Every so often, I stumble upon a movie with a premise so enticing that I can’t resist. So let me throw this one at you: Someone actually made a feature-length film about a demon that lives inside Ken Marino’s butt. It’s 84 minutes long. And it’s entirely about a butt demon.
Premise: Five childhood friends from small-town England, now in their late 30s, reunite in order to attempt a twelve-pub crawl called the Golden Mile, after they failed to do so when they were teens. But when they get back to their old home town, it has become overrun with alien robots. No big deal. I feel the need to get the premise across, because when I was buying tickets to see this, the old lady in front of me asked this excellent question, in the most feeble old lady way possible, “Is World’s End the one with the piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirates?”
Josh Oppenheimer opens his film The Act of Killing with a personal message to the audience, briefly explaining the nature of the film and his motives. He also tells us that while watching the film it’s “OK to laugh”, and that Indonesian audiences actually laugh quite a bit while watching. He also tells us not to necessarily *enjoy* the film, because it’s “not that kind of movie.” I think there’s an interesting (and possibly disturbing) amount of people in the theater I was in who actually did enjoy the film, but I’ll get to that in a couple of minutes.
It’s hard to find a banner image for We’re the Millers on Google that *isn’t* Jennifer Aniston in her underwear. Oh, society…
Premise: I purchased Gladiator on Blu-ray a couple of weeks ago, and it came with a free ticket to any Warner Bros movie in theaters before the expiration date of this August. The only eligible film that I hadn’t seen was We’re the Millers. So that’s why i saw We’re the Millers. It’s a comedy about drug smuggling that I saw for free.
Expectations weren’t exactly booming for the sequel to Kick-Ass. For one thing, the first film barely made any money. Nobody much cared for it, except for a cult(ish) fanbase of people like me. I was as surprised as anyone when they announced that a sequel was in the works. But I kept my expectations moderately low, not because of lack of talent going into the production, but basically because I’d read the sequel comic book, and it’s just not as good as the first one (though, it’s not bad).
Premise: It’s the future, and everything sucks. The Earth is overpopulated and probably smelly. But there’s a space station called Elysium where all of the rich people of Earth now live. They have unlimited healing technology with this magic future machine that can cure all ailments. But they won’t share it…! So when Earth resident Matt Damon gets radiation poisoning, he tries to go up there to save himself, AND MAYBE THE REST OF EARTH IN THE PROCESS…? IT SEEMS LIKE THAT TENDS TO HAPPEN A LOT IN MOVIES.
So, at a certain point every year I kind of just get in a documentary mode, where I just want to watch as many docs as I can fit in my schedule for a few weeks. I’ve already boasted about my favorite doc of the year, Blackfish, in a solo post; but here are twelve other 2013 documentaries I’ve seen recently:
Immediately comparing Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives to his previous film, Drive, is inevitable and unavoidable. And why shouldn’t they be? Same director, same star, same style of cinematography, same brooding violent atmosphere, etc. At least that’s how it seems on the surface, until you actually watch Only God Forgives.
Premise: A young guy named Oscar goes through the motions of a regular day in his life in Oakland, California. Literally, we just watch this guy have an ordinary day in his life for 65 minutes. Then at the very end, something terrible happens to him at the hands of some over-eager (possibly racist?) police officers, resulting in tragedy.
Dino Bone 