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InGood, Movie Reviews

Pitch Perfect

August 30, 2012By

Pitch Perfect


2012
Written by Kay Cannon
Based on the novel by Mickey Rapkin
Directed by Jason Moore

This is the fourth time we’ve watched Prometheus and it makes less sense each time!

Who knew that a movie about girls singing a cappella would have the most projectile vomiting you will see in a film since Stand By Me? But it does, and beyond that Pitch Perfect is pretty damn hilarious and will be right up there with cult classics for clubs like the Bring It On features or High School Musicals or Drumline. Does following an all too familiar plot cycle make Pitch Perfect a bad film? Aca-scuse me? Of course not! Take a look out the window on this bus journey, we’ll traveling through uncharted and funny territory, singing all the while.

The danger they don’t tell you about at Del Taco!

Pitch Perfect is based on the nonfiction book by Mickey Rapkin dealing with the college a cappella circuit and all the drama it causes. I’ve not read it, so I don’t know how much of the film is real and how much is fake. I’m guessing all the vomit is real. So very real. Vomit…everywhere! Noooo..oo…..o..

There is not really spoilers below. In fact, I think the trailer gives away more of the plot than I do!

Beca (Anna Kendrick) – Reluctant college student at Barden University just burning time until she runs off to LA to do music production work, due to her skills at using programs on her Macbook. Open Apple-ctrl-OWNED, suckers! Also she’s a good singer who just needs to join a group to find out she pushes away anyone close to her. Don’t worry, like all of these girls, her alt-style makeup and piercings will disappear by the end of the flick.
Aubrey (Anna Camp) – Leader of the Bellas and obsessed with getting things done correctly and properly. A stickler for rules. Has a summer job as a fire hose.
Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) – If you aren’t leaving the theater talking about how awesome Fat Amy is, you are a horrible monster and was probably the awful person texting during the film. We all hate you. Especially Fat Amy. If you are wondering where you saw Rebel Wilson before, it was in Bridesmaids
Chloe (Brittany Snow) – Veteran Bella who manages to convince Beca to try out despite Beca’s lack of caring about anything at this point in her character arc. Once that is complete, Chloe is free to develop nodes.
I’ve come for the loofah!
InGood, Movie Reviews

For a Good Time, Call…

August 24, 2012By

For a Good Time, Call…


2012
Written by Lauren Miller and Katie Anne Naylon
Directed by Jamie Travis

Ladies, that’s not how phone sex works! Nevermind…

People have finally figured out women can be funny. And by people, I mean Hollywood executives who bankroll films. In the wake of Bridesmaids showing female centric comedy written by and starring women could be both entertaining and profitable, we’ve begun to see a slow trickle of other female driven raunchy humor on the big screen. For a Good Time, Call… features a duo of ladies who run a phone sex line. They also have their own personal and relationship problems along the way, because we can only have so many scenes in a row of women moaning on the phone to guys jerking it. But there is plenty of that, and it’s hilarious.

Let me tell you about wearing pants that go up to your armpit!

Lauren Powell (Lauren Miller) – A boring, shy, and nebbish literary editor whose life is in disarray. But her organizational skills and constant life planning come in handy when a new business venture is undertaken. Lauren Miller cowrote the film along with Katie Anne Naylon, and before this was probably best known as the lady Seth Rogen keeps bringing to premiers. And as the owner of The Legend of Zelda Miller-Rogen, the very famous dog.
Katie Steele (Ari Graynor) – A working class girl who needs to save her grandmother’s apartment before it’s taken over by someone who can afford it. Works a whole host of jobs but ends just won’t get met, unless she goes into business on her own.
Jesse (Justin Long) – The gay friend of both the girls and person who pushes them together despite the mutual loathing. Despite the constant distribution of flyers, we never see Jesse’s comedy show. A shame. I demand more comedy show!
Just gonna Skype into the next Infernal Brains recording session…
InGood, Movie Reviews

The Odd Life of Timothy Green

August 15, 2012By

The Odd Life of Timothy Green


2012
Story by Ahmet Zappa
Screenplay and directed by Peter Hedges

Burying this box made out of the bones of 100 sacrificed infants in our garden that used to be an old Indian burial plot won’t have any negative consequences, ever! Also Jumanji is in this box. For some reason.

