Showing posts with label Ellie Kemper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ellie Kemper. Show all posts
Thursday, 30 October 2014
Sunday, 29 April 2012
21 Jump Street
The confidence that the makers of 21 Jump Street had about its success can be measured by the fact that Michael Bacall (Project X, Scott Pilgrim v/s the world), who has written the screenplay has already been identified as the writer for sequel to be released next year. Erm… how in the blazes did they think that a run of the mill slapstick attempt at remaking a reasonably successful TV serious from the late 80s/ early 90s starring Johnny Depp would be a success?
Something that my limited intelligence is able to fathom at this stage but then numbers do the talking and I would guess the numbers tell a different story for 21JS. Well, I have been surprised before and I continue to be surprised at what works in the movie business. Guess one has to stop thinking too hard and look at it from the heart as many of my friends have advised me of late. Be assured that all these fundas aren’t going to help you out when you are watching this pathetic attempt at comedy.
21JS is the story of Schmitt (a very slimmed down version of Johan Hill) and Jenko (I still cannot act too well Channing Tatum). Schmitt is the complete loser that one sees in most high school movies. One who cannot achieve much in life but for being an expert at nerdism. His nemesis is the college hottie Jenko. Whose sole purpose in life is to remind Schmitt about his loser status. As luck would have it, they both find themselves in the police force about 7 years after high school. They soon go on to become best friends because of their complimentary nature – Schmitt is the brain and Jenko the brawn.
They may be complimentary but they are definitely a recipe for disaster which definitely gets them into more trouble than required. As a punishment they are designated to 21 Jump Street where the qualifying criteria is that one has to look like they are high school students. 21JS is a programme to work under cover in high school.
Phil Lord & Chris Miller are in their 2nd movie – the first movie being an animation effort which I haven’t seen yet. But 21JS does not inspire much confidence in me to watch Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs. They are definitely set back a few notches by some really disgusting (pardon my lack of vocabulary but I really could not find any other words to describe it) screenplay.
The attempt at humour falls as flat on its face like tom falls prey to one of jerry’s antics. The story doesn’t even begin for over 30 minutes into the movie. That the cast cannot quite act is an added egg on the face. Jonah Hill left his acting prowess in Moneyball and Channing Tatum I cannot comment about. The only one who comes close would be Ice Cube who embodies the frustration of a police chief like very few others could.
In short, 21 Jump Street is one of THE most avoidable flicks released in the recent past. I took a wrong call and picked this over Mirror Mirror. Now I have to catch up with that as well. 3 on 10 would be liberal for 21JS. Sorry for the late review and if you have already fallen prey to it I assure you that my endeavour is to always publish on time. But then this is a hobby and not a full time profession. Appreciate your understanding.
Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1681366553/
Something that my limited intelligence is able to fathom at this stage but then numbers do the talking and I would guess the numbers tell a different story for 21JS. Well, I have been surprised before and I continue to be surprised at what works in the movie business. Guess one has to stop thinking too hard and look at it from the heart as many of my friends have advised me of late. Be assured that all these fundas aren’t going to help you out when you are watching this pathetic attempt at comedy.
21JS is the story of Schmitt (a very slimmed down version of Johan Hill) and Jenko (I still cannot act too well Channing Tatum). Schmitt is the complete loser that one sees in most high school movies. One who cannot achieve much in life but for being an expert at nerdism. His nemesis is the college hottie Jenko. Whose sole purpose in life is to remind Schmitt about his loser status. As luck would have it, they both find themselves in the police force about 7 years after high school. They soon go on to become best friends because of their complimentary nature – Schmitt is the brain and Jenko the brawn.
They may be complimentary but they are definitely a recipe for disaster which definitely gets them into more trouble than required. As a punishment they are designated to 21 Jump Street where the qualifying criteria is that one has to look like they are high school students. 21JS is a programme to work under cover in high school.
Phil Lord & Chris Miller are in their 2nd movie – the first movie being an animation effort which I haven’t seen yet. But 21JS does not inspire much confidence in me to watch Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs. They are definitely set back a few notches by some really disgusting (pardon my lack of vocabulary but I really could not find any other words to describe it) screenplay.
