drumz Reviews

Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Great concept, disappointing execution

[3/10 · 22 February 2008]

While I'm sure I'll pay a price in the "helpfulness" department for saying it, this is the only film out of the couple dozen that I caught at Sundance this year that I simply could not make it through. (I walked out around the 50-minute mark.) I have nothing against feel-good comedies, and as a film lover, I found the concept hilarious and suspected that this director would do a good job with it. For me at least, it wasn't to be.

I've never been a Jack Black fan, but I was willing to give him a chance, and he was serviceable in a role that didn't ask all that much. What I couldn't get over was the fact that the "sweded" recreations of classic films were not much more imaginative than the stuff that the "Scary Movie" franchise has been cranking out lately. If you want to see classic movies ingeniously remade on a shoestring, might I recommend "Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation" instead? Those three teenagers had a lot less dough to work with than the the creators of this far-too-predictable exercise, but one could argue that the results were far more entertaining.

End of rant. It could have been worse, but it should have been so much better.

Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (1989 Video)

Brilliant

[10/10 · 10 February 2008]

Like Blueghost, I saw it at SF Indiefest and had a great time.

To take stars away from this film based on its technical merits (eighties Betamax, bad sound) would be grinchlike and silly. Sure: when you go into a remake with a $5,000 budget, made by three friends who started in 1982 at age 12 and wrapped the project seven years later, you admire the concept even as you think you just might be in for a couple hours of junk. You would be wrong about the latter. This will stand as one of the most ridiculously awesome successful experiments ever committed to film.

They set one of their parents' basements on fire, and (at least as they tell it) the parents only belatedly caught on and demanded adult supervision, which apparently didn't help much in that the "supervisor" was a total pyro. They did the famous truck chase in all its glory. They obtained snakes. Spider monkeys proved trickier, so Snickers the dog filled in. They scored an honest-to-God submarine. What can I say? Bring on the documentary, and the original on video for all to see.

Burn Notice (2007–2013)

One of your better so-bad-they're-unmissable shows

[8/10 · 22 September 2007]

It's bad in the way that "The A-Team," "The Equalizer," and "MacGyver" were bad. While those obvious predecessors were able to keep their badness under wraps and still make us believe, we were more innocent then. Today, one needs more clever editing and a lot more irony if that throwback is going to get renewed. This may not be entirely fair on the part of We the Audience, but it is what it is.

The good news is that "Burn Notice" mostly delivers in spades. It's a bit ridiculous on the surface, but it's willing also to go the extra mile to compensate with some extremely funny scenes and top-notch production values.

It's not exactly "Moonlighting," which delivered the sexual tension much more convincingly. The romantic chemistry does not work IMHO: Gabrielle Anwar is talented enough but is not the right choice for this role.

Still, good show, and definitely among our better summer light entertainment surprises. I'm looking forward to Season 2.

Away from Her (2006)

Devastating

[8/10 · 15 September 2007]

It's been said that Alzheimer's is easier on those who suffer from it than from those who are closest to them. While I have no first-hand knowledge of whether this is the case (and pray that I will not, and pray for those who do), I do know that watching Gordon Pinsent's heart break on screen is not a comfortable way to spend 110 minutes. It's merely an important one.

The written words "Go now. I love you. Go now." are going to haunt me for some time, I suspect. If they resonate with you, then trust me, you need to see this film.

It's not perfect. The "did she really just say that?" tactlessness of the nursing-home administrator provides some dark comic relief for a while but becomes grating and redundant by the second hour. As for the almost Hollywood ending, with its moment of reconnection between Grant and Fiona in one of her moments of nearly perfect lucidity: on the one hand it's beautiful, but on the other hand, isn't it a bit too much to ask for? Maybe, maybe not, what do I know. As a character study of people who are trapped in one of nature's cruelest mazes, this is an astonishing piece of work. I've enjoyed Sarah Polley as an actor; clearly it's time to recognize her terrific skills as a director.

Shut Up & Sing (2006)

Terrible divide

[9/10 · 8 July 2007]

I guess I'm the Dixie Chicks' new audience, their having been deserted by a certain breed of fan who interprets seventeen words as a good reason to renounce his or her loyalty and stomp a few CDs into oblivion. Why would any artist want such a fan in the first place? Where are the country-music fans who will stand up for them? Are we really this easily distracted, so many years after Lennon's infamous "more popular than Jesus" stompfest? Yeah, I suppose we are.

