Man, Subways in LA have the slowest service ever. A good Subway should be a veritable sandwich-making machine, with speedy and efficient employees and patrons who know exactly what they want before they even get in line. But here in LA, each trip to Subway seems to have an incredibly high percentage of people who have apparently never been to a Subway. And the servers, though they tend to be friendly enough, take about five minutes simply to put a couple of turkey slices on a piece of bread. Where's the hustle, Hollywood?
Anyways, I do have a movie to review, but first, a quick rant:
- Has Hollywood lost it's freaking mind lately?! In the last few days alone, a wave of news stories have come out relating to new film developments, each one more cringe-worthy than the last. Will Smith's son as the next Karate Kid? All I can say is "aww HELLS no!" Same sentiment applies to a Will Smith remake of the great movie Oldboy. I have seen Oldboy, and Will Smith is no Oldboy. Steven Spielberg himself is attached to direct ... and this is sad, because Spielberg is too talented to waste his time remaking a movie that came out less than ten years ago. Give us something, oh, I don't know, ORIGINAL? Then there's Brett Ratner directing a new Conan flick? Understand the words coming out of my mouth: please lord, no. And then today ... this can't be true, can it? Ridley Scott, he of Blade Runner and Alien and Gladiator, directing a Monopoly movie? That can't be right, can it? When I saw the headline I was convinced it was an early April Fool's joke, and I'm still waiting for the punchline. If true, all I can say is Why, Ridley, Why?
Hollywood - it's been the fanboy rallying cry for years, but come on already - stop remaking stuff that doesn't need to be remade. The entire point of Oldboy, for example, is that it details a personal nightmare that is incredibly %&#'ed up. Are Spielberg and Will Smith going to preserve that? Even if they somehow did, why does that particular story need to be retold? Why not just come up with something new?
Stop the madness, I say!
- STOP THE PRESSES ...! It has just come to my attention that PRISON BREAK may soon be given the death penalty from the overlords at FOX. Here's what I think: I think that I could accept the fact that TV's most fun action-adventure show may say goodbye after four great seasons, provided that the show goes out with a huge bang and a fitting send-off. IF and only if that is the case, and we get a giant-sized finale that ties up loose ends and provides proper closure for Michael Scofield and co. - well, I could then be content with a great run coming to an end. But ... if FOX messes with storylines and cuts the show short prematurely - I will not be happy. The cast and crew of PB have created iconic characters and larger than life storylines, and they deserve a great wrap-up. I want one final Scofield vs. T-Bag smackdown, one final feat of badassery for Mahone, and an ending that creates a new status quo for our perpetually on-the-run protagonists.
Now, if it were up to me, I could certainly see relaunching the show with a new name and new premise. Scofield and Mahone as a pair of special-unit FBI or black-ops government agents? Perhaps tasked with containing a supermax prison break? Perhaps in pursuit of the increasingly dangerous Gretchen and her re-established Company? These characters are so great ... they could certainly live on past Prison Break ...
But I'll wait and see what happens. Certainly, if PB goes, then Monday nights will have a little less gravitas.
... Alright, anyways ...
ROLE MODELS Review:
- As many friends and readers of the blog are well aware, I'm a huge, huge fan of the cult-fave 90's-era sketch comedy show THE STATE. Since the premature death of that modern classic, I've closely followed the careers of many of its alumni, and looked forward to any projects that seemed to represent a revival of the random, crazy, and absurd sense of humor that characterized The State back in the day. So far, the best post-State project from the group, by far, has been Wet Hot American Summer, which was one of those movies that screamed cult comedy classic from the moment it hit theaters in 2001. To me, Wet Hot is plain and simply one of the funniest movies ever made. And yet, it's one of those movies that's pretty difficult for critics to wrap their brains around - because it's strength isn't its plot, characters, or anything that can really be objectively judged. It's just hilarious, and that's why it rocks.
Since Wet Hot, there've been a handful of major comedy projects from State members - Stella on Comedy Central, Reno 9-11, The Baxter, and last year's The Ten are the standouts. But STATE and WET HOT fans can rejoice, because while not apparent from the trailers, ROLE MODELS hits the sweet spot in terms of channelling the same kind of humor that put The State on the map. In fact, directed by David Wain and co-written by Wain and Paul Rudd, Role Models is almost a seamless merging of Wain's random sketch comedy stylings with a traditional Hollywood comedy formula.
Because, like Wet Hot, the premise of Role Models sounds pretty lame on paper. Two immature guys who get in trouble and are forced to atone by mentoring a couple of problem children. Under normal circumstances, this could be a by-the-numbers recipe for disaster. But the actual result is a random, subversive, geeky movie that followes the broad outline of a mainstream comedy, but in the details, is anything but mainstream.
I mean, the movie spends a ton of time on the in's and out's of live-action role playing, staging epic LARP battles as if they were D-Day. There's a running joke about the band KISS that is central to the movie's climax. And the lovable kid in this movie? He's a prematurely pervy, smart-mouthed ten year old who singlehandeldy uses more swear words than The Big Lebowski.
The point is that, sure, some of the movie is devoted to telling a story about immature guys being forced to accept their adulthood by caring for misguided kids, and in doing so realizing what's important in their lives. And you know what? The schmaltzy stuff is up there with the best of Hollywood comedy. As cheesy as it is, the ending makes you want to cheer in appreciation of the geek getting the girl, the underdogs winning out, and our heroes finding their happy ending.
But the second part of my point is that a lot of Role Models is simply devoted to the art of being funny for the sake of being funny. It helps that the cast is so talented. Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott are great as the leads - it's not just them alone though - the real highlight is their interactions with all the crazy characters they encounter. Rudd is great as a burnt-out guy bitter at the world, but he's even funnier when he's interacting with Christopher Mintz-Plasse (aka McLovin') - a nerdy and awkward but well meaning kid who obsesses over a medieval reenaction / live-action combat game called LAIR. Similarly, Sean William-Scott is funny and likable as usual, but his interaction with Bobb'e J. Thompson is priceless. Thompson is absolutely hilarious as an uber problem-child, and despite being a young kid, his character takes full advantage of the movie's R-rating. This is definitely NOT your typical watered-down kid character. Ronnie as played by Thompson is profane, shocking, and sometimes just plain wrong. And the funniest part is that for most of the movie, Sean William-Scott is perfectly happy to encourage the kid's behavior, to be his Obi-Wan Kenobi of behaving badly. Very funny stuff.
The supporting cast though is just loaded with talent. For one, a ton of State and Wet Hot vets appear, so you know they will bring the funny. The best might be Joe Lo Truglio, who stole the show in THE TEN. Here he plays a hilarious character who is the leader of Mintz-Plasse's LAIR tribe - basically a grown man who gets off on dressing in medieval garb and greeting people with a hearty "good morrow." Like I said, hilarious. Ken Marino and Kerri Kenney show up as McLovin's disapproving parents - I was actually surprised that they were not only funny, but actually pretty effective as semi-dramatic foils for our young here. I guess I should have remembered how well Marino can do sleazy from his stint as Vinny Ban Lowe on the late, great Veronica Mars. David Wain pops up for a small role (no signs of Michael Showalter or Michael Ian Black, however), and Wet Hot's A.D. Miles is great as a Ned Flanders-esque goody two-shoes. And hey, Elizabeth Banks is in the mix too, marking the third theatrical movie I've seen her in a the last month. But if there's one actress who deserves to be overexposed, it may be Banks. She's solid here even if it's a pretty underwritten role.
Two supporting players who really stand out though ... Jane Lynch, for one. Lynch has to be one of the overall funniest people in film today, and she doesn't get enough credit for stealing scenes in every movie she's in, from A Mighty Wind to The 40 Year Old Virgin to Talladega Nights. She's at her best and funniest here, as the former-addict who now runs the Big Brothers, Big Sisters-like organization that's at the center of the film's plot. Lynch's fearless delivery lends itself perfectly to David Wain's absurdist style. Ken Jeong is also pretty awesome in this one. He's been popping up in everything lately it seems, but as the "king" of Lair, drunk on power, he's a riot.
If Role Models has any real fatal flaw, it's just that it still kind of has that feeling of being a movie that started out as a generic paint-by-numbers comedy, that then went on to get a giant makeover from Wain and Rudd. Beneath the surface, you can sometimes see the skeleton of that original, way less cool movie showing through its shiny new paint-job. But it's a testament to the talent involved here that they made the movie wholly their own. When I saw the film at a screening, some of those with less, shall we say, out-there taste in comedy came away from the movie confused and disappointed. They had expected a nice, simple, Hollywood comedy and what they got was an off-the-wall, unabashadly geeky, David Wain style movie. As for me, the fact that beneath the predictable facade of the movie's trailers lay a kickass, subversive comedy was an awesome suprise. That the movie did so well at the box-office was similarly cool - might the cultish comedy of The State finally be going mainstream? As long as these guys get to keep churning out great comedies like this one, I'm game.
My Grade: A-
- Alright, that's all I've got for today. Rock on!
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