Friday movie roundup – July 30
In keeping with the official theme of summer 2010 — “Eh, Good Enough” — this week’s new wide releases are all B-minuses. They fall within the “good” range, but not very far into it. They’re good enough that I wouldn’t try to discourage anyone who was thinking of seeing them from doing so, but neither would I recommend them to anyone who wasn’t already considering them. Basically, whatever your plans were this weekend, go ahead.
“Dinner for Schmucks” is funny but not as funny as it should have been. “Charlie St. Cloud” (review at Film.com) is better than you’re expecting from a teen-focused weeper, but nothing special. “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore” (review at Film.com) has some laughs in it.
In limited release, “The Kids Are All Right” is all right. Well, better than that. It’s pretty good. But “‘The Kids Are All Right’ is all right” sounds better.
At Film.com, “Eric’s Bad Movies” is about “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” an amazing 1978 failure featuring the songs of the Beatles but no Beatles. “What’s the Big Deal?” is about “Last Year at Marienbad,” a trippy 1961 French art film that’s come up recently in conversations about “Inception” (conversations with people prone to mentioning French art films, anyway). I also addressed the question of whether Kevin Smith — or anyone — is “relevant.”
At Cinematical, I cracked a few jokes about the trailer for “The Town.” This led an elderly gentleman at Vanity Fair to discover that there is a thing called the “Internet,” and that it has “blogs” on it, and that sometimes those blogs contain jokes. It also led to a commendation by Jeff Wells, which produced mixed feelings in me, to say the least.
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July 30th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
I never thought I’d disagree with you one one of your Bad Movies, but I do…to an extent, at least. Sure, “Sgt. Pepper’s” is one gigantic clustershmozz of a mess of a film. It’s very weird, and most of the ideas don’t pan out very well. But I never found it boring, or dull. There was enough insanity going on to at least keep you watching, if not totally entertained. And I actualy liked the music, so much so that I tracked down the soundtrack (Steve Martin doing “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is probably my all-time favorite Beatles cover). The whole movie’s a train wreck, sure…but it was never a boring train wreck, at least not to me.
July 31st, 2010 at 7:58 am
I’d like to nominate US Marshals (1998) for Eric’s bad movies. It’s the sort-of-sequel to great action movie The Fugitive (1992) and it has Tommy Lee Jones reprising his Oscar winning role, but it’s depressing (and kind-of pointless).
There are definitely dumber movies out there, but few I wish I could somehow un-watch.
July 31st, 2010 at 12:16 pm
here is my comment that may or may not have shown up on the “The Town” comments, depending on if I did it right::
Its called “The Town” for a reason. Good to know. Now how was anyone supposed to know that who isn’t from Boston, unless that is the only expected audience? As for the idea that you can’t knock a movie you haven’t seen, again that is a silly argument. The whole idea of a trailer is to bring you in (as it has done for some who have commented), and if they don’t do it correctly then people won’t watch. The fact people are all excited for this means that, well, the movie has been judged by people who haven’t seen it yet. Your a hypocrite unless you watch every movie regardless of your thoughts on the trailer.
Besides, most here are way too critical of the critic. He is known as somewhat of a comedian. Part of his “act” is to find the humor in movies. My guess is he is laughing (as he does) at the deadpan seriousness of the trailer’s defenders. Not that you would know this, but do your homework.
July 31st, 2010 at 2:42 pm
The Town looks terrible. I can’t agree with the premise, it sounds impossible, unlikely, and contrived.
Though I guess the same people that have seen this trailer are watching Inception, so naturally they wouldn’t notice or have the ability to realize how absurd The Town will be.
Yea, 300 bank robberies a year? Everyone lives in the same place? The tough bad guy falls in love with the pretty girl that he kidnapped? A 12 year old could come up something less cliche than that.
July 31st, 2010 at 3:02 pm
I’m glad Russ came back to mention again that people who like “Inception” — or, apparently, who even *see* it — are dumb and gullible.
August 3rd, 2010 at 10:38 am
@Jettboy: “Its called “The Town” for a reason. Good to know. Now how was anyone supposed to know that who isn’t from Boston, unless that is the only expected audience?”
I think they were supposed to, you know, watch the movie. I suspect this information will be revealed at some point.
August 3rd, 2010 at 12:49 pm
My point about the title — which I guess I didn’t make very clearly — is that by itself, without any context, it is a boring and generic title. “The Town.” It tells you nothing. It is not intriguing or memorable. No one will hear “The Town” and think, “Ooh, that sounds like an interesting movie!” They’ll hear “The Town” and think, “Which movie is that again?” The trailer mentions Charlestown, and so one can infer that that’s where “the town” comes from. Maybe the movie addresses the subject in more depth. All I was saying is that the title itself — as a name, as a marketing tool — is dull and ineffective.
August 4th, 2010 at 9:15 am
Eric I definitely agree that it is a pretty bland title. However I don’t really see that as being an issue at all. First of all, how many people go to a movie solely because of the title? Not many. Secondly, the title being so boring could actually work in their favor. I’m thinking in the context of a group of friends reading the movie listings trying to decide what to go see: “Our choices are Shrek 7, Transformers 4, The Town, Tooth Fairy, Dear John. . .” The Town does kind of stick out because of its simplicity and might lead to someone asking “The Town? What is that about?” Yes, granted it could also lead to them just ignoring it as the list of movies flies by.