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Freudianspud's Reviews

Displaying Review 21 - 24 of 24 in total

  • Written by Freudianspud on 10.04.2010

    My first impression of Adventureland was "Wow, why didn't I hear about this sooner?", and my second impression was "Wow, Kristen Stewart has even less of an emotional expression range than Keanu Reeves." The was an eerie moment where I was thinking just that near the end of the film, when at that exact time, Stewart actually said 'Wow'. I laughed.

    The story of Adventureland is a simple one. James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg, Zombieland) just graduated and is planning on a trip to Europe, financed by his parents, when he finds out that his dad has been demoted and that the Eurotrip is a no go. Even worse is the fact that James's parents also can't afford the New York apartment he was planning to move to for college.
    As a solution, he finds a job at Adventureland, a second-rate themepark in Pittsburgh, PA. He's assigned to the games where he meets Joel (Martin Starr, Knocked Up), an oversized glasses bearing student of Slavic languages and Emily (Kristen Stewart, Jumper), a somewhat depressed girl living with her distant father and bitchy stepmother. Completing the main cast are park-manager Bobby (Bill Hader, Superbad), maintenance engineer Mike Connell (Ryan Reynolds, Ryan fucking Reynolds) as well as a variety of park employees such as the token hottie, the token douche and the token jock.
    Of course, James falls deeply in love with Emily, who in turn has an affair with the married Connell. Both James and Emily mention that they don't want to lose the other person, but also say that they're not ready for something steady. James decides to accept the invitation of the park hottie, Lisa P. (Margarita Levieva, The Invisible), but feels guilty right after and confesses everything to Emily. Some time later he finds out about Emily and Connell though, so drama happens and that's basically the whole story.
    Of course, there's more to it, but I don't want to give away too much. Go see for yourself.

    You might be thinking, "Man, He kind of makes it sound like a bad film." Admittedly, that's true, but that's only because the story itself isn't that deep or complicated. It's the overall feel of the film, combined by the acting and the great soundtrack that accumulated to the 9-star score I gave it.

    The performances of the actors are sublime. Of course, there are some slightly over the top characters, like the neurotic Bobby and his wife, but most of the actors play their parts with a beautiful subtlety that I love. You almost believe that they're real people because of their natural ways of portraying their characters.
    Jesse Eisenberg is casted perfectly for the hopelessly romantic James. He knows how to hold his own, but he'll never be the most popular guy in the crowd. He plays his part with a natural ease which makes the character all the more convincing. It reminded me a lot of Zach Braff's performance in Garden State. Coincidentally, the overall feel of the film is a lot like the vibe I got off Garden State; a bit nostalgic for some reason you can't put your finger on, combined with a feel-good undertone that doesn't annoy you by forcing you to actually feel good. You slide into it.
    I know it's stating the obvious, but Ryan Reynolds delivers his part brilliantly. We mostly know him as the wise-cracking type from Van Wilder (Or maybe Wolverine), or as the raging psycho from Amityville, but in Adventureland he gets to show his 'normal' side. One one end, he plays a down-to-earth mechanic who establishes an understanding with James throughout the film. On the other end he's the cheating husband who invites young park-employees to his mother's basement on a regular basis. The odd thing though, is that you sympathize with him. Besides the cheating, he's a cool guy and you could see yourself hanging out with him. Hell, even in the scenes where he's with Emily he doesn't come off as an asshole.
    Another performance that should be noted, even if only because I'd probably get yelled at if I didn't touch on the subject, it Kristen Stewart's. As mentioned earlier, she still has the range of expressions of a partially chipped brick: It's not all the same, there is some variation on the surface, but underneath it's still a brick. Although she does smile and even cry at some points, the main problem lies within her eyes. Basically, they're doll's eyes. There's no expression or emotion to be found in those pools of angst whatsoever, which doesn't really make most of the channeled emotions believable. The only convincing bits are where she acts troubled, tortured or depressed. In other words, when she's playing Bella again. Luckily though, her character is troubled or depressed for the better part of this film, so she gets away with it for most of the time.
    One thing that made me laugh was her general behaviour in this film; she's having a sexual affair with a married man, while she's also keeping James on a leash. It amuses me to imagine those hordes of Twi-hards going "Oh my God, this can't be! Bella! No! Think about Edward!", but maybe that's just me.*
    The rest of the performances are as natural as Eisenberg's and Reynolds's and give the film that kind of nostalgic feel-good vibe we know from films like Garden State or About Schmidt.

