MovieComment

Team America: World Police

Posted by Player under Comedy

Like many fans of South Park, I have been eagerly anticipating the next Trey Parker movie for quite some time. Finally on Oct 9th, I was able to watch a sneak showing of Team America: World Police, which debuts nationally this week and after one showing, my thoughts on Trey Parker’s first puppet movie are a bit mixed.

TAWP was the result of Matt Stone and Trey Parker sitting around and watching old episodes of Thunderbirds, which was a television series. Somehow the old show got two of the best satirists to start thinking about making their own puppet movie, but of course put their own spin on it.

The resulting story, tells you of a great young actor named Gary, who finds himself being recruited by the Team America team, to go on a dangerous mission to Cairo, where he will try to infiltrate the Islamic Terrorists and capture the WMD’s. A love story develops between Gary and the blond Lisa, but of course things happen to mess things up and Gary leaves Team America to pursue a life of drinking and depression. Meanwhile Team America is attacked on two fronts, one by a fat Michael Moore liberal wuss, and by North Korea’s infamous leader. When Gary comes back to face his responsibility, he finds a devastated headquarters and the team captured in North Korea. It is then up to Gary to rescue the team and save the world by using his acting of course. In the end he has to fight and act his way to victory against Alec Baldwin and Kim Jon Ill.

There are some unusual moments in the film, like when Gary has sex with Lisa, which by all appearances is a hard core puppet scene. But perhaps what ends up being the most unusual scene is Gary’s throw up scene. Then there are a lot of scenes that just jump out of you as being hilarious, like the panthers scene in North Korea. The dramatic scenes are spooky, because these are after all puppets, and facial expressions, especially the eyes, are so profound, that you feel strange equating such emotional response to a doll. Luckily the dialogue is so over the top that you find yourself laughing pretty quickly, like when the martial arts expert in Team America confesses he hates actors because he was sexually abused by the cast of Cats, the musical.

One thing that TAWP does not have a lot of compared to the original South Park movie, is singing. TAWP is not a musical, it is mostly an action comedy, and perhaps one of the most pro-American movies I’ve seen in a long time.

Some lines in the movie will definitely become timeless classics, but overall, TAWP seemed to be a very strange movie. It is definitely reaching with all the sex references, and its characters lack the well-rounded depth of the more famous South Park kids. Regardless, TAWP definitely is a movie to see for just its satire alone.

Blades of Glory

Posted by Player under Comedy

Will Ferrell is back as professional skater Chazz Michael Michaels in Blades of Glory. By this time, we are use to seeing Ferrell in all sorts of comedies, and while some of his characters are extremely endearing, others are quite forgettable. This time the story revolves around a couple of male skaters who are polar opposites. Chazz is the rockstar of the skating world, a sexual and emotional skater who ends up being banned from skating when he and fellow skater Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) brawl each other during medals presentation. Years later Jimmy and Chazz find out they can still compete in couples skating and are reunited with Jimmy’s old coach and the skating world is never the same.

The results are mixed. While Blades of Glory is incredibly funny in some places, it feels like a half hearted attempt to make fun of skating. The movie seems to be too superficial and does not really try to insult its main subject matter, unlike Zoolander which totally makes fun of every aspect of the male fashion world. Another missed target for the film is that unlike Ferrell’s previous film in which he played the race car driver Ricky Bobby, Blades of Glory really does not give us enough quirky characters. All of the characters in Blades of Glory are predictable stereo types, there are no interesting aspects. We don’t get much background on any character, other than a few background details like Chazz growing up in Detroit.

I think most movie fans wanted to embrace this film. People love comedies and Blades of Glory had plenty of potential, but it held back most of time and never took the time to grow any of its characters.

Clerks II

Posted by Player under Comedy

It’s been ten years since Kevin Smith came out with a black and white film that seemed to capture the attitude and thoughts of those of us working in crappy service jobs. While I did not always think the original Clerks film was great, there is no denying it has a certain cult following and certain lines, that are still being repeated today! So does Kevin Smith’s sequel live up the expectations of those of us who are in their thirties now?

We rejoin Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) at their new jobs. Due to circumstances beyond their control, they are now working at a Mooby’s, dishing out burgers and insults to the usual customers. Dante has finally met the right woman (Emma) and is about to leave New Jersey and move to Florida, where he is going to get married and work at a car wash. On the grill is Randal, who has not changed at all and is still the same old smart ass that we remember from this first film. The story revolves around Dante and the choice he must make to either go away with Emma to Florida and live the perfect life or stay in New Jersey with Randal, his best friend. To complicate things further for Dante, he has feelings for his boss Becky, played by Rosario Dawson. In between Dante’s drama, Randal is having a hard time telling Dante how he feels about losing his best friend and being left behind in New Jersey. As usual Randal can’t just tell Dante, he has to give him clues and the strangest one of all involves a donkey show. Needless to say Jay and Silent Bob are back as well. This time they are out of rehab and while no longer taking drugs themselves, they feel it is still okay to sell them to others.

The funniest lines in Clerks II, are definitely Randal’s. His review of the Lord of The Rings films is right on target and I found myself in total agreement. There are some other funny ideas in the film, like the pillowpants troll and Jay’s performance of Silence of The Lambs, but in all the film is really about Randal, even though Kevin Smith tries to make it about Dante.

Clerks II is not as raw or as clever as the original. You get the feeling that the anger and immaturity is not there anymore and Kevin Smith tries to appease his audience with a little bit more Jersey Girl sentimentality, instead of focusing more on Randal, which is the real reason why we liked Clerks to begin with. Clerks II still has good moments, and it’s still worth seeing, but it is not in the same status as the original.

Nacho Libre

Posted by Player under Comedy

As a kid I remember fondly watching Mexican Wrestling on television and as a parent I watch Mucha Lucha with my kids, so when Nacho Libre came out, there was something irresistable about seeing Jack Black in stretchy pants. As expected Nacho Libre is an excellent kids film. The story revolves around Jack Black’s character, Nacho, a man who is conflicted between his service to the Church and his childhood dream of being a professional wrestler. Eventually Nacho’s life changes for the better when a new nun (Sister Encarnacion) moves into the monastery and he realizes that his childhood dream could become a reality. He soon convinces the homeless Esqueleto to join him in the ring as a way to become famous. Together the two lose many battles but eventually somehow Nacho lands the fight of a life time.

Unlike other kid oriented films, which try to push adult themes to reach a more adult audience, Nacho Libre sticks to physical comedy and the ever popular fart joke every now and then. Even Nacho’s romantic feelings for Encarnacion are conveyed with very effective humor. As an adult, I kept waiting for Nacho to kiss the girl, but it never happened, because the movie never tries to cater to adults. And perhaps this is why Jack Black is brilliant as Nacho, he makes the movie be entirely about the childhood dream of wrestling, which I must admit is still appealing to the kid inside me after all these years. Everyone wants to wear stretchy pants and be a luchador, it’s just that once you are an adult you tell yourself it is a bit silly.