Shaolin Soccer - Stephen Chow (aka Siu Lam Juk Kau) (2001, DVD)
Insanely bizarre and amusing kung fu soccer flick. Thematically similar to Chow's earlier film, God of Cookery. Oh, just go see it.
| Comments (2) | TrackBack (1002) | link me | February 2003

Ice Age - Carlos Saldanha, Chris Wedge (2002, DVD)
Pretty good CG in the service of pretty typical Disneyish "making friends and taking care of them is good, never mind what species they are" storyline. Lots of sight gags and Road Runner/Coyote-esque cartoon silliness provide cheap laughs. Also owes a few gags to the Gary Larson school of natural history. Nothing too deep here.
| Comments (76) | TrackBack (1578) | link me | January 2003

Notorious C.H.O. - Lorene Machado (DVD, 2002)
Margaret Cho's second stand-up performance film isn't as funny or as deeply personal as her first, but gets some pretty good laughs. As with many high-profile comedians, she gets mileage out of being willing to say things that no one else will, and unlike some others, she seems to really mean it. Openly — no, make that exhibitionistically — bisexual, she goes into pretty explicit detail about her sex life in a way that's the polar opposite of coy or flirtatious, with remarks like "don't Sharon Stone me to death! I want a big bull dyke who looks like John Goodman!"; I can't emphasize enough how eye-opening and refreshing this can be, particularly to those of us who participate in or are exposed to, uh, alternative sexual practices. On the down side, some of her riffs go on a bit too long in one vein, and she spends a little too much time holding her "funny faces" and repeating punch lines that got particularly good reactions from the audience; there's actually not all that much real material here.
| Comments (10) | TrackBack (602) | link me | December 2002

The Royal Tenenbaums - Wes Anderson (2001, DVD)
Loopy dysfunctional-family comedy. Reminiscent of John Irving's evolution-of-family novels The World According To Garp and The Hotel New Hampshire, this story is treated with a somewhat lighter touch. For a comedy, there's a surprising amount of depth; the actors treat their characters with respect despite the absurd situations, which in turn encourages the audience's sympathy. meriko and Meredith and I were laughing through the whole thing, and it gave us an excuse to hide in the catacombs out of the heat for a couple of hours. That's a good thing.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (319) | link me | September 2002

Pretty In Pink - Howard Deutch (1986, VHS)
Somehow I grew up in the 80s and never saw this movie. Beca forced it on us in the interest of educating meriko. What's to say? Can James Spader ever have been that young?
| Comments (1) | TrackBack (228) | link me | August 2002

Men In Black II - Barry Sonnenfeld (2002, in theatre)
The original Men In Black hugely exceeded my expectations. This one adds nothing worthwhile to the original. It's amusing and entertaining, but not worth more than a stupid-day video rental.
| Comments (1) | TrackBack (97) | link me | June 2002

The Big Lebowski - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (1998, DVD)
Not the first viewing for us. I think I liked it a little better the first time around. Jeff Bridges nails the role of The Dude perfectly -- I think he's too good an actor for most of the movies he's been in. Coen Brothers regulars John Goodman and Steve Buscemi are cast a little differently from their usual roles, and play off each other well.
| Comments (1) | TrackBack (411) | link me | January 2002

The Tao of Steve - Jenniphr Goodman (2000, DVD)
So-so romantic comedy. I felt like the writers might have been trying to project their particular intergender relations experiences to be a little more universal than I was comfortable with, but this is writer-actor Greer Goodman and sister-director Jenniphr Goodman's first feature, so I'm inclined to give them some credit.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (79) | link me | January 2002

Office Space - Mike Judge (1999, DVD)
Given our recent attitudes toward work, we should have been in the perfect mindset to enjoy this movie, but it seemed like it had about a half hour's worth of gags stretched over ninety minutes. Some good gags, but still.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (264) | link me | December 2001

The Hotel New Hampshire - Tony Richardson (1984, DVD)
Having just read John Irving's "My Movie Business" (a memoir mainly about the making of Cider House Rules), I wanted to see both this and Garp. While Irving seemed pretty happy with the result, I think you really need to have read the book a couple of times for this movie to make sense. meriko disagrees, so YMMV.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (84) | link me | December 2001

The Man With Two Brains - Carl Reiner (1983, DVD)
Another anomalous gap in our movie viewing: early-80s Steve Martin movies. We enjoyed it; good silly Steve Martin fun.
| Comments (1) | TrackBack (175) | link me | November 2001

Hairspray - John Waters (1988, DVD)
One of Water's more accessible outings. Amusing.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (292) | link me | November 2001

Monsters, Inc. - Peter Docter, David Silverman and Lee Unkrich (2001, in theatre)
Another stunning computer-rendered animation from Pixar. Cute and funny and engaging enough to almost make you forget to be impressed by the graphics.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (267) | link me | November 2001

Margaret Cho - I'm the One That I Want - Lionel Coleman (2000, DVD)
Absurdly funny. Just the thing to correct a really bad mood.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (209) | link me | October 2001

