Due to the economy's stranglehold on the everyman in this time of economic duress, Hopefully Entertained has been forced to cut back on operation costs. In time, the management will rebound and continue to bring you more timely reviews, but for now, please enjoy the dated, though still-topical articles. If you desire more timely dissection's of films, books and comics, I recommend e-mailing me and we can discuss donations. Oooh, won't that be fun.
Pandering aside, cash is strapped here, so I'll spend the next few weeks going over films, books and whatnot of past because on the internet it's not the when, it's the fact that you're talking at all.
First up is a film I caught just before moving the homebase of Hopefully Entertained: Get Smart. Fortunately or not, I actually grew up a bit on this show thanks to the efforts of cable staple Nick at Nite. Don Adams and Barbara Feldon were enjoyable presences in my household at tender ages, so I went in with just a hint more bar for the movie to pass muster. Granted, I also gave it a lien since I also remembered the failed relaunch that added Andy Dick to the cast, so it all probably evened out in the end.
Catching your eye first off is that this is no Cold War spoof/rehash. Moving with the times, the film updates everyone and everything in attitude, style and presentation. Gone is the tripping-over-my-shoes nasal amusement of Don Adams's Max Smart, and here is Steve Carrell who is competent until he overcompetents and does something just as bad as Adams's take on the character. Such an update really shows the tone of the movie, blending a fair degree of action and comedy that made me think it was more an action comedy than satirical send-up of olde.
While a manuever such as this may alienate some fans, I was comforted to a degree. Trying to retread gold has not been Hollywood's strong suit, so this approach of a real world spy organization that's just a bit goofy really worked for me. What really worked though were the subtle and not-so-subtle homages that cropped up throughout the film, delivered with style and panache by a slick script and clever leading cast.
Would you believe they snuck that old gag in? Would you believe they made an attempt? Would you believe I'd be doing this gag if I hadn't seen it a thousand times? Well, there you have it then.
If you're a fan of the old show, the new movie comes across as a young whippersnapper who saw Mom and Dad's spy show and wanted to do something similar while showing Mom and Dad that they really dug the original, and it works.
Steve Carrell is his own Max Smart that is charming in a bumbling way, but not in Don Adams's bumbling way. Anne Hathaway kicks ass just as efficiently and with the same wink that Barbara Feldon brought to Agent 99. The biggest treat though was Alan Arkin's grizzled I-can-still-fight war vet Chief over Ed Platt's half-in-the-field, I'm-too-old-for-this exasperation. His line to a smarmy, youthful security guard after slamming the youth with an impressive right hook- "What's that sonny? I'm an old man, you're gonna have to speak up!" had me rolling.
Such charms are good for the old crowd that still carries around a shoe phone in our cellular days, but does such homage hold up to kids who've never heard of this sixties malarky? I like to think so. The added jokes and parallels are just easter eggs for us old fogies, like when Stan Lee makes one of his many Marvel Movie walk-ons: they never really detract from the plot and it hurts no one to throw them in there.
Maybe this version of Get Smart is trying to spin too many plates at once with a wink to the old fans, promising arms open to new and still maintaining a story and characters throughout, but it never feels that way. I was laughing at most of the jokes and enjoying the ride as it played out quite cleverly- a notion that seems lost on the comedies of today with their blatant parody and over-the-top gross-out humor. Such goofiness has it's place, and this film has its share, but I've always enjoyed clever wordplay and satirical wit and that's still the strength of this side splitting film.
Would you believe it?
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Pineapple Parcel Post
Perhaps I'm jut naive, but I really would have liked to see an actual pineapple in this movie. I know that Pineapple Express is just the name for the titular marijuana that gets the protagonists into the mess they're in, and whose nomenclature is explained in halting attempts by now-professional stoner actor James Franco, but some wild part of me hoped for some random fruit in this flick. Alas, not much fruit appeared and I had to make do with an exploded raspberry smoothie/slushie.
Granted, we all knew we were in for a different ride than straight comedy by the trailer's own admission. A continuation of the eerily real-life comedy style of Superbad, Judd Apatow has Seth Rogen and James Franco as pothead Dale and dealer Saul, respectively, on the run from bad guys, in what plays out like a stoner comedy wandered into an action movie and went with it because there was a bowl of Chee-tos on the far side of the set.
I know I was lured at the possibility of this being the first stoner caper film to date. While I was let down in this category as much as the pineapples, I didn't walk away completely empty-handed.
