Netflix Diary
a) Burn After Reading
This is probably my favorite Coen Bros. movie in quite a while, which is weird since it's such a deliberately, self-conciously minor trifle, but it really hits on a lot of the elements of comedy and violence that they do best, without feeling like a total pastiche of their own work. I think it helps if you've ever lived around Washington, D.C. and can really easily picture weird shit like this going down in your own back yard involving people who are supposed to know better.
b) Hancock
The buzz never seemed to be good about this movie but I always liked the premise and really wanted to see it. I kinda wish I had seen it in theaters, though, since reviewers weren't giving away the twist back then, but now it's being prominently featured in the DVD release so that was kinda spoiled for me. Still liked it, though, for all its faults, including a kind of tonally jumbled second half and one of the lamest most contrived villains ever. At this point there have been so many satires and subversions and reversals of superhero movie cliches, that this kind of idea probably isn't as fresh as it might've been at some point, but I still like movies like this or, say, Unbreakable, that kind of dismantle the origin story of a new character before you really have any idea what their whole deal is (whereas, y'know, they can reboot Batman or whoever all they want but you always know ultimately how it's gonna down).
c) Hot Rod
I've always thought Andy Samberg was pretty so-so on SNL outside of the digital shorts songs, so I kind of assumed that it'd be foolish to expect a guy who can barely carry a sketch to carry a whole movie, and his first starring vehicle kinda looked like some sub-Sandler bullshit. But in light of the Lonely Island's album being kind of awesome, I decided to give this a shot, and it was pretty funny. I think it helps to listen to a lot of Incredibad and get used to their timing and their sense of what's funny, though. It wasn't perfect or anything, but I could see this being something that becomes exponentially funnier the more times you see it.
d) Wild Style
I'd always wanted to see this movie and then I recently got the chance to interview Busy Bee Starski, who lives in Baltimore now, and I was like damn, I guess I need to go ahead and see it now. It's probably more interesting as a cultural artifact than a movie, and sometimes having people play roles they pretty much lived out IRL leads to some pretty wooden acting, but it's still pretty cool to get this kind of perspective on that era in what seems to be a fairly straightforward way.
This is probably my favorite Coen Bros. movie in quite a while, which is weird since it's such a deliberately, self-conciously minor trifle, but it really hits on a lot of the elements of comedy and violence that they do best, without feeling like a total pastiche of their own work. I think it helps if you've ever lived around Washington, D.C. and can really easily picture weird shit like this going down in your own back yard involving people who are supposed to know better.
b) Hancock
The buzz never seemed to be good about this movie but I always liked the premise and really wanted to see it. I kinda wish I had seen it in theaters, though, since reviewers weren't giving away the twist back then, but now it's being prominently featured in the DVD release so that was kinda spoiled for me. Still liked it, though, for all its faults, including a kind of tonally jumbled second half and one of the lamest most contrived villains ever. At this point there have been so many satires and subversions and reversals of superhero movie cliches, that this kind of idea probably isn't as fresh as it might've been at some point, but I still like movies like this or, say, Unbreakable, that kind of dismantle the origin story of a new character before you really have any idea what their whole deal is (whereas, y'know, they can reboot Batman or whoever all they want but you always know ultimately how it's gonna down).
c) Hot Rod
I've always thought Andy Samberg was pretty so-so on SNL outside of the digital shorts songs, so I kind of assumed that it'd be foolish to expect a guy who can barely carry a sketch to carry a whole movie, and his first starring vehicle kinda looked like some sub-Sandler bullshit. But in light of the Lonely Island's album being kind of awesome, I decided to give this a shot, and it was pretty funny. I think it helps to listen to a lot of Incredibad and get used to their timing and their sense of what's funny, though. It wasn't perfect or anything, but I could see this being something that becomes exponentially funnier the more times you see it.
d) Wild Style
I'd always wanted to see this movie and then I recently got the chance to interview Busy Bee Starski, who lives in Baltimore now, and I was like damn, I guess I need to go ahead and see it now. It's probably more interesting as a cultural artifact than a movie, and sometimes having people play roles they pretty much lived out IRL leads to some pretty wooden acting, but it's still pretty cool to get this kind of perspective on that era in what seems to be a fairly straightforward way.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 11:56 PM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
Post a Comment