Friday, 19 November 2010
The Thin White Dude's Reviews Post Update!
Saturday, 6 November 2010
The Thin White Dude's Reviews - Red
Directed by: Robert Schwentke
Produced by: Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Mark Vahradian
Screenplay by: John Hoeber
Erich Hoeber
Based on: Red by
Warren Ellis
Curly Hamner
Starring: Bruce Willis
Mary-Louise Parker
Morgan Freeman
John Malkovich
Helen Mirren
Karl Urban
Richard Dreyfuss
Brian Cox
Ernest Borgnine
Music by: Christophe Beck
Cinematography: Florian Ballhaus
Edited by: Thom Noble
Studio: di Bonaventura Pictures
DC Entertainment
Distributed by: Summit Entertainment
(United States)
E1 Entertainment
(United Kingdom)
Release date(s): October 5, 2010
Running time: 111 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget: $58 million
Gross revenue (as of post date): $64, 208, 979
Wickey-woo! Des Kaye here! You wish! You're back here with me again for another formulaic film review. See, I'm sticking by format, starting the review out with something that has nothing to do with the film in question. It's even started with a stupid little, quasi-comic (more tragic-comic if you consider that I seem unable to properly introduce a review. I can, I'm just lazy). Along with the other films mentioned in my previous review (Cemetery Junction), Hayao Miyazaki's latest film Ponyo will be reviewed as I am watching it tonight.
Red, eh? That's a vague title to so the least, but nowhere near as much as You Can Count On Me. But of course, these vague film titles must have some sort of significance so that you can go "ah, that's why the title is such and such." To save you the bother of a poxy pleasure, Red signifies the stamp that is given to former CIA black-ops agents who are "retired, extremely dangerous." This is the status that is given to Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), who has been living a quiet life in retirement, chatting to Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), a customer service agent working at Frank's pension office in Kansas City. He finds out in a raid on his house, after disposing of assassins, that people are out to kill him and goes to Kansas City to help Sarah, while Cooper (Karl Urban) follows his tracks.
Red is a bit of a mystery to me as a movie in terms of definition. Is it an action movie, a comedy, an action-comedy, a road movie even? It is this inability to define what genre Red is that also defines much of the action that goes on in the film. Before we get to the problems, lets go to the good.
There is an initial pleasure in seeing this rogues gallery of mercenaries gathered. We not only have Willis, but Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and Brian Cox. As a result, there is a real A-Team (a movie which seems to grow in my estimation as time goes on) kind of feel to this gathering. In there as well is Richard Dreyfuss and it is fantastic to see Ernest Borgnine again in a major feature film at the grand age of 93, and he looks at least fifteen years younger. The best acting role in the film must go to the wonderful John Malkovich, who has an uncanny ability to make cliché characters completely interesting. Although the eccentric paranoid Marvin Boggs is hardly a major step for Malkovich in terms of roles he has previously played, he fully inhabits his character and provides much of the films laughs. The scenes immediately following his meeting with Willis/Moses are terrific, the stuff involving a stuffed pig where much of the action revolves around him being unquestionably the film's best moments. It would be unfair to not give a little attention to Brian Cox, who does a convincing job of playing a Russian considering he himself is a Scot.
From a technical standpoint, the film is well shot and thankfully does not see it necessary to abide to today’s prime action-film cliché to badly emulate the cinematography of Paul Greengrass film's by shaking the camera whenever things go all hoo-ha. Florian Ballhaus gives the film a very crisp look, which would be attributed to the fact that his previous work (The Devil Wears Prada, FUCKING MARLEY AND ME) focuses on people and not action scenes. He makes the transition in genre well and does a pretty good job of shooting this film. Also, editing by Uli Edel is handled with efficiency and avoids too many quick cuts so we can actually focus on what is being captured by Ballhaus' camera. Nevertheless, the positives regarding Red stop here.
The script is rather poorly written. While gags of course do exist, Malkovich making his the most legitimately funny, much of them are poor and unfunny, which is not entirely the screenwriters' fault. However, structurally it is a mess. What at the start of the film comes across as a potentially interesting take on the rom-com by the end of the film has effectively defected itself to the category of poor imitation of the ensemble action movie, where no one gets enough screen time to establish their role in the film, and most of heinous all, downplaying John Malkovich and the stuffed pig.
