Igor

Holy crap, you'd think with the spare time I have now that I'd be posting more. My apologies to the remaining three readers left. I also haven't been going to the theater more often like I thought I would be. One minor rant to start this post off....all summer there was really only one kids/family movie that came out which was WALL-E and that was at the beginning of July. Igor is the first family to come out since then, besides the limited release of Space Chimps.

Anyhow, I saw this was coming out and decided to check it out knowing virtually nothing about it. Written by Chris McKenna and directed by Anthony Leondis, the animated film is a fairy tale of sorts taking place in an evil kingdom called Malaria. Starring the voices of John Cusack, John Cleese, Steve Buscemi, Sean Hayes, Jennifer Coolidge, Jay Leno, Molly Shannon and more.

I thought the film was kind of cute and humorous. It is a bit darker than most animated films aimed at families. The film centers around Igor, a hunchback evil scientists assistant who longs to become a famous evil scientist himself and be seen as more than just "an Igor". He has a knack for invention and is more gifted than the man he assists, except he discovers he's not really that evil. The big evil monster he creates is not only not evil, she wants to be an actress. Igor's nemisis is the not so gifted evil scientist, Dr. Schaudenfraude, and also his biggest competition at the annual evil science fair.

I left the theater thinking it was pretty cute, but now a week later, I can't remember a lot of great stand out parts. It is a bit darker in terms of humour and the fact that one of Igor's inventions is a suicidal bunny who is constantly trying to off himself. As long as you keep that in mind and you think the kids can handle it, you might find it okay. There was a lot of great talent in this and the voice acting was good, but something didn't quite work for me. Interesting premise and concepts, but it fell a bit short. Although, with the lack of family movies out in the theater at this point, I'd recommend checking it out anyway for lack of anything else out. Get on the ball, Hollywood.

More ramblings to come....

Back to School

This last week was the first week back at school for the university students and the first full week back for the elementary and high school kids. I know for my friends south of the border they go back a bit earlier. Sometimes we have movie theme nights or even weekends in our house. We decided to have a "back to school" weekend on our DVD player, even though it is my first year not returning to school.

Mean Girls
First up was one of my faves written by the kickass Tina Fey. It is a perfect back to school movie because it's Cady Herron (Lindsay Lohan)'s first day at a regular high school after years of home schooling. She becomes educated about the ways of "girl world" by the school's popular clique of girls called "the Plastics". A very humourous look at the social dynamics of high school and the way high school girls relate to each other. I have written about it in more detail in the past here.


Clueless
This is another perfect back to school movie. Written and directed by the uber talented Amy Heckerling, the story was meant to be a retelling of Jane Austen's Emma, only in modern day southern California at a Beverly Hills high school with Cher Horowitz (Silverstone) playing matchmaker with everybody around her at school. Extremely well written, it is both a hilarious and entertaining look at high school. The film launched the careers of Alicia Silverstone, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Donald Faison, and Breckin Meyer. A definite must see!


Freaks and Geeks
I never did catch the series when it was on television, but I picked up the first and only season on DVD earlier this year and fell in love with it. I picked it up for two reasons, the first because I saw trailers for it on the My So-Called Life dvd box set and figured if it was anything even remotely close to MSCL, I'd love it, the other reason because I love Judd Apatow's films and knew he produced the show and wrote and directed some of the episodes. A great television show which portrayed the less glamorous and more realistic side of high school from the point of view of the misfits and the geeks. Great casting as well with the show starring Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Jason Segel, Busy Philipps, and Seth Rogen before their careers blew up huge. Why do all the really great shows only have one frickin' season?


Sixteen Candles
Blast from the past! A classic John Hughes teen flick starring Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall. Ringwald is Samantha Baker, a teenage girl who gets forgotten on her sixteenth birthday due to her perfect, older sister Jenny's wedding. She has a monster crush on the school's senior hunk, Jake Ryan. The only problem is his perfect, beautiful girlfriend who everybody in the school worships. I loved this film when I was younger (the film came out in 1984), and I got it on DVD last year and rewatched it. I have to say it's quite dated now, but still classic.

More ramblings to come....

Hamlet 2

I had been wanting to see Hamlet 2 since I first saw the trailers a few months ago. I know when something is in limited release because it will go to the Southland Cineplex theater (across town from me) instead the Galaxy, which is right near by and has better popcorn. Lesser popcorn be darned, I went across town to see this at the Stars and Strollers screening, no less. Since it is now the end of the summer, the weekday matinees at the first run theaters have come to a close, and the only matinee is on Tuesdays at 1pm called the Stars and Strollers screening, in which people with their babies can enjoy a movie with other baby people who will understand when they make noise and stuff. Of course other people are welcome, you just can't bitch about crying babies.

Written and directed by Andrew Fleming, the film is a comedy starring the hilarious Steve Coogan as Dana Marschz, a failed actor and high school drama teacher in Tucson, Arizona. He rollerskates to school everyday and lives with his wife, Brie (Catherine Keener). The drama class is very small with only two students, Rand (Skylar Astin) and Epiphany (Phoebe Strole) who always star in the school plays, which Mr. Marschz always bases on films. Even though there are only two students in the class, Dana is very passionate about theater and teaching his students about the craft of acting, despite his experience being limited to informercials and humiliating commercials.

Another high school in Tucson has many of their programs cut, so a sudden influx of hispanic students join the class, much to Mr. Marschz's delight, which gives him more students and lets him feel like MIchelle Pfeiffer's character in Dangerous Minds. Dana is also told that budget cuts have affected their high school as well and it will be the last semester with a drama class. He comes up with a brilliant plan to stage a controversial play of his own that will give attention and help raise money to keep the drama program going. His play is Hamlet 2, a sequel to William Shakespeare's Hamlet, which features an appearance by Jesus Christ. Of course there is a lot of opposition from parents, school administration, etc, because what would a story be without obstacles? Dana also has trouble at home and the actors start clashing. He receives help in the form of a small spitfire lawyer, named Cricket Feldstein (Amy Poehler), who helps him put on the play despite orders from the court to shut it down.

I liked this film. It was very amusing and humorous, and Steve Coogan is totally awesome as the beleaguered drama teacher. The film will also have people asking "why the hell isn't Elisabeth Shue working more?" The students were well cast and did a great job, but I felt that their characters could have been more developed and their little arcs could have been flushed out more. I found the end a little anti-climactic though. It was a cute story but it didn't quite feel like the stakes were high enough. If you are able to check it out, I'd say go for it. I am now officially a Steve Coogan fan. Ending with the part where Dana shows Brie his freshly finished script of Hamlet 2 and she calls him crazy ("Um, didn't everybody die at the end of the first one?").....

Dana: Any person will tell you, sometimes you gotta go a little crazy to make great fuckin' art.

Amen....more ramblings to come......