The Ten feels like a movie time forgot made by a pissed director to fill out his contract, wherein he spends the studio’s money freely to make a sloppy, pieced-together film full of sight gags and in-jokes that make him and his friends laugh but isn’t likely to ever achieve anything other than cult status. Of course, that isn’t the case here, but The State alums Ken Marino and David Wain (both of whom wrote and the latter of whom directed) have delivered a film packed with their friends and former co-stars whose main audience will be comedy nerds . . . → Read More: Movie Review: The Ten]]> The Ten (imdb)

The Ten feels like a movie time forgot made by a pissed director to fill out his contract, wherein he spends the studio’s money freely to make a sloppy, pieced-together film full of sight gags and in-jokes that make him and his friends laugh but isn’t likely to ever achieve anything other than cult status. Of course, that isn’t the case here, but The State alums Ken Marino and David Wain (both of whom wrote and the latter of whom directed) have delivered a film packed with their friends and former co-stars whose main audience will be comedy nerds who will appreciate the appearances of familiar faces if not necessarily the experience itself. In addition to nearly the entire cast of The State appearing in either full or cameo roles, there’s Paul Rudd, Rob Corddry, Winona Ryder, A.D. Miles, Jon Benjamin, and even some actors generally known for more serious work. Unfortunately, an impressive cast does not a great movie make, as the script falls flat too often and the framing of the stories hosted by Paul Rudd never pays off or provides much in the way of laughs.

I don’t mean to be entirely harsh, particularly because there are some clever sequences and the film does manage to get better as it goes on. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that from the middle forward is where the film really shines since by that point the Paul Rudd interludes become less apparent and the stories begin to drift into one another. Working in the film’s favor as often as it does to its detriment is the film’s willingness to present an outrageous scenario, often dwelling on it for longer than it remains funny, and then ramping up the silliness by returning to it in a later sequence. Ultimately the film feels like a collection of long sketches that are rather balanced in their tendency to either be humorous or to fail to register anything more than a smile. Comedy nerds will probably find bits and pieces of The Ten to be enjoyable, but if you’re not already familiar with and appreciative of the shows populating the resumes of its cast (The State, Reno 911!, Stella), then it isn’t very likely to do much for you.

Those nit-picks were mostly a moot point, as Brutal Legend does far more right than it . . . → Read More: Brütal Legend (Xbox 360)]]>

I was a bit apprehensive about Brutal Legend despite creator Tim Schafer’s respected pedigree in the gaming world. As a fan of heavy metal I could appreciate what he was trying to do, but I was pretty sure that it would come across as either heavy-handed or pandering in execution. And, it seems worth mentioning, as a decided non-fan of Jack Black–who lends his voice to protagonist Eddie Riggs–I had another potential hurdle in the way of what enjoyment I might conceivably get from the game.

Those nit-picks were mostly a moot point, as Brutal Legend does far more right than it does wrong, and is ultimately a very enjoyable experience with the fine layer of aesthetic polish that Schafer has built his following and reputation on. The art direction and music are both very good, and I’m glad to hear that in most cases those responsible for the soundtrack dug respectably deep and didn’t go with lazy, obvious choices that a less dedicated developer might have chosen out of laziness. What we have instead is a respectable mix of new and old tracks that are both semi-popular and relatively obscure, and though there’s an occasional head-scratcher in there (KMFDM, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson), the fact that bands like Brocas Helm, Slough Feg, Budgie, and Angel Witch made the cut is enough to let the inclusion of a few less “true” metal bands slide.

The gameplay itself is divided into a few different types. The core of the experience is a console-friendly real-time strategy game where you command an army of metal-heads in an attack on another leader’s army. You start out with a stage that serves as a base of sorts and build merch tables, which earn you fans that can be spent on new units and upgrades. Kudos to Double Fine for making console-friendly a genre best suited for PC gaming, but it’s still a little hard to control when things get hectic. When you’re not moving the plot along in these battles, you’re free to explore the world, taking on side missions, searching for relics, and earning “fire tributes” (the game’s currency) to unlock new moves for Eddie and new weapons and upgrades for his hot rod, the Druid Plow. The side missions are a mixed bag, as there are only a handful of mission types, and most of them become a chore as the game progresses. The repetition of similar missions also brings out another nitpick: there should have been a bit more recorded voice work so you’re not constantly hearing the same lines over and over. There were also quite a few instances where I became stuck thanks to driving around and becoming entangled in the scenery and had to either load my last checkpoint or try and wriggle free from parts of the scenery that should have probably been destructible in the first place. A small nitpick, but one that nonetheless detracts a bit from the experience.

