MISFITS
5/5 Stars
Now Streaming on Hulu.com
The superhero sub-genre is not a fad. Superhuman stories have been around for millennia. Ever since man became self aware, we have marvelled at those with peak mental and physical abilities and wondered at the possibility of surpassing it. Superheroes as we know them, costumed and powered, have been continually popular in the media of comic books and cartoons for eight decades. So why does it seem like screens big and small are lousy with super-powered reboots, sequels, and clones? Simple. It's POSSIBLE. Before the age of CG, believable superhero movies just weren't feasible. All respect to the effects team that made us believe a man can fly, early efforts at superheroes on film were less than awesome. Television budgets, being especially low, gave us an over-the-counter strength Hulk and a campy dress-up Batman. But as computer animation has gotten cheaper and more effective, major movie studios have been snatching up the rights to every franchise they can get their hands on. But as everyone who has bought Superman Underoos can attest, the brand names can get expensive. So TV is getting more original superhero stories.
This brings us to Misfits. This addictive, Hulu-imported British serial is the most original origin story in years. A group of youth offenders deals with the aftermath of a storm that has granted powers to a seemingly random fraction of the populace. But that doesn't always mean saving the day or even doing the right thing; these delinquents are far from heroes. Our protagonists start off as the world sees them: shallow and obnoxious, and are given plenty of time to evolve into rounded individuals capable of modest, much less great, responsibility. Of course, the appeal of Misfits is not how it follows the superhero formula but how it spices it up. Misfits' writers bend and break the rules of superheroes and story itself. Characters die, continuity shifts, and plots twist regularly, to both comedic and tragic effect. You never know what to expect, which given how long superheroes have been around, is a feat as welcome as it is amazing.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Friday, December 30, 2011
TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL
TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL
4/5 Stars
Now Streaming on Netflix
Horror has a rich history with comedy. Shaun of the Dead and Idle Hands are high-spirited hybrids. Return of the Living Dead, An American Werewolf in London, and Gremlins all have pretty overtly comedic tones. Even the first third of The Birds is almost indistinguishable from a romantic comedy, and that was after Abbott and Costello had some interesting meetings. By comparison the notoriously gory "slasher" sub-genre has only recently begun to flirt with humor. Perhaps something about humans killing other humans just doesn't lend itself to laughs. Nevertheless, over the past few years several slasher films have taken tentative first steps into comedy. From Jason X's holographic Crystal Lake tribute to Hostel's gum gang, horror helmers have been experimenting with genre crossover pretty regularly since the self-referential boom of the 90s. In fact, this trend has been so ubiquitous that Hatchet's ad campaign promoted it as "classic" horror simply because a disfigured mute was allowed to kill college kids without winking at the audience.
If the last decade and a half have been the courtship between slasher and slapstick, one could view Tucker And Dale vs. Evil as the consummation: a comedy that successfully embraces the bloodshed of the dead teenager films while retaining its sense of humor. Tucker and Dale is a comedy of errors that finds our hapless titular heroes mistaken for cabin-dwelling homicidal psychos. If that premise doesn't already have you smiling, you'll probably find the whole exercise tiresome. The lengths to which the writers have gone to keep this farce going are alternately side-splitting and suspension of disbelief-straining, much like watching a Fawlty Towers marathon. Ultimately the movie works. It's bloody. It's funny. It's a comedy hyphenate. No, wait- a slasher slash.
4/5 Stars
Now Streaming on Netflix
Horror has a rich history with comedy. Shaun of the Dead and Idle Hands are high-spirited hybrids. Return of the Living Dead, An American Werewolf in London, and Gremlins all have pretty overtly comedic tones. Even the first third of The Birds is almost indistinguishable from a romantic comedy, and that was after Abbott and Costello had some interesting meetings. By comparison the notoriously gory "slasher" sub-genre has only recently begun to flirt with humor. Perhaps something about humans killing other humans just doesn't lend itself to laughs. Nevertheless, over the past few years several slasher films have taken tentative first steps into comedy. From Jason X's holographic Crystal Lake tribute to Hostel's gum gang, horror helmers have been experimenting with genre crossover pretty regularly since the self-referential boom of the 90s. In fact, this trend has been so ubiquitous that Hatchet's ad campaign promoted it as "classic" horror simply because a disfigured mute was allowed to kill college kids without winking at the audience.
If the last decade and a half have been the courtship between slasher and slapstick, one could view Tucker And Dale vs. Evil as the consummation: a comedy that successfully embraces the bloodshed of the dead teenager films while retaining its sense of humor. Tucker and Dale is a comedy of errors that finds our hapless titular heroes mistaken for cabin-dwelling homicidal psychos. If that premise doesn't already have you smiling, you'll probably find the whole exercise tiresome. The lengths to which the writers have gone to keep this farce going are alternately side-splitting and suspension of disbelief-straining, much like watching a Fawlty Towers marathon. Ultimately the movie works. It's bloody. It's funny. It's a comedy hyphenate. No, wait- a slasher slash.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Triple Dog
TRIPLE DOG
3/5 Stars
Now Streaming on Netflix
Just as Panic Room is like the best Lifetime movie ever made, Triple Dog is like an ABC Family Original gone wrong- in a good way.
