Idiocracy DVD

What a funny movie. I don't know if this came straight to video but Mike Judge (Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill) wrote and directed this movie starring Luke Wilson (Old School) and Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live).

In present times, the military conducts a hibernation test with the two most average people they can find, an army private (Wilson) and a prostitute (Rudolph). At the same time a prologue is explaining how based on Darwin's Survival of the Fittest, the dumbest and poorest citizens are procreating exponentially faster than smarter people until smart people are bred out.

The experiment goes awry and Wilson and Rudolph are kept asleep for 500 years and wake to world ruled by idiots. They are in fact the smartest people on earth.

The true benefit of this movie is seeing the deadpan Wilson and Rudolph playing the straight actors to a visual gag reel of a future run by idiots. The same structure of government and social frameworks exist but people how no clue how life works, nor do they care.

There are some flat out hilarious visuals, some teenage humor and interesting thought processes put into this movie my Mike Judge. Good pick for a slow day.

What's Playing the week of April 20, 2007

Mo was too worn out from a birthday party to go to the IMAX for their new dinosaur movie, so I rented Godzilla to go with one of the new toys he got.

First I had forgotten how bad this Dean Devlin produced movie was starring Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno and how it was at the time of it's release considered too over the top, a total flop and "The end of summer blockbuster movies". Second I forgot how many people died. Not that it mattered. After two hours of watching Discovery channel Mo was ready for some killing other than cute and fuzzy bunnies and dehydrated elephants.

I forgot how loud this movie was. I had to constantly battle the controller between dialogue and gun play. It was surreal in a way to see the twin towers standing over the landscape of the city and the total destruction that the monster and the military bring to the city in light of 9/11. I am not one to shy away from the real destruction versus the Hollywood variety but I doubt a movie with that kind of damage to the Big Apple will be on the screen for a while.

Mo enjoyed it for the most part. He got lost in some of the plot holes and the feeding frenzy in Madison Square Garden got a bit much for him, but he knows the difference between whats real and whats fake.

Harsh Times DVD

I am a Christian Bale fan, but passed on this movie because of Eva Longoria. While in the long run this was quite okay I am glad that I saw this movie. Blockbuster exclusivity on this flick so had to borrow it from a friend.

Bale plays Jim, an affected Gulf War veteran who is desperately trying to bring his life together after being honorably discharged. The movie starts with him being in love with a Mexican national living across the border and trying to bring her to the US when he passes his tests to become a police officer with the LAPD.

Bale plays Jim with a conflicted heart. He is at once in love, determined to have a career in law enforcement and hopelessly behind in life, financially and emotionally. His friend Mike, played by Freddy Rodriquez (Poseidon) is a having his own crisis of conscious trying to find a job and failing the standards of his much more capable girlfriend played by Longoria.

Amongst the pot smoking and copious drinking while driving, each is looking for the Brass Ring that will solve all their problems in the delusional idea that if they only got a chance they could pull it all together. This movie proves that even given a chance live is hardly fair. Very much in the vane of Training Day, the film unravels over the course of few days of action and several moments of decision while the main characters travel from friend to friend. The third act is the reality of all the destructive consequences these two have created.

I asked myself while Bale would sink to this movie. He is very good actor with a long history of work. Then of course I see that he Executive Produced the movie. Notwithstanding, his Spanish dialog is very clean and his 'Homey' ghetto talk is right on the money. Not bad for being a British actor. I am sure that this was not so much a labor of love but an examination on how to branch out behind the camera while maintaining his gritty indie spirit between big budget movies like The Prestige and his very lucrative Batman reinvention.

This movie is Christian Bale all the way, if you are a fan you should see it. He hasn't made many bad choices in the last five years of work. A solid middle of the shot group for his acting ability. Its not American Pyscho or The Machinist but its not The New World either.

American Pie: The Naked Mile

This is flat out my favorite of the American Pie movies. The characters are not as memorable as the original Stifler or the MILF but Eugene Levy graciously lent his talent for about four scenes.

In this installment Eric, the cousin of the original Stifler, is a virgin and a black mark on the Stifler name. His girlfriend a attractive but completely anorexic girl isn't ready after two years and Stifler the cousin is fine with that except that all his friend cajole him, in fact they call him by his first name instead of giving him his Stifler legacy nickname. The virgin girlfriend gives Eric a "Guilt Free Pass" for the weekend and that is where much of the movies issues lie.

Erics buddies decide to go to a nearby university to witness The Naked Mile, which is what it is, and visit the younger brother of the Original Stifler, (he was a character in the second movie). This Stifler is the BMOC at school not only fulfilling the Stifler name but increasing its mythical status. A very likable Stifler character who to me is sort of a mixture of Ryan Reynolds in Van Wilder and Jeremy Pivens in PCU.

This movie has A LOT of nudity. There is easily a dozen female full frontals and a hundred topless women throughout the movie. Most of these topless women are running. And naturally gifted. When you watch the making of documentary's they explain how they were able to film all that nudity which was quite interesting.

An interesting side plot in this movie is the fraternity of Little People. The LP's are shown as being fully ingrained and in fact quite remarkable athletes at this university. This is a rare movie that uses LP's as actual characters instead of being characterized.

In the American Pie formula there is a big party to begin the third act which leads to all the actors hooking up with someone. At some point we find that the pretty girl is actually a dominatrix, that the conflicted guy really wants love over sex, someone has to crash another party to say their peace and that no one wakes up with a hangover after drinking that much beer and hard liqueur.