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| Deuceday DVDs: September 16th, 2008 |
| Tuesday, 16 September 2008 | |
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I've come to grips with the fact that my opinion greatly differs from that of other reviewers. I like to think that my readers (yes, you) share my personal tastes or at the very least trust me enough to hear me out.   That being said, I present "The Love Guru". Trashed by pretty much every reviewer imaginable, I was expecting this movie to be horrible. Truly, truly horrible. After reading reviews in newspapers and the net, I was under the impression that this movie was nigh unwatchable.After seeing it (and mostly enjoying it) I'd like to politely retort. After sitting down and watching this movie, I just want to say this: "what the hell is wrong with some people"? While definitely not the best Mike Myers comedy ever made (probably not even top 5), "The Love Guru" still managed to keep me consistantly chuckling throughout the entire film, and even managed to crack me up a few times. And, like all his other movies, I still find myself quoting it on a semi-daily basis. Let's clear some things up, shall we? Yes, it's stupid. It's a Mike Myers movie. What were you expecting, Shakespeare? It's going to revolve around crude jokes, crazy makeup and weirdly accented characters. Yes, it reuses some jokes. All of his movies do. They'll make you laugh, nonetheless. The premise is ridiculous (Myers plays a self-help guru trying to reunite a hockey player with his ex-wife and get in Jessica Alba's pants) but there are a few golden moments in Love Guru, including Justin Timberlake as a Celine Dion-loving French Canadian rival and The Daily Show's John Oliver as Myer's pithy agent. All in all, I'm ashamed that people reviewed this movie as poorly as they did considering there are far worse blights of comedy out there (such as the painfully unfunny "Movie" series, i.e. Superhero Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, etc). While it may not be another comedy homerun for Myers, it's still a strong comedy that's a fun watch as long as you go in without any expectations. I will survive (in my Mach 5)   Go go go, go go "Speed Racer" (he's apparently a demon on wheels). The Wachowski Brothers continue their hit-and-miss streak on the silver screen with this adaptation of the classic Japanese cartoon, this case being the latter.For everything that "Speed Racer" does right - such as incredible race scenes and what most hammy reviewers would no doubtedly call "high octane excitement" *gag* - it seems to sag heavily on the backbone of any good film: the acting. Emil Hersch is likeable enough as Speed, but you never really cheer for him because he just seems like a whiny teenager with a competitive streak. Matthew Fox is abysmal in the role of Racer X, relying heavily on a completely monotone delivery and the liveliness of painted wood. He's even stiff and boring in the fight scenes, for crying out loud. His CAR has more personality than him. John Goodman channels his live-action Flintstones days as the boorish and overbearing Pops, and Susan Sarandon really has no reason to ever need to be in a film like this. The only person I thought did a decent job was Christina Ricci as Trixie, who's only job is to chase Speed around and try to look more manly than him (not a hard feat). Getting back to the positive side of things, the races are incredible. The cartoony special effects and over-saturated, epileptic-seizure-inducing colors don't work so well for the dramatic moments, but they're a welcome addition to the action elements. If "Wanted" introduced Gun-Fu, than this is Car-Fu: during the race the drivers pull off incredible stunts and physics-bending feats of rampant road-rage, knocking each other out of the race in a myriad of choreographed ways. Definitely a rental (SD) or possibly even a purchase (HD), it's seriously worth a viewing if for no other reason than the wave of nostalgia that will no doubtedly hit any TV baby the first time the auto-jacks engage with that satisfying "chyukchyukchyuk" sound. No, not the James Cameron one   Also released today is the final chapter in the Avatar saga, "Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Complete Book 3 Collection". As one of the coolest cartoon series ever created (seriously, I put this one right up there with the original Transformers and ThunderCats), Avatar comes to an explosive close as Aang reaches his destiny and his eventual confrontation with the Fire Lord.From start to finish, the final book in the series not only delivers, but satisfies. After Book 2's downer of an ending (everyone captured, Aang injured and in a coma), Book 3 takes the series to new ground as a newly awakened Aang and his friends infiltrate the Fire Nation. With every Avatar episode, there's an abundance of humor stemming from each character's unique and sometimes clashing personalities, along with enough action to make some people ask "Miyazaki who"? Each character grows and evolves throughout the season, and without wanting to spoil the ending, they all end up at place that seems reasonable and makes sense for them. It's beautifully crafted and infinitely re-watchable. The anime influence is obvious, but it takes the best parts and seamlessly blends it with the American style of animation. If you like animation and humor that you can enjoy at any age, pick this one up. If your Uncle Jack helped you off an elephant, would you help your Uncle Jack off an elephant? Post a comment below and let us know! Comments (1)
  james wrote...
Wait, didn't Equilibrium introduce "gun-fu" or was that "gun-kata"? I guess the reason I didn't have a problem with the 2-dimensional acting in Speed Racer because the characters are based on a 2-dimensional cartoon. Hamlet, it ain't. But that's OK.
|| September 22, 2008
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