Overall Brutal Legend remains a satisfying experience whose charm helps outweigh its flaws. The game is short enough that it could be beaten over a weekend if you’re dedicated, but there are enough things to hunt down and unlock in the world (which you are free to roam after beating the game) that achievement/trophy hounds will have reason to come back well after the credits roll. There’s also online multiplayer, but I didn’t give it a go.

The key failing of Mirror’s Edge is shoehorning in first person shooter gameplay where it just . . . → Read More: Mirror’s Edge (Playstation 3)]]>

Mirror’s Edge (along with Dead Space) represents a shift in philosophy for EA, a company long—and rightly so—dogged by accusations of resting on their laurels, content to merely update their existing franchises. Not only is Mirror’s Edge a fresh game from an unlikely publisher, it’s a first person game with a unique visual style based on parkour, which is a great idea on paper, and remains a pretty good one in execution. Unfortunately, Mirror’s Edge has a handful of shortcomings that keep it from achieving greatness.

The key failing of Mirror’s Edge is shoehorning in first person shooter gameplay where it just isn’t necessary. As the game progresses, you’ll find yourself in situations where the game turns into a frustrating third-rate FPS that only serves to frustrate and make you wonder if it’s really worthwhile to keep playing. As the game is based around parkour, it’s not as though shooting even had to enter into the equation, but it does, and detracts heavily from the experience. Like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time before it, the repetitive combat rears its head far too often and serves to belittle the key gameplay mechanics, making what is ultimately a short game drag in far too many places.

Also keeping Mirror’s Edge from greatness are the aesthetics. Visually, the main game looks great and has a nice, clean style. Unfortunately, the story is passable at best, and when it comes time to move the plot along the game switches to cartoonish cutscenes that look to be directly inspired by the oft-loathed and cheap-looking Esurance commercials. This is doubly unfortunate since the concept art you unlock shows some very talented artists were involved in the project. As such, the cutscenes are distracting and take away from the already insignificant story. And about that story: it’s a pretty vanilla affair of rescuing you sister, who has been set up for a murder she didn’t commit. That’s all fine and good, and I’m the last person to play games for stories (that’s what films and books do best, after all), but the characters are stock and uninteresting, and the plot twists aren’t very clever. On the sound front, I wasn’t enthralled with the soundtrack, which includes some rather generic electronic music, but there were some nice tracks that had a Tangerine Dream feel that I can appreciate.

The core gameplay mechanics are solid and the game is excellent when you’re able to roam the chapters finding your way around without being shot at or having to shoot back, it’s just a shame that a game so competent at its core concept felt the need to try and be more. There’s also a race mode where you try and best set times for certain paths which is pretty fun. Normally I tend to skip over non-essential extra modes like that in games, but seeing as it focuses solely on the parts of the game I felt were the best, it definitely adds replay value to the parts of the game that really work. All things considered, Mirror’s Edge remains a good game despite its flaws, though the lack of focus and some odd presentation choices knock its overall enjoyability down several notches.

Crooks (imdb) I couldn’t finish this one, but I did manage forty minutes, which is more . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 8/17: Identity, Crooks, Interview, The Deer Hunter, Hitch Hike, Double Game, Head Trauma, & Heavy Traffic]]> Identity (imdb)
Identity is enjoyable enough, but you can’t help but feel that it’s the movie equivalent of a mass market paperback by some bestselling mystery/thriller author with a pinch of M. Night Shyamalan thrown in for spice. Perhaps the greatest strength of Identity is that they somehow made John Cusack a somewhat convincing badass, something that has never really happened before, and was made even more difficult after the mopey and vastly overrated High Fidelity. It’s not a great movie by any means, but it’s reasonably entertaining.