We are thrown into an anomie of various characters popping up throughout the movie and given a plot point involving [INSERT HERE], that renders the whole romance which started the movie off completely superfluous to the point that we forget about it and at the end are like, "Oh yeah, forgot about them." Each of the actors, bar Malkovich and Cox are portraying a screen version of themselves that we have seen done better countless times before. Willis is back in a slightly more low-key version of the wisecracking John McClane we know and love, Morgan Freeman is doing his whole father figure/wise mentor again, Karl Urban runs around with a stern look on his face and Helen Mirren does her atypical Englishwoman character, but of course, it's FUNNY because she has a rifle. Guffaws of laughter roaring from the stands. Attention everyone, Helen Mirren has a sniper rifle and is talking casually about killing people, isn't that funny? Funny? I had my fill of laughs for most of the film by the time Helen Mirren came into the film, but there was one last laugh, once again provided by a Mr John Malkovich!
Direction wise, Robert Schwentke does the same job that many directors working in Hollywood have been doing recently, directing rather casually and lazily. I'm not saying you have to be a tyrant and do a James Cameron, staple gunning mobile phones to the wall; it just helps if you make an effort. The attitude taken here is a case of "let's get this done and put it in the can." Efficiency of the well-oiled machine, constantly releasing new films is something that Hollywood prides itself on, but in this case, like many other release, they have not made an effort with their films. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, producer of such esteemed films like the Transformer series (cough!), just seems to be making a habit of producing action movies which try to milk the cash cow that most executives seem to view their audiences as.
Earlier on I mentioned the fact that I could not find give an appropriate definition of genre to Red. The problem that emerges with Red’s lack of concrete definition in genre is not that you need to be able to define genre boundaries (although it does help). The problem is the fact the filmmakers and producers launch the film into chaos by attempting to spread the film out too much in terms of its appeal. In creating a Petri dish of a film, there comes with it if not handled properly a state of confusion that the audience are thrown into, therefore making the film more or less forgettable.
I don't really see what else I can say about Red. This was a shame of a film, for the opening section involving Willis and Parker, who share genuine chemistry, is pretty funny. Also, it is a shame that such a good Malkovich performance has to be in such an otherwise rather dull film. Red is condemned by the lazy attitude that permeates virtually every aspect of the process of its creation. I do not dislike it overly, but by God this is lazy filmmaking.
The Thin White Dude’s Prognosis - 4.0/10
The Thin White Dude’s Self-Diagnosis – Tired and hungry (ready to relax once I’m done here)
P.S. I realize the hypocrisy of accusing the filmmakers of laziness when I myself open stated my laziness at the beginning of the review for lack of a properly formulated introduction. Also, the movie's way to long. Toodles!
Thursday, 4 November 2010
The Thin White Dude's Reviews - Cemetery Junction
Directed by: Ricky Gervais
Stephen Merchant
Produced by: Sue Baden-Powell
Charlie Hanson
Written by: Ricky Gervais
Stephen Merchant
Starring: Christian Cooke
Felicity Jones
Tom Hughes
Jack Doolan
Emily Watson
Ricky Gervais
Matthew Goode
Ralph Fiennes
Music by: Tim Atack
Cinematography by: Remi Adefarasin
Editing by: Valerio Bonelli
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release dates (s): 14 April 2010 (UK)
17 August 2010 (US and Canada) (Direct-To-DVD)
Running time: 95 minutes
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Gross revenue: £1, 329, 002
For the first time in a while, I’m not apologising for something at the beginning of a review. How amazing is that! I’ve broken the mundanity of the broken record that I once was and am now finally getting back into the jist of reviewing movies on a regular basis. New reviews coming up include Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga'Hoole (hoping to see next week), Red, Green Zone, Frozen, Daybreakers and Whip It, so yeah, what can I say, I'm really back this time.
