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Author Topic: September 2011 MDC: Guilty Pleasures Write Ups  (Read 8517 times)

ferris

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Re: September 2011 MDC: Guilty Pleasures Write Ups
« Reply #10 on: September 13, 2011, 06:15:02 AM »
<Streets of Fire Review>


Glad you found something redeemable about it.  Loved this film when I first saw it.  t's been a lot of years now and I can't imagine it would hold up, but for some reason I'm pretty happy to hear  still has a bit of a life...Like Oldkid, this definitely takes me back...

What a great dictation theme!  I'll have to jump in the next time we do this...

"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs" - Exodus 8:2 KJV
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ferris

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Re: September 2011 MDC: Guilty Pleasures Write Ups
« Reply #11 on: September 13, 2011, 06:17:05 AM »
BASEketball

I am a Zucker fan. I am a Parker/Stone fan. How could this not be a funny movie? Well, to tell you the truth, it is. It is a really funny movie. I was laughing consistently throughout the runtime. The nonstop gags and Parker and Stone's weird sensibilities just fit together very well. Granted, quite a lot of the jokes do fall flat, but there are SO many jokes that if 3 fail and 1 is hilarious, you are still laughing constantly. Parker and Stone are not the greatest of actors, and they know that, which adds a little interesting and fun flair as an audience member and makes them extremely likable. I really do not know what more to say about a film like BASEketball? If you liked Hot Shots! and Orgazmo, then this is the movie for you. If you didn't, this film is a colossal waste of time. This has certainly been added to my guilty pleasures list.

Grade: B+

This was so extensively panned when it first hit theaters I never gave it even a passing notice, even though it was definitely my brand of humor at the time.  Hmmm....maybe I'll have to finally catch up with it...
"And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs" - Exodus 8:2 KJV
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Jared

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Re: September 2011 MDC: Guilty Pleasures Write Ups
« Reply #12 on: September 16, 2011, 12:24:22 PM »
Teaming up with McCoy and Billy Fish (played by Amy Madigan and Rick Moranis),

This film has been one of my guilty pleasures also, probably because I love Diane Lane. But didn't you think that Moranis was terrible and woefully miscast in this? I kept waiting for him to ask someone if they were the Gatekeeper.

The theme had me worried as well, but it sounds like you had a pretty good time with it. Interesting that you liked Michael Pare since I thought he was a bit of a blank compared to the eclectic cast surrounding him.

Really happy with your verdict. (Thanks for hardly mentioning Moranis.)

Sorry, hadnt really peeked in on the thread for awhile.

first of all I need to apoligize for my uselessness when it comes to pictures. Apperently you cant just Google image something and put the address in the image html anymore. The pictures are always replaced by a red x a few days later. I miss 2003.

1SO, I think the "blank"-ness of Pare was what I rather enjoyed about him. There is just something deeply funny about a guy with screen presence and a deep voice but minimal acting chops. Its why I always get a kick out of Vin Diesel. I get a kick out of the tough guy lines he distributes throughout the movie.

Moranis certainley was the weakest part. He doesnt do the confidence thing all that well, and its kind of weird to see him talking to some characters the way he does. Some one a little more slick looking (say...Paul Reiser) would have been a "suit" that youd believe Diane Lane would get with.

Bondo

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Re: September 2011 MDC: Guilty Pleasures Write Ups
« Reply #13 on: September 21, 2011, 09:35:47 PM »
Torque

30 minutes into this I wanted to really hate it. It was the most despicable sort of testosterone-driven nonsense. The guys were needlessly on edge and prone to violence. The women were basically there to be impressed by the stupid male competition and give it up.

This film also has some of the more absurd action sequences. This is the tragedy of the new CGI world. A film like this in the past would have meant really neat action scenes performed by stunt drivers. Now it means a lot of stuff patched together on computers. It kind of takes the thrill out of the action. The most obviously terrible moment is when a Hummer is sent spiraling from one side of the highway to another and then, intent on falling top to top on another car, is shown falling straight down. Toward the end it has a scene where it completely decides to abandon any pretense of realism.

And of course, having worked in injury prevention, watching a film with this much aggressive motorcycle racing, much without helmets, the only happy ending would have been everyone crashing and dying of massive head trauma as a morality tale in not being a douchebag.

But while this is a bad movie, there are a few points that save it from getting the dread 1/5. One is that there is a certain so bad it is good charm to how terribly fake everything is. The second main appeal here is Adam Scott. He is kind of wonderful as an FBI agent.

Also, this film ends on a Nickleback song, that strikes me as an unforgivable sin.

2/5

Clovis8

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Re: September 2011 MDC: Guilty Pleasures Write Ups
« Reply #14 on: September 21, 2011, 10:43:18 PM »


Also, this film ends on a Nickleback song, that strikes me as an unforgivable sin.



