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I like pizza. I like the fact that it tastes awesome as just plain cheese, but can be enhanced even further with toppings. And the toppings allow for some pretty amazing creativity, from pepperoni to pineapple. As such, as I was initially excited upon hearing about 30 Minutes or Less, about a pizza delivery man coerced into robbing a bank. I figured that a movie involving such an awesome food should be worth a look. Apparently, I was wrong. As Dan noted in his review, “Director Ruben Fleischer (‘Zombieland’) keeps the energy high throughout, but it all feels hollow. The script is so full of f-words and needless shock value that it’s impossible to care about anyone or anything…'30 Minutes Or Less’ does have some laughs, but it’s never satisfying.” As a result, I decided to Skip It in theatres, and plan on doing the same now that it’s on blu-ray. I still like pizza though.
Paul Rudd is a likable guy. He has the classic everyman presence that is very relatable and comes across as kind and sweet on screen. This is a tremendous advantage when playing a character like Ned in Our Idiot Brother. One can’t help but think that if the character had been played by, say, Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey, the film would have been totally different. Ned would have been over the top childish, or a complete buffoon. Rather, with Rudd, we get an endearing person whom we can root for in spite of his shortcomings. And as Dan points out in his review, the film’s message about not over-complicating things is an important one that we should all hear. Rent It.
One Day is a film about a man and a woman, played by Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway, who graduate college on July 15, 1988. The film then tracks their lives for the next twenty years by showing where they are on that day. It’s an interesting premise, if a bit gimmicky, but it’s also a frustrating one. As Dan put it in his review, the film “has huge jumps that never allow us to fill continuity gaps ourselves because too much happens during the year-long gaps. As a result it leaves you constantly playing catch up, then when you do catch up the film moves on again.” Sounds more frustrating than entertaining. Skip It.
The slasher genre has so many films with so many sequels and takes itself so seriously that it deserves to be satired, and satired well. The “Scream” and “Scary Movie” franchises got things off to a good start, but both ran out of steam to the point where they didn’t have anything particularly fresh or interesting to say. Then in 2006 came one of the best slasher satires ever, a film called “Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon,” about a serial killer who allows a documentary film crew to record his preparation for murdering a group of teens. I highly recommend it for those who have not seen it, as it’s a work of genius that has not been matched since.
However, I do have high hopes for “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.” The films stars Alan Tudyk (“Firefly”) and Tyler Labine as Tucker and Dale, two likable hillbillies on vacation in a backwoods cabin. During their trip, they come across a group of college kids who have clearly seen too many movies and mistake the duo for a couple of crazed killers. And if the trailer is any indication, the results are both bloody and hilarious. The film was available On Demand and only got a limited release back in September, so now is the chance for the rest of us to see it. I know I’m definitely going to Rent It.
Also coming out this week: “Another Earth,” about an MIT astrophysicist who discovers a duplicate planet Earth; “5 Days of War,” Renny Harlin’s film about an American journalist entangled in the 2008 Russian-Georgian Republic war; “The Art of Getting By,” about teenage slackers in love; and “Horror Express,” with fright film icons Peter Cushing and Christoper Lee as two anthropologists transporting a brain-hungry creature aboard the Trans-Siberian Express.
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