Incidentally, as a point of interest for anyone who cares, on Tuesday as I was walking to the bus stop in the city centre, outside in the rain at Oxfam was a stack of old VHS' for 50p each. Natural curiosity brought me there, and lo and behold, ended up walking out with a copy of David Lynch's Eraserhead, fetching for £16 in HMV. After drying it off on the radiator, it turns out if works and no doubt it will be source of much enjoyment during the weekend. There is a real aura to finding something that you have wanted for a while second-hand, so this was a real treasure to find.
Anyway, lets cut to the chase and pay a visit to Cemetery Junction (ho! ho!). This film has received a bit of attention, primarily because of the presence of a duo that go by the names of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the men behind the terrific series' The Office and Extras. With Gervais coming off strong with his directorial debut on the highly underrated but flawed The Invention Of Lying, it seemed that with Merchant's presence, the two could not really go wrong. Their previous work has entered the pantheon of classic comedy reserved for the likes of Monty Python, and as such, Cemetery Junction was being marketed as a realisation of everything that their career had been directed towards. However, anyone thinking that we are going to get a re-run of these two series in a theatrical format would get instead a pleasant surprise.
Cemetery Junction a coming-of-age story set in Reading, Berkshire, following Freddie (Christian Cooke) as he wishes to escape from his working-class surroundings, whilst his friends Bruce (Tom Hughes) and Snork (Jack Doolan) are content where they are. Freddie gets a job working for Mr. Kendrick (Ralph Fiennes) as a door-to-door salesman, and in the process bumps Kendrick's daughter Julie (Felicity Jones), a former school sweetheart. The formula sounds so tried and tested, but the film seems to relish this.
Acting all-round is first class. The young cast is great in their respective roles. The trio of friends each delivers terrific roles that formulate and display fully rounded characters that despite their flaws are completely endearing. The standout performance is undoubtedly that of Christian Cooke in the lead role as Freddie, who does a wonderful job considering that most of the film's power weighs upon his shoulders. Being onscreen for much of the film, Cooke is a presence that could have been incredibly boring, but instead we completely warm up to him and his character, cheering him on and biting our nails and the moments where the story dictates us to (though not explicitly!). Hughes and Doolan are also great in their supporting roles and do a lot for the lesser screen time they receive, turning what could have just been effectively hangers-on to Freddie into a loveable pair of characters. Jones too shines as Julie, who has much of the same hopes as Freddie, but is pinned down by her engagement to one of his co-workers. We get the sense of her, like Freddie, being a dreamer, although she restrains herself by dismissal of her dreams. Even minor roles that take up very little screen time give you the impression of real characters. Fiennes is suitably horrible as Mr. Kendrick, although thankfully he does not go outright horrible in what comes to mind when one uses this word. How Fiennes does this is because he portrays Mr. Kendrick as a materialistic patriarch whose indifference to everything around him has created a nasty atmosphere about him. His speech at the ball to the man who he is retiring is an example of this. Also, Emily Watson, in her symbolic role as Mrs. Kendrick, does so much for the film in the limited role she is given. With great restraint and pent-up emotion, Mrs. Kendrick becomes a reminder to her daughter what life could be like for a woman in this kind of household. Finally, and I know I am gushing because it's Ricky Gervais, but he delivers a great performance as Freddie's dad. With only about two or three scenes in the entire movie, he manages to achieve similar to what purpose Mrs. Kendrick serves to Julie for Freddie, and a well-rounded character. This lack of screen dominance is something that Gervais and Merchant must be credited for.
While I could to be honest watch anything they do if they are in it, it is this scaling back of their onscreen presence' that show how skillful they really are: they are not just writing around themselves, but Cemetery Junction proves that they can write around others. This is appropriate because the story is about the three lads, in particularly Freddie, and it would have been silly and self-indulgent to have comedy moments throughout with the two. Instead, the script is structured around the journey that the three lads take over the course of the movie. The evolution that Freddie makes as a character during the course of the film is subtle and masterfully done. I won't spoil it because this evolution, achieved in the synthesis and Cooke's performance and the writing, is one of the film's real pleasures. Structurally, the film is lean and incredibly three-dimensional. There really isn't a moment that you could say should be chopped. Dialogue wise it is full of wit, although in a manner appropriate in the films context, but not without poignancy. The script tremendously balances the fine line of drama and comedy, with neither taking precedence, and the film is all the better for it.