This is a truly heartbreaking film. It's also really funny, and ultimately joyous. These three simply do not give in, and while there's a certain "Spinal Tap" quality about their efforts to redefine their careers in light of their abandonment by extremely fair-weather friends, the fact is that it worked. They're still the world's best-selling all-female band, and until we can round up three or more seriously fascist chicks who can work together long enough to deliver a significant challenge, I suspect that they'll remain that way.

Waitress (2007)

A joyous legacy

[10/10 · 7 May 2007]

Hard to review this film under the circumstances. Adrienne Shelly's death was a body blow to me. I didn't know her apart from her work over the past 18 years, but that was enough to know that we lost someone truly important on November 1, 2006.

It's the movie that matters, and this one shows Shelly coming into her own as a director, the third time out of the gate. It's smart and funny and life-affirming, and when stacked up against "Fay Grim," the latest effort from writer-director Hal Hartley (who gave Shelly her start), there's really no contest: it's the pupil over the mentor all the way.

(Sorry, Hal, if I've offended, though I doubt that you'd mind.)

Small film, huge heart.

For the record, the Adrienne Shelly Foundation is a very good cause.

Broadcast News (1987)

Before there was "Sports Night"...

[9/10 · 6 May 2007]

...there was "Broadcast News," and what a good thing it was. This one just plain stands up and sounds its barbaric yawp in a manner that resonates two decades later.

There are moments -- especially with respect to the cutesy score -- when this film becomes a bit too eighties, or a bit too "Sleepless in Seattle." Fortunately, they're few and far between.

One-third social satire, one-third romantic comedy, one-third drama, with three flawed but endearing people at its core, it's smart and moving and almost impossibly funny. Holly Hunter in particular may never have been more fun to watch in a comedic role. (And yes, I'm including "Raising Arizona," her other star turn from that era, in this assessment.)

A legitimate classic.

Year of the Dog (I) (2007)

Mike White: how dare you?

[8/10 · 19 April 2007]

Depth is not something that we want. We want to laugh. We love our dogs so much that we want to see what happens when they lick our faces, not what happens when they die and when that loss makes us (temporarily) a little bit nuts.

There's a rumor going around that this is not a comedy. I suppose that's true, if all you want from your comedy is "School of Rock: Rock Harder." If you're looking for escapism, you may want to avoid this movie as if it were made by Menu Foods.

Then again...there's some extremely funny stuff here. Soapbox off. Decide for yourself.

Smiley Face (2007)

Araki Arrives

[9/10 · 6 April 2007]

Gregg Araki clearly knows his drugs. We've known that at least since he inflicted the utterly graceless "The Doom Generation" upon us twelve years ago. His virtues as a filmmaker have taken a bit longer to shine through. With "Smiley Face," a loving and often hilarious light comedy about a day in the life of a young woman who is confused, sweet, beautiful, and very, very stoned: shine they do.

Araki's previous film, "Mysterious Skin," was a brutally dark psychological drama based around homosexual incest. "Smiley Face" is, um, not. It explores the much lighter taboo of recreational cannabis use by making us laugh our darn fool heads off. Let's face it: after the last few years, some of us have needed to do so more than ever, and Araki and writer Dylan Haggerty have delivered a playful, ironic comedy that honors yet transcends the traditional "stoner flick." I'm fairly certain that this indie gem will become a cult classic even if doesn't achieve mainstream success. Anna Faris's presence may help, and her face does things in this movie that are terrific things for faces to be able to do.

Terror in Beverly Hills (1989)

John Myhers: hackiest hack that ever hacked, or evil genius?

[6/10 · 30 March 2007]

I might just have to opt for the latter. As we all know, there have been many terrible action movies over the years, but this one takes the awfulness to an extreme that I simply can't believe is unintentional. It's one of those flicks that would have been completely pointless for the cast of "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" to parody, because it parodies itself far more deliciously than they ever could.