The attempt at humour falls as flat on its face like tom falls prey to one of jerry’s antics. The story doesn’t even begin for over 30 minutes into the movie. That the cast cannot quite act is an added egg on the face. Jonah Hill left his acting prowess in Moneyball and Channing Tatum I cannot comment about. The only one who comes close would be Ice Cube who embodies the frustration of a police chief like very few others could.
In short, 21 Jump Street is one of THE most avoidable flicks released in the recent past. I took a wrong call and picked this over Mirror Mirror. Now I have to catch up with that as well. 3 on 10 would be liberal for 21JS. Sorry for the late review and if you have already fallen prey to it I assure you that my endeavour is to always publish on time. But then this is a hobby and not a full time profession. Appreciate your understanding.
Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1681366553/
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Bridesmaids
If you look at the nominations for best original screenplay in this year’s Academy awards you will find that Bridesmaids shares space with the likes of Margin Call, The Artist, Midnight in Paris and A Separation (foreign film). Makes me sit back and wonder why actually. I mean, it was a good fun storyline but had too much of crappy scenes and over the top segments for it to be called really up there. I thought the likes of Rango for e.g. was much better. What stuns me even more is that Bridesmaids has been included in the Best Screenplay for even the BAFTAs. Now I think I need a serious relook at my understanding of screenplay. It was just a simple straightforward regular semi slapstick comedy with some decent dialogues thrown in. I personally believed that it was nowhere close to being Oscar league.
Lets then go onto the performance of one Melissa McCarthy. This one for my money’s worth takes the cake yet again. She shares the space with stunning performances from Bérénice Bejo (Artist), Jessica Chastain & Octavia Spencer (Help) & Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs). Am I seriously missing a point here? So we are saying that the over the top slapstick antics of McCarthy are superior to the sincere solid performances from the likes of Chloë Grace Moretz (Hugo) or Shailene Woodley (The Descendants). Both performances far superseded McCarthy and were from less than 18 year olds – which cannot be the reason for the Oscars ignoring them. Need to get my fundas cleared.
Bridesmaids is definitely a very enjoyably flick. So don’t get me wrong on that count. Just that it is too tacky for Oscar nominations. There are truck loads of consistency errors. The performances are honestly quite average. There are moments in the movie which make you laugh out loud due to the simplicity of humour which is yet so well spoken that one cannot help but acknowledge the effort. However, several movies through the year have done a much better job than Bridesmaids and it is disappointing to not see their names on the list.
Director Paul Fieg hasn’t directed too many features other than the reasonably well known Unaccompanied Minors. He hasn’t exceeded himself or raised the bar significantly. If anyone stood out for my money’s worth they were Kristen Wiig in the lead role and Rose Byrne who for my money’s worth was much better than McCarthy. One need not have looked too far to find a performance that was better. Nevertheless, worth a DVD Rental. Enjoyable definitely. 6 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4215119129/
Lets then go onto the performance of one Melissa McCarthy. This one for my money’s worth takes the cake yet again. She shares the space with stunning performances from Bérénice Bejo (Artist), Jessica Chastain & Octavia Spencer (Help) & Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs). Am I seriously missing a point here? So we are saying that the over the top slapstick antics of McCarthy are superior to the sincere solid performances from the likes of Chloë Grace Moretz (Hugo) or Shailene Woodley (The Descendants). Both performances far superseded McCarthy and were from less than 18 year olds – which cannot be the reason for the Oscars ignoring them. Need to get my fundas cleared.
Bridesmaids is definitely a very enjoyably flick. So don’t get me wrong on that count. Just that it is too tacky for Oscar nominations. There are truck loads of consistency errors. The performances are honestly quite average. There are moments in the movie which make you laugh out loud due to the simplicity of humour which is yet so well spoken that one cannot help but acknowledge the effort. However, several movies through the year have done a much better job than Bridesmaids and it is disappointing to not see their names on the list.
Director Paul Fieg hasn’t directed too many features other than the reasonably well known Unaccompanied Minors. He hasn’t exceeded himself or raised the bar significantly. If anyone stood out for my money’s worth they were Kristen Wiig in the lead role and Rose Byrne who for my money’s worth was much better than McCarthy. One need not have looked too far to find a performance that was better. Nevertheless, worth a DVD Rental. Enjoyable definitely. 6 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4215119129/
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