Comedy

Still Pitchy, and Far From Perfect

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Pitch Perfect 3
  • IMDb: link

Pitch Perfect 3 movie reviewScreenwriters Kay Cannon and Mike White bend over backwards the third time around to find a plausible reason to reunite the Barden Bellas for a final chance to sing and compete for glory. Given the glut of game shows which are music-based it would seem pretty easy to do. However, Pitch Perfect 3 goes old school and instead sends our ladies overseas to perform on a USO tour for American servicemen abroad. And, because everything in this series has to be about competition, the Bellas are pitted against the other bands competing for an opening act spot for prestigious musician DJ Khaled (playing himself).

Most of the cast return including the talented Becca Anna Kendrick, the awkward and all-the-sudden less-sexually-confused Chloe (Brittany Snow), the competitive Aubrey (Anna Camp), the younger Emily (Hailee Steinfeld), the odd Lilly (Hana Mae Lee), and the annoying Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) who gets her own bizarre subplot involving a long-lost father (John Lithgow) and gangsters… for the micro-audience of those waiting to see Rebel Wilson as a ninja? Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins also reprise their roles as commentators, this time tracking the group overseas for a documentary which would seem to have a very narrow target audience as well.

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Jumanji: Unwelcome is the Remake

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
  • IMDb: link

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle movie review1995’s Jumanji isn’t a great adaptation of the award-winning children’s book about a game which brings jungle chaos to the real world, but it works well-enough as a family-friendly adventure. Fast-forward to 2017 and Jumanji is reinvented as a video game, a concept which gives the sequel/remake the ability to cast big name stars playing kids trapped in the game. While the concept is initially interesting, nothing about the plot makes sense in the structure of a video game as the script quickly devolves into a hot mess.

The film begins in Breakfast Club-style when four students, a nerd (Alex Wolff), jock (Ser’Darius Blain), popular girl (Madison Iseman), and freak (Morgan Turner), get thrown in detention by a stern principal. Finding an old video game in the school’s basement, the foursome are transported into the world of Jumanji as the avatars they chose: the hero (Dwayne “It’s Okay to Call Me The Rock Again” Johnson), his zoologist sidekick (Kevin Hart), a cartographer (Jack Black, basically doing Rob Schneider‘s shtick from The Hot Chick), and a dance-fighter (Karen Gillan). As in the original, the group will discover another player (Nick Jonas) trapped in the game.

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Psych: The Movie

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Psych: The Movie
  • wiki: link

Psych: The Movie television review

Set three years after the events of the Psych season finale, Psych: The Movie reunites the cast in San Fransisco where Shawn (James Roday) and Gus (Dulé Hill) will insert themselves into the attempted murder of Juliet‘s (Maggie Lawson) partner leading to a confrontation with an old enemy. Along with all the familiar faces (including a cameo of Timothy Omundson, who suffered a stroke shortly before the shooting of the TV-movie), we get the usual catchphrases (even if some of the them feel a bit forced) and goofiness from the fake psychic detective and his pharmaceutical salesman partner fans of the show remember fondly.

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The Disaster Artist

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Disaster Artist
  • IMDb: link

The Disaster Artist movie reviewDo you know the phrase “so bad, it’s good?” James Franco does double duty directing and starring in this behind-the-scenes look at the making of writer, producer, and star Tommy Wiseau‘s (played here by James Franco) The Room which some have dubbed one of the best bad movies ever made akin to the films of Ed Wood.

Dave Franco stars as Tommy’s best-friend Greg who goes with him to Los Angeles to pursue their dreams of becoming Hollywood actors. After struggling to find work, the pair decide to shoot their own film (despite having no expertise on any part of the process). The result is a disaster that became a cult favorite which is still shown in theaters to this day.

The Disaster Artist is basically a one-joke film about untalented people making a movie that people enjoy despite its numerous flaws. Franco’s film doesn’t attempt to explain Tommy Wiseau or the plot of a movie cast members themselves didn’t understand, instead it earnestly looks at the friendship that birthed such a beloved abomination onto the unprepared movie-going public.

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Lemon

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Lemon
  • IMDb: link

“I knew you were crazy. I thought it was good crazy. I liked it. I liked it a lot; I thought it was fun. Now I know you’re bad crazy.”

Lemon DVD reviewWriter/director Janicza Bravo‘s oddball dark comedy stars Brett Gelman as a thoroughly-unlikable and constantly-sullen actor and theater teacher with a blind girlfriend (Judy Greer) who wants nothing to do with him, an equally-pretentious prize student (Michael Cera sporting some insanely ridiculous hair) with whom he has a very unusual relationship, and a dysfunctional family (Fred Melamed, Rhea Perlman, Shiri Appleby, Martin Starr, Hannah Heller, and David Paymer).

It’s hard to root either for a man lacking all empathy or against such a sad sack who is little more than the butt of life’s series of jokes. Isaac’s misadventures include belittling a theater student (Gillian Jacobs), fretting about the state of his relationship, accidentally killing his friend’s birds, awkward attempts to woo a new love (Nia Long), and taking jobs as the face of sexually transmitted diseases. More than a little self-indulgent, every character and event in the movie pushes the oddball style past credulity highlighting either the humor or misery of its protagonist (often both at the same time), which makes it difficult to take either that seriously.

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