What a horrible premise for a romantic comedy. Two frenemies are forced to stay in the house of their mutual best friends and take care of their infant daughter after her parents are killed in a car accident. That barely worked as the plot to the pitch-black drama “21 Grams,” and it sure as hell isn’t good source material for a comedy. Ha ha, your best friends are dead. Now go take care of their kid. In an age that gets off on irony (despite most of its consumers not knowing the real meaning of the world), this is pretty…
Author: David Medsker
The cleverest thing about “The Virginity Hit” is the framing device; the movie is shot documentary-style under the guise of a film project shepherded by the lead character’s best friend, a unique take on the well-worn sex comedy. The execution of that device, however, is terrible. It’s poorly acted, clumsy, lazy, and as emotionally stunted as any sex comedy ever made, which is quite the accomplishment for a genre that defines itself by dick jokes and bodily humor. Matt (Matt Bennett) is the last of his close friends to lose his virginity. His best friend Zack (Zack Pearlman), who’s also…
“Let Me In” is a faithful-to-a-fault adaptation of the 2008 Swedish import “Let the Right One In.” There is really no need for anyone who’s seen the original to see this – unless they would prefer to simply watch the movie in English, rather than read the pesky subtitles – as writer/director Matt Reeves (“Cloverfield”) has recreated it nearly scene for scene and line for line. This may preserve the sanctity of the story, and the end result is quite good, but it also leaves the movie with a bit of an identity crisis. Set in a small New Mexico…
“Easy A” is a well-studied mash-up of every great teen comedy of the last 25 years, yet has its own distinct personality. The framing of the story is the main reason for this, but ultimately the credit goes to a literate and well-plotted script by Bert V. Royal, who makes the most ridiculous moments seem plausible. Olive (Emma Stone) is desperate to get out of a dinner date with best friend Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) and her hippie parents, so she makes up a story about having a date with a college guy. When Rhiannon presses her for details, Olive feels…
By all rights, “The Town” shouldn’t be any more interesting than “The American,” George Clooney’s old-school thriller about an assassin who wants out. Neither movie features a character or plot device that you haven’t seen before, and yet “The Town” is able to overcome its familiarity thanks to solid acting, amusing dialogue, and one of the better car chases ever shot. You know exactly how it’s going to end, yet somehow that doesn’t distract from its overall enjoyment. Ben Affleck is Doug MacRay, a onetime hockey hopeful-turned bank and armored car thief. Their most recent bank job involved taking bank…
Talking about “Never Let Me Go” is a lot like talking about Fight Club – you’re not supposed to do it, lest you give away its Big Surprise and ruin it for everyone. But the movie’s trailer makes it look like a ‘70s version of “The Remains of the Day” – and to be fair, we can see why the studio would do that, since both stories share the same author – and we cannot go along with the ruse, spoilers be damned. (You’ve officially been warned: if you do not want to know the movie’s hidden agenda, stop reading…
It’s a pity Will Ferrell doesn’t make more movies like “Everything Must Go.” He’s really good at it, as the six people who saw the underrated “Stranger Than Fiction” will tell you, and he’s equally good here. The story is not the kind that will revitalize independent film, but it’s nice to see someone try to find the positive in a situation rife with sadness. Most indie movies work the other way around, which is why most people don’t bother watching them. Nick Halsey (Ferrell) is not having a good day. He’s fired from his job as a sales executive…
Ten bucks says the original draft of “Going the Distance” was a sweet and largely squeaky-clean rom-com designed to explore the trials of being away from the one you love, and how it can cause you to torpedo the relationship you’re desperate to maintain. Of course, in the post-“Hangover” world, no one wants to see that movie, or at least that is what the studio heads believe. Raunchy movies can be a ton of fun, no question, but not everything needs to be raunchy. Indeed, every time “Distance” goes for the big dirty joke, the movie loses all rhythm. When…
2010 has become the Year of the Working Vacation at the multiplex. Amy Adams spent a couple months in Ireland shooting “Leap Year,” knowing full well that the movie she was making was her #2 reason for being there. Adam Sandler got Columbia Pictures to pay him and his buddies millions to play at a water park. Now we find George Clooney shooting a thriller about an assassin who holes up in Italy after a job gone wrong, and wouldn’t you know it, Clooney has a villa in Italy. His character even tells another character that he’s on a working…
A few minutes before our scheduled chat with “Simpsons” executive producer and show runner Al Jean, the phone rings. It’s a blocked call. Perfect timing for some telemarketing weasel to tie up the line before a really important phone call. We answer…and it’s Al Jean. Why the blocked call? “I’m at Fox,” he says. Not to self: Fox does not want us to know when they’re calling. Currently in the middle of overseeing episodes for the show’s 22nd season (!) while simultaneously promoting the release of the show’s 13th season on DVD, Bullz-Eye chatted with Jean about which lines the…