Gratuitious Fun

So this summer, most of the movies that I wanted to see all showed up in mid to late August. So some quick thoughts about some of those movies...

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - 8/10

Ridiculous energy, really fun fight sequences, and three great villains (cocky Chris Evans being utilized properly, schmarmy Jason Schwartzmann, and an amazingly great job by Brandon Routh). Michael Cera wasn't as irritating as usual and I actually liked him as a badass hero. The soundtrack fits the movie really well, with most of the music by Cera's band, Sex Bob-Omb written by Beck and the songs of another band written by Metric. The crazily kinetic and frenetic visual style really fits the story, and Edgar Wright does for retro video games here what he did with zombies in Shaun of the Dead and action movies in Hot Fuzz. Its a shame that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are a little too old to be involved with the teenage-20something action. The reason why this movie doesn't get a perfect 10/10... Mary Elizabeth Wimstead as Ramona Flowers was fairly weak to me as the "dream girl." She seemed actually a little realistic and mopey and not as desirable as the movie tried to make her. Also, the first half hour of this movie seems like "Not Another Michael Cera Movie" as it takes a while for the first evil ex to show up and the inbetween time is fairly bland and not that interesting.

Expendables - 6/10

I really wanted to like this one and I liked the energy, but the movie was more a Stallone-Statham piece with most of the other big name action stars relegated to supporting roles or almost cameos. In particular, the iconic Jet Li only gets a lame series of "short" jokes and actually has to be saved by Stallone on multiple occasions. The Stallone-Willis-Governator scene is definitely the high point, but its far too short. I understand that Arnold has other commitments, but I've had liked to seen Bruce Willis be in the movie more (maybe showing up at the end as a surprise mastermind villain). Many of the fight scenes are annoyingly shot in close up shaky cam and a lot of the martial arts and fighting prowess of the different actors is lost by the poor editing. The entire last sequence is a total throwback to the glorious excess of 80s action movies especially Commando and I really loved Terry Crews' weapon as well as the Statham/Li double team move (anything else would be too serious of spoilers). The Expendables is worth seeing, its fun and mindless, but there's a lot of wasted potential that I hope a future sequel could fix.

Piranha 3-D - 9/10

As to the movie filled to the brim with glorious excess, I bring you Piranha 3-D. Featuring a super eclectic cast, the most nudity in a non-pornographic movie that I possibly have ever seen, and a ridiculously gory 3rd act, this movie delivered in every way I hoped it could. It was really fun to see director Alexandre Aja's humorous side, as his previous films (High Tension, Hills Have Eyes, and Mirrors) were all somber and serious. The actors were all having a blast, with special props going to a Doc Brown channeling Christopher Lloyd, Wild Wild Girls director Jerry O'Connell (finally someone letting him ham things up), and Ving Rhames once again playing the badass (I hate that his best scene was ruined by the previews).

I've heard this movie had a tough time achieving the R rating, I'm frankly flabbergasted as to how some of the different scenes made it past the MPAA, and I can't believe what the eventual unrated director's cut will look like. On the bad side, all the characterization is straight out of film stereotypes 101, some of the jokes do fall a bit flat, and the first hour or so of the movie doesn't have much carnage at all. Also, wayy too many of the good scenes are ruined by the trailer, including the last shot of the movie! For the love of God, Hollywood, please stop showing the end of movies in the preview... But if you want some pure adult escapism, check out Piranha 3-D complete with not awful yet fun 3-D effects.