Flight of the Conchords

If you’re not watching Flight of the Conchords on HBO, you really need to be. It’s hilarious!! We can’t stop watching!!! Here’s a taste….

If You’re Into It, Episode 4, Season 1

Business Time, Episode 5, Season 1

Prince of Parties, Episode 10, Season 1

Frodo, Don’t Wear the Ring, Episode 11, Season 1

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Flick 4 Friday

Ryan over at Popcorn, Soda and Goobers has started a wonderful weekly movie meme, entitled aptly, “Flick 4 Friday.” Now, I received an invite several weeks ago from Ryan to participate, but as I’ve been…and let’s call a spade a spade, shall we?…a gignormus lazy ass this summer, and have posted next to nothing on my poor neglected blog, while I had every good intention to jump on the Flick 4 Friday bandwagon, I seriously lacked the motivational energy. I am the most excellent procrastinator, you know.

Anyway, apologies to Ryan for my laziness. *grinwink*

This week, Flick 4 Friday asks “What is your favorite movie set at a school?” I would have to say the quintessential high school movie is Amy Heckerling’s “Fast Times At Ridgemont High.”

Written by Cameron Crowe, this film is fantastic, portraying 80’s teen culture at it’s most honest and angsty. “Fast Times” holds true to generations of fans and is still hilarious even now, twenty years later. Serving as a jumping off point for such actors as Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates, Eric Stoltz, and Forest Whitaker, “Fast Times” tells several stories at once. We feel for the naive & innocent high school sophomore who just wants a boyfriend and gets more than she bargained for, we chuckle at the stoner kid who orders pizza in class and is barely scraping by in history, we commiserate with the senior who hates his job, and finds that along with graduating, life is just moving a little too quickly. The nerd, the hustler, the slut, the jock-they’re all there. We watch the inevitable loneliness, unhappiness and heartbreak of high school coupled with the hilarity, humanity and warmth that seem to creep in around the edges, and it’s easy to remember our own teenage experience. It is in this way that “Fast Times” stands apart from the rest of it’s genre; it is truly timeless.

Smoochies,
~TC

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Spiderman 3 Review

I wish I could write a glowing review for Spiderman 3. I wish I could say that it exceeded the first two fabulous films in the trilogy in every aspect. I wish I could say that I left the theater in a happy haze of contentment.

Unfortunately, I can’t do any of those things.

While it certainly didn’t suck, Spiderman 3 did sadly fall very short of the expectations set for it by fans of the first two films. In fact, it kinda reminded me of the whole “Batman” trilogy-the first one was great, the second pretty good, but the third was horrible.

As always, Tobey Maquire plays the role of Peter Parker/Spiderman. His performance in this film was certainly up to his usual par, it was the script itself that was the problem. While we’ve always known Parker to be a sensitive kind of guy, Spiderman 3 shows us the sniveling, needy, “girly-man” side of our favorite hero to an extreme. Way too many tears and needless emo drama-rama for my taste. Maquire obviously has fun portraying “bad” Spidey, but the fly in the ointment is the treatment of this role in the script. While a dark, vengeful Spidey would have been welcomed, the audience instead is treated to a gleeful, disco-dancing, wanna-be ladykiller who sashays through the streets of NYC as if he’s in a performance of “Fame.” Funny, yes, but not cool.

Kirsten Dunst was ineffective this time around in the role of Mary Jane Watson. Most often lackluster and bland, her performance was way less than stellar-she basically phoned it in.

The addition of several new characters made for some interesting action, however, as is usually the problem, new characters meant too much to juggle for director Sam Raimi. We didn’t see nearly enough of Topher Grace as Eddie Brock & Venom, whose portrayal of both characters was fantastic & right on the mark; nor did we get a full performance from a very capable Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy or from Thomas Haden Church, who was more than adequate as the Sandman, Flint Marko.

While some might say the plotline was predictable, I feel the greater issue is the screen time meted out to each new character and their relationship to Parker. I believe that the Spiderman films have fallen into the same trap that the X-men movies fall prey to. Too many characters, and too little time. Flocks of new characters are introduced, and yet no time is spent in their development within the storyline; the audience wants to know these characters and yet we are left empty-handed.

This film seemed to dwell more on the co-dependant relationship between Parker & Mary Jane; fighting the baddies seemed to come secondary, and disappointingly, was incidental at best.

Craig and I saw this movie at IMAX. Take my advice, and don’t spend the money. It’s not worth it. Save a couple bucks and see it at the regular theater, or better yet, wait for the DVD & rent it.

Smoochies,
~TC

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