Category — Movies

One of my favorite films from back in the day was Teen Witch. Robyn Lively was the titular teen witch, Lousie. Dan Gauthier was her ‘oh so dreamy’ object of desire Brad. And Zelda Rubenstein (Poltergeist) played her cooky but lovable mentor, Madame Serena.

The movie doesn’t really make much sense and borders dangerously close to becoming a musical. But it’s fantastic, I tell you! It’s better if you really don’t know much. If you need a primer, check out the “Top That” scene that Sasha Frere Jones posted on his blog. It totally reminded me of why I love Teen Witch.

Check it:

Dear god, I hope that Teen Witch with Ashley Tisdale remake dies in development hell. I feel like the 1989 version was able to work because the climate of late eighties accepted its over the top spirit. In today’s film market, I fear it would come off as one of those INSERT GENRE movie movies like Not Another Teen Movie. I’d probably make a more entertaining homage to the original film with my friends simply reenacting the dance scenes. All you really need is someone with an inch more of charisma than that High School Reunion girl, some eighties costumes and a decent Panasonic digital camcorder.

If you liked that digital taste of Teen Witch from above, you should buy it on dvd today. It’s so cheap what could it hurt? I guarantee it’ll bring a smile to your face.

The buzz for Rainn Wilson’s newest movie, The Rocker,  hopefully has come to an end since it’s out tomorrow. Mr. Wilson  has been everywhere lately! It seems like he’s either hosting some event like the Independent Spirit Awards or honing his signature deadpan humor on NBC’s “The Office”. And just last week, he hosted a book chat with Slash!

In The Rocker, Wilson plays a down-n-out drummer who wants to go head to head with his old band. That plot description is strangely reminiscent of School of Rock, but with older kids and more metal umpf!

But who’s that in the pic? Teddy Geiger from VH1’s “Search for the next Brady Bunch”?! Has he graduated to feature films?! Wow, guess they wanted a supporting character who could sing and play guitar. Music skills can definitely give you that extra panache sometimes. The rest of the cast is that redheaded girl from Superbad, Emma Stone, and the hilarious, seriously underrated Jane Lynch (Best in Show). She is beyond funny, dare I say funnier than Rainn.

Nevertheless, if you love “The Office”, metal music, and/or musical comedies, you should watch Rainn rock the cineplex this Friday.

I can see the opening scene now: Phelps shoveling down his 12,000-calorie breakfast, ending with those chocolate chip pancakes. There must be tons of footage available already thanks to all of those digital camcorders and video cameras that have been following him around.

I haven’t thought about swimming much since I was a kid, but watching Michael Phelps at the Olympics made me notice that something is missing from my life: the opportunity to eat whatever I want and not have it show.

Thinking of Phelps and all of the technology-assisted broken records as the subject of a film made me think of how Hollywood has looked at sports over the years. Here is a short list of my personal favorites:

1. Bang the Drum Slowly
2. The Natural
3. Hoosiers
4. Field of Dreams
5. Chariots of Fire

Rocky just rates an honorable message in my book.

The new Death Race definitely has an asinine premise much like the original Death Race 2000 with Sylvester Stallone. Nevertheless, I’ll watch it because I’ll pay money to see Jason Statham “act”, run, kick, and jump in just about anything.

It looks like a cross between The Running Man (the run for your freedom or die trying bit), Escape from Alcatraz (the prison bit), and 2 Fast 2 Furious (The Tyrese and car racing bit)!

Trailer Check:

Besides having Jason on point, the filmmakers throw in a little evil Joan Allen, Tyrese, non-descript hot girl, and Ian McShane (HBO’s “Deadwood”). I predict that by the end of the film, Joan Allen’s character will have her plans foiled when the wrongfully imprisoned Jason Statham character wins the “race”. The rest of Death Race will be filled with nonsensical action sequences and bad one-liners. Hopefully, it’ll at least be as entertaining as Transporter 2. I’m not really asking for much.

First, there was concern over Robert Downey Jr. in blackface, now a disability activist group wants to boycott the movie because Ben Stiller’s character uses the term “retard” mockingly. Tropic Thunder just can’t get a politically correctness break! Don’t they know this movie is a comedy? These characters are simply tools of satire and humor. The filmmakers are poking fun at the obvious plays actors (and studios) make for Oscars when a famous actor supposedly transforms him/herself into mentally challenged characters or some other disparaged group. Jack Black is even a parody of himself since he portrays the “funny” comedian/actor character.

It goes without saying that Tropic Thunder is definitely dancing the fine line between comedy and offensiveness, but who can hate on Robert Downey Jr? His character is obviously supposed to be so wrapped up in his own ego to realize that undergoing a medical procedure to appear African-American doesn’t make you authentic, you’re just ridiculous and come off as offensive. Same goes for Stiller’s character whose supposed to play the big action star that gets nominated for an Oscar after playing a disabled character.

The best part of the movie isn’t the characterization, but is when these actors get there comeuppance. The movie director (Steve Coogan) has enough of all of his stars’ diva antics, so he tricks them into filming a fake Apocalypse Now movie. The director installs hidden camcorders and films the actors when they think the cameras are off, the idiocy of his stars will be the actual film within the film (further parodying Apocalypse by doing a Hearts of Darkness parody!). Unlucky for the cast and crew, the three stars find themselves thrown into a real life military situation with the film location’s local guerrilla groups. They’ll have to lose the ego and learn how to apply their method acting skills towards survival!

If you can overlook the political correctness and are a fan of these comedic actors, I think Tropic Thunder is worth watching.

Related links:
Rain of Madness (the fake documentary website)
Tropic Thunder viral videos on First Showing
Tropic Thunder Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes