From the play by Dylan Thomas, “Under Milk Wood” examines not only a colorful array of individuals that pepper the town of Llareggub, a small but flourishing village of people who scheme, gossip, and co-habituate among one another in this village of oddballs and eccentrics. The well-acted piece closely resembles Thomas’ play in which often times we pan through the rooms over and over exploring these villagers. The film, set in different locales, doesn’t really have much of a focus, instead we explore each villager over and over and, surely, this is that experimental art film that movie-goers fear intently. It’s often times very whimsical with Richard Burton who pulls in a good performance as the narrator exposing the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the town folks through his serene storytelling.
Tag Archives: Comedy
Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
After Stephen Chow’s hilarious “Shaolin Soccer”, he comes back with yet another very funny action-comedy that is part Chuck Jones, part Bruce Lee. The marriage of tense, engrossing martial arts action, and off the wall screwball antics that would make Tex Avery gleam with pride, is a task that wouldn’t be an easy one by any means, but director Stephen Chow balances the two accordingly, and as the climax becomes more action than comedy, there is still a sense of the goofy to it, a goofiness that some will love for its sheer originality, and some won’t for that same fact. Chow manages to create some of the most screwy comedy I’ve seen in a long time, while he manages to spoof much of his influences such as “The Shining” and “Thriller” as do all the directors whom have been impacted by pop culture.
Camp Slaughter (Camp Daze) (2005)
So, as I’ve mentioned a million times, I’m a hardcore slasher fan. Aside from being a hardcore horror fan, I also am a fan of the sub-genre, and director Alex Pucci and writer Draven Gonzalez really seem to know their stuff when it pertains to slashers, and that’s one reason why I was smiling throughout the entire film. The film opens as you would expect any slasher to. Dark creepy camp, a camp sing-along with a ridiculously catchy hook, and then death. And then more death. The ending though is very similar to the opening of “Friday the 13th”, hell even the score and opening title nearly make it almost identical, and my attention was caught. I loved the opening simply because director Pucci captures the mood very well and almost copies the original film to the tee.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
When “Anchorman” premiered in theaters, it managed to cause quite a stir, especially with newsmen who proclaimed despite being a comedy, the film was shockingly true to the personality of a real anchorman, especially in the seventies. Ferrell’s performance as Anchorman Ron Burgundy is such a true work of comedic gold, it’s hard to imagine anyone else in that role besides him. “Anchorman” is such a goofy, very silly, but often very funny comedy that not only pokes fun at anchormen, and the seventies but makes great use of its entire cast leaving no actor unused. “Anchorman’s” overt goofiness will be off-putting to people expecting something more adult, but this is not to be taken seriously.
The Triplets of Belleville (Les Triplettes de Belleville) (2003)
Hitchcock once said, “If it’s a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on”. This wonderful French animated adventure “Triplets of Belleville” does the trick pure and simple and not only puts Hitchcock’s theory to work, but it manages to prove it without a doubt. It’s very rare we get great films that are silent these days yet manage to tell more of a story than any mainstream Disney film could ever hope to tell. Hitchcock would have loved this because it does an incredible job putting that theory to work throughout the entire story which has no dialogue whatsoever from any of the characters, but tells such a clear story.
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004)
Was there a point of a sequel to a movie that was just decent after all? This has all the makings of the usual crappy Disney film. Black and white heroes and villains, goofy characters, determined heroes and heroines, and even dance numbers on occasion courtesy of Julie Andrews which would have been a very nice homage, had it not been brought down by the non-talents of Raven Simone. No one here comes out unscathed, every character is goofy, irritating, and mind-numbing. They even make Ms. Andrews looks overly goofy among this funny farm.
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
Okay, readers, pop quiz from yours truly. You’re a Hollywood exec (sorry to insult you, but bear with me, I’m getting somewhere with this), and you help get a movie in to theaters that’s barely watchable, what do you do? Do you a) leave it alone to rot on shelves and move on? b) do you remake it? or c) do you give it a crappy sequel? If you chose A or B then you know nothing about Hollywood, because inevitably all this is is basically a crappy sequel to a crappy movie, the problem is while the first film was without a doubt crappy, it was mildly entertaining, but this, this is just brutal.