    I feel I should also mention the soundtrack. Since the film takes place in 1987, it makes for a great collection of music throughout the entire ordeal, with songs like Here I Go Again, Breaking The Law and Rock Me Amadeus. If you're an '80s child like I am, it's a feast of recognition that is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

    All in all, Adventureland is a film well worth seeing. It's without a doubt one of the best films I have seen so far this year and I doubt that there will be something to top that.

    * Obviously, I don't care much for Twilight, or Stewart's acting for that matter. Pattinson I can live with, since Remember Me looks like an interesting film and he actually acts in that one, but other than that I couldn't care less about the whole Sparkly Emo Saga.

  • Written by Freudianspud on 11.04.2010

    After coming across some shots from Gentlemen Broncos here on What The Movie, I decided to check it out for myself, because who can honestly withstand the call of flying stags that fire rockets?
    I didn't quite get what I expected though. I knew the basic premise of the story before I saw the film, but it still surprised me.

    Benjamin Purvis (Michael Angarano, Sky High) is a young science-fiction writer. When he goes on writers-camp, he finally meets his idol, sci-fi author and all-round headcase Chevalier (Jemaine Clement, Eagle VS. Shark) who announces a writing contest for all participants of the camp.
    Benjamin enters his story Yeast Lords into the contest and when Chevalier comes across it he is blown away. In fact, he loves it so much that he rips it off to ensure his future with his current publisher, who is threatening to drop Chevalier unless he comes up with something grand.
    Chevalier's adaptation of Yeast Lords becomes a great success and hits the shelves without Benjamin ever knowing it. In fact, he has just sold the rights to the story to filmmaker Lonnie Donaho (Héctor Jiménez, Nacho Libre) and the annoyingly bouncy Tabatha (Halley Feiffer, The Squid And The Whale) who make it into a (very) low-budget production.
    Of course, Chevalier finds out about this and manages to publish an article in the local newspaper about how the youngsters ripped his new story off. At the same time, Benjamin finds out about Chevalier's plagiarism and decides to confront him at a book signing.

    The reason that this film wasn't what I was expecting was because of the characters. As I probably made clear with my reviews on Garden State and Adventureland, I love the down-to-earth productions that come out once in a while. The Weather Man, About Schmidt, Little Miss Sunshine, The Rules Of Attraction, all those films were great because of the realism their characters portrayed. Films like The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore added a little something to the mix by making their characters just a tiny bit more awkward than people would normally be.
    Gentlemen Broncos takes that awkwardness and cranks the dial up to eleven. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it gets a bit old after a while.

    Angarano's character Benjamin gets away with the least amount of awkward (Have you ever noticed how 'awkward' is in itself a very awkward word?) written into the part. His role as insecure teenager comes off pretty natural in the long run. Unfortunately, this is thrown off balance by his neurotic mother (played by Jennifer Coolidge, a.k.a. Stiffler's Mom), who portrays the overly protective and basically somewhat deranged fashion designer who means everything for the best but doesn't quite cut it. The combination between the two characters doesn't go much beyond the way Benjamin feels embarrassed about his mother. Which is actually too bad, because I think that if they had toned down the crazy a bit, the relationship might have worked to some extent.
    Then there's the duo Lonnie and Tabatha. The latter explodes onto the scene as some kind of arrogant female variant of a douche, but eventually turns out to be semi-ok when she gets a movie-deal for Yeast Lords. The rest of her purpose doesn't get really clear. It's as if she was only put into the story to lead the main character up to an important bit in the film later on.
    Lonnie is just flat out weird. Most of us know him from his monkey-boy part in Nacho Libre, and most of us know he has a large mouth, but in Gentlemen Broncos it seems like Jiménez can only talk when his teeth are clenched together and his lips are pulled open as wide as possible. It's kind of funny at first, but eventually it just gets, you guessed it, awkward.
    Before I move on to a character that was actually pretty cool, there's one last person to be mentioned: Chevalier. Chevalier is mostly regarded as the God of sci-fi throughout the film, having published his first trilogy when he was 15. That all sounds rather impressive, until we meet the guy. It seems as though he has been stuck in his 15-year old self, but has still evolved into a snobby writer who apparently thinks he's able to judge everything by his standards and his standards alone. There isn't really a lot to say for him except that he has the most impossible voice I've ever heard. Actually, that was one of the few good things about him.
    Finally, there's Dusty (Mike White, who also produced Gentlemen Broncos). Dusty becomes Benjamin's Guardian Angel (Which is a project from their local church) when Benjy's mother realizes he has no friends. The only thing Dusty ever does is stand around with basically the same expression, and shoot darts at stuff with a blowpipe. He also stars in the aforementioned low-budget production of Yeast Lords as the main character Bronco. The thing that makes Dusty (somewhat) better than other characters is that he isn't really awkward. He's just there. And he actually comes through for Benjamin instead of just plain being neurotic or annoying.

