I love how studios assume that just because you stuff a moderately funny man like Ken Jeong in a hip moderately entertaining show like “Community,” you’re destined for comedic greatness. They thought they could work Jeong in for easy laughs in “Vampires Suck!” and they failed. And lo and behold he shows up in the first five minutes of “Big Momma’s” playing–what else–a crazy Asian man who happens to be a disgruntled postal worker. No one in “Big Momma’s” acts like an actual person you’d see on the street. No one would actually chase down and violently tussle with a mailman but hey, Martin Lawrence is grasping at straws in the final film series he really seems to be holding on to for dear life.
Tag Archives: Adventure
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Young hero in the making trying to prove himself. A father who doesn’t believe in him. The bond of a young hero and his enemy. And a young anachronistic heroine who helps the hero find himself. We’ve seen it all before and then some, but thankfully with “How to Train your Dragon” is handled the formula so well, it’s almost original and unique. Almost. Dreamworks’ animated action adventure film is your classic boy and dog story, except the boy finds his man’s best friend in his purported enemy, a young dragon who forms a common ground with him in a world where humans and dragons are eternally grappling at war with one another and are told they must do battle.
Guyver: The Complete Series (Viridian Collection) (DVD)
I’m still shocked Guyver never became a huge American film franchise. Sure, we had two films in America, but they were direct to Video dribble. The first film was nothing but schlocky camp based around lampooning the concept, and the sequel almost got it right by staging a very stern and sleek action science fiction picture that barely anyone saw.
Transylvania Twist (1989)
Along with being one of my earlier horror movie memories, Jim Wynorski’s “Transylvania Twist” also happens to be one of the earlier horror movie satires that predates “Scary Movie” by almost ten years. It lampoons the slashers of the eighties, it tackles horror movie clichés to a fine art, and even props a few music videos here and there. A mix of “Kentucky Fried Movie,” some “Monty Python,” and a dash of “Young Frankenstein,” Wynorski’s “Transylvania Twist” is an admirable and often giggle inducing attempt at spoofing the entire horror genre and the fads of the mid to late eighties by staging some raucous old fashioned television commercials (with a horror twist of course), while also positing its own plot line in the process. After a hilarious prologue involving a hapless busty traveler and three demented slasher icons getting more than they bargained for, we meet Dexter Ward, a young man who visits his dead uncle at his funeral and is shocked to discover his uncle has yet to kick the bucket.
Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)
A ridiculously talented cast leads what is easily one of the most underrated films of the last few years; “Monsters vs. Aliens” is a Mad Magazine style action adventure film that not only manages to pay tribute to the classic science fiction B movie tropes of the golden age of cinema, but also manages to create its own monster squad, that show they can save the world and not terrify it. “Monsters vs. Aliens” teams a blob, a gill man, a bug man (Hugh Laurie in his noticeable smug but likable demeanor), a giant grub, and a 50ft woman to take on archetypal alien menaces as they go on an exploration of themselves and their strengths as a team.
MacGruber (2010)
I’m still not sure if it was a large bid of admirable faith or mind numbing stupidity for Lorne Michaels to fuel an adult comedy based around a Saturday Night Live sketch that barely anyone is familiar with on a show no one really talks about anymore, based around spoofing an old 80’s television show that stopped being relevant ages ago. “MacGruber” is a film that is about eighty minutes too long, an endless barrage of ridiculous and droning attempts at comedy that fails on every single conceivable level.
All Star Superman (2011) (DVD)
“My last adventure is about to begin…”
I never actually was able to read all of Grant Morrison’s much hyped and controversial “All Star Superman” when it was originally released in newsstands back in 2005, so for me watching “All Star Superman” was mostly new territory. While I loved Morrison and Quitely’s treatment of the man of steel (for what I read), I lost track of the series, so 2011’s “All Star Superman” is fresh terrain that I was mostly excited to sit through, especially when you consider the cast of seasons heavyweights like Christina Hendricks, Anthony LaPaglia, Frances Conroy, and John DiMaggio respectively. “All Star Superman” remains about as true to Frank Quitely’s unique artistic design as possible while adhering to the neo-anime tone that DC has sidled with over the years. While the 2011 movie is short in the tooth, it is absolutely satisfying, especially in its ability to remain firmly entrenched in anime devices that keeps “All Star Superman” anything more than another stock Superman title.