Crooks (imdb)
I couldn’t finish this one, but I did manage forty minutes, which is more time than I would recommend anyone ever spend with this movie. I can’t be that disappointed I guess, since I paid $1 for it on the last day of a Hollywood Video’s going-out-of-business sale a few years ago, but entertainment-wise, it wasn’t even worth that much. They put Jim Norton on the cover since he’s the closest thing to a marketable name in the movie, but his smaller-than-the-cover-would-indicate part doesn’t play up his strengths at all, wasting a comedian at his best playing an insensitive asshole on a sheepish role that isn’t even consistent. There’s a plot in there about stealing rare misprinted stamps from the post office, but between a few stupid subplots and a severe drought of anything resembling comedy, you’ll lose interest before anything starts to happen; and I’m having to guess that something happens, since nothing really did in the forty or so minutes I managed. When the most comedic thing in your movie is a quick sight gag involving a giant pile of dog shit on top of a van for a poop-scooping business, it’s probably best to start looking for ways to use your flop as a tax write-off.

Interview (imdb)
It’s hard to crap on this movie outright, but it’s equally as hard to recommend it. Interview is all about dialogue, since it’s about the titular interview, its utter failure, and its subsequent shaky return to something vaguely resembling its intended course. Steve Buscemi plays a jaded alcoholic journalist reluctantly sent to interview a TV/B-movie actress known more for her love life and fluctuating breast size than for any real talent. After the first attempt at getting the interview under way fails spectacularly, fate intervenes and the two end up at the actress’ apartment to trade stories, frustrated sexual advances, and enough lies to make a used car salesman wince. The thing about movies like Interview is that you don’t leave feeling entertained. It feels like reading an article in a magazine at the dentist’s office; just something to pass the time.

The Deer Hunter (imdb)
I’ve had this on the long-dead HD DVD format for a coon’s age, but just now got around to watching it. In a way I really regret writing anything about movies regarded as classics. It’s not that I don’t agree with their status most of the time, or that I don’t trust my own opinions, but there’s that nagging voice in the back of your head sometimes when the credits roll saying “I don’t think I enjoyed that nearly as much as everyone else must have”. That said, The Deer Hunter is a great film, and is very beautifully filmed, but man did someone have a hard-on for weddings and dances. It almost seems like the film spent as much time at the wedding as it did in Vietnam. It’s definitely a great film and a classic, but it feels like it could have been trimmed of a good 45 minutes of its runtime and come out to much the same effect and acclaim.

Hitch Hike (imdb)
Usually when a cult film is described as a “lost classic”, you can generally take that with a whole shaker of salt, since exploitation-style films are oversold by their very nature, and that trend of overhyping a mediocre product didn’t die in their translation from drive-in to DVD. Hitch Hike, however, is a very solid film that tells a very compelling and ultimately nihilistic story in a way that recalls more widely recognized classics such as Straw Dogs and Dog Day Afternoon. After picking up a hitchhiker who turns out to be a wanted felon, a husband and wife’s drive back from vacation ends up turning into a living hell with plenty of psychological torture and occasional violence coming from all angles. Franco Nero is great as usual as the husband, but David Hess really shines as the psychopathic hitchhiker, bringing the same sort of detached nonchalance to the character that Michael Rooker brought to his titular character in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. And maybe it’s just me, but by the end of the film I had flashbacks (or would that be flashforwards?) to No Country For Old Men.

Double Game (imdb)
This film can be described in four words: what a fucking mess. The old saying about too many cooks spoiling the broth is correct more often than not, and when you try to weave in a half-dozen or more meaningless subplots, you spoil what might have otherwise been a mediocre Italian cop flick. As it stands, there is nothing redemptive about the film, as even the cinematography is mundane. How anyone deemed this worthy enough for a 2-disc special edition DVD boggles the mind, especially considering Michael Mann’s masterpiece Thief can’t even get a decent, anamorphic single-disc release.

