Comedy

Fright Night

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Fright Night (2011)
  • IMDB: link

fright-night-posterWith one or two exceptions, I’m not usually one for vampire stories. Sure I have some fondness to cheesy flicks from my childhood such as Love at First Bite and Once Bitten, but for the most part vampire movies leave me cold. So when I find one I enjoy I’m pleasantly surprised.

An exception to my disinterest to the genre is Joss Whedon‘s TV-series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel. It’s probably not a coincidence that I enjoyed Buffy writer Marti Noxon‘s fresh take on 1985’s Fright Night. I’ll also freely admit it doesn’t hurt that the movie co-stars Doctor Who‘s David Tennant.

The remake streamlines the plot of the original film and kicks into high gear much earlier as high school student Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) discovers his new neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell) is not only a vampire but responsible for the death of several of his classmates in the Las Vegas suburb including his missing friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). (A fact that is revealed to the audience, Charlie, and his friends, much earlier than in the original).

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30 Minutes or Less

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: 30 Minutes or Less
  • IMDB: link

30-minutes-or-less-posterLoosely based on real story Jesse Eisenberg stars as slacker pizza deliver guy Nick who is kidnapped by two slackjawed buffoons (Danny McBride, Nick Swardson) who strap a bomb to Nick’s chest and give him 10 hours to rob a bank. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Nick must quickly make up with his best friend (Aziz Ansari), who he recently had a falling out with, and come up with a plan to save his life. Despite having everything to loose, Chet (Ansari) agrees to help Nick rob a bank with a plan that makes the guys from Bottle Rocket look like the Ocean’s Eleven crew.

Somehow 30 Minutes or Less wins a prize for being overly simplistic and convoluted at the same time. I’m still not sure exactly how screenwriter Michael Diliberti managed to do this. It turns out McBride and Swardson don’t want the $100,000 for themselves but as a down payment for a hitman (Michael Peña), the boyfriend of a stripper (Bianca Kajlich) they have just met, to kill McBride’s character’s father (Fred Ward). Did you follow all that?

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Bait and Switch

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Friends with Benefits
  • IMDB: link

Friends with BenefitsThe idea of Mila Kunis starring in a raunchy sex comedy from the director who gave us the best male cheerleader recruitment film ever sounded promising. But for a film about casual sex Friends with Benefits, with the exception of a couple of early montages where our two leads spend 90% of their naked time together, is actually kind of impotent.

Dylan (Justin Timberlake) and Jamie (Kunis) meet cute when he comes to New York after she arranges a job interview for him at GQ through her role as a head-hunter. The two hit it off, and when Dylan decides to take the job they become fast friends.

After bonding over past relationship stories and beer one night the pair decide to try and be friends who occasionally use each other for sex. As almost always happens in movies like this things start out great but go downhill fast. This isn’t the first film to try using casual sex as the basis for a relationship film (it’s not even the first one this year), and despite failing rather spectacularly it’s sure not to be the last.

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Rango

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Rango
  • IMDB: link

rango-dvdA pet chameleon (Johnny Depp) with an overactive imagination finds himself separated from his owners and stranded in the desert. As a consequence of his wild tales (and an amazing amount of dumb luck) he soon finds himself elected sheriff of a small town with a water shortage. Under the name of Rango our hero sets out with a posse to solve the problem.

Rango is a quirky and beautifully rendered animated slapstick comedy that also, sadly, drags in places. And despite referencing everything from the westerns of Sergio Leone to Chinatown to Apocalypse Now, Rango isn’t nearly as original or smart as it wants to be.

The story plays out in predictable fashion. Part One – ill-suited protagonist is mistaken for hero. Part Two – hero is forced to admit lies. Part Three – liar is given a moment of illumination and learns his lesson. Part Four – liar returns and becomes a true hero he was destined to be all along. You’ve seen this story before, many, many times.

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