A family film that is a great thing to bring your young children to, The Odd Life of Timothy Green won’t be earning much street cred from older viewers looking for a dark and sinister turn of a mysterious vegetable child who emerges from the garden of a childless couple to enhance their lives. The film is sugary sweet and mixes the trials of growing up different with the trials of being a parent. And I find Timothy Green guilty…of being enjoyable! Okay, sorry, that joke was awful. Before we continue, I must confess this was yet another free screening that I scored tickets to. In fact, The Odd Life of Timothy Green released so many free tickets and screenings it was hard not to get tickets. Now let’s meet the cast!

She has the magical powers of HGTV!

Cindy Green (Jennifer Garner) – Cindy Green works at a museum for the pencil factory and spends most of the film being various forms of neurotic and reserved. After Timothy enters her life, she trades that in for being more outgoing but also worried. It takes a while for the changes to sink in and transform her fully.
Jim Green (Joel Edgerton) – Working class husband and pencil factory supervisor working under the owner’s nephew. Has resentment issues over his own father not being there much while he was growing up. Both of the Greens carry added stress from being unable to conceive, which just multiplies their personal problems.
Timothy Green (CJ Adams) – A mysterious child who sprang from the garden and a box full of wishes for the fantasy child of the Greens. He’s very casual about the whole thing. Has leaves on his legs.
Joni Jerome (Odeya Rush) – Odd girl at school who has a secret, and instantly spots that Timothy does as well. The pair becomes very close, almost to the point where he spends more time with her than with his parents.
This is a happy movie!
InGood, Movie Reviews

The Campaign

August 7, 2012By

The Campaign


2012
Written by Shawn Harwell and Chris Henchy
Directed by Jay Roach

Meeting of the International Brotherhood of Serious Men

Arriving early enough we aren’t sick to death of political commercials yet, The Campaign delivers solid laughs as it carpet bombs the political process. Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis pull no punches in the dirtiest campaign ever, but sadly what might just be a glimpse at the future. As the battle gets increasingly fierce, the antics get increasingly wild. And just you watch, some idiot candidate will copy something from this film. It will happen.

What happens when you eat too much Curves cereal!

Money rules politics, now more than ever. The Campaign does more to show the problems with the Citizens United verdict than any documentary. Comedians are one of the few brave enough to spit truth in the face of grand power, and the only ones to do it in a way people will listen. The Campaign uses actual political parties, which I thought would hut the film, but actually makes it a stronger piece. It manages to hit all sides of political excess and holds no punches. Director Jay Roach was fresh off of Game Change, a serious look at the 2008 presidential election and the Sarah Palin decision, giving him added insight that helped sharpen the knives here.

Basic political speak is taken to the woodshed, and you realize just how stupid some of the buzzwords sound when outside of the political framework. Dogs are declared unAmerican, the Chinese become scary words as the current job-taking enemy du jour, and everyone under the sun becomes the backbone of America.

And once again Tars has sold out, as this was a pre-release free screening that I scored tickets to.

Snakes on a Campaign!

Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) – Your typical Bill Clinton Democrat, saying broad platitudes that even he knows are useless, all while banging any piece of tail that heads his way. His wife is there just because she likes to ride with winners, and Cam Brady is so caught up in being Congressman Cam Brady that he begins to make some fatal mistakes.
Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis) – Noted community weird guy, Marty Huggins shows up out of nowhere to be the candidate on the Republican ticket. His innocent ways are soon steered into the mud thanks to a campaign runner provided by the Motchs (Tim Wattley) who teaches Marty how to fight dirty. Marty can become the candidate needed to defeat Cam Brady, but is he still Marty Huggins? The North Carolina setting is like coming home for Galifianakis, as his uncle was North Carolina Congressman Nick Galifianakis.
Do it. DO IT!!!!
Ruby Sparks
InGood, Movie Reviews

Ruby Sparks (Review)

July 26, 2012By

Ruby Sparks


2012
Written by Zoe Kazan
Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Ruby Sparks is Manic Pixie Dream Girl meta as fuck. If you aren’t familiar with the term “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”, then you probably don’t read a lot of reviews written by indie writers who pretend they’re the only people who watch bad cinema. Which is good, your life is measurably better! But as a crash course, these Manic Pixie Dream Girls are chicks from indie films who who up and are all perky and adorkable and inspiring, oddly attracted to the bland and uptight male protagonist for reasons unknown, and then leaves by the end of the film for greener pastures, leaving the bland male slightly less bland and uptight. Manic Pixie Dream Girls run wild with their weirdo skirts and dresses (always paired with bright tights of mismatched colors), wild hair and giant blue/green eyes. Ruby Sparks asks the questions “What if a writer was able to create a Manic Pixie Dream Girl wholesale? And she’d do whatever he told her to?”

Stories of creating the perfect woman have been around since the earliest days. Most of those tales have the not so nice undercurrent that the woman’s ability to decide her fate does not exist. Heck, even in many Manic Pixie Dream Girl films, the girl has to be the source of inspiration and change for the hero. That’s her role, and maybe when the whole thing is over she’ll get to be happy, but they’re specifically made not to be happy unless they are fluttering from place to place like a butterfly.

Zoe Kazan not only looks the MPDG part, she has one of the required names, and she even wrote the script. But Zoe Kazan isn’t a MPDG, she’s a real person, a human being with hopes and dreams and drives and freedom. The exact things Ruby strives for, Zoe Kazan becomes the enemy and destroys it from within, by pointing out the absurdity as the fantasy woman is both torn down and built into a real person. It seems natural that Ruby Sparks was written by a woman, such as the fact that it deals with real relationship issues while only barely touching all the sick weirdo perv stuff Calvin could be making Ruby do.

Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano) – A brillaint writer, you probably have heard of him and read his book. But ten years later, Calvin has yet to produce another novel and has a hard time writing anything. Until he dreams about a girl…
Ruby Sparks (Zoe Kazan) – Just your average girl who appeared out of thin air when Calvin wrote about her. Makes me want to dig up my childhood stories about fried chicken invading the world to see if I can make it happen.
Scotty (A dog whose name I did not catch) – Scotty is a dog who needs to use the potty. Often. And he pees like a girl and is afraid of strangers. The dogs flaws make Calvin even more self-conscious.

InGood, Movie Reviews

Driving Miss Daisy Towards the Meaning of Life

July 16, 2012By

Driving Miss Daisy Towards the Meaning of Life


1989
Written by Alfred Uhry
Directed by Bruce Beresford

Throughout history one question has torn through mankind like a knife through butter. “Why are we here?” It seems a simple question that should easily be answered. But the answers do not come easily. Theories abound, all sorts of proofs exist, millions of people have spent countless hours and resources in search of the answer to this ultimate question. For many, they never find the answer they are looking for. They’ll never find out what it all means.

But have some people have learned the key? It seems that way. Not because they are smart or geniuses, but because they lived their lives and came to the answer. Sometimes the answers are all around you, you just need to be able to appreciate them. Sometime answers are just on the other side of the mirror.

The main journey in Driving Miss Daisy is a 25 year lesson on learning to find and appreciate the answers. Sure, it’s primarily the story of an older Jewish widow and her black driver in the South from 1948-1973, but that’s only the window dressing. You have to come along for the ride to see the destination. And, no, only one person gets to look at the map!

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