Gervais and Merchant as directors do a wonderful job of creating authenticity of the 1970s for Cemetery Junction’s feeling. Their style is typical of that of directors who have worked on TV, with an efficiency and lean feel to the work. It is a film without any loose ends or flabby bits hanging off the edges, and the experience in TV that the two have had lends itself to this. Many film directors who have not worked in TV have the problem of making very weighty and flabby films. Gervais and Merchant do not suffer from, who despite directing like a well-oiled piece of efficient machinery, create something organic and with heart.
Their choice of cinematographer Remi Adefarasin is inspired. Having worked previously on larger-budget projects such as Elizabeth and the Band Of Brothers miniseries (and its follow-up The Pacific), Adefarasin gives Cemetery Junction a similar treatment. The hues and textures that he uses as a cinematographer gives the film a really nostalgic feel, as though it is being played out in memory. The colouring is wonderful, giving it this hyper-real dream world kind of feeling, highly appropriate for the tale being told, dreams and escapism being a primary theme that inhabits the film. It is obvious that this could have been shot as a grungy DV kind of film. Instead, Adefarasin’s photography does a wonderful job of creating atmosphere that is not without its moments of darkness, which are lit in a similar manner. There is almost a sense of the cinematography reflecting the characters at various points in the film, giving it a very organic and lively feel.
The killer soundtrack roots it firmly in its time and setting. With tracks such as Elton John's Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, David Bowie's All The Young Dudes and Bruce Springsteen's Thunder Road, this is a highly appropriate choice of songs for the film. It is not just a case of pick and choose cool sounds from the 70s, for the songs are a reflection of the narrative. The use of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Five Variants Of Dives And Lazarus to open the film gives it a wonderful feeling of setting and atmosphere.
So yeah, I really loved Cemetery Junction. I think that it is one of the best films that I have seen all year. However, the time has come for me to be critical, although I think that it will be kept relatively short. Unfortunately, looking back on the film, as good as it is, I cannot see it as a masterpiece. Why? Despite the fact that it works well within the tried and tested format of "coming-of-age story", you cannot help but feel that there are other films that you could pick out in this format. It is like the other side of Shane Meadows' This Is England, a coming-of-age story done in an entirely different manner. Although it really does pain me to say it, the film was in a number of ways very predictable. Call me a grump, but I felt that at times it did go down the line of what is to be expected and does very much remain true to convention.
Nevertheless, Cemetery Junction is a wonderful film that should be seen by everyone as opposed to all these terribly unfunny comedies churned out on a regular basis by Hollywood: this is highly skillful, entertaining, funny and poignant filmmaking that touches the heart and soul. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have crafted a terrific piece of work. Oh, and Matthew Goode has redeemed himself for Watchmen.
The Thin White Dude’s Prognosis -8.7/10
The Thin White Dude’s Self-Diagnosis – Rather pleased
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
The Thin White Dude's Reviews - Despicable Me
Directed by: Pierre Coffin
Chris Renaud
Produced by: John Cohen
Janet Healy
Chris Meledandri
Written by: Ken Daurio
Cinco Paul
Story by: Sergio Pablos
Starring: Steve Carell
Jason Segel
Russell Brand
Julie Andrews
Will Arnett
Kristen Wiig
Miranda Cosgrove
Dana Gaier
Elsie Fisher
Music by: Hans Zimmer
Heiter Pereira
Pharrell Williams
Editing by: Gregory Perler
Pam Ziegenhagen
Studio: Illumination Entertainment
Universal Animation Studios
Mac Guff
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release date(s): July 9, 2010 (US)
October 15, 2010 (UK)
Running time: 95 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget: $69 million
Gross revenue (as of publication): $479, 077, 105
Followed by: Despicable Me 2 (in development)
Note: I chose this poster because the other one is a dead giveaway plot-wise.