Head Trauma (imdb)
David Cross’ stunt double has nightmares about someone in a shoddy, homemade Scream costume as he squats in his late grandmother’s condemned house in a half-assed attempt to salvage it before the city brings out the wrecking ball. Head Trauma isn’t a bad movie, but it’s equally far (if not much further in spots) from greatness. If you’re familiar with Brad Anderson’s work, namely Session 9 and The Machinist, you’ll find a lot of similarities here, as Head Trauma seems to borrow heavily from both films. While there’s nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from great films, Head Trauma lacks the subtlety of Anderson’s approach. One of the most brilliant aspects of The Machinist was how the ending still retained its shock value despite the fact that it made you realize how many clues you had been shown throughout the film. Head Trauma goes more for the “new horror” approach of faceless antagonists, alternating loud noises and whispers, and lots of jumpy cuts during the nightmare sequences that comprise much of the so-called horror in the film. To be fair though, it’s got a unique look and autumnal color palette that works to its advantage, even if the narrative, acting, and execution leave a bit to be desired.

Heavy Traffic (imdb)
While I love Ralph Bakshi, I realize his films aren’t for everyone. What’s really interesting about the majority of his films, regardless of your opinion of them, is that they were even made in the first place, let alone bankrolled by a major studio. Films like Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic go against the still-prevalent convention that animation is by default for children, and adult enjoyment should be relegated to wink & nudge jokes that will fly over children’s heads. Heavy Traffic is a bit good deal more experimental than Fritz, combining live-action sets and sequences with animation, and the results are enjoyable if a little jumbled and incoherent at times. The plot loosely concerns the plight of a young cartoonist in New York City, the world he inhabits, and the characters with whom he is acquainted; his would-be mobster Italian father, his slutty-but-traditional Jewish mother, his black bartender ‘girlfriend’, and any number of strange but intriguing supporting characters. Heavy Traffic isn’t where I would start if I were getting into Bakshi, but it’s a great gateway drug into surreal animation without drifting into the uncharted waters into which Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer and his apprentices the Brothers Quay often venture.

Observe and Report (imdb) I’ve been a fan of Jody Hill since I first saw The Foot Fist Way, and while TFFW was rough around the edges, it was refreshing to see a film focus on a character that was such a bastard, but a bastard who is just charming and falsely confident enough to remain sympathetic. With Observe and Report, Hill focuses on a head of mall security . . . → Read More: Movie Mini-Reviews for 7/11: Observe & Report, Timecrimes, Dancing Outlaw, Dancing Outlaw II, Gumby Dharma, Joe, Lady Vengeance, & Night of the Hunter]]> So I haven’t updated in a few months, and all of these reviews have just been sitting on my hard drive for a few months. Anyway, an update’s an update I guess…

Observe and Report (imdb)
I’ve been a fan of Jody Hill since I first saw The Foot Fist Way, and while TFFW was rough around the edges, it was refreshing to see a film focus on a character that was such a bastard, but a bastard who is just charming and falsely confident enough to remain sympathetic. With Observe and Report, Hill focuses on a head of mall security played by Seth Rogen, a character who is even more obnoxious than Danny McBride’s Tae Kwon Do instructor, and not nearly as sympathetic (if, in fact, you likely won’t find him sympathetic at all). When a mall flasher terrorizes the mall-going populace, head of security Ronnie sees it as his chance to shine, and spends much of the rest of the runtime clashing with both the police and other employees at the mall in his quest to both nab the flasher and impress vapid makeup counter bimbo Brandi. There’s a psychosis to Ronnie’s character that wasn’t present in Fred from the Foot Fist Way, and it works well in providing a greater shock as Ronnie sinks further into violent delusions of grandeur. Stylistically this is much more polished than the admittedly low-budget Foot Fist Way, and while it isn’t the source of quotes and in-jokes that TFFW was, I would say that even as a fan of Hill’s first movie, Observe & Report is a much better film.

Timecrimes (imdb)
There’s a strong Primer influence on Timecrimes, but that’s mostly due to the fact that both are intelligent, taut thrillers that use time travel and the complications that it causes to tell a fairly simple story that unravels to become more complicated. It’s difficult to provide a synopsis for Timecrimes without giving too much away, but it’s a very satisfying film that shows great promise for director Nacho Vigalondo.