Yes, yes it is.

smirnoff

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Re: September 2011 MDC: Guilty Pleasures Write Ups
« Reply #15 on: October 13, 2011, 05:13:56 PM »
Trapped in the Closet


This does not start off all that badly, and actually it started to win me over around the episode 8 or 9 (of 22)... however it hits a point where Kelly simply doesn't know how to sing his way out of the corner he's painted himself into. His solution is to switch genres, from hip-hopera to whatever you call those movies where Eddie Murphy or Martin Lawrence dress up in fat suits. He insists on maintaining the singing-voice-over-dialogue shtick, though it really begins to show it's limitations. What began as clever rhymes devolves into lots of "ooo ooo ooo's" to fill up the bits where nothing needs to be said.

You really have to try if you intend on getting something out of this. The plot is absurd but also briefly compelling... you want to see how it's going to get sorted out (answer: it doesn't). I saw all the spoofs for this thing a long time ago (Southpark, MadTV, Weird Al)... truth is, the real thing isn't all that different. It seems to know it's stupid, or accept it about halfway through. It's disappointing. R. Kelly simply quits trying, but carries on anyways, presumably to recoup some of the money he put into it (or because he was unwilling to admit to himself and others that there was a problem). I don't know much about R. Kelly but this may well be his legacy. I wonder if he's happy with it?




It's hard to believe this is actually one of Gotham's guilty pleasures, being the man of fine taste that he is. I suspect that the pleasure comes out of watching Kelly destroy his own career, which I don't have a problem with.  ;)

Beavermoose

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Re: September 2011 MDC: Guilty Pleasures Write Ups
« Reply #16 on: October 31, 2011, 08:40:22 PM »
Tank Girl



A lot of guilty pleasures seem to imply some level of camp, films that are either so odd or so bad that they're actually really enjoyable. Tank Girl is one of those films in the odd category. Although with other 90s funky sci-fi films, like the 5th element, Tank Girl doesn't seem all that out of place in its era. The plot follows a group of rebels living in a world where water has become a rarity. The main character, Tank Girl, is a pop culture referencing, foul mouthed, bad-ass with a no-care attitude, a real tough gal. Malcolm McDowell plays the head of an evil corporation which is holding all the water. Tank girl meets up with a bunch of different allies during her journey to go defeat the bad guy. A very adorable Naomie Watts, plays Jet Girl, who, you guessed it, rides a jet and rapper Ice-T (from SVU) plays one of a group of weird Kangaroo dog mutant things called the rippers. The film is pretty crazy and ridiculous, filled with all kinds of different cinematic techniques, some animated sequences inspired by the comic book and even a musical number. The film doesn't really know what it wants to be, but that's what makes it charming. The whole movie is a lot of fun, occasionally a bit oddly paced (we seem to jump from one place to the next without warning), but still really kinetic. My only big issue with it is Lori Petty's voice made me want to scratch my ears out.
« Last Edit: December 07, 2011, 04:00:08 PM by Beavermoose »

smirnoff

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Re: September 2011 MDC: Guilty Pleasures Write Ups
« Reply #17 on: October 31, 2011, 09:03:58 PM »

Beavermoose

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Re: September 2011 MDC: Guilty Pleasures Write Ups
« Reply #18 on: December 07, 2011, 04:00:32 PM »
Sorry it took so long.

Tank Girl



A lot of guilty pleasures seem to imply some level of camp, films that are either so odd or so bad that they're actually really enjoyable. Tank Girl is one of those films in the odd category. Although with other 90s funky sci-fi films, like the 5th element, Tank Girl doesn't seem all that out of place in its era. The plot follows a group of rebels living in a world where water has become a rarity. The main character, Tank Girl, is a pop culture referencing, foul mouthed, bad-ass with a no-care attitude, a real tough gal. Malcolm McDowell plays the head of an evil corporation which is holding all the water. Tank girl meets up with a bunch of different allies during her journey to go defeat the bad guy. A very adorable Naomie Watts, plays Jet Girl, who, you guessed it, rides a jet and rapper Ice-T (from SVU) plays one of a group of weird Kangaroo dog mutant things called the rippers. The film is pretty crazy and ridiculous, filled with all kinds of different cinematic techniques, some animated sequences inspired by the comic book and even a musical number. The film doesn't really know what it wants to be, but that's what makes it charming. The whole movie is a lot of fun, occasionally a bit oddly paced (we seem to jump from one place to the next without warning), but still really kinetic. My only big issue with it is Lori Petty's voice made me want to scratch my ears out.

smirnoff

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Re: September 2011 MDC: Guilty Pleasures Write Ups
« Reply #19 on: December 07, 2011, 05:17:36 PM »
Crazy, ridicules, charming, adorable... I agree with all of what you say. One thing I like is that I don't get the feeling the actors think they're better  than the film. Everyone just lets loose and goes for broke, reputations be damned. It's a wonderfully original film and that I think goes a long way to making it watchable. There's something weirder around every corner. What you said about guilty pleasures in general is so true :))

Thanks for watching! Better than IMDB 4.8 rating, surely!