Superbad

Or, the Seth Rogen show keeps on rolling. Not only is he in the film but he wrote it as well. I either deeply love this man or hate him with a vengeance thanks to unrelenting jealousy! Nah it's the former.

Superbad's your usual high school losers trying to get their Nat King before they leave for college film, so far so done in that one where the guy rides a pie. The strengths of Superbad lie in ignoring the done to death setup and just savouring the little things. The constant stream of witty one-liners bouncing between the characters (very Apatowian (is that a word? IT IS NOW!)), the absurd set pieces, like the best fanny blood scene you're ever likely to see, the whole drawing penises back story (Mr. T cock anyone?). And of course McLovin.

Ah McLovin. Your usual loser nerd who thinks he's the dug's haw maws so he changes his name from Fogell to that because he actually thinks it's cool. You've seen the type of character before but McLovin is rendered utterly brilliant by first timer Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who's name even suggests drippy nerd. The way he looks and moves and speaks screams pathetic loser, and yet he's the coolest character in the film thanks to his utter, at first mis-placed, sense of self-belief. His B-story is finer than the let's try and get some booze and score A-story. But this isn't entirely thanks to McLovin, but also the movie's second greatest creation - the loser cops, played by Rogen and SNL's Bill Hader. Here we have two guys who's initial instinct to being issued with a gun is to shoot it at anything and everything. Their misadventures with McLovin as they get hammered and try to actually police is one of the funniest storylines in who knows how long.

That's not to say that the A-story with Seth and Evan isn't brilliant as well. It may be riddled with cliches in the actual plotting, they end up at an older person's party riddled with violence and drugs while trying to find booze to take to a high school party where they will attempt to lose their virginity before graduating, but the events within are inspired. Like Rogen's mentor Apatow it balances grossout with heart. For every run of dick and great Mum tits jokes there's also explorations of what happens to friendship when academic achievement gets in the way or why hot girls won't go for the fat guy. And it's all played well by Knocked Up's Jonah Hill (another in the unfortunate face not getting in the way of Hollywood success a la Rogen school) and Arrested Development's Michael Cera (one of the finest awkward reactors in the business).

So, is it better than Knocked Up? Difficult to say. Knocked Up has more laughs but Superbad is more tightly scripted. The setpieces are better and it enjoys an ideal comedy running time, whereas Knocked Up pushed it a little. Both are definitely the funniest films of the year so far and ones that will be well served by DVD. I have to watch both again before making a decision though. Either way, summer of 2007 belongs to one man, but since Jason Bourne's fictional I'll give it to Seth Rogen for some stellar work in two movies. Shamefully things will actually be expected of him now which usually leads to the inevitable mis-fire. Fingers crossed it doesn't.

Knocked Up

Or the movie that gives hope to overweight, ugly guys (not me, I'm gorgeous. What's that face for, cheeky prick?) that they too can pump a hot blonde with cracking front bags with only the help of alcohol. Of course it's wish fulfillment on the scale of Flight Of The Navigator or The Goonies and the plot's pure fantasy (as touchy as the subject can be in America she probably would have had the baby aborted). But then that's what movies are all about so bugger logic and let's judge it based on what it's meant to do; make us laugh.

And it does. Knocked Up's got that loose feel that 40 Year Old Virgin had. Most of the dialogue's improvised by a group of performers who clearly all click with each other, either because of friendship or because they are some of the best comic actors in the business. Even that ride from Grey's Anatomy does the business, even if this is new territory for her. The rest of the cast is made up of Apatow regulars and Saturday Night Live alumni. And then there's Seth Rogen.

Ah Seth. The man may well be set to become the hottest thing in Hollywood, yet he's got a face like fizz and a gut on him. The fact that he is so hot is reason to celebrate. He's done it through talent. He doesn't have the looks usually required to get to the top nor is he freakish looking, the old freak show way of making it. He's an average guy who can act, write and is funny. That's it. We should all be thankful for him.

His performance in Knocked Up is great, as is Paul Rudd's (maybe the finest of the comic actors cutting about Hollywood right now with Steve Carell, not bad for the bloke who pumped Alicia Silverstone in Clueless) but he's an attractive man so he deserves to be shunned in favour of the ugly talent. The rest of Rogen's group are played by a collection of people from Apatow's failed TV shows Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, as well as the bloke who looks like a younger, uglier Seth Rogen from Superbad. They provide most of the best lines, with a running joke about Martin Starr's facial hair being particularly brilliant.