    I bet there's one question still darting through most of your minds. I bet that question amounts up to "That's all fine and dandy, but where do the rocket-launching deer come in?"
    Well, that's what actually makes this film enjoyable. You see, every time a bit of dialogue from the story is read out loud, we switch to the actual film-adaptation of the story, with Sam Rockwell (Who does another great job as space-adventurer as HH2TG's Zaphod) as Bronco. And I'm not talking about the film Lonnie is making, no, it's an actual sidestep where actual actors play the actual story. And it's fantastic! It's so badly written and over the top that it's hilarious, but it's not so badly written and over the top that it becomes ridiculous. Well, it's ridiculous, but in a good way. The sheer wonkyness of the monsters, surroundings and everything else in this version of Yeast Lords reminded me a lot of old sci-fi flicks like Barbarella, or maybe the early Star Trek films.
    Putting in these bits, and the bits where it's an adaptation of Chevalier's adaptation (Stay with me here), in which Bronco is named Brutus and flamboyantly gay, was a brilliant move, because I don't think the film would've survived on awkwardness (That word still takes me a couple of seconds to type) alone.

    In the end I can honestly say that I did enjoy the film, but having to sit through all the awkwardness was like being prodded gently in the back of your head every ten seconds. It's not really that annoying, and you can live with it, but it'd be better if it hadn't been there all the time.
    The story does wrap itself up quite nicely though, and I don't think many people would be disappointed after seeing this flick.
    As I said somewhere up there, if you're a fan of films like Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums, you can probably appreciate Gentlemen Broncos. If you're expecting lot's of slapstick humour and flying deer with rockets strapped to their sides (Which is what I was expecting), you'll be slightly disappointed, but you'll still have seen a decent film.

  • Written by Freudianspud on 04.12.2010

    Guess who's back, back again? If you guessed that it was me, you win prizes. It's been a while, but even my will was no match for the call of WhatTheMovie.com.

    On to the review then!

    I saw Scott Pilgrim VS. The World a short while ago, and I've seen it at least four more times since then.
    Now, I have to say that I'm a nerd. I'm a bit of a gamer, I collect comics, I have a bunch of action figures...you get the picture. So, by default, this film was aimed at people like me. Not only did they aim, they pulled the trigger and hit the target dead-on.

    For those not familiar with the story and it's background, a short recap: Scott Pilgrim started out as a character from the comic named after it's protagonist (Scott Pilgrim, in case you're not paying attention). This comic has, obviously, been made into the aforementioned film.
    We're introduced to Scott himself (Michael Cera, Juno) and his band. Then, some stuff happens (No, really, that's how it goes) and he dreams about a girl called Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Death Proof), an American who moved to Canada (Where the story takes place) to get away from her kind-of-ex Gideon.
    Scott instantly falls for this girl, but soon discovers that there's more to her than meets the eye. And no, she's not a Transformer. Instead, as it turns out, she has some exes that still hold some kind of grudge against whatever. Scott has to fight this League of Evil Exes. And that's basically the whole story.

    Of course there's more to it, like Scott's fake High School girlfriend Knives Chau (Ellen Wong in her first major film), his gay roommate Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin, The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys), his sister Stacey (Anna Kendrick, Twilight), the other bands and more side-characters.
    But, much like the graphic novel, the story has to be seen rather than explained. The general mood can't be transformed into words, but let me tell you that it is hilariously well played by the characters.

    What does that leave for me to talk about, you ask? Well, the answer is a bit of special effects. The answer is also fights. Also, the answer might be video games, kind of. Here goes.