Most teen melodramas fail to capture much of the bite of the suburban high school experience. The problem lies mostly in the language. Cool slang is a chimera screenwriters can never manage to get their qwerty little hands on, and failed attempts only stand out as square red flags. Onscreen teens often come off sounding like undercover cops posing as high schoolers. (Ooh, I just had an idea for a TV show! They did? Really? Well, how about a movie reboot? They are? With Jonah Hill? Seriously?) Besides being mercurial, teen language is far from subtle- another aspect often absent in the cruel words of teen films. Somehow, being called a "dorkwad" just doesn't hold the same stigma for kids who regularly hear "slut", "bitch", and the perennially popular "faggot".
Triple Dog is not 100% successful in its treatment of teen dialogue (it still comes off a bit like a cutesy cell phone commercial at times), but it does attain an uncommon level of viciousness in its words and actions. Considering the youth of the characters involved, I think you can chalk up the language as a small victory. Ironically, the R-rating keeps out the obvious demographic, so I'm not exactly sure who this movie is for. But if your 13-year-old sister thought The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants was bullshit, I might have a recommendation for her.
PS- For true success in teen language, check out these other classics currently streaming on Netflix:
Heathers
Angus
Brick
3/5 Stars
Now Streaming on Netflix
Just as Panic Room is like the best Lifetime movie ever made, Triple Dog is like an ABC Family Original gone wrong- in a good way.
Most teen melodramas fail to capture much of the bite of the suburban high school experience. The problem lies mostly in the language. Cool slang is a chimera screenwriters can never manage to get their qwerty little hands on, and failed attempts only stand out as square red flags. Onscreen teens often come off sounding like undercover cops posing as high schoolers. (Ooh, I just had an idea for a TV show! They did? Really? Well, how about a movie reboot? They are? With Jonah Hill? Seriously?) Besides being mercurial, teen language is far from subtle- another aspect often absent in the cruel words of teen films. Somehow, being called a "dorkwad" just doesn't hold the same stigma for kids who regularly hear "slut", "bitch", and the perennially popular "faggot".
Triple Dog is not 100% successful in its treatment of teen dialogue (it still comes off a bit like a cutesy cell phone commercial at times), but it does attain an uncommon level of viciousness in its words and actions. Considering the youth of the characters involved, I think you can chalk up the language as a small victory. Ironically, the R-rating keeps out the obvious demographic, so I'm not exactly sure who this movie is for. But if your 13-year-old sister thought The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants was bullshit, I might have a recommendation for her.
PS- For true success in teen language, check out these other classics currently streaming on Netflix:
Heathers
Angus
Brick
Saturday, December 3, 2011
SHADE
SHADE
Now Streaming on Netflix.com
Shade is a little-known film with a very well-known cast. Stuart Townsend, Gabriel Byrne, Jamie Foxx, Sylvester Stallone, Melanie Griffith- it seems like every role is filled by a familiar face, and they all do an excellent job in the film. But the standout performances come in the opening credits sequence, which by itself is worth the price of admission.
Simply put, Shade is about grifters using sleight of hand to cheat at poker. Right off the bat, let me state that the poker in the film is as erroneous as you have seen on screen; it is sure to infuriate the more hardcore fans out there. But the sleight of hand is as real as it gets. Not a shot of close-up magic in the film is faked, either digitally retouched or done with stand-in hands. It’s all done in camera, an incredibly impressive feat by the actors. But the film puts its best foot forward from the start: the opening credits feature the actors’ sleight of hand trainers showing off, stretching our ideas of what is possible. Whether you stay for the rest of the fairly enjoyable film or not, you MUST take six minutes to watch these human special effects do their thing.
Now Streaming on Netflix.com
Shade is a little-known film with a very well-known cast. Stuart Townsend, Gabriel Byrne, Jamie Foxx, Sylvester Stallone, Melanie Griffith- it seems like every role is filled by a familiar face, and they all do an excellent job in the film. But the standout performances come in the opening credits sequence, which by itself is worth the price of admission.
Simply put, Shade is about grifters using sleight of hand to cheat at poker. Right off the bat, let me state that the poker in the film is as erroneous as you have seen on screen; it is sure to infuriate the more hardcore fans out there. But the sleight of hand is as real as it gets. Not a shot of close-up magic in the film is faked, either digitally retouched or done with stand-in hands. It’s all done in camera, an incredibly impressive feat by the actors. But the film puts its best foot forward from the start: the opening credits feature the actors’ sleight of hand trainers showing off, stretching our ideas of what is possible. Whether you stay for the rest of the fairly enjoyable film or not, you MUST take six minutes to watch these human special effects do their thing.