The Big Hit - Kirk Wong (1998, DVD)
For the first few minutes of this movie, we weren't sure if this a lousy over-the-top imitation of the Tarantino genre, or a great parody. It's a great parody, with a number of laugh-out-loud bits.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (349) | link me | October 2001

Pecker - John Waters (1998, DVD)
It's strange and sort of miraculous that John Waters actually gets movies made. Pecker is, at root, a straightforward artist-gets-famous, fame-ruins-life, artist-renounces-fame story; since Mr. Waters is in charge, of course, you get lines like "pubic hair causes crime!" -- but that's not to say it isn't as sweet and heartwarming as it is sick and twisted.
| Comments (2) | TrackBack (97) | link me | October 2001

Trixie - Alan Rudolph (2000, DVD)
This is a fine example of why one should avoid comedies you haven't heard of. Don't go near this one.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (172) | link me | September 2001

Le Placard - Francis Veber (The Closet) (2000, DVD)
Cute film about a guy who pretends to be gay to avoid losing his job. Apparently the details of employment law and state of political correctness in France are pretty comparable to how it is here in the States, because the story works just fine. Light touch on a serious subject, but entertaining.
| Comments (1) | TrackBack (96) | link me | September 2001

The Pink Panther - Blake Edwards (1963, DVD)
Has humor really changed that much, or was this just not very funny to begin with?
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (154) | link me | September 2001

Cecil B. Demented - John Waters (2000, DVD)
John Waters flips Hollywood a big ol' bird. Entertaining, but it's too silly to be incisive and too clumsy to be clever. Waters is probably the only person on the planet who could get away with casting Patty Hearst in a story about a woman who begins to sympathize with the terrorists who kidnap her, though.
| Comments (14) | TrackBack (97) | link me | September 2001

Creature Comforts - Nick Park (1990, DVD)
This DVD also included a few other Aardman Animation shorts: Wat's Pig (Peter Lord, 1996), Not Without My Handbag (Boris Kossmehl, 1993), and Adam (Peter Lord, 1991). Creature Comforts is the cleverest of the four — claymation filmed as low budget documentary, interviewing zoo animals for their opinions on their living conditions. According to the IMDB, the audio track is a mixture of actual interviews with shut-ins and zoo attendees, and scripted acting. Not Without My Handbag feels like something you'd get from a cross between Monty Python, Tim Burton, and Jhonen Vasquez. Neither Wat's Pig nor Adam are particularly inventive stories, but they're nonetheless well-executed and charming.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (116) | link me | September 2001

Josie and the Pussycats - Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan (2001, DVD)
This actually turned out to be more clever and amusing than I was afraid it was going to be. Still, can you really mock product placement effectively when your movie is in fact full of product placement — even if it is ironic? But, hey — cute girls. Rachael Leigh Cook in particular has a really nice smile.
| Comments (1) | TrackBack (159) | link me | September 2001

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back! - Kevin Smith (2001, in theatre)
"I was gonna make a good movie, but then I got high..." I think I have to call this Kevin Smith's weakest film yet (though Mallrats gives it some stiff competition). Part of my problem is certainly that I saw Chasing Amy first. The Jay and Silent Bob characters have always been best when they're reacting to the events around them; I think you could make a good movie centered on them, but they need to be the eye of the hurricane, not the driving force.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (262) | link me | September 2001

Invader Zim! - Steve Ressel (2001, bootleg VHS)
I was pleasantly surprised to see Jhonen Vasquez' comic-book style translated to video. It came off better than I was afraid it was going to.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (49) | link me | June 2001

Shrek - Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson (2001, DVD)
Entertaining but not outstanding CG fairy tale. Some cute bits.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (197) | link me | June 2001

O Brother Where Art Thou? - The Coen Brothers (2000, DVD)
Wonderful retelling of Homer's Odyssey in depression-era Mississippi. Coen Brothers lunacy at its finest, a subversive exposure to the classics, and a soundtrack that millions of people bought in spite of the fact they wouldn't be caught dead listening to that kind of music if it weren't from a movie. Hard to beat!
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (292) | link me | June 2001

Murder By Death - Robert Moore (1976, DVD)
Ugh, this seems to be another illustration of the changing face of humor over the years.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (82) | link me | June 2001

Toy Story 2 - Ash Brannon, John Lasseter (1999, DVD)
Probably even more amusing and enjoyable than the original. Packed full of references to Toy Story as well as countless other movies. One of those rare sequels to a kid's movie that fails to suck.
| Comments (0) | TrackBack (378) | link me | May 2001

Shanghai Noon - Tom Dey (2000, DVD)
Amusing, silly kung-fu western. Rent it once it's out of new releases if you want a mindless evening's entertainment. The bloopers shown at the end might actually have made a good movie on their own. I couldn't tell if I liked Roy or wanted to smack him, which I think means the actor (Owen Wilson) was doing a good job.
| Comments (1) | TrackBack (52) | link me | January 2001