Snob Movie Review: Tropic Thunder

An early review, this film co-written and directed by Ben Stiller opens August 13th, 2008.

This movie is about the making of a big-budget war-movie, where the actors get involved with real guerrillas. It's an interesting premise, and it delivers.

The funny faux-trailers at the beginning set the tone for a hilarious, but well made picture. Jack Black plays a horrible comedy actor, Ben Stiller is the action movie actor, Jay Baruchel is the young college-educated actor, Matthew McConaughey is Stiller's greasy agent and an unrecognizable Tom Cruise plays a big producer. Brandon T Jackson is the rapper turned actor. The most controversial character is Robert Downey Jr's method actor, who undergoes a skin pigment operation to appear African-American. There is an argument that could be made about racism, but I personally don't agree. I believe this character is more of a satire on method actors than on black people. Also, Brandon T Jackson's character (who is really African-American) gives him tons of hell throughout the movie.

Needless to say, this movie had me laughing (out loud, which is very hard to do considering I am a snob) for most of the running time. The plot is slim, but there's enough homage to the war-film genre without becoming a straight-up satire. The movie looks great too, which should come as no surprise since John Toll was the Director of Photography (he shot the war-film masterpiece The Thin Red Line).

Enough can't be said about Tom Cruise's performance. He steals every single scene he's in, and it's quite refreshing to see him do a good job in a supporting role. Nick Nolte is his grizzly self and Danny McBride just keeps turning out good supporting work.

So, all in all, a great starring cast, a great supporting cast and a pretty funny script makes this movie the most fun I've had in a theatre since Knocked Up.

Snob Movie Review: The X-Files: I Want to Believe

The movie, directed by Chris Carter opened today July 25, 2008.

We get caught up with Mulder & Scully several years after the X-Files has been disbanded. Scully is working as a doctor at a Catholic hospital and Mulder is down in the dumps away from society, caverned in a room.

Mulder is summoned to help in an FBI serial-murder case in which a pedophile priest (played very nicely by lovable Billy Connolly) is having visions that are helping the case.

Needless to say, much is made about the 'I want to believe' tagline by all. It's banged into our heads, over and over again.

Unfortunately, the best parts of the TV-series are not put into use in this movie. The economical and tight storytelling is thrown out the window to a meandering and thinly connected plot. All of the sexual tension between Mulder and Scully is let out, as we see the two of them in bed with horribly written pillow talk. The action is boring and predictable with unintelligible editing and cheesy attempts at humor.

The plot contains more horror elements and murderers (Callum Keith Rennie is completely wasted with a horrible Russian accent) than wide-scale government conspiracies and alien contact, which were the stories that made the series so intriguing.

The writing seems to have several nods for the rabid fanbase by including so many weird references and bringing in characters that are not relevant to the narrative. By trying to appease their fans (myself included) the filmmakers have made a film that no true X-Phile could enjoy. A massive disappointment.

Snob Movie Review: Mama Mia!

Phyllida Lloyd (who also directed the stage version) directed and Catherine Johnson wrote this adaptation of the Broadway musical based on ABBA songs which opens on 7/18/2008.

A great cast including Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Amanda Seyfried (from Big Love) sing and dance in this regrettable mess. We all know that this snob doesn't like musicals (but we enjoyed Sweeney Todd), and after watching this hunk of junk, I remember why.

Basically, 20 years ago, Meryl Streep jammed three dudes (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard) in a short amount of time. 20 years later, the love child is ready to be married but wants her father to give her away at the wedding on a Greek Island that the mom runs a villa on. The rest of the movie is basically 'whose the daddy?'.

I'm a closet ABBA fan, so my gripe is not with the music. Meryl Streep gives her usual grand performance as does Amanda Seyfried. Gosh darnit, it looks like they're having fun!

Unfortunately, the direction and writing are so boring with superficial one-note characters and ridiculous shot choices. Worse yet, are the large production songs. They just come out of nowhere, with no logical beginning or end. The overdone musical numbers involve a huge cast with some bizarre costumes and choreography. I started to become really annoyed by the movie. In between the boring and obnoxiously arranged songs are melodramatic scenes that offer no real character insight. I just can't believe how tired this movie made me feel.

Skip this movie and put in ABBA Gold instead.