Tag Archives: Comedy

Rock Star (2001)

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Chris ‘Izzy’ Pole is a hardcore fan of a famous rock band named “Steel Dragon” and passionately sings the lead for a tribute band called “Blood Pollution”. One day he gets a call from the agent of “Steel Dragon” to come an audition for the band as the lead singer and he’s ecstatic. When he passes the audition he gains instant fame but soon learns it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. One major fault of this is the incredibly watered down and cliché plotline. I’ve seen these plot devices and characters in a lot of other and better rock biographical movies before.

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Joe Somebody (2001)

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2001_joe_somebody_wallpaperJoe Scheffer is an honest workaday man who loves his daughter. One day while driving to work with his daughter Natalie he gets harshly humiliated by a bigger man in the parking lot. After feeling embarrassed, he decides to prove himself to his daughter and begins taking karate lessons with a washed up action star Chuck Scarett to seek revenge on the bully. But after a while, he begins to wonder if fighting is the best way to solve the problem and if being a man means fighting or just being an honest man to the people that matter in life. Comedies, family comedies especially are very lame if not predictable nowadays, so it was a treat watching an original one like this.

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Monsters, Inc. (2001)

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Monsters under the bed, monsters under the closet. Are there anymore universal themes in our childhood that we can relate to? Arguably Pixar’s most imaginative film, Pixar is known for creating simplistic stories revolving around childhood themes and “Monsters Inc.” is a success for tapping in to that classic fear of children fearing the monster in hiding in the shadows ready to scare them at a moment’s notice. But what about the monster? What is its purpose? Why does it need to scare us?

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Not Another Teen Movie (2001)

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NATMIt’s a shame that “Not Another Teen Movie” is such a mixed bag, as it has a ton of material to derive some great laughs from. By now the movie theaters have been filled with teen movie fare, and there’s some good fodder for fun. Sadly “Not Another Teen Movie” has so much nonsense, but also a lot of really brilliant material that you’ll find yourself quoting for a while. It’s a good thing the funny fodder outweighs the sheer misfires by a few inches, or else “Not Another Teen Movie” would be a botched missed opportunity. “Not Another Teen Movie” spoofs everything from John Hughes flicks all the way to recent hits like “Bring It On”.

The subplot is taken from one of my least favorite teen flicks, “She’s All That,” with dips in to other recent teen hits and some classics like “Breakfast Club.” In the movie, the “popular jock” and gets dumped by the “popular chick” for a “weird guy” spoofing that weird kid from “American Beauty”. So, the “popular jock’s” friends make him a bet that he can’t make a prom queen out of the “pretty ugly girl” which in fact is very hot when all that crap comes off of her. My favorite character though was “the token black guy,” who was barely in the film and spouted words like “shit”, “damn”, and “that is whack”.

Granted, you might have to see about every teen flick from the eighties and nineties to get most of the jokes here, but when a reference delivers with a good sight gag, it offers some raucous laughs. There are some great cameos by Molly Ringwald, Melissa Joan Hart, and Mr.T that make this worth watching, and lest I forget some great eye candy from Jaimme Presley. While “Not Another Teen Movie” completely falls apart by the climax, it more than makes up for it with a solid first half that does a good job lampooning iconic teen movie moments. It’s no masterpiece, but if you like spoof movies, this might keep you giggling ‘til the end.

Scary Movie 2 (2001)

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Anna Faris returns as the inept and goofy Cindy Campbell and is recruited along with her friends to “Hell house” for the weekend where a professor claims they’re there for dream studies but instead are there to have the crap scared out of them by ghosts. This is nothing compared to the original “Scary Movie” at all. First off, the comedy timing and jokes are off, poorly timed and lame as hell. There is nonstop sexual innuendos and bathroom jokes that are laughable but not because they’re funny.

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Bubble Boy (2001)

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bubble-boyI was skeptical going into “Bubble Boy,” but as I was finishing it, I must admit it won me over mainly for its eccentric tone and “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” inspired flights of fantasy and surreal. Jake Gyllenhaal (in a goofy doo that admittedly tries too hard to gauge laughs) plays Jimmy, a boy who when he was born did not have any immunities. He’s a generally lonely boy with a very overbearing mother who protects him from the outside world as he lives in his bubble watching everything go by.

He then meets Chloe as played by Marley Shelton who begins to teach him about the world and she eventually falls in love with him. But Jimmy keeps her from truly touching him, which she wants more than anything. Eventually, she meets another guy who she tells Jimmy she’s going to marry him. Jimmy knows this guy is wrong for her, but he doesn’t stop her. Now, still in love with her, Jimmy breaks free from his bubble and goes on the road to Niagara Falls to keep her from marrying. In a protective bubble he meets a whole cast of freaks, bikers, and a cult who thinks he’s a god. Will he be able to stop the girl he loves from making the biggest mistake of her life?

“Bubble Boy” is a very niche comedy with an odd sense of humor that’s more about personal limitations we set for ourselves, more than turning the illness of the bubble boy in to a caricature. The way Jimmy perceives the world is something you only see in cartoons and I found it quite funny. Though “Bubble Boy” is mainly a comedy, it has a ton of heart and tries to build a fun adventure out of the drive Jimmy has to seal hi romance with his girlfriend. I won’t argue “Bubble Boy” is a masterpiece, but it’s a fun and oddly entertaining twist on the road trip film. While it won’t make Jimmy in to the next Pee Wee Herman, it at least aspires for off the wall fun.

Thirteen Ghosts (2001)

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thir13enghostsI have to say director Steve Beck’s treatment “Thirteen Ghosts” is not as bad as everyone says it is. Every movie buff knows that this is a remake of the cult-classic directed by famous director William Castle. I found this to be a very good horror flick and a fun ghost thriller. The premise and concept of the movie are basically the same. The family is trapped in a big house with ghosts you can only see with special glasses. There are different entities and personalities for each ghost, my favorite would have to be the Juggernaut.

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