICT:
9/10 Lipped Stockings
The quintessential movie about being a stranger in a strange land.
Lost in Translation is about an aging movie star in an estranged marriage who gets flown over to Tokyo for a couple weeks to shoot a whiskey commercial. While there, he strikes up a friendship with a much younger gal who’s also in an estranged marriage and instead of wallowing in their own despair about being the only normal English-speaking folk in a country that’s the farthest thing from familiar, they decide to make the best of it while discovering what they want they out of life along the way.
This has been on my “need to re-watch” list for a long time now and after finally sitting down this past weekend and watching it again for the first time in years, it’s great to be reminded how much I really do love this thing. Part of it leads back to how much my love for Bill Murray has grown over the past seven years, but the fact of the matter is that this is just one of those rare movies.
That Sofia’s sure come a long way since The Godfather: Part III.
Well, since I already mentioned him and since I’m always chomping at the bit to make sure everyone on Earth is on the same page as me in this regard, let’s start this baby off with how Bob Harris may very well be the performance of Bill Murray’s career. As expected, Bill’s hilarious and it’s great to watch the extras in the background crack up at everything he says, but it’s not often you see someone play a character like they’re not even acting, like they’re just interacting with everyone as though there wasn’t a camera crew in the room. It’s essentially watching Bill Murray play Bill Murray and, shocker, it’s a role he was born to play.
And maybe I’m just playing favorites, but that Sean Penn robbed Bill of an Oscar he totally deserved back in ’03 and I really hope we someday get another performance like this out of the guy. For all his flaws, Bob’s a genuine, complicated and endearing individual and, boy howdy, can he sing a killer rendition of “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding“.
A super-young Scarlett Johansson is also good as Bob’s new friend, Charlotte. She might not make it seem as effortless as Bill, but she comes across as nice and normal instead of this week’s cover girl, and I dig that. One of the better performances she’s put out there, about on-par with Match Point.
But let me backpedal to Sofia Coppola because at least someone here got the Oscar they deserved. Sofia does a lot of things well and jam packs this movie with one memorable scene after another that’s set to the perfect song each and every time, but the best quality of her script is that it makes her characters hold back. So much of this movie is spent with the characters saying nothing at all and whenever there’s a dialogue to be had, it tends to speak volumes about the kind of people they are. I love that about this movie and it is such a breath of fresh air to come across a writer who appreciates how much you can say without saying anything at all.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – sometimes people just need to shut up.
It really is a great, complex script with a ton of raw dialogue about ugly truths and honest desires that a lot of movies tend to shy away from. Might not be the best pro-marriage movie out there, but that’s just the kind of movie this is. Take it or leave it, folks.
And having been to Japan a couple times and finding it to be the most incredible country outside of the U.S. I’ve ever been to, there’s an added appreciation to this movie for me that goes beyond all the choice jabs about L’s and R’s and how short everyone is. In a nutshell, being in Japan is like being on a different planet; the urban cities really do feel like a bustling sea of neon, the rural towns are a portrait of serenity and everyone you meet will always give you their business card. It’s hard to describe the attraction to Japan without experiencing it first-hand, but it’s truly something else and watching this movie again really made me want to go back.
And that last song by The Jesus and Mary Chain paired with the guided tour of the Tokyo cityscape is one of the best ending sequences of all time if you ask me. Like I said, perfect song choice.
I feel like I’ve had a tough time over the years meeting people who feel the same way about this movie as I do, but all the same, I really freakin’ love this movie. Lost in Translation is just a beautiful love letter to one of the most amazing countries in the world and a refreshingly truthful and believable meditation on the connections we make in life, despite how unusual they may be. The only bummer is that the pacing lulls a bit here and there, but for a movie about two Americans with time to burn in Japan, it works a lot more than it probably should.
And sorry for the long review. That Bill Murray…
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
VERDICT:
8/10 Whore Islands
The best thing that’s happened to Will Ferrell since the cowbell.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is about San Diego’s top news anchor and his trusty team of dumbass, macho reporters as they try to cope with a new hardheaded woman on the staff who thinks she can be a head anchor and tell the news just as well – if not better – than any other guy out there. It was a time of men, it was a time of news, it was a time of change…it was the ’70s.
Yeah, this movie is totally ridiculous and strangely epic, but since it doesn’t take itself seriously whatsoever, it ends up being effing hilarious. I’m actually kinda having trouble coming up with reasons for why I nearly pissed myself the first time I saw this in theaters, but I think the best way to sum up why this works is that it’s proud to be stupid. The characters, the story, the dialogue, the premise – all blindingly stupid and that’s why it’s great. Sometimes it’s just nice to bask in a sea of idiots for two hours.
As much as I can credit the writing chops of Ferrell and regular buddy Adam McKay for making this thing as funny as it is – and they deserve their fair share – the best parts are really from ad-libbing and the actors behind it all. You don’t need to see the blooper reel to realize that this is just a handful of quick-witted guys coming up with crap off the top of their heads and going with whatever works best, and they obviously had a time doing it.