If I were to pinpoint the exact moment I realized this, it must have been when, after product-placing cans of Pepsi and Diet Pepsi in pretty much every shot where they would make any sense (and a few where they wouldn't), the director chose to begin a scene by literally panning out from the Pepsi can. In retrospect, it really shouldn't have taken me that long.

"Terror in Beverly Hills" is a revelation of glorious badness. At its best/worst, it's at least as funny as anything Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker have done except for "Airplane!" and "Top Secret," and I've got to hand it to Myhers for his resourcefulness: he took an, erm, modest budget and the full knowledge that some people might take this thing seriously and judge him harshly, and he said "okay, fine" and just went with it.

At the same time, the initial kidnapping scene contains many dead bystanders, and the last half-hour rather abruptly jettisons the humor value in favor of the usual sexual violence against women and machine-gun violence against men. The early-nineties score, by turns "Beverly Hills Cop light" and apparently geared toward a genuine suggestion of menace, further complicates things.

An enigma wrapped in a mystery? Nah, I'm almost certainly overthinking it. Maybe the jarring tone shifts are simply due to the fact that the guy knew he was making a bad movie and woke up every day with a different attitude toward that fact.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)

A bit too scattershot and below-the-belt, though certainly thought-provoking

[7/10 · 12 February 2007]

A suggestion for documentary filmmakers: when you say you're not recording a conversation, perhaps you actually shouldn't be recording the conversation. At the very least, you may want to consider not presenting it in your film along with a split-screen view that features your subject speaking her half of the dialog in animated form. This approach does indeed make Joan Graves, head of the MPAA's Classification and Rating Administration, come off as officious at best and corrupted by power at worst. Is the fact that it's, let's face it, a bit of a nasty trick more or less significant than the fact that director Kirby Dick is pointing out things that we might want to know? Interesting question.

I'd also argue that "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" would have been a stronger effort if it director had reined in some of its tangents. For instance, there's a scene in which the private investigator whom he's hired to identify the mysterious figures who comprise the ratings board discusses her lesbianism. Mr. Dick ties this into the question of whether the board is more lenient with films depicting heterosexual as opposed to homosexual sex -- which is certainly a question worth asking, but bringing a contractor's private life into it made the words "stay on target" spring inevitably to my mind. (Especially given that the directors of "Boys Don't Cry" and "But I'm a Cheerleader," among others, are already on hand to offer their perspectives.)

I'd have to say that this one works better as agitprop-lite than as responsible documentary journalism. Kirby Dick is clearly having a lot of fun here -- and why make a film if you're not, after all -- but I suspect that he could have served his legitimately relevant cause somewhat better with a bit more focus and a bit more fairness.

Scrubs (2001–2010)

Flawed but occasionally brilliant

[8/10 · 11 September 2006]

I'm tempted to say that I'd enjoy "Scrubs" a lot more if it included only the scenes featuring Sarah Chalke as the neurotic Elliot and/or John C. McGinley as the idealistic but incomparably sardonic Dr. Cox, because they're the two funniest things about the show by a large margin (with honorable mention to the inevitable J.D.-vs.-Janitor encounters). In fact, I will venture the opinion that McGinley has been the funniest actor on any network sitcom for years now, while Zach Braff seems like a nice guy but isn't even half as much fun to watch. Still, it's possible that a cast of two would get old, so I guess it's okay that we've got J.D., Turk, Carla, and Kelso along for the ride...if you insist.

I could also do without the "what I learned today" montages at the end of each episode. As I see it, comedy shouldn't need to get all sappy in the final act in order to deliver moving and thought-provoking insights into the human condition, and it certainly shouldn't need to fall back on the crutch of voiceovers. (I encourage anyone who doubts me on this point to pick up the DVDs of "Sports Night," an unrelentingly funny show that regularly managed to find more drama within the comedy than "Scrubs" ever has, despite its potentially less "serious" setting.)

