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Movie Week: 4/4/09 to 4/10/09 By: Gavin Mooney A quick review this week. Only two new movies out this week warranting viewing unless you’re a “Hanna Montana” fan, but c’mon who’s a Hanna Montana fan? One I could pretty much predict what my movie going experience was going to be like and the other was a huge toss up that turned out to be pleasantly enjoyable. For all you out there, I am a huge DBZ fan so of course I rushed out to see “Dragonball: Evolution.” Next week I may or may not be making it out to the movie so I’ll either have the new movies out or one of a few article ideas I’ve been working on. But in case I don’t make it out just for quick reference here is my buy/sell on preview hype: 17 Again - Know nothing about it so I read the Fandango synopsis, its “Mr. Destiny!” If you don’t know what “Mr. Destiny” is then go out and rent it. It’s an old James Belushi flick with about the exact same plot line. Way better than this piece of crap I’m sure, so spend 2-5 bucks rather than 10-12. Again Hollywood just taking old shit, putting it in a new box and selling it back to us. I sell this hype. Crank 2: High Voltage - If you seen “Crank” you know this dude is dead and this movie is just plain silly. If you’ve haven’t seen “Crank,” well then I’m sorry I ruined it for you. It’s entertaining, go see it. Plus Jason Statham just kicks ass! Personally I think the plot line for this movie is so ridiculous that they’re crazy for even making this sequel. So... I’ll see you there! Buy this hype. State of Play - BUY THIS HYPE! Two words, Ben Affleck. Enough said. On To Current Events....
Observe and Report - This movie was everything I thought it would be. Now just to prepare you I didn’t think much of it from the previews. As is typical with this type of movie a lot of the good jokes were in the preview. Also it ain’t much of a laugh out loud until your sides hurt type movie. It’s a dark comedy so it’s more of that shits fucked up so lets all laugh at it type movie. It’s about a mall cop who takes his job WAY too seriously, and who attempts to woo his love interest by tracking down a flasher who has recently been assaulting her and the mall patrons and bring him to justice. Now this shit is kinda funny. I laughed through this movie. About as much as I did for “Adventureland,” and like “Adventureland” jokes do not drive this movie the story does. The story was actually quite entertaining and sucks you into the movie. Seth Rogan does an excellent job playing this character and manages to get across the larger than life attitude the character has in the movie. I definitely would not recommend this movie to everyone and if you saw the previews and thought “Oh, this shit is gonna be hilarious like ‘Pineapple Express,’” spoiler alert! It aint. Now if dark comedies are your thing, like if you got “The Big Lebowski” the first time you saw it and you couldn’t stop laughing through “Burn After Reading,” then definitely check this movie out. For many people though I think the humor is gonna go right over their heads as there were several times in this film I was the only person laughing and the joke was pretty damn funny. So if you know your comic taste, then proceed at your own risk. It ain’t a total waste of 10 bucks but for some, you just might want to wait to rent this one.
Dragonball: Evolution - I rushed out to see this movie for several reasons one of which being can they live up to the epic idea of what this movie should look like live action on the big screen? It’s up for debate but seeing as how this is probably the first in a series of movies we’ll see. Dragonball is a live action version of exactly what it says, just about the tail end of the original Dragonball series with a bunch of tweaks here and there in order to give you the key elements of that entire series in as little time as possible. For instance, grandpa Gohan, the four star dragonball, meeting Bulma, Master Roshi, meeting Yamcha, the dragonballs, King Piccolo, Chi Chi and a few other surprises. I would like to point out that on Fandango the synopsis says these guys are doing battle with the saiyans and they’re not, just King Piccolo and the movie does refer to him as a Namekian. Now this movie does preserve many elements of the original cartoon and for all I know the manga as well, but I never read it. It is campy and fun, not too serious with a slight epic-ness to the plot, and cool fire ball attacks. It is not at all like “Speed Racer” where they just went way overboard trying to make it appear to be a live action adaptation of every aspect of the cartoon. The fight scenes were less than desirable but that is probably a result of dumping all the spare cash they had into making vehicle capsules, Ki blasts, Kamehameha waves, believable yet true to the original costumes, and bitchin looking dragonballs all look as believable and as awesome as they could. Honestly, a live action Kamehameha is gonna make or break you in this movie. The dude that plays Goku is alright emulating the playful, half-witted, and epically strong yet kind that the character needs to emulate at all times. Unfortunately I am hopelessly biased towards the actor because he was good enough to be on “Lost” which makes him good in my book; even if it was only one epsisode and he was a flashback character. The chick that plays Chi Chi is BANGIN!!!! I mean seriously dude, BANGIN!!! Almost worth seeing the movie just for her. And the dude who plays Yamcha got the voice spot on. It really was like seeing a live action Yamcha. Also another acting pleasure for me was seeing James Masters on the big screen as Piccolo. For those who don’t know he played Spike on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” the show. And if you are like “seriously dude!” or “who?” or “what?” trust me, this dude kicks ass and it is great to see him get some work. Now this movie is geared to a younger audience which does account for the campiness and again lack of badass fight scenes you’ve come to expect from all modern martial arts films (and seriously a Dragonball film!) but I feel if this movie is successful enough we just may get a series of epic sequels that will parallel Dragonball Z. As a huge fan of the cartoon series I would love nothing more than to see a legendary live action movie of the series that made me fall in love with cartoons again as a young adult. For the die hard fan and newcomer alike, I’m sorry I cannot predict what your reaction to this movie may be. You may love it or hate it. I personally don’t know enough about the original series, but if you like to see what I felt was a fairly adequate stab at what I think is the hardest big screen adaptation ever, go see this movie. It is definitely no Street Fighter or “Speed Racer.”
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