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It made it bearable to see the world ending outside when I could just turn around and experience some major ass kicking on my TV and surround sound. Also, I managed to join the hi-def revolution this week and sunk my teeth into some of my favorite movies that I decided to pick up again. I tell ya, there are some titles that I’m just going to keep buying every time they comes out. This week I bought Superman for the fourth time, and had no qualms about it whatsoever. It just has to happen I guess.
At any rate, this week’s column is just going to cover a bunch of stuff I watched this week on TV, DVD, and a couple I saw in the theater. I’m not going to look at the things I’ve already looked at in my column before, unless you guys really want me to go on about Superman some more! No? Oh well, here’s the rundown.
Justice League: The New Frontier Starring David Boreanaz, Miguel Ferrer, and Neil Patrick Harris. Directed by Dave Bullock
I don’t talk about a lot of “Straight to DVD” movies in this column, and let’s face it, for the most part it’s for good reason. A good majority of the “Straight to DVD” market is filled with a lot of low budget sequels that no one wanted to see in the first place or has become the last bastion for Action stars that are pretty much past their prime. For the most part, these are movies that would have been seen on Cinemax at 3 AM and pretty much no where else just a decade ago. Now, they populate the shelves at your local Wal-Mart with covers that look oddly similar to your favorite new movie, trying desperately to fool the unsuspecting consumer.
On the other hand; there’s a film like Justice League: The New Frontier, and I do stress the word FILM. This isn’t some collection of random Justice League episodes or some rinky-dink Kid’s movie. New Frontier is an absolutely terrific Animated film from DC Comics and Warner Brothers that is on a level that is just under The Incredibles and Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Based on the masterpiece by Comic writer Darwyn Cooke, Director Dave Bullock does a decent job at pairing the two volume work down to a mere 75 minutes, but the picture he ends up with is more satisfying and entertaining than a lot of the Feature Films I’ve seen in the last few years (I’m looking at you Spider-Man 3 and X-Men: The Last Stand!).
Where the film does lose some of the original work’s charm by having to cut out much of Cooke’s look at what is called DC’s Golden Age, there’s still a ton of stuff to love here. The film manages to cover many of the Graphic Novel’s themes, from the examination of McCarthyism Vs. Real Patriotism, to the Space Race, and finally a look at the origin of characters who would eventually become many of the superheroes we know and love today. This is a mature and beautiful look at this age of wonder and hope in the history of Comic Books and America, and I highly recommend the film to anyone that loves DC Comics (especially the Silver Age), Comic Book movies, good movies in general, or Cooke’s original story.
Semi-Pro Starring Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, and André Benjamin. Directed by Kent Alterman
I’m beginning to think Will Ferrell could be in nearly any movie and I’d think it was funny. With Semi-Pro, not only is this a movie that Will Ferrell seems to be making over and over again, starting with the brilliant Anchorman, and then with diminishing, but still funny returns in Talladega Nights and Blades of Glory, but this is also a flick with a plot that you’ve already seen in nearly 26 other Sports movies, most notably resembling Slap Shot, with its ’70s motif and many other weird similarities. Still, from start to finish I never really stopped laughing in Semi-Pro and it wasn’t just Ferrell that kept the laughs coming.
Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, a “one hit wonder” pop music singer who decides to take his earnings from his one hit song and buy an ABA franchise called the Flint Tropics. He also employs himself as the coach and starting power forward for the team. Only problem is, is that he is an absolutely terrible player and a worse coach. So when the ABA decides to shut down and merge with the NBA, dissolving most of its teams, Jackie has to get his team back on track to try and earn a chance to merge with the Association. So yeah, you’ve heard this one before, but much like his other movies, the magic in Semi-Pro doesn’t come from its story, but from the genius comedians on screen.
Unlike a lot of Adam Sandler movies, where he keeps employing friends that really aren’t very funny, Ferrell’s funky bunch of guys like Will Arnett, Tim Meadows, David Koechner, and Andy Richter just keep showing up in supporting roles and knocking me down with hilarity. Good lord, Semi-Pro has a scene at a card table that literally had me in tears, especially a joke involving Tim Meadows calling someone a jive turkey, and ending up with a gun in his face. The chemistry with all these guys in the movie is just phenomenal, and I also liked the addition of Andrew Daly as Dick Pepperfield, the announcer for the Tropics and the general straight man who has to deal with all these hooligans. Also decent are the only two actors that are portraying serious athletes in the movie: Woody Harrelson and Andre Benjamin. Both end up making the basketball side of this movie work, while Ferrell and his band of idiots keep up in stitches.
While this isn’t as good as Anchorman, I’d say Semi-Pro gives Talladega Nights a run for its money at second place, and I think its light-years funnier than Blades of Glory. This one does mange to be a lot more vulgar than Ferrell’s other vehicles, as I think this is his first R-rated movie since Old School (not counting his cameo in Wedding Crashers), but I think the extra leeway the rating gives the movie is put to good use. At any rate, if you’re needing a good laugh and you’re worried that the Frat Pack boys have been letting you down lately, go ahead and check this one out.
Be Kind, Rewind Starring Mos Def and Jack Black. Directed by Michel Gondry.
So I don’t necessarily hate this movie, but I think along the way someone should have told Michel Gondry that his script just wasn’t very good. First off, this movie is just all over the place. I’m not even 100% sure what exactly this movie is about in the end. On one level, the movie is a straightforward Saturday Night Live Movie-style plot where Mike (Mos Def) and Jerry (Jack Black) try to save the video store owned by Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover), who is being phased out by huge corporate video stores and local land developers. Jerry, who is generally paranoid and kind of stupid, gets magnetized during a freak accident while trying to sabotage the local power plant. As a result he accidentally erases all the VHS tapes in the store. To save the store, the duo manage to start doing their own versions of the movies and renting those out instead, becoming local celebrities. On another level, the movie seems to be about the magic of cinema, and how you can still make great movies without big budgets or Hollywood hype.
The problem is, is that Gondry doesn’t seem to commit to either theme, and comes up with a movie that feels half hearted. This is easily Gondry’s worst film, as I think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is maybe the most heartfelt and wonderful romantic film ever made, and I think The Science of Sleep is pretty wonderful up to its unsatisfying ending. I think my big problem with that film was that Gondry just wasn’t able to finish off his whimsical tale with a real emotional core, and that weakness is very evident in this new film.
The movie has brilliant individual scenes, from a hilarious break-in of a power plant to a really fun-low budget version of 2001, but the director just can’t pull everything together in the end to make you care about what’s going on. First off, the movie doesn’t seem to take place in any reality I live in, where this video store becomes some sort of local monument to history or something. All their movies are flicks like Rush Hour 2 and The Rock, and honestly, in an age where its cheaper and easier to buy a DVD player than it is a VCR, some of the movie is hard to swallow.
The end of the movie is supposed to be this big uplifting moment, but the way its staged, is just really silly. Gondry just doesn’t give you enough reasons to believe this actually happens and in the end we’re not even sure of everybody’s fate, and to some degree, we don’t even care. To be honest, Semi-Pro is able to take clichés and caricatures and still make us care about its characters more than this movie does, and that’s a real shame. Also, if you don’t like Jack Black and don’t find him funny, DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE. This is a film where Black’s whole point at times is to be annoying, and on that level, the movie succeeds.
Well, I’ve got more movies to talk about, but that’s going to be it for now. Check back next week for some Bad Ass Cinema favorites, including Charles Bronson, Dario Argento, and Quentin Tarantino and maybe even some others, as I go through more of the movies that kept me warm during our local freeze-out.
About Robert Sutton
