Reviews

Speaking of Movies, I really ought to write reviews of them, as we watch them every weekend. This past weekend we rented M. Night Shamalamadingdong’s “The Village.”
Boy howdy.
M. Night Shampoorinserepeat seems to have turned himself into a one trick pony. Let’s go over the movies he’s made…
The Sixth Sense. Okay, good flick. Made me jump a few times. Nice surprise ending. Unfortunate rise into stardom of Haley Joel Osment.
Unbreakable. This one I also liked. A superhero film with the superhero. I could have actually handled a sequel to this one, but it’s probably best without one. Hey! Look! A surprise ending!
Signs. Corn corn corn corn. MEL GIBSON! Crop circle here, hey! I’m talking to you, Joaquin Phoenix! Kids, dog, faith based doubts of belief in higher being. More cute kids. More doubt. WHUMP! Doubt, anger, blah blah blah. Was the ending supposed to be a surprise? It sure didn’t surprise me. Meh.
The Village. Hey! It’s a long time ago! (25 seconds later) “Betcha it’s not a long time ago.” (about 100 some minutes later) “Yup. Knew it.”I had actually been privvy to this information, but Dana guessed it right away. I didn’t tell her I knew, but it was pretty easy to tell. The only thing I was curious about were the lack of contrails from planes flying overhead, and how this quaint little valley wasn’t a subdivision yet.
The everything is not as it seems “surprise” ending is about the same as “it as all a dream.” It’s so belittling a film that I stopped feeling bad about butchering the director’s name. You know, M. Night Salamisandwich. Okay. That’s enough.
The last one was lame.
Okay, so on to the next. Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. It’s your standard sophomoric buddy road trip getting high adolescent potty humor dumb stereotyping not exactly good comedy.
I thought it was the funniest movie I’ve seen in years. Seriously. I just laughed and laughed and laughed. I actually paused it once to finish laughing. Obviously it rips off several films. The singing in the car to the lame song from Tommy Boy. The pot reference from everything like Half Baked to all the Cheech and Chong films. The shy geek who gets the girl from virtually every John Hughes film. The messy roomate and the clean one from the Odd Couple.
But still, we both found it funny. The dog even laughed. So lower your expectations, have a few beers, and watch this film.
Now, Napoleon Dynamite. It’s a misfit paradise. Starting off, you have a rural community. Now you add in a high school. Toss in the awkward people, and stir.
No, strike that. I hate those reviews where they make it seem like they’re doing a recipe.
Initially, it seems as though several characters were recycled from Revenge of The Nerds, but you realize this is not the case shortly into the film. I can’t really recommend the film, nor can I not recommend it. There’s the geeky post-pubescent inelegance of the high school nerd (Napoleon), his immigrant friend (Pedro), the I Can’t Believe He’s Even More Pale palor of older brother Kip, and of course, Former Jock Living In A Van Get Rich Quick Scheming Uncle Rico.
It’s one of those slice of life films that make you take a look back to the parts of high school and the following years that you probably don’t think about much any more, or more likely, pretend never existed. It’s also one of those films that will spawn a thousand soundboards and .wav files that will be played as email notifiers in your office for the next year or so.
The laughable absurdity of individual scenes and lines will make you squirm a bit in your seat, but also laugh, not always out loud, but laugh nonetheless. The laugh out loud funniest moment for me was the farmer, the school bus and the cow. Most of the movie will be remembered for individual snippets. A Liger. Rico throwing the meat at Napoleon. LaFawnduh and Kip (pretty much all their scenes). (also, watch through the credits for their wedding at the end) And, of course, Napoleon’s big dance number. Yes,, you heard me right, Napoleon’s big dance number.
All that said, rent it and see for yourself. It’s either loved or hated.
Enough for now. Don’t forget to send in your Oscar picks.

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