Throwaway Movie Reviews
Okay, so we watched some movies this weekend with the Usual Orphans.
They weren’t art. By no means. But they were enjoyable, throwaway entertainment.
Sidney White. I don’t care much for Amanda Bynes based on looks. She reminds me of a chipmunk. That said, her acting is perfectly acceptable for what she does. Sidney White is a retelling of Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs. And, color me an idiot, this was the second time I’d seen it and I totally whiffed on the fairy tale reference the first time through. Young girl’s stepmother sends her off to college to become a popular debutante. She passes on the sorority and ends up living in a broken down house with 7 dorks. Sleepy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Dopey, they are all there. Dopey even has the eyes of the cartoon character. Evil sorority sister Witchburn has a plan to knock down the dork house and build a Greek center. She even has a website where she watches every day a list of who’s hot on campus. When Sidney surpasses her, she goes nuts. Sidney marshalls the dorks to take over student council from the Greeks. Witchburn sends a virus to Sidney’s Apple laptop to crash her important paper so she’ll miss the debate they are supposed to have. Sidney works all night, falls asleep, is awakened just in time by a kiss from the Greek Prince Charming. She goes to the debate where everyone she and the dorks have reached out to over the past weeks shows and it turns into a huge “I’m Sally and I’m a dork” fest. Witchburn is de-pinned by her sisters, the dork house gets a makeover and dorks get girls. Standard fare but still entertaining.
Role Models. Don’t like Seann William Scott. But again, he did fine in the role he was in. Two coworkers get into legal trouble and have to work off their debt in public service. Their service is mentoring 2 kids. Usual mishaps occur (excellent job by Bobb’e J. Thompson as one of the kids). Usual lessons are learned, everyone is feeling good by the end. Some pretty funny lines and scenes, though, especially if you have ever been involved in any historical recreation societies or live action roleplay.
Superbad. As a followup to Role Models. Some of the same cast. Pretty funny. Gross at times, but juvenile male humor tends to revolve around the gross and perverted. High school dorks trying to get laid in the last 2 months of their senior year get a fake id and promise to bring booze to a party. Mishaps occur and we spend half our time with McLovin, the owner of the fake id, as he is ferried around town by a pair of cops who want to prove how cool they are. The other half is spent with Seth and Evan as they try to get the booze to get to the party to hook up with the girls they are pursuing. All eventually come back together and make it to the party to find out, predictably, that all is not flowers and puppydogs when folks are drunk. Some really funny lines in this movie. Seth Rogen is a great writer for this kind of thing. Pineapple Express was another of his and hands down, the laugh out loudest stoner movie I have ever seen.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Peter vacations in Hawaii to forget his ex-girlfriend, Sarah. Sarah is a television star, Peter is a soundtrack musician for her show. Sarah is in Hawaii with her new boyfriend at the same hotel as Peter. Peter ends up being helped through his crisis by Rachel, an hotel desk clerk, and the other hotel staff. There is a musical of Dracula done with puppets and Rachel is played by Mila Kunis, who is getting to be pretty darn hot. In another example of a celebutard who does better when shutting up and singing – Russell Brand is in this as the new boyfriend and he’s not bad, really. His politics suck and he should shut up about them, but in this, he isn’t bad.
So it was a throwaway weekend. We had Casablanca as part of our ongoing education of one of the Orphans, but the mood just wasn’t right after starting out with Role Models.
Tags: forgetting sarah marshall, role models, sidney white, superbad
