Stranger Than Fiction

I’m not a very big fan of Will Ferrell at all. Rather I’ve only seen one or two movies that I’ve liked with him in them. And now I add this movie to that short list. But I add it mostly because it is a very un-Will Ferrell movie. Nothing like the other over the top comedies he’s done before. This time he is much more serious, and actually has to use some acting talent. He also works cause it’s really hard to imagine anyone else playing the role.

I wasn’t very biased going into this movie; I knew I was more then likely going to like it. The very idea was interesting to me, to hear someone narrating your life, only to find out you’re a character in their book, and they are going to kill you? Yeah, twisted fun.

I don’t know if it’s just been a while since there were commercials on tv for this, or if they really didn’t market all the cameos. Emma Thompson, Dennis Hopper, Queen Latifah, Maggie Gylanhaal and Will Ferrell, that’s a nice mix. And each bring their own fun to it, though I think Queen could’ve used more funny parts, since she really didn’t have any. She doesn’t entirely work as the dry and serious assistant.

From halfway through the movie you know where the ending is going. But it is still a real touching and great part of the movie. And one of my new favorite Emma Thompson moments ever is when she first talks to her character; her reaction gave me goose bumps.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

I’ve been sitting here trying to honestly think of stuff that I didn’t like about this movie. Not having much luck.

I was a huge fan of the first movie. It had a very dark and steam punk feel and look to it. Both of which I’ve always liked. This one takes a slightly different style visually. Del Toro is pure genius with his visuals. He made a point of using puppets and costumes for as many monsters as possible in this, which gives it a very Jim Henson feel to it. Only Del Toro’s visuals are a lot darker. Pan’s Labyrinth almost feels like it was just a small taste into his mind, and this movie is a full serving. I’ve already said I’m a huge sucker for overly visual movies. So this movie had me swimming.

The story is simple and pretty straight forward. There are a few twists to keep it a little interesting. But it’s nothing groundbreaking or all that memorable. It does have moments that really make you feel for the characters, even the bad guy. While he is a crazy power hungry war monger, he does have some good points in his view of Humanity. Since I’ve never read any of the comics that this story was based off of I cant comment on how close it followed it. I do know they took lots of liberties with the story of the first movie. But it all worked in the end. And knowing that Del Toro is a huge fan of the comics, and that him and Mike Mignolia, the creator of the comic books, both worked on the script I am sure that the story and all the characters are very faithful to the series.

All the characters are as good as they were in the first. It takes a few moments to get used to the fact that David Hyde Peirce isn’t the voice of Abe, you quickly get used to Doug Jones. Plus it’s nice that he finally gets to do the voice work of the character that he is in costume for. Everyone gets a good amount of screen time as well. All three of the main three all have parts of the story that moves them along.

The Onion Movie

I’ve been a fan of The Onion papers for as far back as I can remember. I was greatly excited when I learned that they’d made the jump to the youtube generation with The Onion News Network. Now they’ve even taken a step further and made a movie.

Most of the movie is basically more Onion News Network bits, some of which have even been online already. They did throw in a bit of a story about a corporation taking over the Network, complete with intrusive mascots during the news.

While the whole thing is as funny as expected it would be, it does kind drag on. The bits with the actual story don’t happen that often, so at times it feels like you just paid to watch something you can see for free on youtube. But by the end all the skits and stories come back full circle with the story, and that’s when the funny gets real funny.

Bug

Good: A very interesting concept. One act effecting the next person which leads to them effecting someone else. A whole chain of cause and effect. At times it's a series of bad days making everyone elses days bad, likewise for good days. Makes you remember that no matter how small of an action you take, it could completely change someone elses day, for the better or worse.

It has a great cast, a huge cast, everyone from Jamie Kennedy to Ed Bagley Jr. to Brian Cox. Each of them has their own interesting twists that make them stand apart from everyone else.

Bad: It jumps around, a lot. This is kind of expected with a story like this, but at times it jumps when you don't really want it to. You only get a small glimps into each of these peoples stories, and some of them seem genuinely interesting, you just want to know more about them.

All this disjointedness really comes to a head at the end. It feels like there is so much more to be told with the whole ordeal, but it just kind of stops. There is a slight sense of finality, but not really enough, nearly all the stories are left open and unfinished.

Hairspray (the remake)

Unfortunately my disk was scratched, so at several points in the movie it messed up so I missed several scenes.

Good: I’m a huge fan of the original movie, and the stage show. While its always hard not to compare remakes to the original, I felt this one stood on its own pretty well. It has a lot of the same humor and feel of the original, but makes a lot of it its own. The biggest difference between the two is the budget. John Waters obviously didn’t have this kind of money to make his version. And there are a lot more big names in this one, Travolta, Walker, Pfeiffer. This version is also a lot more colorful and visual, better sets and wardrobes. All thanks to that budget.

Most of the casting is pretty spot on too. The Nikki Blonsky is awesome as Tracy. Heck she seemed like I would want to hang out where in real life. Walken is good at anything he does.

And as a fan of the original it was kind of fun to spot all the cameos of the original cast, sans Divine. Ricki Lake, Jerry Stiller and even John Waters pop up in a few places.

Bad: I really didn’t have any problems with the movie on a whole. There was just one glaringly bad choice in casting, John Travolta. Why? Really, I mean why? So many things wrong with the choice, from his voice to the fat suit. None of it worked at all. Even without comparing him to Divine (no competition). But with the stage show they even had great choices in casting from Bruce Vilance to Harvey Fierstein, both far better choices. And while I like Travolta a lot, this is by far the worst I have ever seen him do.

Art School Confidential

Good: Pretty funny. The whole first half is full of jabs at the art culture and schools. There is lots of talk of stereotypes of students, all of which are pretty spot on funny. It has a great cast, big names like John Malkovich and Anjelica Houston. John works does well as a down on his luck art school professor. Anjelica doesn’t really have much of a part, unfortunately. But even the unknowns do a good job.

Bad: Through out the movie there is an underlying serial killer story. While by the end of the movie it makes sense, it just didn’t do anything for me, personally. However, it does kind of work with the story and the whole idea of being a famous artist (trying not to spoil anything).

Mixed Feelings: The whole movie is filled with jabs at what it means to be an artist, which if you are an artist you can understand a lot of what is being said. But if you are not an artist, it might seem kind of boring and slow. The comedy of the first half is kind of drowned out by this weighty discussion of being an artist and what art is.

Severance

Good: I’ve been jaded by a lot of the horror gore fests I’ve seen. There have only been a few cases where a movie has made me cringe, like Hostel (her eye!!!!). But this movie has been added to my list. But it is in no way another mindless torture porn flick. Its funny, real funny.

Most of the funny is done by Danny Dyer, right off the bat of the movie he’s eating ‘shrooms, so you know its going to be good when he starts tripping. The great moments of humor between the really fucked up shit that happens to the people really make the horror parts that much more fun. They even do a good job of mixing them with the little false scares. They have all the build ups like normal thrillers, then something funny happens and it really screws with your anticipation. So when something bad does happen, it’s a lot less expected.

The British seem to understand how to make a horror/thriller comedy a lot better then Americans do.

Bad: It has the regular stereotypes. But really, what movie doesn’t? Especially thriller/horror flicks. The story seems really forced, you never really get who the bad guys are. It does explain it, but it seems a lot more of them forcing this motive down your throat, and it’s pretty contrived. But movies like this don’t need a great story to be fun. All you need to know is these innocent people are being hunted for something they didn’t do.