Knocked Up

Knocked Up 2007

★★½ 

I watched this sometime last week, and simply forgot to finish my write-up past a couple of random notes. That’s kind of appropriate, since this movie is unfortunately kinda forgettable. Apatow makes a nice series of vaguely connected comedy set pieces, and it’s all certainly really funny. But there’s not much here.

There’s a slew of memorable supporting performances here that take some of the pressure off of Heigl and Rogen to carry the movie. I could spend a paragraph just listing their names. Even Apatow’s kids are pretty funny in a couple roles that could have fallen flat. Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann stand out the most, and that’s not much of a shock considering they got their spin-off-quel This is 40.

There are really no stakes as the movie kind of lumbers to the inevitable conclusion. It’s not really shot particularly well or distinctive from a TV movie. This all sounds like I really hated it, but I guess a movie can get pretty far being just a funny movie with likeable people. It looks like pretty far comes out to about 2.5 out of 5 stars

A Night at the Roxbury

A Night at the Roxbury

Night at the Roxbury is a very, very long 82 minute movie. To call this a thin SNL-sketch plot stretched out to feature length is an insult to movies like Superstar, Coneheads, Blues Brothers 2000, and The Ladies Man. The credits play over something indistinguishable from one of their sketches. They hit each catchphrase and joke in turn, then the credits stop. Uh oh, now the movie has to start.

 Some of it works. Kattan and Ferrell have a really good, lived-in chemistry as a classic dim-witted duo. It would be hard not to with all the years together on SNL, and in these characters in particular. There’s a couple fun supporting characters, and the cast is filled with ringers such as Chaz Palmenteri, Dan Hedaya, Molly Shannon, Lochlyn Munro, and Loni Anderson. There is even a running gag that is funny more than it’s not.

 But, oh boy, the rest is bad. Did this movie start the trend of goofy comedies focusing really hard on a B to C list celebrity playing a fictionalized version of themselves? Richard Grieco sleepwalks through the thankless and unfunny role here. The movie really hates women. Molly Shannon turns from a sweet love interest to the villain halfway through for no reason at all other than nothing else was happening. Also, I can’t say I’m surprised, but that “What is Love” song plays no less than 10 different times. It is also featured heavily in the climax (that otherwise is the same scene from Say Anything). Speaking of ripping off - another scene in the denouement has two characters repeating the dialogue from the end of Jerry Maguire completely verbatim, with no twists or jokes at all.

 Finally, the most baffling thing about the movie is how much Chris Kattan throws himself into the role and how… good he looks. Don’t get me wrong, almost none of this is funny, but he looks like 10x the rising star that Will Ferrell actually was. 

couple 90s Action Movies

I watched these, and they’re fairly similar, so please enjoy these thoughts on Sudden Death and Rapid Fire.

Sudden Death 1995

★★★½

This is way fucking weirder than I could have ever remembered. It’s some ways slavishly a Die Hard remake, and some ways bizarrely different.

One of the most pronounced quirks is that the group of terrorists is omniscient and can literally do anything as if they are a wizard. They never show all the terrorists, and continually have Powers Boothe saying “I have men everywhere!”

JCVD’s helper with the Secret Service turns out to be a bad guy, and unless I missed something, never gets caught or exposed. He just goes back to his post at some point and pretends to work. Unless he gets kicked or captured real fast and I missed it.

Normally the bad guys have some kind of badass physical specimen lieutenant for JCVD to fight near the end of the movie. Here, this fight happens right at the beginning! And even more surprisingly, the badass fighter henchmen is a woman. And uh. Most surprisingly, she fights JCVD in the full Penguins Mascot Costume. Courageous choice.

There have been great movies where the protagonist and antagonist never meet face to face really (The Fifth Element comes to mind first). Sudden Death has the same dynamic, largely shuttling all the great Hans/McClane moments from Die Hard. JCVD only sees his face as he mean mugs Powers Boothe while his helicopter beautifully perfectly crashes at a 90 degree angle.

Speaking of Powers Boothe, his villain is totally undercooked. His plan or motivations or whatever is never really explored or scratched any further than skin deep.

Also say hi to THE GREAT Raymond J Barry as the Vice President.

