Sunday 27 April 2014

83 - A Thousand Words

Connection To A.C.O.D. - Clark Duke

A Thousand Words was made in 2008 but didn't see a release in 2012, and even skipped cinemas over here in the U.K. altogether (though it got advertised at one point), I actually don't think quality was the reason is what kept it from release for so long but rather to do with studio separation and all that.

As a film I felt there was elements I actually liked of this movie and I think film most reminded me of was Click - high concept which starts as a comedy but then gradually becomes more of a drama in a lesson to get a man to change his ways for the better. A Thousand Words as a tree grow in Eddie Murphy's garden that leaves fall off every time Murphy speaks and he'll die once the last one has fallen...

Now I'm not holding up Click as a classic but I think that movie did it better then this did, you don't quite feel Eddie Murphy is selfish enough to be the one forced to go through this journey, sure he could spend more time with his wife (Kerry Washington) and kid and should listen more but the path he was heading down was not drawn clearer like in other films.

As the wife, Washington is mostly wasted just getting to stand there being annoyed or upset at Murphy, though there is a scene where she dresses sexy to try and rekindle their relationship, though some of his male co-stars such as Cliff Curtis and Clark Duke have more to do, Curtis particularly stands out to me from the bunch.

In the end though it's a weird choice to have Eddie Murphy where his voice is one of the key elements of his success forced to be quiet for big parts of the movie

Overall not bad, doesn't have anything in it though (I guess sans Washington dressing sexy) that I'd want to revisit, this is a watch once movie and that's it.

81 - Wet Hot American Summer

Connection To NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE - Samm Levine as an uncredited voice role here, confirmed by Levine himself if there was some doubt from IMDB.
It's been over 10 years since I first discovered Wet Hot American Summer, it was brought in a budget DVD pack with some other films, if I recall correctly it was one or two of the other comedies was my reason for buying as I had never heard of this film at all - I think that says a lot I can't remember what the other films where but this film as been brought multiple times and I even purchased the American DVD with extras (the British is bare-bones).

This is my 4th or 5th time watching WHAS and it's still as funny now as the first time I saw it, it has a weird tone to it which isn't a bad thing - it's not out and out parody but it's not in a world where everything is completely straight if that makes sense. This film is set in 1981 on the last day of a Jewish summer camp and is about the misadventures of the counselors, the romance of the camp director (Janeane Garofalo) and an astrophysics proffers (David Hyde Pierce) and we also spend some time with the kids.

The plot is basically just an excuse to string the funny moments together and the film features plenty of funny people, practically the entire cast of The State, Amy Poehler, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd, early roles for Bradley Cooper and Elizabeth Banks.

I don't want to write about too many of the scenes because it gives away the direction but one of the funniest scenes for me was when the camp director goes into town with the counselors just how it spirals out of control is so hilarious, I also like Christopher Meloni and his subplot as the cook and is also a shell-shocked Vietnam vet.

Overall I'd prefer somebody to go into this film without any expectations then you can be surprised like I did as I found this incredibly funny.

80 - Not Another Teen Movie

Connection To JOE DIRT - Jaime Pressly.
In time to come when all the spoof movie movies get lumped together as the scraping of the bottom of the barrel for parody, it will be a shame for the genuinely funny ones in the bunch, it to be fair is films that would pre-date Date Movie, films such as this teen spoof Not Another Teen Movie.

Not Another Teen Movie parodies unsurprisingly an whole bunch of teen movies particularly the comedies (so I guess it does fall into the trap of spoofing something already funny - but at times at least as a new joke to with it, also it parodies the more earnest scenes of these comedies)

Jake (Chris Evans - doing a better Freddie Prinze Jr. then Prinze Jr.) makes a bet with his friends to turn Janey (Chyler Leigh) into prom queen even though she has glasses, a ponytail and paint covered overalls, so yeah the basis is She's All That with scenes or characters mimicking among other teen movies such as American Pie, Can't Hardly Wait, Cruel Intentions, The Breakfast Club, 10 Things I Hate About You and Bring It On among others, yeah it's noticeable that most of the teen movies are from the 3 or 4 years before

The best characters for me are Mia Kirshner as Catherine, taking off Sarah Michelle Gellar's character in Cruel Intentions as Jake's sister (only by blood), she does still get to be sexy for the most part even when doing ridiculous things (the brother/sister incest thing is tiny bit ironic since Chyler Leigh kissed her real brother on film, since they played love interests in Kickboxing Academy), another enjoyable character was Sam Hungington as Ox (taking off Chris Klein's Oz from American Pie) I just love how he plays the performance

My favourite scenes including Ricky reading 10 Things I Love About Janey in class, the musical number (showing Disaster Movie how a musical number featuring the cast should go) and I like Jake trying to save Janey's brother from bullying.

The films worst scene for me, and is the scene that takes toilet humour literally as the three horny freshman characters spying on a girl on toilet who ends up getting discussing, this is not the worst part but the scene ends with the English teacher among others getting covered in shit, the scene goes on way too long for a pay off that is more disgusting and funny.

Overall, because plenty of the jokes hit the mark and everybody plays their characters so well, the film ends up being so damn enjoyable for me.