What I have here now is Despicable Me, a new animated film from Universal Pictures. The film has been an extraordinary success in box-office terms, earning so far $479, 077, 105 off of a $69 million budget, and has slunk its way into the top 10 highest-grossing films of 2010. This stands as unique, because bar Inception, it is the only film in this list that is an original film, the rest based on existing sources, as remakes, adaptations or sequels to ongoing franchises.
Despicable Me is a story about supervillain Gru, voiced by Steve Carell with a strange but amusing accent, who is deposed as number one supervillain by up-and-comer Vector, voiced by Jason Segel. This means that funding from the Bank Of Evil (formerly Lehman Brothers) President Mr. Perkins, voiced by Will Arnett, is removed unless Gru can manage to produce a new weapon before Vector. Gru, being the villain that he is, adopts three young orphans from Miss Hattie, voiced by Kristen Wiig, in order to use them as pawns in his plan to steal the weapon from Vector, along with the help of Russell Brand's Dr. Nefario and his many "minions."
We have a terrific voice cast on offer. Carell does a good vocal performance with what could have been incredibly annoying, doing for the funny accented animated character what Mike Myers did for Shrek. In their respective supporting roles, Will Arnett and Kristen Wiig both amuse and terrify as villains who are legitimate and believable. As evil overlord of the orphanage, Wiig's Miss Hattie is a horrible individual, whom the normally glowing Wiig, in a real move from her role in MacGruber, injects Hattie with suitable malice. Arnett's Mr. Perkins is a very funny character that because of the skill of the animation and Arnett's vocal performance carries a weighty presence that begs the question as to who the real villain of the piece is.
Gags wise, Despicable Me has got a number of very funny moments. The backstory of Gru and his relationship with his mother, played by Julie Andrews, could have been boring, but instead is given a tragicomic element to its thanks to the writers. Also, the "minions" who litter the movie are a great addition to the movie whose sections in the film often provide laughs, the "family" of minions going shopping for a replacement toy for one of the orphans being an example of note. With a tremendous opening involving the Great Pyramid Of Giza and scenes of dark and edgy comedy involving the orphanage (Box Of Shame) and the Bank Of Evil, Despicable Me in its opening half-hour sets itself up to be something unique in the world of animated copycats.
Finally, the animation is wonderful. From a technical standpoint, it is solid and everything moves perfectly with a real flow, lacking any rough edges. Also, from an artistic standpoint, I like the fact that the film-makers/animators have gone for a different style of computer animation, as opposed to the obvious option taken by emulators of the Toy Story and Shrek series. Their work stands out most in the sections involving the minions, who I do think are a work of genius.
However, despite promise and hilarity at the beginning act of the film, Despicable Me rather disappointingly teeters off into the territory of clichés and predictability. The fact that there is so much proof that it could be a better film as it is bursting with ideas waiting to explored in detail, makes it all the more heartbreaking. Yes, I said heartbreaking. It's because I genuinely want to love this film for what it is, but it is full holes and flaws that prevent me from doing so.
My problems with the film do not emerge from the tonal shift in the film, or the shift in the character of Gru (read the plot synopsis again and join the dots). They emerge from the fact that it is at surface level a really inconsistent film. Comparisons to Shrek can be found, not that this is a problem, but whereas Shrek (at least the first two) balance well the audience appeal spectrum of jokes for kids/jokes for adults, Despicable Me does not. The jokes that the adults will get are too far out for kids to get and the jokes for kids are enough to bring out the adults into sighs and grumbles. Also, it becomes obvious who what jokes are meant for, for whole scenes are dedicated to action for the audience member it has been decided it will be directed towards.
While perhaps a tough balancing act, numerous movies such as the Shrek series, the films of Hayao Miyazaki and the works of Pixar have proved that it is possible to make animated films which stop these elements from teetering too much to one side. As a result, Despicable Me comes across as a film that is confused with its own identity as to what kind of film it is meant to be. There is no excuse as to why it cannot strive to that higher level of animation of the above examples.
