Movie Diary
1. Tropic Thunder
Disaster Movie-type disasters aside, action movie satire is a surprisingly fertile subgenre, despite how perfunctory the comedy is in most action movies (or the action/effects in most comedies, for that matter), and especially despite how played out its parent subgenre, meta comedies about show business, has become in the past few years. I laughed as hard at Tropic Thunder and Hard Fuzz as any other 2 movies I've seen in theaters the past couple years, (I'll even stand up for Last Action Hero as being pretty good, but let's not get into that convo). And that's partly because the gunfire and explosions are as loud as any 'real' action movie, so you can laugh unselfconsciously and not bother anyone, because you're still drowned out by the movie. There were a few sour notes (the Tom Cruise "cameo" was milked way beyond its usefulness), but for the most part it was a hoot. It's pretty to easy to take Ben Stiller for granted these days, but maybe the biggest problem with his movies in the 7 years between this and Zoolander is that he didn't direct any of them.
2. Spider-Man 3
Considering the fact that my wife and I went to see the first of these movies on our first date, neither of us is particularly attached to the franchise. I'm not even sure if I never saw the second one, or I did and it just left zero impression on me. Still, I kind of enjoyed this one, despite its many flaws, particularly its tone shifts -- the first half is way more unironically corny and saccharine than the earlier movies, possibly to set up Peter Parker's character change in the second half, which is a huge campy misfire. And Sandman was, I thought, a pretty good villain without them having to retcon him into the first movie in such a lame way. Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane has always bothered me for a lot reasons besides her being a blonde cast as a redhead -- she's one of those celebrities I have a totally irrational dislike of, so I would've enjoyed her getting fired and put through all sorts of crap in this movie if those scenes weren't still as boring to watch as anything else she's in. But in the 3rd movie this franchise officially establishes itself as completely ass-backwards in regards to womens' hair colors, with a slightly larger role for a returning Elizabeth Banks (a blonde as a brunette), and the addition of Bryce Dallas Howard (a redhead as a blonde) to the cast, both wearing really unnatural-looking dye jobs or weaves, and not looking as good as usual (although still looking good, because I think both of them are pretty hot).
3. Vacancy
This is almost up there with 8mm as a really convincingly icky thriller about real life icky shit that could/would happen, that eventually takes a turn into the ridiculous. This isn't quite as gross, but it is more forgettable.
4. Epic Movie
Speaking of Disaster Movie, ugh. This has a few moderately funny bits, though. And Jayma Mays is super cute, a welcome replacement for the suddenly weirdly overrated Anna Faris.
5. The TV Set
About 10 years ago, Jake Kasdan directed a pretty great little debut feature called Zero Effect, and I thought he might have a promising film career ahead of him. Instead, he spent the next few years adapting that movie into a failed TV series, directing episodes of a couple more short-lived series ("Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared"), and making the lousy sophomore feature Orange County. In the midst of all that squandered potential, he somehow decided that his 3rd film should be an unfunny revenge screed about the television industry that destroyed his pilot, starring David Duchovny as his onscreen alter-ego, a bearded, whiny, overly precious artiste. Thing is, I have no doubt that a lot of this shit goes on in the TV business, and that it could've made for an interesting movie if done right, maybe better in non-fiction form. And I fully believe that there could have been a great "Zero Effect" TV series if done right (I haven't seen the version with Alan Cumming in the lead role, so I have no idea just how wrong they got it). But the fictitious show in this movie, "The Wexler Chronicles," looks like it would've been a piece of shit either way. In fact, it looks a lot the show Fran Kranz (who plays the lead actor in The TV Set's show) had on CBS last fall, "Welcome To The Captain," which was one of the worst shows I've ever seen. And watching the imaginary creator of "The Wexler Chronicles" wring his hands about it being corrupted strains credulity in the same way that "Studio 60" required you to believe their show would actually be funny for it to work (which you couldn't, and it didn't, of course). I liked Kasdan's last movie, Walk Hard, more than most, so I hope he can actually go back to making good movies after this completely pointless grudge match of a film. Or maybe he'll make a movie about how the studio totally ruined this one and it wasn't his fault at all that it sucked.
6. Crank
About as fun as I expected it to be, which was very. Jason Statham is really typecast in the best possible way these days.
7. When Stand Up Stood Out
So-so documentary about the 70s/80s standup comedy explosion. It was interesting to see actual footage of a lot of these guys before they were actually all over TV or movies, particularly that Boston scene that you hear so much about now. I mean, it's weird to see how much of a focal point Lenny Clarke was back then, since I've only ever known him as a not terribly funny fat guy from "The John Larroquette Show" and every Denis Leary project ever, and it's cool to kind of get Stephen Wright being kind of normal and honest about his career.
8. Sleeper
The first Woody Allen movie my dad ever showed me was Bananas, so I've always been kind of conscious of the broader, less cerebral side of his comedy, and it was cool to finally see this. Low budget sci-fi, particularly from before big budget sci-fi as we know it really even existed, is always interesting, all the kind of simple effects and visual shorthand they use to show what the future could look like. I never really thought Diane Keaton was particularly hot shit in Annie Hall, but she's kinda the bomb in this.