    Even though the story plays out in a modern day Toronto, the world Scott lives in, whether you believe it to be the real world or his imagination, strongly differs from ours. For instance, the fights are more like the stuff you see in Dragon Ball Z than anything else, and whenever he defeats an enemy they burst into coins. The fights even have a multiplayer mode and some combos embedded in them. More examples: being vegan apparently grants you superhuman telekinetic powers, Scott manages to score an extra life, one of his enemies pulls a blue pixelated lightsaber out of thin air, and yet another enemy manages to teleport in puffs of smoke during one of the fights.
    The fun part is that I haven't even given anything away with this.

    The special effects, like that pixel-sword I mentioned, and the Dragon Ball fights, are fantastic. They look a bit over the top from time to time, but if you're going to let that bother you, you shouldn't watch this film in the first place. Go watch something deep and based on real life or something.

    The only reason the film didn't get a full ten out of ten is because of the lead actor, Michael Cera. Not that I have any problem with him in particular, but when looking at his acting history he takes on a very Keanu-esque method of acting. In other words, he only knows one character. It worked in Juno and Superbad, but in Scott Pilgrim it kind of clashes with the rest of the story. He is the perfect Scott when it comes to the random stuff between the fights, but there's something about seeing Cera doing an in-flight 64-hit combo that doesn't sit quite right. His dorky moves while playing the bass are dead -on though.

    In the end, Scott Pilgrim VS. The World is awesome. Every fight is an adrenaline fuelled sequence of special effect magic and the dialogues are delivered with a hilariously dry ennui which works perfectly considering the context of the twenty-something hipster youth of these days. I'm not kidding, they have one password at some point that's simply an annoyed sigh.

    That's pretty much it, so go see it, I guess?

    /Rutger

  • Written by Freudianspud on 22.03.2012

    I would like to begin this review by telling you that, prior to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I had never seen a PotA movie. All I'd seen up until Rise was about ten minutes of the Tim Burton remake, and that was so bad that it scared me off the franchise.
    When Rise hit the theaters, I figured I'd give it another shot, since the trailer looked promising. In the end I didn't manage to see it at the cinema, but I did see the Blu-ray version, so I guess that's only one step down from the silver screen.

    The story is pretty straight-forward: a scientist by the name of Will Rodman (James Franco, 127 Hours) is working on a cure for Alzheimers, driven by the desire to cure his father Charles (John Lithgow, 3rd Rock From The Sun). Naturally, they test out the drugs on a number of apes. Their most favorite subject is Bright Eyes (An obvious homage to Heston's nickname in the original), but when a presentation goes wrong, the apes are put down.
    One apelet survives however, thanks to Will who takes it home and raises it. Soon enough, Will finds out that Caesar (Voiced by Andy Serkis, The Lord Of The Rings) is extremely intelligent. Will and Caesar become more than owner and pet, and when Caesar attacks a neighbor and is impounded, Will tries his best to free the ape from the horrible conditions he's put in.
    It's pretty obvious what happens for the rest of the film if you know the original, but I'll stop here, in case people haven't seen it yet.

    The story is basically a mirror image of the original film. I watched the original right after I saw Rise and there are a lot of similar moments, like when Heston/Caesar first speaks. There are some small references, some obvious, some less so, but overall it doesn't bother the film that it's basically the same story. It still adds elements that make it interesting enough to see, and as the story progresses I was actually getting more and more frightened by the rapidly evolving apes. Job well done!

    The acting in this movie is solid. James Franco does a good job and the supporting cast, including Lithgow, Tom Felton (The Harry Potter series), Tyler Labine (Tucker & Dale vs Evil), and Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), do a great job keeping the story going and making it believable.
    Of course, the real credit goes to the apes and their voice actors, lead by Serkis. I honestly couldn't tell at times when the noises were by real apes and when they were by the actors.

    The CGI is very impressive. I had to get used to the digital apes, but after a while you get used to it and you start to actually appreciate the detail they put into the creatures. Movement and expressions were very convincing to me personally, even when the apes started evolving and learning sign language by themselves. They keep the ape-like posture they need to be convincing.

    All in all, if you're a fan of the franchise I don't think you'll be disappointed. And if, like me, you haven't seen any of the films yet, this is a very decent way to get into them. My only tip is to stay away from the 2001 Tim Burton remake. I tried to watch it again after seeing Rise and the original, but I still couldn't make it to the end.
    What I would like to see is a remake that stays true to the source, but uses current make-up effects for the apes. Change nothing about the story, just give the look an update. I'd watch that film.

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