Despite possessing some really great gags, the film is predictable to the point of absurdity. It is like someone has made a poorly structured brick wall and thought that no one would notice and they could get away with filling every hole with cement: this does not change the fact that the platform upon which the films humour is based is weak. Once you think you have the film figured out (not that it's meant to be Inception), chances are you probably have. Despite getting glossed up with strong features, one cannot help but notice that in most aspects, the film is as murder-by-numbers as any of the films of this type that I criticise every year.
The film's saving grace ultimately is that regardless of flaws, visibly as they are irritating, Despicable Me is brimming with charm. Gru's tonal shift, hardly a spoiler, manages to bring a smile to my face, and if it were not for my immense frustration, I doubtless would have been in tears. I felt them coming, especially in a number of very touching, tender scenes with Gru and the orphans, but they simply couldn't or wouldn't. I do genuinely feel heartbroken because there is so much good about the film that the other more negative aspects taint my memory of this. As it stands, Despicable Me is something that while good, could have been something so much more, and like me, feels unfulfilled.
Updates in film news show that Despicable Me 2 is in development. Now, I'm not overly against this, I just don't see how this could work, especially considering the shift in the characters and the tone that been taken on by the end of the movie. I hope there is genuine love motivating this decision and not The Almighty Dollar. On a final note, could someone tell me why every single mainstream animated film must have a dance sequence?
The Thin White Dude's Prognosis - 6.7/10
The Thin White Dude's Self-Diagnosis - Saddened (genuinely)
Thursday, 28 October 2010
The Thin White Dude's Reviews - MacGruber
Directed by: Jorma Taccone
Produced by: Lorne Michaels
John Goldwyn
Ryan Kavanaugh
Seth Meyers
Akiva Schaffer
Written by: Jorma Taccone
Will Forte
John Solomon
Starring: Will Forte
Kristen Wiig
Ryan Phillippe
Val Kilmer
Maya Rudolph
Music by: Matthew Compton
Cinematography by: Brandon Trost
Editing by: Jamie Gross
Studio: Relativity Media
Distributed by: Rogue
Universal Pictures (DVD/Blu-Ray only)
Release date(s): May 21, 2010
Running time: 99 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget: $10 million
Gross revenue: $9, 259, 314
The broken record that I am is jumping back and forth in a perpetual, never-ending apology, although with good reason. I am getting rather cross at my continual apologizing and am quite sick of the fact that I am only at my current rate averaging one review every two weeks. This one has been waiting on the backburner for literally that long, so I figure it is about time I get down to it. On better notes, I will also have reviews for coming for Despicable Me, Cemetery Junction and The Crazies. Also, this is my first review on my new MacBook laptop, which is simply brilliant, and a pleasure to type on. I won't normally talk up products or big consumer machines, but one has give to them credit for the iPod.
Anyway, let's talk MacGruber. This film is based on a Saturday Night Live sketch, which itself was a parody of MacGyver. SNL has a tradition of occasionally adapting some their more successful sketches into feature films, the most notable examples probably being The Blues Brothers and Wayne's World, other examples being of varying quality in terms of critical and box-office reception. Will Forte reprises his role as MacGruber, who is brings himself out of self-imposed retirement in an Ecuadorian monastery in order to track down the brilliantly named Dieter von Cunth, played by Val Kilmer, who is shown at the beginning of the films stealing a nuclear warhead. MacGruber assembles a team, including Lt. Dixon Piper, played by Ryan Phillippe and Vicki St. Elmo, played by Kristen Wiig. So, the table is set for a hilarious comedy that parodies and lampoons 1980's action films.
What could possibly go wrong, after all, it's a tried and tested formula that's worked before, eh? To give the film some credit, although any more than listing the following gags would be to overstep my boundaries, there are some funny bits to give MacGruber its due. The scene in which Vicki dresses up as MacGruber in the coffee shop is funny and the "incident" (for those who really want to see it, I won't spoil it) that befalls the team that MacGruber assembles stand out. Also, WWE star The Big Show's appearances in the film conjure a number of titters in a real against type role. However, the best gag of the film is undoubtedly the name Dieter von Cunth. For anyone who cares to look up the translation, whilst it's more blunt, it is by no means any funnier. Also, while obviously a jokey name, it sounds enough like a real villains name to make it both funny and knowing. The various plays-on-words, "lets pound some Cunth" that revolve around this name are just tremendous and represent the peak of the film's ability to conjure a laugh from me.