James Franco was a true delight throughout, no longer shackled by second-fiddle status in the Spider-man franchise, and exercises his bizarre mix of cute but not-quite-cute-enough looks to terrific results. As the easy-going, easy-thinking Saul, Franco makes a pot dealer everyone in college met at one time or another. Saul is your buddy, non-threatening and only a threat when provoked, which he is quick to apologize for later, you can't help but feel you stepped over this guy when visiting at a friend's house, looking back to make sure, that yep, that's a bong and, yep, he just took a hit. It's the kind of realistic, rich character Apatow's crew brought to fame in Superbad.
The other treat of the movie were those characters. Whatever gift the crew on Superbad had for characterization, they were sure to bring it to this movie in full force. Not a person walked on screen, not a line delivered by an extra, not a scene was shot that didn't make you wonder what the story was to persons x, y, and z. Everyone walks on fully formed and ready for action, never a plot device or contrivance in sight, for they're all products of a sharp, character-driven script.
The flip side to this is when you have so many interesting characters and you have so much interesting story, you run the real risk of either a) overloading the audience or b) overloading the movie. Since I don't see this as the kind of film to attract Rhodes Scholars, I'm gong to hand over "b" as the harsh element to what otherwise could have been a smooth hit.
As said before, Pineapple Express runs like a stoner comedy that wandered into an action flick, but it also dives into clever character development, then turns sideways to hit on old movie references most of the younger audience is probably going to miss. Playing at so many games at once, you can't help but feel like you're watching a vaudeville lady who's got one really good act and is starting to incorporate other potential acts while still trying to maintain her original show.
She's enough of a professional that she never lets it slide that she's going beyond her abilities for the time, but you can't help but shake the feeling that if she'd just stuck with the original show and only added the one or two spinning plates rather than three dozen then everyone would be happier overall.
Such ambition should not be discouraged and I applaud Apatow and his crew of misfits for trying to buck the genre a little and see what they could get out of something usually reserved for the paranoid giggles and red-eyed guffaws. Maybe next go round when they mix and match what they want to make, they'll just stick with the two new spinning plates.
Granted, we all knew we were in for a different ride than straight comedy by the trailer's own admission. A continuation of the eerily real-life comedy style of Superbad, Judd Apatow has Seth Rogen and James Franco as pothead Dale and dealer Saul, respectively, on the run from bad guys, in what plays out like a stoner comedy wandered into an action movie and went with it because there was a bowl of Chee-tos on the far side of the set.
I know I was lured at the possibility of this being the first stoner caper film to date. While I was let down in this category as much as the pineapples, I didn't walk away completely empty-handed.
James Franco was a true delight throughout, no longer shackled by second-fiddle status in the Spider-man franchise, and exercises his bizarre mix of cute but not-quite-cute-enough looks to terrific results. As the easy-going, easy-thinking Saul, Franco makes a pot dealer everyone in college met at one time or another. Saul is your buddy, non-threatening and only a threat when provoked, which he is quick to apologize for later, you can't help but feel you stepped over this guy when visiting at a friend's house, looking back to make sure, that yep, that's a bong and, yep, he just took a hit. It's the kind of realistic, rich character Apatow's crew brought to fame in Superbad.
The other treat of the movie were those characters. Whatever gift the crew on Superbad had for characterization, they were sure to bring it to this movie in full force. Not a person walked on screen, not a line delivered by an extra, not a scene was shot that didn't make you wonder what the story was to persons x, y, and z. Everyone walks on fully formed and ready for action, never a plot device or contrivance in sight, for they're all products of a sharp, character-driven script.
The flip side to this is when you have so many interesting characters and you have so much interesting story, you run the real risk of either a) overloading the audience or b) overloading the movie. Since I don't see this as the kind of film to attract Rhodes Scholars, I'm gong to hand over "b" as the harsh element to what otherwise could have been a smooth hit.
As said before, Pineapple Express runs like a stoner comedy that wandered into an action flick, but it also dives into clever character development, then turns sideways to hit on old movie references most of the younger audience is probably going to miss. Playing at so many games at once, you can't help but feel like you're watching a vaudeville lady who's got one really good act and is starting to incorporate other potential acts while still trying to maintain her original show.
She's enough of a professional that she never lets it slide that she's going beyond her abilities for the time, but you can't help but shake the feeling that if she'd just stuck with the original show and only added the one or two spinning plates rather than three dozen then everyone would be happier overall.
Such ambition should not be discouraged and I applaud Apatow and his crew of misfits for trying to buck the genre a little and see what they could get out of something usually reserved for the paranoid giggles and red-eyed guffaws. Maybe next go round when they mix and match what they want to make, they'll just stick with the two new spinning plates.
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