Friday, December 2, 2011
MAD MEN
MAD MEN
Now Streaming on Netflix.com
If you still haven’t seen AMC’s breakout hit Mad Men, what about nearly unanimous critical praise is keeping you away? Perhaps you have the same misconception of the show that I did. I saw the slick ads with the smoking, the chauvinism, and the vintage couture and mistook the sizzle for the steak. I assumed that viewers were drawn to the show because of some kind of misplaced 60s nostalgia and decided that it was not for me. But as adulation for the show reached a critical mass, I eventually decided I would at least watch an episode or two, if only to prove myself right.
I was not right.
Mad Men’s retro backdrop is not what makes the show special. What stands out here is what always should: story and character. Mad Men is what drama should be. The show is written with the richness and verisimilitude of a good novel. It may in fact be the first show to declare that TV can be literature. The acting is remarkable and is rightfully making stars of almost everyone onscreen. The characters feel real and whole. Don Draper’s story is both epic and relatable. It’s quintessentially American.
If you still haven’t seen Mad Men, there’s a good chance you’re wrong about what the show is. But at least now you can stream it for free to prove yourself right.
Now Streaming on Netflix.com
If you still haven’t seen AMC’s breakout hit Mad Men, what about nearly unanimous critical praise is keeping you away? Perhaps you have the same misconception of the show that I did. I saw the slick ads with the smoking, the chauvinism, and the vintage couture and mistook the sizzle for the steak. I assumed that viewers were drawn to the show because of some kind of misplaced 60s nostalgia and decided that it was not for me. But as adulation for the show reached a critical mass, I eventually decided I would at least watch an episode or two, if only to prove myself right.
I was not right.
Mad Men’s retro backdrop is not what makes the show special. What stands out here is what always should: story and character. Mad Men is what drama should be. The show is written with the richness and verisimilitude of a good novel. It may in fact be the first show to declare that TV can be literature. The acting is remarkable and is rightfully making stars of almost everyone onscreen. The characters feel real and whole. Don Draper’s story is both epic and relatable. It’s quintessentially American.
If you still haven’t seen Mad Men, there’s a good chance you’re wrong about what the show is. But at least now you can stream it for free to prove yourself right.
Monday, October 31, 2011
INTIMATE INDISCRETIONS
INTIMATE INDISCRETIONS
Now Streaming on you tube.com
5/5 Stars
This fledgling series of 5-minute shorts is a spot-on parody of the late-night Cinemax softcore porn shows we all had to sit through before the Internet. Jacquelyne Dyamond’s Intimate Indiscretions is about a sexy radio host that reads letters, a send-up of the loose framing device that makes the sex depictions a “show” and an emotional voiceover that makes it “erotica”.
All the comic actors are fantastic, the music cues are impeccable, and the direction is hilarious. There are several jokes at play in both streaming episodes, keeping this from being a one note sketch. Most importantly, everyone here avoids the parody pitfall of recent years by playing it straight, not winking constantly at the audience.
Go turn this viral. Maybe they’ll make more.
Now Streaming on you tube.com
5/5 Stars
This fledgling series of 5-minute shorts is a spot-on parody of the late-night Cinemax softcore porn shows we all had to sit through before the Internet. Jacquelyne Dyamond’s Intimate Indiscretions is about a sexy radio host that reads letters, a send-up of the loose framing device that makes the sex depictions a “show” and an emotional voiceover that makes it “erotica”.
All the comic actors are fantastic, the music cues are impeccable, and the direction is hilarious. There are several jokes at play in both streaming episodes, keeping this from being a one note sketch. Most importantly, everyone here avoids the parody pitfall of recent years by playing it straight, not winking constantly at the audience.
Go turn this viral. Maybe they’ll make more.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Trailer Itch: CHRONICLE
Trailer Itch:
CHRONICLE
Now Streaming on mtv.com
5/5 Stars
SPOILER ALERT:
The following contains spoilers. So go watch and come back.
Whoa. I am not usually a fan of found footage films, but juxtaposing amazing-looking visual effects with the banality of a home movie is a really fun idea. It grounds the big sci-fi action, making it feel less like the expected events of a magical onscreen world and more like something truly amazing that is happening to your friends.
And for a comic book fan like me, the promise of actually getting to see teens experimenting with superpowers at length, rather than immediately suiting up to fight the Big Bad has me excited every bit as much as that shot of police cars being tossed like dice. This is one home movie I will be staying awake through.
CHRONICLE
Now Streaming on mtv.com
5/5 Stars
SPOILER ALERT:
The following contains spoilers. So go watch and come back.
Whoa. I am not usually a fan of found footage films, but juxtaposing amazing-looking visual effects with the banality of a home movie is a really fun idea. It grounds the big sci-fi action, making it feel less like the expected events of a magical onscreen world and more like something truly amazing that is happening to your friends.
And for a comic book fan like me, the promise of actually getting to see teens experimenting with superpowers at length, rather than immediately suiting up to fight the Big Bad has me excited every bit as much as that shot of police cars being tossed like dice. This is one home movie I will be staying awake through.
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