Bar some giggles (uproar at Dieter von Cunth), MacGruber does not have much to offer in the way of not just laughs, but anything. The acting in the film "comedic" performing at its unfunniest. Playing a controversial sadist in MacGruber, Forte completely hams everything up to ridiculous proportions. Remember when Nigel Tufnel mentioned how he likes his speakers at 11 and not 10? The thing is that Forte and everything else involved go too far past 11 and in the end give us what has to be the most absurd film I have seen since Marmaduke. Forte isn't even a funny sociopath, just an annoying prick. While this may not be the case, after all, no one shoe size fits all, the film gave me nothing to find endearing or vaguely amusing about the character of MacGruber.
I feel that I have pertinent points to make here regarding this, as I am currently reading Irvine Welsh's Filth, whose protagonist D.S. Bruce Robertson is one of the most morally corrupt characters in the history of the written word. However, despite the fact that he is actually more of a prick than MacGruber, there is something about this man, through the skills of Welsh as a writer, that makes the reader sympathize with him: I feel nothing for MacGruber bar unadulterated hate. This unamusing sociopath should not return to the monastery, but retreat to a bear's cave. Then again, I wouldn't want to subject a bear to this boring prick. Jorma Taccone, John Solomon and Will Forte himself must bear a great amount of responsibility for this monstrosity of a film being birthed from whatever mother's anus it came from. The film is murder-by-numbers in the worst way possible, both abiding by the clichés of the 1980s action film genre and the clichés of the action film parody genre, so we have a double failure here. Structurally, it is incredibly simple and stripped down. If the script were a biological organism, it would be a naked man running around without either his clothes or his skin. The dialogue, which we are expected to eat up, is god awfully unfunny bar the obvious Dieter von Cunth.
While not shot or directed very well, I do have to give the film-makers credit for keeping the film relatively low-budget at $10 million. It would be a shame to spend any more money than is necessary to prove the point that someone can make a terrible film. Also, signs are good that the film did not recoup its budget, so according to the way the cookie crumbles in the horrible capitalist hub that is Hollywood, there will definitely not be any sequels: you live by the sword, you die by the sword, so ha ha ha ha ha! Want to make a boorish and excessive bordering on stupidity film, you go ahead and do so, but this is living proof that people are not going to accept bad films forever. Jean Beaudrillard is becoming increasingly prophetic in the years following his death, as is Philip K. Dick regarding the media and the world that we live in. If the film had lived up to the hilarity and standard found in the name Dieter von Cunth, the film would have been great, except that it isn't.
MacGruber was a shit sandwich movie that masqueraded as nothing less than a shit sandwich, and got no better a reception than a shit sandwich. The Naked Gun done this twenty years ago, when the 1980s action movies were still being churned out, and is the only film (along with its successors and Team America: World Police) worth watching if you want to study a worthy parody of this genre of film. Rent them out, or even better buy them, I got the Naked Gun Trilogy for under £10 in great little three-disc set. Do not, under any circumstances, rent or buy MacGruber, lest it gets a cult audience on DVD. If you want a recent example of sociopaths on film, although I didn't like it much, rent Observe And Report. Or better still buy The King Of Comedy. I don't dislike excessive films, but this surely has to take the biscuit. Having a sociopath as a lead character is not niche unless you are able to get it past the hurdle of making a good film, and a good film this isn't: three words, 1. A 2. SHIT 3. SANDWICH!
The Thin White Dude's Prognosis - 2.4/10
The Thin White Dude's Self-Diagnosis - Cathartic
P.S.: Dieter von Cunth... try not to laugh.
P.P.S. For some reason my copy and paste from MS Word to this isn't working very well so right now I'm spitting bullets at my MacBook.
P.P.P.S "The best action-comedy since Beverley Hills Cop": dog's bollocks!