Review of Super

Review of Super

I’m not sure where this fell in the recent steady stream of make-your-own superhero movies, but there’s unfortunately no way it won’t ever be looked at as anything other than the younger, uglier, low-budget brother of Kick-Ass.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. Rainn Wilson gives the movie a farcical tone before the DVD even comes in the mail. And it doesn’t take long to figure out this isn’t trying to live up to Kick-Ass either. The entire movie was shot with handheld cameras, they reinvented the jump cut and even the costume screamed “Sundance.” And I did mention that Rainn Wilson is the star of the movie, right?

You can pretty much guess the first act – loser guy loses his girl, gets mad at the world, dresses up like an idiot and decides to stop crime on his own. Slight wrinkle – he bashes people’s heads in with a wrench. Violently. As if there was another way to do that. I didn’t see that coming. Ellen Page works at a comic book store and wants to be his sexy, foul-mouthed sidekick. She is adorable, as usual. I may or may not have a crush on her which may or may not affect the buggage of this movie. Kevin Bacon also makes an appearance to make sure he can connect himself to the younger actors.

The movie had some fun moments, in spite of the wrenching fight scenes (pun intended). Bacon’s death scene had surprisingly decent social commentary, followed by Rainn’s epilogue, which was also quite moving. You know, for a Rainn Wilson movie. I found myself describing the movie as absurd, but not ridiculous. That’s how torn I am about this movie. I’m making shit like this up. 5.5 bugs (out of 10)

Review of Hanna

Review of Hanna

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Now and Then. The first act of the movie is all about this teenage girl raised in the wilderness violently killing people to club music. The second act was the same girl learning how to have a friend and kiss boys. In the third act, she becomes a clown and runs a cat farm.

This movie was interesting. Interestingly weird, to be more specific and grammatically awkward. The music – which I found out afterwards was performed by The Chemical Brothers, which made a lot of sense – was very clubby and strange. But it went with the creepy zooms and erratic cuts. (Ed note: I’ve had to go to the thesaurus 3 times so far to find synonyms for “weird.” It seems to be the only way I can think of to describe this movie). I like mood setting, really I do. But this was jarring, and a sharp contrast to a movie I feel like wanted to take itself seriously, justifiably so.

Saoirse Ronan played Hanna wonderfully, but please don’t ask me to pronounce her name. The story involved some CIA cover up of a DNA breeding program that Hanna was a part of. It played with the concept of letting a little bit of information leak to the viewer at a time, which was enough to hold my interest. The best scenes though, were that of her falling into favor with this traveling family, specifically the makeup wearing, boy-crazy teen mentor which reminded me of every Gabby Hoffman movie ever made. And that’s a compliment, for those that couldn’t tell. If only it weren’t  so darn… what’s the word I’m looking for?

Also of note is that she didn’t really become a clown and run a cat farm. That was a dream I had. Related note: I don’t recommend eating calamari after midnight. 6 bugs (out of 10)

Review of Chasing Sleep

Review of Chasing Sleep

Yes. I found this movie on Netflix streaming at 5am when I couldn’t fall asleep. I’m that simple. It was either that or Wide Awake. The irony did not help me sleep.

This is a play that somehow wound up on film with Jeff Daniels. The film itself seems to have agoraphobia. There are shots of the outside from the house, so we know it exists, but the camera dares not leave. It creates a mood of panic similar to that of Das Boot, but with a lot more subtlety. The film’s strength lies in never quite telling you exactly what was going on. It was forcibly shot from Jeff’s perspective, and (surprise!) he hasn’t been asleep in days.

His wife has gone missing. She was having an affair with an angry Gym teacher who may have killed her. Or maybe Jeff Daniels killed her. And maybe he knows he killed her and maybe he doesn’t. The movie never lets you in on exactly what happened – and it never lets you know if Jeff knows what happened either. His insomniatic psyche becomes another character in the film.

Daniels plays the role superbly, reminding us that he’s more than Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber. And though it was molasses-level slow in parts, I didn’t fall asleep. Good for the movie, not good for the Dustin. 6 bugs (out of 10)

Review of Zombieland

Review of Zombieland

So many friends and critics told me I had to see this. So I finally did, despite the fact that it’s called Zombieland. And holy shit, it was funny.

I don’t know what America’s obsession is with zombies. The term “critically acclaimed” should never be used to describe a TV series about zombies. Thriller perfected the use of zombies. They danced. They moved weird. They wore red leather jackets with too many zippers. They should have been retired after that. But much like crotch-hugging bell-bottoms, zombies are back in style.

But Zombieland knew what it was and didn’t take itself seriously, as evident from the opening credits. And now I know where Jesse Eisenberg came from. He is hilarious in this movie. Woody Harrelson was also hilarious in this movie, but he came from a bar in Boston and I already knew that. I could watch the scene with Bill Murray every day until I die and it will still make me laugh. Well, if I die in the next couple weeks for sure.

Also, Emma Stone is in this movie and that’s worth mentioning.

I hate zombies. I have a thing against them that I can’t fully explain right now, but I’m guessing it’s because I don’t like gratuitous horror movies and zombies are largely featured specifically just to add gore. But with Zombieland, much like a Mind Eraser, you have to get through that initial gag reflex and the taste of turpentine and it turns out the drink is pretty damn good. And you can never go back into certain Jacksonville night clubs again. 8 bugs (out of 10)

Review of Married to the Mob

Review of Married to the Mob

I cannot put myself back in 1988 to remember what movies were like then. But if this movie came out today, I don’t think Jonathan Demme would have gotten to make Silence of the Lambs.

Maybe it was customary of the times to make a comedy without funny parts. But I prefer my comedies to be funny. I’m just assuming it was billed as a comedy from my memory. But if it wasn’t, there should have been some drama, action or romance in there instead. Or a lesson on how to make falafel. I’ll dismiss certain obvious sins of the times, like the film quality, lack of effects, the overuse of close-ups, the ridiculous use of slo-mo and the God-awful wipe transitions that fell out of a bad sitcom. But the movie was just so damn boring. If you could wade through the first hour of caddy girls with accents yelling at each other, the payoff was an awkward forbidden romance that was old and tired even for 1988.

There was also a boom mic as obviously in a shot as I’ve ever seen, to the point that I thought it couldn’t possibly be a microphone. Yet, it was. The climax was as anti-climactic as I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t decide what was worse – the writing, the shooting or the editing. One thing I have decided is that it doesn’t really matter. 3 bugs (out of 10)