Movie Reviews & More
The Hot Chick (2002)
Starring Rob Schneider, Anna Faris, Matthew Lawrence, and Rachel McAdams, this is a Happy Madison movie so you know that it is going to be goofy but fun.
Basically, these mystic earrings that McAdams(Jessica) steals from a jewelry store have ancient powers, able to switch two bodies of the two people who each wear one earring. By a silly set of circumstances Jessica and Schneider switch bodies, putting the girl in a man’s body. This is the running gag the whole movie, how a girl would react to being in male form, especially a superficial one.
This movie was decently funny, I rented it for Rachel McAdams, but this was one of her first movies and she was barely in it, acting mostly as the drunken criminal Schneider whose body she was stuck in.
Adam Sandler has a bit part, as a white reggae who likes weed and to bang on the drums. If you like Sandler’s movies through his product company, you may want to see this one. It isn’t the funniest, but it is a decently entertaining Friday night popcorn movie. If you found like Van Wilder, Dude Where’s My Car, and Mr. Deeds funny, you’d like this. Minus the girls who all want to see “the package”.
Mean Girls (2004)
Starring Lindsay Lohan, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Rachel McAdams, Lacy Chabert, and a handful of other SNL alum, this movie kept popping up on my radar. Written by Fey, this movie gives us a parody of harsh young female interaction can be at the high school level.
Lohan is a new student who is just trying to fit in, when she is noticed by “The Plastics”, and elite group of three girls who are highly exclusive. Lohan’s friends want her to feign interest to get close to them and then somehow ruin them because of how mean the three of them are. But soon Lohan gets drunk on the power and attention herself, becoming what she hates.
This isn’t a particularly funny movie, the girls are all really pretty to look at, but is focused more on the caddy self centered attitude of these clickish girls. A pretty interesting look, and Fey is really funny in the movie just like she is on SNL which she writes for as well as is the anchor for “Weekend Update”.
The reasons to see this movie? If you have a girl that is just starting her teens, she would like this, or if you have a crush on Lohan (Before she was anorexic) or Rachel McAdams. An exaggerated view on everything, it could be a fun Friday night movie, just don’t expect to laugh as hard as I did.
Without A Paddle (2004)
Who’s in it
Seth Green, Matthew Illiard, Dax Shephard, Burt Reynolds
What was good
Seth Green plays a couple of roles really good, and in this movie, he played a super phobic doctor who wasn’t much of a risk taker and was this unlucky straight laced guy among a bunch of frat dudes essentially. Dax Shepherd had some funny lines as the womanizer of the film, but it was mostly Green’s character that was funny especially in the bear scenes. Illiard was not at all funny in this one, more of an attempt as dramatic, relatively speaking.
What sucked
I wasn’t that entertained. It isn’t a joke after joke type of movie, there is a touch of serious air about this movie, and I just don’t think I would watch it again.
Who should go see this
Fans of Seth Green will be happy, and I think it may be worth seeing once as a cheap rental on a Friday, or from the library from me. But I wouldn’t recommend this to most of my friends even as a super funny movie, so be cautious.
Waiting (2005)
Ryan Reynolds, Anna Faris, and a bunch of people you may have seen before but don’t really care about their names. This movie is one big parody of what life might be like for the whole staff of a popular bar type restaurant like O’Charlie’s. It pokes fun a the workers, the politics, and the corporate idea of a restaurant chain. But mostly, it is just humor about different body parts, sex, and other dirty stuff.
The movie revolves around one guy, and his decision about what to do with his life. He kind of accidentally ended up working at this restaurant, but is scared about taking the next jump. But a series of circumstances, seeing how one of his old classmates had advanced, being offered a permanent manager position, all make him stand up and really evaluate what he wants to do. In the end, he quits without a plan, but that is better than feeling stuck.
A funny movie, Reynolds is always a funny jerk and pulls it off great. This movie is really vulgar though, so I wouldn’t recommend it to all of my friends, and I don’t think that I would necessarily watch it again either. If you liked Old School you will like this, or you are into Ryan Reynolds humor. But otherwise, take some caution, most of the movies humor may be to far under the rim.