But hey. Judged against the current competition on the big four networks, "Scrubs" has to be considered a breath of fresh air. Just when I start thinking that it's becoming a bit too formulaic and business-as-usual, it hands me a dialogue-driven slice of pure comic bliss to keep me tuning in. (I hear that crack is like that too.) I will miss it.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Nearly perfect

[10/10 · 8 September 2006]

I caught this one at Sundance, and while there's a part of me that would like to tell you that my favorite film at that festival was some seriously obscure documentary that you might be able to see someday if it gets picked up on video, just so I might seem that much cooler...no, in fact, it was this wonderfully twisted-but-warm crowd-pleasing comedy that left me most in renewed awe of the joyous power of cinema. This is what we needed as of 2006. The fact that the first-time feature directors needed to work as hard as they did to raise the funds is sadly understandable, because who would have guessed that they could pull something like this off? Fortunately, Fox Searchlight knew a breakout hit when they saw it -- if they hadn't, someone else would have -- and ponied up a no-brainer record investment.

Dear Academy: for your consideration.

The House of Yes (1997)

Twisted and terrific

[10/10 · 25 March 2006]

This seems to one of those films that you're either going to love or hate. I happen to fall unapologetically into the former category, though I can easily see why others disagree. It's Whit Stillman meets Hal Hartley meets David Mamet meets "Fight Club" in its warped comedic sensibility, and if you're down with that...well, pleased to meet you.

The film is based on Wendy MacLeod's stage play, and Mark Waters allows it to wear that on its sleeve. It's all about the dialogue, which isn't like anything what the characters would actually say, but it's hard to doubt that it's what they feel.

If you like deadpan humor, you need to see this one. Oh yeah, and Parker Posey has never been more fun to watch.

My Fellow Americans (1996)

A train wreck of a political satire

[2/10 · 21 February 2006]

What a mess of a movie. I can't remember the last time I saw so many otherwise enjoyable actors rendered so much less fun to watch by incompetent direction and a mediocre script. The gimmick is that Lemmon and Garner are ex-Presidents, see, and Lemmon is the conservative who acts like a liberal and Garner is the liberal who acts like a conservative and they get stranded together and hijincks ensue and they learn important life lessons from their constituents and oh what the heck ever.

I'm not saying it couldn't have been done well -- only that it wasn't in this case. "Wag the Dog," "Bob Roberts," "The American President," and the real-life Presidency of George W. Bush are all superior efforts when it comes to relatively recent features that satirize the White House.

Forgiven (2006)

Too controversial to succeed, but very much worth watching

[9/10 · 29 January 2006]

Most films about capital punishment and the American justice system, these days, choose sides. "Forgiven" refuses to do so, and therein lies the rub: this plot should appeal to liberals and conservatives alike, yet also potentially offend them both beyond repair by the end of the fifth act.

I'm not at all surprised that its average rating is this low. There is no "target audience" for this film. Something absolutely terrible happens, and a few members of the Sundance audience with which I watched it could not deal with it, and I can't say I blame them. It's a very hard film to watch, but I think it's important and thought-provoking no matter where one stands politically.

Wonderfalls (2004)

Coulda been, shoulda been, but really wasn't

[13 September 2004]

Oh, how I wanted to like this show. It seemed like the kind of thing that would be right up my alley, as a fan of snarky, ironic comedy-drama along the lines of Joss Whedon, David Mamet, Aaron Sorkin, Hal Hartley, Jane Espenson, Whit Stillman, Alan Ball, et al. And sure, it was far better than Fox typically manages to do along those lines, because Fox clearly neither understands nor cares about said genre these days and should arguably do starry-eyed producers like Holland and Fuller the favor of hanging a sign on their door reading, "Trust us: it'll work out better for all concerned if you simply turn right around and go talk to HBO or the WB."

That said, I can't bring myself to cry too many tears over Wonderfalls' early demise. The quirkiness was simply too self-conscious and too forced, and the main character was so whiny and self-pitying that -- let's face it -- sometimes you really couldn't help wanting to smack her. While its cancellation is a loss in the sense that Fox undoubtedly has nothing better with which to replace it, that's more a reflection of Fox's inherent lameness than of this show's inherent quality.

Moonlighting (1985–1989)

One of the very best reasons not to write off the eighties

[21 August 2004]

On the eve of the DVD release of the entire series -- and it's about darn time -- let's pause to reflect on just how terrific it really was.

