Archive for August, 2008
13 items.
I don’t know why I continue to beat up on The House Bunny in the comic. I saw it on Saturday with Cami and my sister-in-law and it’s a perfectly serviceable film. There’s nothing new about the plot, though. It’s basically Revenge of The Nerds with hot pants. Frankly, one wonders if you couldn’t accuse screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith of self-plagiarism. The two wrote Legally Blonde back in 2001 and The House Bunny shares a similar feel. The major difference being that Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Woods was actually a very intelligent and driven young woman with a fluff exterior. Anna Faris as Shelley Darlingson is a dyed-in-the-wool moron that ends up being more heart than brains.
Both seem to have an affinity for naming their pets cutesy names. "Bruiser" for Woods’s chihuahua in Legally Blonde. “Pooter” for Darlingson’s cat in The House Bunny.
The other big difference, of course is that Legally Blonde is the far superior movie. At least it had a plot that kind of makes sense. The House Bunny is all over the place and edited terribly. There are huge logic gaps in the film, sacrificed, I suppose to make room for “The Positive Message” at the end of it.
I kind of left the theater wondering who this movie was supposed to be for. Was it meant for geeky girls to teach them how to embrace their inner sexpot? Or was it for vapid, materialistic hard-bodies to teach them how to crack open a book every once in a while.
The movie leaves you hanging on a string for most of the second act. After the geeky girls of the Zeta house get their makeover, they become superficial snobs, no better than their adversaries– and you wonder “Oh my God. Is the movie going to leave them like this? Could these characters realistically abandon a lifetime of social awkwardness and rebellion after one application of lip gloss?”
As clumsy as the movie is when it finally comes around to delivering it’s message, the girls would have been better off left as bubbleheads.
I wanted to like The House Bunny more than I did and I think a lot of that is based on the strength of the performances between Farris and Emma Stone. Faris has created a great screen ditzoid, you just wish she had a better script to do it in. Emma Stone is completely natural as the over-compensating geek. She speaks and you cringe, but for a good reason – because her acting nails that awkwardness so perfectly.
Maybe The House Bunny is a better movie than I give it credit for because I’ve actually been giving it a lot of thought over the last couple of days. There are quotable lines from the movie and a few strong laughs. But it feels like it was assembled so hastily, it’s like a missed opportunity for Farris and Stone.
I have more to say about the film, especially regarding some of the supporting performances. Specifically, Kat Dennings, who I think was woefully miscast. I’m sure it’s something we’ll be talking about in greater detail tonight on The Triple Feature podcast at 9PM CST over at TalkShoe. If you’re interested, please tune in and contribute to the conversation. We’d love to have you!
See you then!
[ No Comments ]
Disaster Movie comes out this weekend and if you don’t think this movie looks like it was made for five dollars, check out the production stills on IMDB and get back to me.
I’m not particularly interested in ragging on Disaster Movie (I get more of a chuckle out of making Jared "the heavy" in this strip) because it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. But I was looking back over the previous films in this dire franchise and was trying to figure out the formula for it’s success.
Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet The Spartans and Superhero Movie are some of the lowest common denominator films out there. They get trashed by critics and I seem to know very few people who watch them or enjoy them. So why do they keep getting the green light?
It has to come down to simple economics. Cheap to produce and released on slow weekends against weak competition. Even if the movies only stay in the theaters a week, they more than make up their production cost. Then it’s on to the next steaming turd of a parody starring a brand new cast of unnamed actors who will work for scale.
Say what you want about the Scary Movie franchise, but at least they kept some of the characters consistent throughout those four films…
This is a stray thought not really tethered to anything, but I was looking at the production stills again and was kind of admiring how quickly they get their parody to market on some of these films. Indiana Jones, Hellboy II, The Hulk – these are references to some fairly recent movies.
I would almost be impressed if the impact of these references extended beyond the recognition factor and were actually funny. “Hey! I just saw that movie a few weeks ago and now they’re makin’ fun of it! That’s amaaaaaazing!” It’s a parlor trick for the easily impressed. The cinematic equal of a big rock band coming to your down and saying "It’s a thrill to be back in… [insert name of town here]!” The people who “WOO!” in recognition of their city being named… that’s who Disaster Movie is for.
Gotta cut it short tonight. I’m feeling a little under the weather. Stress catching up with me perhaps. I was a little bit down in the dumps this morning with a stuffy nose and an itchy throat. I thought it was allergies. But now I know for certain that I’m sick. So I’ve got to drink my Ovaltine and go to bed.
See you back here on Friday!
[ No Comments ]
I don’t know that I’m as resistant to the idea of seeing College as I’ve portrayed myself in the comic, but I have my reservations. It doesn’t look particularly funny, it has an uncreative title and I don’t really think I’m the target market, but I would be willing to give it a try. It’ll most likely be a rental.
I have an odd relationship with "Let’s get laid!" comedies because the almost always center around high school students and their hair-brained ideas for hooking up with opposite sex. I had a really negative reaction to American Pie because it was nothing like my high school experience and, for some reason, I view College through that filter. This is a very superficial reason to be cautious of a movie sight-unseen and I am fully aware that "Let’s get laid!’ comedies are wish-fulfillment to some degree but… darn it, I guess I’m no fun.
Really the only comedy of this variety that has ever actually impressed me was Superbad. But that movie wasn’t so much about the pursuit of, welll… happiness, I suppose It was more about the relationship between Michael Cera and Jonah Hill’s characters. So I guess I regard it as more of a buddy comedy?
I know. I’m weird.
At any rate, I got to throw in a Caddyshack reference, so I’m good.
Special note about today’s comic – This strip is the first in a series of “Insert Fan Here” comics brought about by the donation drive I’ve got going on. It’s really simple. If you donate a certain amount of money, you get to be in the comic! If you want to learn more, you can click here and read all about it.
The fan in question is Jesse and he also helped point me toward this joke. Said Jesse, I would never go see College yet I think it would be… hilarious if I were made fun of for going to it in the strip. Maybe make me an aging guy (well, I am 26 which is not THAT old) who is having a sort of mid-20s crisis and is a little too gung-ho about reliving his own college experience.”
I probably could have made comic-Jesse a little more zany, but it’s like a tightrope walk, y’know? I don’t want to draw him acting like a complete animal. He’d never show the comic to his kids!
By the way, did you know that I’ll send you an 11 x 17″ print of the comic you appear in? That’s right. I’ll do that because I care.
I also want to re-enforce that I am open to suggestions for these walk-on roles. If you’re donating and helping me out, I want you to be happy with what you get. Jesse went about it the exact right way. He gave me a nugget of an idea an let me run it across the line. I can only hope he enjoys it!
At any rate, that will do it for me. I’m looking forward to the long weekend. Cami’s birthday is on Monday, so we’ll be celebrating all weekend long. Don’t worry. There will still be a new comic here on Monday.
See you then!
[ No Comments ]
