Welcome back, Brewskies!
I managed to watch several movies this week, so there should be suggestions aplenty! On another note, several of us had gathered for our very first Movie Club screening, and it went really well!
We gathered at our friend, Jenni’s (many thanks!), had a little BBQ, watched The Man With Two Brains and then recorded our discussion afterwards. Great times!
Should you find yourself interested, drop us a line either through our Contacts page, or on our Facebook fan page (on the right). At any rate, I’ll be working on editing the podcast, and hope to have it up within the week. Now, on with the show!
Spider-Man Trilogy (2002, 2004, 2007) For some reason, a bug crawled under my skin, and I had the itch to watch the Raimi trilogy.
As much as people may have been burned out from these films, (largely due to the last entry, the sort of “black sheep” of the family), they actually hold up rather well!
The first one set the standards for a lot of the superhero genre of movies to come since, and is a fairly accurate, (according to the comics), origin of Peter Parker’s transformation into our friendly neighborhood Spider-man.
The second one still remains my favorite, as it brought the series to a whole new level of great story-telling and fantastic special effects! Peter learned what it truly meant with great power, comes great responsibility, and faced the realization that sometimes you don’t have to rely only on yourself with the secrets that could be fatal to those around you. The ending is still a triumph, in my opinion, and really had potential to keep the series fresh for many years to come….
…But as we know, the studio “hot shots” butted in with Sam Raimi’s vision, and forced him to add Venom in the third outing, amongst other tweaks and changes. As bad, (and corny), as moments in this one was, it actually wasn’t as terrible a movie that it could have been. There was a chance that the themes of redemption could have carried on, but we all know where that ended up…
Recommended, blemishes and all.
Your Highness (2011) 
Ah, the stoner comedy, in which the setting is medieval times….
The idea was most likely to try and capture the “lightening” that was from pairing James Franco and Seth Rogen from Pineapple Express, except to replace Rogen with Danny McBride, and have the two dick around in this fantasy setting.
I actually was anticipating a horrible movie, judging from many others’ reports of it, which was why I waited until the DVD release, but I actually found myself chuckling more than once as I watched it.
By no means does that mean the movie was great, it most certainly had its’ faults, but there were moments, (particularly McBrides’ comments throughout), that made the film more bearable than it should have been.
It’s almost a shame, because the whole idea was actually kind of hilarious, but there really was quite a bit to be desired.
Not really recommended, unless you’re a “Load-o”.
Super (2010) I’ve heard a lot of people compare this to last year’s Kick-Ass, but I had actually kept seeing it more akin to a movie that was released a few years ago, called Defendor. (Which actually was a pretty good movie too, as long as you can handle really dark comedies.)
Writer/Director James Gunn (the guy who wrote Slither and the two Scooby Doo movies…) decided to throw in his two-cents into the superhero genre, and came up with a story of a man, (Rain Wilson) who loses his druggie wife, (Liv Tyler) to a kingpin, (none other than Kevin Bacon).
Due to said circumstances, and having nothing else to show for himself, the Crimson Bolt is born.
Armed with a wrench, a badly sewn costume and a naive, yet violent sidekick, Boltie (Ellen Page), the Crimson Bolt rights the wrongs that are the likes of rape, molestation, drugs and cutting in line.
Honestly, this is far more like the aforementioned Defendor, that some of the “piss” was taken out of this tale for me.
I still found it amusing, and believe that just like The Serious Dude had described it to me, the movie gives you the feeling that no matter what, everything is going to be alright.
Recommended!
Red State (2011) 
This is an interesting one; Kevin Smith decided that he was going to deviate from his “dick and fart” jokes, (let’s face it; he’s become quite overrated over the years…..Sorry, Serious Dude…), and worked on his version of a “horror” movie.
Throwing in many familiar faces, (like “Badger” and “Skyler” from Breaking Bad), in supporting roles, and surrounding them around (equally awesome in their own ways) John Goodman and Michael Parks, Smith shows us the dark side of those churches that like to picket everything, from gay pride ceremonies to U.S. Army soldiers’ funerals…..Come to think of it, I don’t believe there’s a “light” side of those churches.
At any rate, it was rather impressive to see a completely other side to Smith’s efforts. As a matter of fact, if I had known absolutely nothing about this movie, I would never have guessed it was affiliated with the View Askewniverse creator.
(Note: If you’re wondering why you can’t find this film anywhere, it’s because Smith had self-financed it, and it has only been playing in limited release. They also had it on OnDemand for a few weeks, but the DVD release should be around the corner.)
Recommended, but keep an open mind.
That should cover it for this weeks’ picks.
Join us next week for more selections to potentially assist your viewing needs!