Legend of Zorro (2005)
Starring Antoine Banderas and Catherine Zeta Jones, this follow up to the highly successful “Mask of Zorro” from 1998 was way too much entirely too late.
The story revolves loosely around Zorro not being able to give up being Zorro, being needed by the people. There is tension between Zorro and Elena, but it all becomes convoluted with a blackmail, lust, and jealosy. Elena gets a divorce from Zorro and ends up with an social elite man by the name of Armand. Not very subtle, the whole thing is a ruse, Elena blackmailed by the US government to spy on Armand who is a member of Orbis Unum, whose members are all descendants of European royalty and determined to keep their nations among the world’s strongest.
That little tie to history was the coolest thing about this movie, aside from the glycerin that Orbis Unum is gleaning from bars of soap to give to the Confederate army, sending the worlds super power into a self destructive civil war.
Somewhere in here, Zorro gives some help, so does his cute smart ass little kid. There are subplots of how Zorro is bad parent to his child, but wants the best, but they all work against each other, taking away from the main plot with these highly cliche stories.
I can’t place my finger on it, maybe it was too light in lighting, I remembered the first one being darker light, and the characters seemed more hungry. It was all too campy, and Zorro was not nearly as entertaining to watch.
Unless you really feel the need to see this, I would pass. There is not any interesting characters aside from Armand, and if you are like me, you will be watching the clock, waiting for it to end.
Mask of Zorro (1998)
The original, starring Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta Jones and Matt Letscher this is a great movie, highly entertaining and even a great family movie that you can watch over and over again. I thought so anyway, and I own it.
This is the story of the old Zorro (Hopkins) and his last ride to stop Don Alejandro and to help the people. Don Alejandro has done his homework and finds out the identity of Zorro. Soon after Zorro returns Alejandro is there, waiting to take him into captivity. Zorro won’t have it, puts up a fight, and in the flurry his wife is shot dead. Alejandro locks Zorro up and takes his only child and destroys his house and in doing so all of his life.
Fast forward twenty years. A new Zorro is in the making, a drunken swindler and his brother go from town to town, tricking people out of their money. They get caught by the law, and his brother is brutally killed, beheaded. With some luck, and past fortune, the old Zorro and this man meet up and start training, and the rest is just a fun action packed movie with a light heart to it.
Banderas is comical and cocky, and the stunt and swordfight scenes are in depth and amazing. I had never scene the old Zorro, but this was a perfect introduction point for me, a great movie to get me acquainted with the character and his mythos.
I can’t think of many people that wouldn’t like this movie, unless you are really hardcore into the violence and don’t prefer movies that are a little less serious about themselves. Rent this today, and enjoy it, and stay away from the sequel because you will be highly disappointed.
Trading Places (1983)
Starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Akroyd, and Jamie Lee Curtis, this movie’s idea is simple. In different circumstances and opportunities, would a rich man who became poor turn to crime and other pitiful activities to make it by, and would a criminal, given a better life excel in his newfound environment.
Murphy is the criminal who one day, on the whim of a bet, is given an upscale, well to do life of a successful businessman (Akroyd) and Akroyd is then framed and reduced to nothing, everything he had taken away in a heartbeat. Soon Murphy beings to excel, leaving behind and looking down on all that he was, and Akroyd soon turns to drinking, stealing, and attempted suicide to escape the hell that was now his life. But, by a chance of luck, both Murphy and Akroyd find out that they were the subjects of a terrible joke, two bored men playing with their lives for a simple transaction of a dollar.
In the end of the movie, they retaliate, and turn those men into what they thought was a joke, poor and hollow. This movie is a great role for both Murphy and Akroyd. Murphy is still at the height of his career, around the time of Beverly Hills Cop, funny and engaging. Akroyd play the part of a stuffy upperclassman perfectly, to a point where you don’t really think he is acting, only portraying a side of himself you secretly know is probably his predominant side. Jamie Lee Curtis is the lost hooker trying to make money off the whole situation, and really is just the pretty face in all of this.
It is rated R, and there are some parts that I am sure my parents wouldn’t like and would feel are unnecessary. I think the movie is solid, entertaining, short, and to the point, with a good splash of silly. I think most people that like Murphy in any of his early 80’s roles, and didn’t know about this one would love this movie.
