My brother linked me an article from the website Cracked on three movies that the author can't decide whether to take seriously or not: Click Here to read.
So anyway, I thought I'd take a spin at the three movies reviewed and let you know what I think re: content and author's opinion.
What's Your Number?
In fewer words than the title itself I'd have to agree with the Cracked article that this movie, more or less, sucks. I'd also have to agree with the Cracked article that What's Your Number has absolutely no original content, lacks character depth and follows an age old pattern of single girl looking for love the week (or whatever) before her sister (or whoever) gets married. Where's the original thought? 27 Dresses already did it, Something Borrowed is doing it right now and No Strings Attached/Love and Other Drugs (although a somewhat different offshoot of the Rom-Com) made millions with almost the exact same plot.
So why the heck are people spending $15+ to sit through the same movie every year? I know that 27 Dresses, Something Borrowed and No Strings/Love Drugs were bad because I downloaded them (gasp!) and the most I spent was $2 on a chocolate bar but these movies are sucking people in.
(I'm not innocent of getting sucked in though but we'll come back to that....)
You know, Rom-Com's can be good and instead of appealing to our very basic human nature Hollywood should try harder to make movies like Easy A and Knocked Up. And you know what....She's the Man, too because even though that's another offshoot of the Rom-Com it's still incredibly entertaining, original and full to the brim with absurd but lovable characters! Who, by the way, aren't just good looking for the sake of being good looking or single and desperate for the sake of being single and desperate.
And one last thing: the writer's of Knocked Up had it right when they came up with the brilliant idea that a doctor would only recognize the lead by the look of their vagina. Brilliant, kind of crude but altogether original and yet I've actually seen this done over and over again since then. Case in point: What's Your Number? Guys, it's be done and it was funny...it's not funny anymore.
The Hangover Part II
What?!?
No. No. No! It's unbelievable. In fact, I'm hoping that this is all just a big joke....another thing I agree with the Cracked article about. It's one thing to make the same Rom-Com over and over again with different actors and mildly different story lines but it's another thing to take a good premise and actually just make another version of it. Zack Galifianakis is great, don't get me wrong, but there's nothing charming about him in the second installment of a movie premise that really should have been left alone. And the thing that really gets me about this movie: in the first Hangover we're lead to believe that these guys have a reputation for being wild but in the second Hangover the novelty of three dudes getting so wasted they don't remember anything is gone. I no longer have respect for them because they got plastered in Vegas, stole a tiger and got married to a hooker. It's just not genuine. And disingenuous people suck.
Bury the idea, Hollywood, because it worked and now it's just giving me a really big head ache.
HERE STARTS THE PART WHERE I DISAGREE WITH THE CRACKED GUY...
Fast Five
You know what? It is what it is and no one should take it for more than that. The Cracked article complains about the cars and the fighting and the butts BUT the Fast and Furious franchise (woooo, alliteration) has never really ever been more than those three things. I guess there's some half-baked commentary on third world dictatorships (I guess) but what it all comes down to is guns and cars and butts. I'm biased, sure, because Vin Diesel is good looking and Paul Walker more so but the question of whether to take Fast Five seriously or not has one simple answer: nyes. "No" because it's an action movie and action movies are stupid and "Yes" because if you ignore the fact that everything and everyone blows up, rolls over and shoots guns without getting hurt then you're sure to be entertained.
I guess it just feels like even though Fast Five is the dude(r) version of What's Your Number? the genre of Rom-Com takes itself a little bit more seriously than this variety of action. I mean, for god's sake, Ludacris is in it.
Honestly, I think that you can't expect something like Fast Five to be intellectual but What's Your Number? tries its hardest to be smart, fun and original in all the departments that it's dumb, boring and clichéd.
Thanks for reading.
What's Your Number?: 27 borrowed bridesmaid dresses with no strings attached covered in shake out of 100
The Hangover part II: 1 reallllllllyy bad hangover out of 5
Fast Five: 4 furiously fast cars out of 5
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