Rapid Fire 1992

★★★★

Look, I just started this because I wanted to see Powers Boothe and Raymond J Barry antagonize each other again (see: Sudden Death). And Brandon Lee has always been an interesting case. His team-up with Dolph Lundgren in Showdown in Little Tokyo is one of my favorite awful movies.

Anyways, this is a pretty cool blend of martial arts movie and action movie without ever feeling overstuffed. It’s got the odd couple and jazzy soundtrack of Lethal Weapon. It uses the setting to pretty good effect, especially in introducing the Chicago Chekov’s L Train. There’s an incredibly bizarre end of Act 2 montage that cuts the cops’ plans all failing in action scenes with a full nudity sex scene set to a weird hair metal song. I can’t do it justice.

They saved the best for last. After a very long scene resembling the Onion article “Man On Gurney Has Brief Word With Protagonist Before Entering Ambulance”, the male and female lead jump in the back of an ambulance. The shot evokes The Graduate- They’re in the back, another jazzy song firing up, and the landscape visible behind them in the ambulance windows. They even share a few of the same nervous looks from that famous last shot.

Am I reading way too far into the ending of this boilerplate 90’s action movie? Maybe. Am I overrating this for exceeding my low expectations? Definitely. But whatever, it’s fun and carves out a kind of unique little movie.

Not-Horror movies I've been watching

I didn't complete the October horror challenge exactly, but that's okay. Here are a few of the not-horror movies I watched over the last month, too.

Stretch 2014
★★★½  
This movie is Collateral and Los Angeles filtered through Joe Carnahan's eyes instead of Michael Mann's.

It helps that everyone is more than game to play along. Patrick Wilson and Chris Pine are pretty fun. The periphery is also filled in with a combination of great comedic actors and unobtrusive cameos.

I'm not going to say that everything works, some of the voiceover could be better. And more than a couple of the developments just don't make sense. But it's still a pretty manic and fun "one crazy night" type adventures.

TRON: Legacy 2010
★★★½  
Jeff Bridges and Michael Sheen are having a great time. The basic DNA / structure of the movie makes this a pretty classic adventure and hero's journey type of tale. Maybe audiences weren't ready for leading man Garret Hedlund. Possibly the ears of the movie-going world weren't ready for Daft Punk back in 2010, before they won every Grammy.

All of that aside - yeah, I can't really figure out why this isn't regarded much higher alongside some of the really big / fun movies like Pirates of the Caribbean. It's a really pretty movie. And of course Daft Punk's score and cameo really add to every scene they're in.

Captain Phillips 2013
★★★★
Tom Hanks and the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2014
★★★½  
When I was a kid, we went on a family trip to New Orleans. I didn't have any interest in the city, though. I was hellbent on making a movie with our new video camera and all the Ninja Turtles toys I took on vacation with me. Let's call the toys and videotapes worth $125. After 20 years and multiplying the budget by a million, this is the closest thing to a remake of my artistic vision.

Let’s Be Cops 2014
★★★  
It's funny enough to make up for the plodding, non-sensical plot. And at least there are more jokes that work than don't.

Felt overstuffed at only 100 minutes. Rob Riggle has a slightly different turn than his usual shtick, which is about the only interesting thing in it.

I hope Keegan-Michael Key has more roles like his turn on the Fargo TV series than his lame caricature here. Also, nobody bothered to wake up Andy Garcia for any of his scenes.

It's worth a laugh, but there are no secret joys to be had. No twist or hilarious subplot or performance. Just another adequate manchild comedy.

Rumble in the Bronx 1995
★★★  
Jackie Chan getting pelted with glass bottles in the dead end alleyway reminded me of a similar glass scene from Die Hard. It was surprisingly brutal in such a goofy movie.

The action is a lot more fun when Chan is whipping gang members with a ski as opposed to the end, when the evil white men in suits take over and use a lot of guns.

But, hell, the hovercraft is REALLY fun.

Room 237 2012
★★★★  
I really enjoyed the format of this movie. It was a fun companion piece to watch right after The Shining. They remind me of the Ancient Aliens commentators in the way they start making a point that's completely sensible and coherent, and mid-sentence just go wildly in an absurd direction.