Disaster Movie-type disasters aside, action movie satire is a surprisingly fertile subgenre, despite how perfunctory the comedy is in most action movies (or the action/effects in most comedies, for that matter), and especially despite how played out its parent subgenre, meta comedies about show business, has become in the past few years. I laughed as hard at Tropic Thunder and Hard Fuzz as any other 2 movies I've seen in theaters the past couple years, (I'll even stand up for Last Action Hero as being pretty good, but let's not get into that convo). And that's partly because the gunfire and explosions are as loud as any 'real' action movie, so you can laugh unselfconsciously and not bother anyone, because you're still drowned out by the movie. There were a few sour notes (the Tom Cruise "cameo" was milked way beyond its usefulness), but for the most part it was a hoot. It's pretty to easy to take Ben Stiller for granted these days, but maybe the biggest problem with his movies in the 7 years between this and Zoolander is that he didn't direct any of them.
2. Spider-Man 3
Considering the fact that my wife and I went to see the first of these movies on our first date, neither of us is particularly attached to the franchise. I'm not even sure if I never saw the second one, or I did and it just left zero impression on me. Still, I kind of enjoyed this one, despite its many flaws, particularly its tone shifts -- the first half is way more unironically corny and saccharine than the earlier movies, possibly to set up Peter Parker's character change in the second half, which is a huge campy misfire. And Sandman was, I thought, a pretty good villain without them having to retcon him into the first movie in such a lame way. Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane has always bothered me for a lot reasons besides her being a blonde cast as a redhead -- she's one of those celebrities I have a totally irrational dislike of, so I would've enjoyed her getting fired and put through all sorts of crap in this movie if those scenes weren't still as boring to watch as anything else she's in. But in the 3rd movie this franchise officially establishes itself as completely ass-backwards in regards to womens' hair colors, with a slightly larger role for a returning Elizabeth Banks (a blonde as a brunette), and the addition of Bryce Dallas Howard (a redhead as a blonde) to the cast, both wearing really unnatural-looking dye jobs or weaves, and not looking as good as usual (although still looking good, because I think both of them are pretty hot).
3. Vacancy
This is almost up there with 8mm as a really convincingly icky thriller about real life icky shit that could/would happen, that eventually takes a turn into the ridiculous. This isn't quite as gross, but it is more forgettable.
4. Epic Movie
Speaking of Disaster Movie, ugh. This has a few moderately funny bits, though. And Jayma Mays is super cute, a welcome replacement for the suddenly weirdly overrated Anna Faris.
5. The TV Set
About 10 years ago, Jake Kasdan directed a pretty great little debut feature called Zero Effect, and I thought he might have a promising film career ahead of him. Instead, he spent the next few years adapting that movie into a failed TV series, directing episodes of a couple more short-lived series ("Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared"), and making the lousy sophomore feature Orange County. In the midst of all that squandered potential, he somehow decided that his 3rd film should be an unfunny revenge screed about the television industry that destroyed his pilot, starring David Duchovny as his onscreen alter-ego, a bearded, whiny, overly precious artiste. Thing is, I have no doubt that a lot of this shit goes on in the TV business, and that it could've made for an interesting movie if done right, maybe better in non-fiction form. And I fully believe that there could have been a great "Zero Effect" TV series if done right (I haven't seen the version with Alan Cumming in the lead role, so I have no idea just how wrong they got it). But the fictitious show in this movie, "The Wexler Chronicles," looks like it would've been a piece of shit either way. In fact, it looks a lot the show Fran Kranz (who plays the lead actor in The TV Set's show) had on CBS last fall, "Welcome To The Captain," which was one of the worst shows I've ever seen. And watching the imaginary creator of "The Wexler Chronicles" wring his hands about it being corrupted strains credulity in the same way that "Studio 60" required you to believe their show would actually be funny for it to work (which you couldn't, and it didn't, of course). I liked Kasdan's last movie, Walk Hard, more than most, so I hope he can actually go back to making good movies after this completely pointless grudge match of a film. Or maybe he'll make a movie about how the studio totally ruined this one and it wasn't his fault at all that it sucked.
6. Crank
About as fun as I expected it to be, which was very. Jason Statham is really typecast in the best possible way these days.
7. When Stand Up Stood Out
So-so documentary about the 70s/80s standup comedy explosion. It was interesting to see actual footage of a lot of these guys before they were actually all over TV or movies, particularly that Boston scene that you hear so much about now. I mean, it's weird to see how much of a focal point Lenny Clarke was back then, since I've only ever known him as a not terribly funny fat guy from "The John Larroquette Show" and every Denis Leary project ever, and it's cool to kind of get Stephen Wright being kind of normal and honest about his career.
8. Sleeper
The first Woody Allen movie my dad ever showed me was Bananas, so I've always been kind of conscious of the broader, less cerebral side of his comedy, and it was cool to finally see this. Low budget sci-fi, particularly from before big budget sci-fi as we know it really even existed, is always interesting, all the kind of simple effects and visual shorthand they use to show what the future could look like. I never really thought Diane Keaton was particularly hot shit in Annie Hall, but she's kinda the bomb in this.
This entry was posted
on Friday, September 12, 2008 at 9:30 PM.
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Jxsh : 5:55 PM