Dancing Outlaw (imdb)
Jesco White is a legendary figure, and this is the documentary that first introduced the world to the “dancing outlaw” and his way of life. It’s pretty short at just under 30 minutes, but it manages to briefly encapsulate the world of the mountain dancing, Elvis-impersonating cult figure from Boone County, as well as shedding some light on the poverty and dire straits that seem to be so common off the beaten path in Appalachia. It’s pretty clear that much of Jesco’s mind didn’t make it through all of the gasoline and lighter fluid he sniffed through his teenage years, let alone the alcohol that plagued his twenties, but that makes it all the more entertaining from the perspective of the ogler.

Dancing Outlaw II: Jesco Goes to Hollywood (imdb)
The unnecessary sequel is always a hard thing to recommend, even when it initially seems to be more of a good thing. The problem with Dancing Outlaw II is that it take an interesting character and places him in a vapid atmosphere like Hollywood, which seems more like bonus feature material rather than another documentary unto itself. This one chronicles Jesco as he goes to Hollywood to appear as a guest star on an episode of Roseanne at the request of Tom Arnold. There are a few interesting bits, particularly the scene where Tom Arnold notices Jesco’s swastika tattoo and pays for him to have it removed, but ultimately it strays too far from Jesco himself to remain anywhere near as interesting as the first film. The director doesn’t distance himself or hide behind the camera this time around, and while that’s all fine and good if need be, he’s mostly in front of the camera in brief and awkward “smile and give a thumbs-up” sorts of ways that detract from the doc. It’s worth seeing, but the first is infinitely more rewarding.

Gumby Dharma (imdb)
Art Clokey is a genius, and as a fan of his creations, I was eager to learn more about him via this recent documentary produced by one of his former assistants. While the hour-long doc won’t likely appeal to anyone who doesn’t already have a soft spot for Gumby, fans will find it entertaining and informative to learn about the hard and dark times in Clokey’s past and how he dealt with them and turned them into works that have been enjoyed by children all around the world.

Joe (imdb)
Six years before appearing in Taxi Driver, Peter Boyle played an unbalanced character similar to Travis Bickle in Joe, an odd little film that definitely feels like a product of its time. After his daughter is sent on a drug trip that lands her in the hospital, ad executive Bill Compton kills her junkie-dealer boyfriend in a brawl. While cooling down at a bar not far from the scene of the crime he encounters Joe, who apparently makes a habit of getting drunk and going off on racist, anti-counterculture diatribes. In a moment of confusion Bill ends up confessing to Joe, who contacts him later in an attempt to learn more about how such an unseeming character was able to pull off the type of crime that Joe had only thought and spoken about. What follows is an awkward but fascinating study of the relationship between two men of completely different worlds, both professionally and domestically, and how they view and deal with the counterculture they both very much hate. It’s a very interesting, if not completely great movie that is definitely unique and unsettling, topped off with a twist ending that you don’t see coming until seconds before it actually happens.

Lady Vengeance (imdb)
Lady Vengeance is a fine way to close out Chan-wook Park’s ‘revenge trilogy’, but at the same time it’s very easily the least impressive film of the trilogy, but that may be more due to the fact that Oldboy and Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance are great films that entered the scene at a time when there was a significant resurgence of interest in Asian cinema. There are shades of the previous entries, but this time around it just feels a little more routine and ‘weird for the sake of weird’ than the others.

Night of the Hunter (imdb)
I won’t argue with Night of the Hunter’s “classic” status, but I will say that it definitely peters out towards the end. After a brief and seemingly nonsensical intro, it starts out and stays fairly dour throughout the majority of its running time, but towards the end it feels like the producers shoehorned the ending from a tacky holiday movie onto the film and do a lot to undermine the vibe and message they seemed to be going for. Robert Mitchum gets most of the credit in what I’ve heard about the film for his portrayal of a corrupt holy man, and rightly so, as he’s pretty terrifying in parts. I think it’s ultimately a good movie that could have been a great one were it not for some bizarre stylistic choices and the horrible last twenty minutes. Having Mrs. Cooper speak directly to the audience obliterates the fourth wall and is sure to induce groans among those who were enjoying what was an above-average thriller. It may be a sign of the times, but outside of Mrs. Cooper, the rest of the women in the film were idiotic and/or bitchy nags who either couldn’t see through the preachers facade, much to the chagrin of the children he is after.