But like I said, it all goes back to the cast with this one.
Steve Carell – hilarious. Dude more or less steals the show as Brick – the king idiot of the newscrew – and not surprisingly it made him a household name from that point on. Every line out of this guy was inescapably quotable for decades after.
Will Ferrell – also hilarious. Ron Burgundy is on par with the best of his SNL characters and totally sets the tone for the movie as a whole right off the bat. Equally quotable.
Paul Rudd – funny, but “Paul Rudd funny”. Brian Fantana‘s not exactly the highlight of the cast, but he’s got his moments and the sex panther thing is putting a grin on my face just thinking about it. Also like when he starts telling off the pandas for not coming out of their caves.
David Koechner – the weak link. I still don’t find this guy funny. Champ‘s just…eh.
Christina Applegate – awesome. Always appreciate a woman with a sense of humor and Veronica Corningstone is just that.
Look, I don’t even know why I wrote this much, I had a hard enough time even coming up with this rambling mess as it is. Anchorman is one of those movies that’s just damn funny, damn quotable and the best way to know if you’ll like it or not is to give it ten minutes. Over the years I’ve come to find that Anchorman isn’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea, but I just watched this again the other weekend and still cracked up at all the same lines that had me going the first time around.
The glass case of emotion, the totally random news team street fight, “I love lamp,” Jack Black kicking Baxter off the bridge – take your pick, folks, this thing is filled to the brim with ’em. Might just be the best thing Will Ferrell’s ever done…well, except for Gus Chiggins of course.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
VERDICT:
8/10 Wild Animals
So nice to have you back, Wes. You were missed.
Fantastic Mr. Fox is about one smooth fox in a tweed jacket who ditches his former life as a chicken bandit to settle down in a nice little oak tree for a quiet, yet unspectacular life with his wife and kid. Lo and behold, their neighbors across the way happen to be the three meanest farmers in town, so Foxy here relapses and starts stealing chickens from them behind his wife’s back. As you can imagine, the farmers don’t take too kindly to this and the task of killing Mr. Fox quickly gets bumped to the top of their priority list.
And so begins this stop-motion war of man vs. animals-who-all-dress-like-Wes-Anderson.
Can’t say I was all to excited for this movie after Wes’ last two crushing letdowns – The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited – and it probably didn’t help that Up set the bar for animated movies pretty early on last year either. But enough about the last eight years and who cares if it’s animated, if this is the best darn thing he’s done since The Royal Tenenbaum‘s, I’ll take it!
And the strange thing is that this is exactly what you’d expect from an animated movie by Wes Anderson. It’s got all his signature shots, a totally awesome classic rock soundtrack and a hilariously deadpan script that’s delivered by a talented cast of regulars. If you closed your eyes, you probably wouldn’t even think it was animated, but that’s a stupid thing to do anyway.
The thing that’s great about the script is that while the dialogue is more catered to an adult sense of humor, it’s filled with a ton of great running gags that had me howling right along with my 7-year-old brother. So many little things like saying “cuss” instead of swearing (e.g.: “clustercuss”) are awesome little additions that make the whole thing that much more endearing, likable and accessible regardless of age gap. Man, Wes can be a really funny dude when he puts his mind to it and not a whole lot of people have that distinct comedic timing like he does. Good to see that back in action.
And it’s not often where the voice actors in animated movies really fit with the characters they’re playing, but the casting in this instance was just out of sight. Clooney was the perfect choice to play Mr. Fox, Michael Gambon was the perfect choice to play Bean – the meanest farmer of the bunch, no relation to Mr. Bean – and then you’ve got about a dozen other A-listers voicing even the most minor of characters to top it all off. The characters are all wonderful to begin with but the cast really added a lot to that and I had a freakin’ blast figuring out who was voicing who along the way.
And Bill Murray plays a badger lawyer. Awesome.
But the real stars of the show here are the animators. I love it when movies take a step back to go forward like this instead going for 3-D or jumping on the computer animation bandwagon like the rest of ’em. It’s impossible to ignore the painstakingly detailed efforts that went into making this and it’s amazing how endlessly entertaining it is to watch. Not only is it just beautiful to take in and feels totally new while being totally retro, there are loads of scenes that had me scratching my head wondering how they pulled it all off.
I was hoping to like Fantastic Mr. Fox and I’m so darn glad that it ended up being a borderline 9 that had me cracking up and smiling like crazy right on through. I’ve never read the book by Roald Dahl, and I’m going out on a limb here and assuming that Wes took a couple liberties in fleshing the story out (thankfully not to the same degree as Where the Wild Things Are), but there’s a lot of heart to go around here, it’s Wes doing what we does best and I’d love to see it again.
I’m tellin’ ya, these animated movies are on a roll right now.
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