THE ONLINE AUTHORITY ON MOVIES

Movies that are able to effectively blend action and comedy tend to be real crowd pleasers. Large segments of the moviegoing public go to the cinema specifically to escape, and, really, what’s more escapist than laughing and being thrilled at the same time? From The General to Big Trouble in Little China to Shaun of the Dead, the best action comedies tend to become cult favorites that stand the test of time and get re-watched constantly. There’s one action comedy that has a giant cult following I’ve never found an inroad to appreciate though—John Landis’ 1980 hit, The Blues Brothers. It’s not hard to see why many find it memorable. It’s set in an exaggerated version of lower class Chicago that’s easy to romanticize, it gets to ride the coattails of John Belushi’s gone-too-soon legacy, and it features so many legendary musicians that you almost feel like you have to respect it by proxy. Putting all that aside though, the movie is really long and slow, it doesn’t contain many big laughs, and quite frankly I have a hard time finishing it without falling asleep.

One recent action comedy that doesn’t get any respect is 2011’s The Green Hornet, and seeing as its writers, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, released the impressive and seemingly well-liked This is the End over the weekend, it feels like an appropriate time to revisit it and ask why that is. The Green Hornet made a decent amount of coin, and was successful enough on an international level that it can’t really be considered a bomb, but it was so ravaged by critics and moviegoers that it seems people remember it as one anyway. Probably that has something to do with expectations. Seeing as it was directed by Michel Gondry, arthouse fans were likely expecting to be blown away by it visually. And seeing as it was written by Rogen and Goldberg, comedy fans were probably looking to get as many laughs from it as they did Superbad. The thing about The Green Hornet is, despite the fact that it’s not as visually interesting as anything else Gondry has done and it’s not as funny as anything else Rogen and Goldberg have done, it’s still a pretty solid action comedy when you put everything aside and view it on its own.

Looking for any excuse, Landon Palmer and Scott Beggs are using the 2012 Sight & Sound poll results as a reason to take different angles on the best movies of all time. Every week, they’ll discuss another entry in the list, dissecting old favorites from odd angles, discovering movies they haven’t seen before and asking you to join in on the conversation. Of course it helps if you’ve seen the movie because there will be plenty of spoilers.

This week, they take 4 different views on Akira Kurosawa‘s Rashomon because they think they’re clever.

In the #24 (tied) movie on the list, a bandit, a samurai, his wife, and a woodcutter each tell their version of a violent encounter on a forest road. With each new entry, conflicts and distortions arise, ultimately bending and challenging what we think of as the truth in storytelling and in life.

Why Watch? More than just a curiosity, this short film from Samm Hodges is a poetic blend of conflicting realities about existence and stunningly displayed images that confuse the pupils. The physical meeting the metaphysical.

It feels a bit like a 1950s instructional video by way of “Howl,” and it’s that sober recitation of condensed profundities laid over the beautiful imagery and overall tonal loneliness that makes this a complete package.

This week’s opening of Pixar’s latest film, Monsters University, a sequel starring fan favorites Mike Wazowski and James P. “Sulley” Sullivan, also signals the debut of another perennial Pixar favorite – the accompanying short film. Since the animation house’s second theatrical release, Toy Story 2, every Pixar feature film has kicked off with an all-new short. Some of them have been instant classics (like For the Birds, Day & Night, and my personal favorite, Presto) and some of them have fallen somewhat flat (I forgot about Geri’s Game, Boundin’, and Lifted almost immediately after watching them). Three of them even won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film (and of the twelve already released, ten of them were nominated for the award).

The short attached to Monsters University, Saschka Unseld’s The Blue Umbrella, is a different kind of short film for Pixar. Its use of photorealistic CGI is a departure from the more traditional animation styles that Pixar’s shorts have previously utilized, and one that teeters on the edge of the so-called Uncanny Valley. Putting it another way – realizing the entire thing is computer-animated is both obvious (it does focus on the love story between anthropomorphized umbrellas) and unsettling (it sometimes looks too “real” to be fake, though we’re not talking Mars Needs Moms levels of weirdness). It does, however, still have that Pixar charm and emotion (really, it focuses on the love story between anthropomorphized umbrellas), though the bulk of its creativity is focused on ancillary characters (like street signs, a mailbox, and drains) that make said anthromprophzed umbrellas seem uninspired.

The release of a new Pixar short seems as good a time as any to reflect on some of the company’s hits and misses when it comes to the tiny film genre, so here’s to looking back at twenty-seven years and thirteen game-changing shorts.

Welcome back to This Week In Discs!

As always, if you see something you like, click on the image to buy it.

Rectify

Daniel Holden (Aden Young) is released from prison after serving 19 years on death row for the rape and murder of a teenage girl, but his return home opens up a world of troubled complications for everyone involved. The small, Southern community is divided on the issue of his innocence as the DNA evidence seems at odds with his own confession, and those doubts are just some of the issues he now faces.

Character actor Ray McKinnon moves behind the camera here as the show’s creator, and the result is easily one of the year’s finest and most affecting shows. The story shares some thematic similarities to the brilliant Boy A, but it quickly finds its own rhythms and strengths thanks to a smart ensemble filled with heartbreaking performances and characters. It’s not needed, but the show also features some suspense and mystery surrounding Daniel’s possible guilt. It’s a short season at only six episodes, but happily Sundance Channel has ordered an additional ten for season two. [DVD extras: Featurettes]

Movie 43 was in essence an experimental film from the minds of the Farrelly Brothers. This raunchy, ribald sketch comedy film with two different wrap-around stories (depending on where it was released) featured fourteen different short films with an impressive cast. Unfortunately, the experiment did not perform too well during its release. However, there’s always life for these types of film on DVD and Blu-ray.

Loaded with inappropriate humor, Movie 43 found a few fans in its original run, while others declared it one of the worst movies ever. This is your chance to be the judge, but may we suggest you judge it with some spirits on your side?

We are living in a post-movie star era, but Will Smith was the last one to find out.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air-turned-21^st-century box office king has enjoyed his time as perhaps the sole exception to the many articles that have discussed at length the death of the traditional movie star (including ones written here). Smith’s magnetic charm, family-friendly aura, and conventional good looks (coupled, more importantly, with an incredibly calculated, decidedly un-risky series of career decisions) made him a star with mass audience appeal – an increasingly rare commodity as studio films geared more and more toward dedicated niche audiences.

But Smith’s anachronistic career (even with two Academy Award nominations and 11 blockbusters under his belt in almost as many years) was growing ever more conspicuous even before his four-year absence from the silver screen. He came back with the serviceable (read: unremarkable) MIB3. However, it was this summer’s After Earth (whose opening weekend gross was $100K shy of, erm, Wild Wild West) that solidified the fact that even Hollywood’s “biggest star” no longer provided a guarantee that anybody would show up.

Six months ago, Scott Beggs and I argued that 2012 signaled, with certainty, the death of the movie star. If the movie star died in 2012, then 2013 is most certainly its wake.