Of course like 40 Year Old Virgin the movie's a bit long and could certainly have been trimmed, a number of the scenes contribute to the narrative in no way whatsoever, but when you hear the lines that these guys come up with in some of the situations you begin to realise why Apatow was loathe to cut them. Still it could have done with a little trimming to tighten things up a bit.

That said it is easily the funniest film of the year so far. It may work on a slightly ridiculous premise and be narratively flawed but it is excellently played and hilarious. And it heralds the coming of the anti-Cruise, the anti-Pitt, the anti-(insert preening wank's name here) in the slightly flabby shape of Rogen. The fact that his face is being used to sell a movie should be enough for us all to rejoice!

A New Kid in Town

hi!

WE WON!

As this video will tell you:




And here's the goal:

France - Ecosse 0-1 Mc Fadden
Uploaded by lilmarcus

Ooh la la indeed Mr. French commentator blokey!

Mon The Scots

Some videos proving that we are great! Get it up the French tonight boys!

Videos

And so I've started embedding some videos in older posts on the site. Go have a look at them. Some even might be humourous! I'll have a go at filming myself on my phone soon I think!

Indy 4 Title

According to the official Indiana Jones Website the name of the new Indiana Jones film is;

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Looks like my prediction, Indiana Jones and the Island of Misfit Toys, wasn't quite so stupid after all!

And speaking of toys...

Great* Lines From The Movies *Interpretations of "great" may differ from mines, Part 5

"The Wolfman's got nards!"

Horace makes a discovery in the greatest film ever made to feature a conversation about a werewolf's nether regions The Monster Squad.

Bourne Ultimatum

Quick recap for those uninitiated in the Bourne universe: sweaty Matt Damon kicks fuck outta some blokes in various European cities. Oh, and there's some sort of CIA conspiracy in there somewhere or something. Think there's something about something that sounds like a make of tyre or something.

Anyway, the Bourne films, or the films that made Matt Damon into someone you don't want to punch square in the dish. Basically the first two are, two word quick review of earlier installments coming up, FUCKIN GREAT! I even used big shouty capitol letters to show you how much i enjoy them, and swearing for that matter.

So part three begins directly where Supremacy left off, so I'm not going to ruin anything by telling you the plot, it's a lazy way to eat up words anyway. If you haven't seen the first two, probably thanks to some snobbish notion that you'll never watch a Matt Damon film unless Clooney and an international oil conspiracy plot are present, then you need to to get a grip and get them watched. After that go and see this.

It's simply brilliant. I'm not even going to think of some clever way of describing it. It's one long chase, tense as fuck throughout. The set pieces are stunning, mainly thanks to the lack of big effects. Thanks to director Paul Greengrass, he of United 93 and that Stephen Lawrence docu-drama, things are kept grounded in reality, with the presence of that shaky handheld camera technique that threatens to give you a fit. Everything has that feel that it's been shot on the hoof with events half shown as the cameraman turns to capture a split second too late. It's the reason that Bourne appeals to many people that hate blockbusters, that and the tyre company plot, even though the thing really does play like one. As I said the set pieces are stunning, as they have been throughout the series with a rooftop footchase in Morocco being Ultimatum's highlight. In the previous two it was car chases, this one doesn't even try to top them, giving up it's car chase in Blues Brothers fashion very quickly as if to say "no even gonnae try mate."

I'm actually struggling to find much to fault about this film. Julia Styles is a bit bland, but then that's what she specialises in so it's probably why she's here. Beyond that only the aforementioned camera style jumps out as a flaw. It can be a real headache to watch, especially on a big screen and let's be honest shaking a camera and finding your frame in the middle of a shot have been done to death in the attempt to present cinema as reality. And anyway reality doesn't feature editing or background music. At least it doesn't look as contrived as the old NYPD Blue style. That's not to say the style doesn't work, it's just that it could do with a bit of toning down that's all.

As I said I'm finding it hard to fault this film. Easily the best film of the Summer season, and probably the year so far. It wouldn't be shocking to find that still to be the case when New Year calls. Who would have thought that about a Matt Damon blockbuster only a couple of years ago eh?