wow. i have got a huge film roundup for all of you - singh is kinng: the ridiculous spelling of kinng isn’t the only thing ridiculous about this film, which follows the antics of a village idiot who is sent to australia (via one very energetic dance number in egypt) to bring home a local boy turned ganglord. (and yes, i feel just as silly typing that summary as you do reading it.) it’s still a lot of fun, and a huge summer hit, succeeding largely on the charm of the delightful akshay kumar. this plot may be completely unbelievable, but he makes it look like a lot of fun. in addition, the movie ends with a much-ballyhooed snoop dogg duet at the end, where the rapper talks about masala and mumbai. you can check it out here.
the house bunny: for some reason, i thought there was going to be a feminist bent to this film, but there really wasn’t. the lame “be who you really are” message was pretty much negated by the copious amounts of jiggling and false eyelashes (not that i’m against jiggling and false eyelashes when used properly, mind you.) there were two things that made this film worthwhile – the hugh hefner cameo, and the complete fearlessness of anna faris. i want to see her doing screwball comedy dames for a while, but the problem is that we don’t have any more good screwball comedies for dames. the rocker: everything about this film pointed to it being a movie that i should like, but i just didn’t. maybe it’s because any movie that has fred armisen playing a rocker but not playing a drummer is wrong. indeed, this whole movie ended up getting amit and i worked up about the greatness and underutilization of fred armisen in general. or should i say, jens hannemann:
have tons to blog about but am not feeling particularly bloggy today. i’ll update soon, once i’m out of this funk.
in the meantime, for your entertainment, ridiculously cute deviled eggs:
you know, there’s few things in life i enjoy more than rishi kapoor numbers from old bollywood musicals, especially when he jumps over backup dancers like he’s competing in a monster truck rally.
first of all, let me note how much i love these new wednesday openings for films, especially as they coincide with a slow period at work.
i went to go see tropic thunder yesterday, and it was possibly the funniest film i’ve seen all summer. it’s not always laugh out loud funny, but it’s always sharp in its humor.
while ben stiller and jack black have their standout moments in this film, the real star is robert downey jr, who takes his method-acting character seriously enough to make him extra funny for all of us. he commands attention every second he’s on screen. and strangely enough, i found his blue eyed scenes most distracting, even though he’s engaged in some pretty radical appearance choices in the rest of the film. also turning in an impressive (and unexpected) performance? matthew mcconaghey as stiller’s crass, jockish agent.
oh, and the much ballyhooed “retard” moment? brilliant – in one brief speech, stiller manages to distill what’s wrong with hollywood (and how we end up with movies like “the good sister.”)
on the whole, i laughed harder during pineapple express, but tropic thunder is the film that i’m likely to watch again and again to see all the jokes that i missed.
last week, i checked out pineapple express,which was ridiculously funny. does it always make sense? no, but it’s the hilarious summer action movie that i’ve been waiting for all year. james franco is delightful – this is the james franco that’s been hiding in movies like annapolis all these years. yes, james, you can be sexy and funny at the same time. yum!
then i went to go see superman at screen on the green. and i discovered that if ever a movie were made for screen on the green, this one was it. it was cute, but not utterly engrossing. i could fade in and out based upon what was going on around me (couple making out to my left, girl fight going on to my right, big dudes with beer to the front, and an inappropriate laugher to my back), since some of this was often more entertaining than what was on the screen. it also didn’t help that i got my superman movies confused, and kept waiting for the flat people to return and try to hurt superman. whoops,that was superman 2!
of course, as my friend ellie put it, the major problem with superman is that he’s just too squeaky clean, and thus uninteresting. we like our superheroes a little dirtier, thank you. because when the best you can come up with as an anti-superman is bizarro superman, then something in the character is lacking.
i spent time in new york this weekend enjoying that fantastic summertime spectacle – FREE PUBLIC ART!
i started by going to see the new york city waterfalls. yes, despite the fact that new york has no natural waterfalls, danish artist olafur eliasson has created four delightful gushers along the east river – one by the williamsburg bridge, one on the brooklyn bridge, one along the brooklyn heights promenade, and the final one on the northern entrance of governor’s island.
while free boat tours do exist, i was too late to make a reservation, so i paid $11 for a morning half-hour boat tour. it was great – uncrowded, great weather, and beautiful, beautiful waterfalls:
after the waterfalls, i went to go see playing the building but i’m super late for work so i’ll have to write about that one later.
tons of folks were out of town this weekend, so i used the opportunity to goof off and putz around movie theaters by myself, as well as catch up on movies at home.
i watched american teen, which was engrossing, but not quite living up to the hype. yes, there is suspense and drama, but it really does feel like an ordinary-person version of the hills. it’s not a waste of money, but anyone who has lived through high school has already seen this movie.
then i watched – on dvd – jesus camp. now THIS was a fascinating documentary. the directors put together a portrait of appealing evangelicals – those they choose to profile are uniformly pleasant, articulate, and excellent ambassadors for the cause. i know that this documentary has gotten mixed reviews from both evangelicals and non-evangelicals, which points to the fact that it is a good documentary. no one can pinpoint whether or not it really has an agenda, meaning that it largely doesn’t. i would love to see what happens to the children in this film four or five years from now, as they are in high school and dealing with the pressures (homeschooled or not) that the adolescents in american teen face.
