In the subversive new comedy Observe and Report, Seth Rogen plays one very angry mall cop. But despite what you’ve figured out from the trailer, the character is not set off by a pervert flasher, nor is his violent behavior necessarily triggered by his decision to stop taking his medication. No, he’s simply incensed by Hollywood’s depiction of mall cops. If the movies aren’t stereotyping them as idiot police rejects, like in this year’s other mall security guard movie, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, they’re replacing them with also-flawed, laser-shooting, head-exploding robots, as in Chopping Mall. When Rogen is seen bashing skateboarders’ skulls, he’s not merely fed up with teenage hooligans wrecking his own place of employment; he’s also obviously reacting to the scene in Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol where David Spade gets away from a real cop and a mob of irate shoppers after skating recklessly through a mall (there are also skateboarding villains in Paul Blart).
On top of all this, Rogen’s character is likely tired of all the destruction caused to malls in the movies. And after seeing damage caused by police cars, aliens, robots, zombies, time travelers, terrorists, and Arnold Schwarzenegger (multiple times), he’s just so hard on the offensive, because he feels he has to be ready for anything. Unfortunately, teens and perverts are all he’s got. So, to illustrate the kinds of threats he seems more pumped up to handle, we’ve selected the ten best action scenes set in a mall: …Read more
Getting ready for the Sundance Film Festival can be very exciting. As we await the event’s Thursday opening, we can’t stop wondering what will be the next big thing. Will this year’s hit be the highly-anticipated Michael Cera project Paper Hearts, or will it be something that we as of yet know nothing about?
It’s easy to forget, however, that oftentimes the next big thing is also the next lamest thing. Sundance sensations, those films that are much-buzzed-about, that sell for a lot of money, that go on to be marketed like crazy and ultimately receive Oscar recognition, tend to lend themselves most easily to backlashes. Usually such derision is deserved, as in the case of the following ten films, each of which made a big splash at Sundance despite being bad. …Read more
On Saturday, Karina and I were discussing the upcoming Judd Apatow-produced comedy Pineapple Express, which I think is a waste of David Gordon Green’s directorial talent. Even more, I think it’s a waste of his writing talent, as it’s his first film where he’s not (credited as) one of the screenwriters. But, as Karina argued, a guy has to earn a paycheck now and again, and if him making this stoner comedy means I get to see more beautiful little films from Green in the future, then I should be happy for him and thankful to Apatow and Columbia Pictures. After all, great actors do this sort of thing all the time, so why shouldn’t it be okay for directors?
However, all too often a sellout film can leave a really bad taste in our mouths. Sometimes that one really commercial movie will harm a filmmaker’s career for a long time, whether because it’s a box office flop or because it ends up only being the first in a new, more-mainstream direction for the filmmaker (see John Woo, sort of). Hopefully Pineapple Express won’t be as bad as any of these famous disasters by otherwise great directors:
Alien Resurrection (1997) - It kind of seemed a dream come true that Jean-Pierre Jeunet (The City of Lost Children) would be wooed by Hollywood, especially for something as high-profile as the fourth Alien installment. But like many great foreign filmmakers, Jeunet was not nearly as great with an English-language script (nor is, apparently, Wong Kar-Wai). The movie looked really good, as had Jeunet’s French films, but overall the film was quite disappointing. It wasn’t necessarily Jeunet’s fault, but because he wasn’t fluent in English, it was likely difficult for him to communicate well with the actors and to see the faults of Joss Whedon’s script. Fortunately, Jeunet went on to make Amelie and has hopefully ignored the call of Hollywood ever since. …Read more
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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