Granted, "Moonlighting" delivered in 4 1/2 seasons (by my count) precisely as many episodes as hour-long American series are supposed to deliver in three. There was a writer's strike, and there was Shepherd's real-life pregnancy, and there was friction on the set, and...well, basically, Murphy and his Law had a field day with this show. To its discredit, we got more than a few mediocre episodes along the way, and its trademark self-deprecating breakage of the fourth wall wasn't always enough to smooth things over. All of this contributed to its demise. (This was back in the day when even a struggling show could survive for five seasons: today's ABC or today's Fox would have cancelled it after three episodes.) Yet when it was on, it was ON.

Just as the marvelous "Once More With Feeling" musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer stole the show, the more fanciful Moonlighting episodes -- "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice," "Big Man on Mulberry Street," and especially "Atomic Shakespeare" -- tend to get the most attention as we look back. But let's not forget the simple pleasures of watching Bruce Willis's David Addison walk the razor wire between outlandish goofiness and heartbreak in his pursuit of Cybill Shepherd's Madeline Hayes at the Blue Moon Detective Agency.

I wasn't quite old enough to get it when the show first aired, and I remember wishing that that they'd get back to the darn *cases* already, because that's what I'd been conditioned to expect. Yet the cases themselves are intentionally ridiculous -- if occasionally rather clever in their ridiculousness -- and this is very much a study of two dysfunctional but deserving individuals who can't be together but can't be apart. While it's a classic formula, it's revisited and revamped here with marvelous acumen. At the same time, not until the two-year run of "Sports Night" did any show on broadcast TV that wasn't explicitly billed as a sitcom come even close to delivering the laughs that "Moonlighting" did.

The Crow (1994)

If you're going to die while starring in a movie...

[11 January 2004]

...try to die while starring in a movie like this one.

_The Crow_ is what live-action movies based on comic books should be but almost never have been. It's all here: gorgeous action scenes, seriously dark humor, aching loss tempered by irrepressible hope, and one of the best (and best-integrated) soundtracks ever assembled.

Brandon Lee is spectacular in this project that ended his life, and Proyas and co. seem to have gone to extreme lengths to ensure that the rest of the movie does justice to his memory.

One of the top ten action movies ever made.

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991)

When bumblers make good

[5 February 2002]

My one complaint with NG 2 1/2 is that a number of jokes that could have gone someplace even funnier seem to have gotten "dumbed down" somewhere along the line.

(WARNING: exceedingly minor spoilers concerning individual gags follow over the next two paragraphs.)

For instance, there's a scene in which Drebin shows up at Jane's apartment with what starts off as the world's largest bouquet of flowers. Unfortunately, his clumsiness on the way up causes him to slam the bouquet into one door after another -- so that by the time he gets to her door, he's left with a tiny handful of pitiful, mangled stalks. He notices this at the last moment and tosses the bouquet aside into the hallway. Kinda funny...but wouldn't it have been funnier to have him wind up with a bouquet that, precisely because of his absurd over exuberance earlier on, was both still beautiful and now exactly the right size?

It's the kind of thing that I'm willing to bet the ZAZ team thought of, but dispensed with because they thought it would be too subtle. There are several such moments to be found here.

On the other hand, plenty of truly inspired sequences make it through. For example, there's a scene in which a bad guy miraculously survives a fall caused by the bumbling of the Police Squad team, only to be mauled to death by a lion. It could just have been the kind of random gag that the ZAZ team has employed successfully a hundred times, with intentionally no attempt made to explain what a lion is doing wandering the streets of Washington. Yet it's even funnier once we remember those zoo animals which were released by Drebin's escapades with a tank -- almost an hour earlier in the movie.

Ultimately, it'll always be easy for viewers to have fun with a character like Frank Drebin, who paradoxically succeeds precisely because of his near-total oblivious incompetence (except perhaps at delivering some of the more memorable put-downs on the planet). The Naked Gun movies are at their best when they're remembering this and providing Drebin with perfect occasions to play the brilliant fool, whether or not he ever recognizes the real reason for his success. They suffer only when they cheapen themselves by making the easier "ha ha, look at this idiot" jokes at his expense.

As an aside, NG 2 1/2 actually made me think a bit more carefully about the conspiracy against renewable energy, in which politicians and fossil-fuel magnates play a ludicrously expensive game of mutual back-scratching. Not bad for a series that never exactly claimed to have anything important to say, especially since ZAZ found a way to pull it off without ever seeming heavy-handed. I'll give it a B+.