The Lego Movie (2014)

3/5

The Lego Movie is a two-hour long advertisement that you have to pay to see. Yes, it has a story and characters, but so do thirty-second TV bits. And that doesn't change the fact that it is an advertisement for a brand, even if it is a brand that many people have fond childhood memories of. I typically don't mind product placement (e.g., I, Robot) or obvious sponsorship (e.g., The Hire: Powder Keg) as long as the movie can stand on its own merits. This movie cannot. If our analytic functions weren't so warped by our communal nostalgia of the lovable building bricks, it would be obvious to everybody just how middle-of-the-road this movie is.

The movie is frustrating because its creators seem confused as to what they are trying to say. Every theme seems half-baked, every new message inconsistent with the last one. The Lego Movie is a conceptual mess. The only thing I am certain of is that this movie thinks Legos are awesome and that you should go buy some right now!

The movie starts by satirizing the idea that following rules is good, by mocking the idea that teamwork is beneficial. (Side note: is it even really that bad to abide by laws? to work as a team?) It uses the incredibly catchy song Everything Is AWESOME!!! as a representation of the fascist, domineering society where we lose our individuality, but then uses that very same song to cheer up one of the characters later on. So are we supposed to like it or are we supposed to reject it? Because it's currently one of the most popular songs on iTunes.

And I'm a little confused by the ending. I don't want to spoil things for those who haven't seen it, so I urge people who don't want this mediocre movie spoiled to stop reading now. After this sentence there be spoilers. So is Emmett real or is he in the boy's imagination? If it's all made up, then how did Emmett move around on the table and attract the boy's attention? If it's all real, then it seems as if the boy just took credit for building literally hundreds of new designs that the Lego people actually built! Seems a little fishy to me. See what I mean when I say that the movie feels underdeveloped and poorly-thought out?

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1490017/

Megamind (2010)

4/5

Megamind is a surprisingly clever and innovative animated superhero movie. It draws from a number of the classics, but synthesizes all that material together into something all its own (much like Hot Fuzz). It felt new, exciting, and hilarious. The comedy was fantastic. I normally hate Ben Stiller movies and Will Ferrell movies, but I was pleasantly surprised by the humor displayed in this film. Maybe it's the fact that I'm not staring at Will Ferrell's ugly face or protuberant belly (which he seems so proud of that he cannot wait to expose himself in any and every one of his movies), but I actually thought he did a terrific job here. And I especially loved the mispronounced words (even though I hated all those same mispronounced words in Zoolander).

One very strange thing about this movie is the voice acting. It was great, don't get me wrong, but I always found myself hearing the actor instead of the character. I was never able to separate the person on screen from the person behind the mic. It was always Will Ferrell is doing this, Tina Fey is doing that. I think part of that is the large amount of voice-over narration, where it's easy to recognize their voice because you don't see the animated character disguising it. All in all, however, that's a relatively minor fault and I would definitely recommend this movie. It was such a wonderfully unexpected joy to watch.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1001526/

Zoolander (2001)

2/5

Zoolander is not my kind of film. The plot follows male model Derek Zoolander (Stiller) after losing model of the year to Hansel (Wilson) and after losing his three roommates and close friends in a freak accident. He is being brainwashed by fashion designer Mugatu (Ferrell) to assassinate the Malaysian prime minister, who is implementing changes in his country that will ruin Mugatu's sweatshops. What frustrated me the most about the movie was the way all the characters spoke their lines--or maybe it was just Ben Stiller, who does most of the talking in the film anyway. He overly articulates every single word as if every one of his lines is a punchline, except only about 1 in 50 are. It's frustrating on my ear and my brain to keep expecting a punchline and not getting one, and it particularly hurts the weak jokes. The comedy itself is fair--although not always to my tastes--although I felt that the movie got a lot funnier over time (I especially loved the X-Files and Godfather references). Anyway, Zoolander may be your kind of film, but I am not a huge fan.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196229/

Wedding Crashers (2005)

4/5

The Wedding Crashers is a hilarious, vulgar, tender romantic comedy. With so many disparate moods, it's a miracle it feels so fluid and put together. The story follows two best buds (Wilson and Vaughn) who crash weddings together; that is, they go to weddings and prey on horny singles seeking true love. It sounds a lot creepier typed out than it plays on the screen. They've been doing it for 12 years and Wilson wants to get out, but he falls in love on his last big crash. And oh no! She's getting married to a creep who sucks! Who could have predicted that? Anyway, it all ends happily ever after as expected, and it's a joy ride along the way.

There are some problems. To start with, there are way too many random and unnecessary moments, scenes, jokes, etc. There is a lot of gratuitous nudity and crude sexual humor. It's certainly more of a guy movie than a girl movie because of it. And it used more wipes than Star Wars combined with Pan's Labyrinth. The ending was a bit drawn out, and they kept adding more and more side characters as the movie went on. Most of the time, all this crap was added in for the jokes, but after a while it just got kind of repetitive. Regardless, it's a thoroughly enjoyable movie and a fun break from the real world.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396269/

The Producers (2005)

3/5

The Producers, a remake of Mel Brooks's directorial debut, follows the travails of two men who try to get rich overselling a play destined to fail: Springtime for Hitler. It was funnier than I expected, though I didn't expect much. I don't much like Brooks; his humor is generally not my style. Be that as it may, I did laugh a significant amount during the movie. (Not a whole bunch, mind you, but a significant amount nonetheless.) Most of the humor was brought to the forefront while some of it was left subtly in the background for the vigilant to pick up on. I did enjoy the screwball antics of the characters, although their mannerisms were a bit out of place and unnecessary, as if they were trying too hard to make the characters unique. Nathan Lane had a surprisingly Gilbert Gottfried-esque voice that kept making me think of Iago. The music was surprisingly catchy, though it did get old near the end. The rhymes and jokes in the songs were really really well done, I thought. The acting, enh. The cinematography, not bad. The editing, clunky at first and much more fluid towards the end. The script and dialogue, pretty funny. At 130 minutes, the movie seems a bit long for a comedy musical, though it never really felt boring or overlong (although I was doing the dishes and moving around for some of it). Overall, I recommend the movie to Brooks fans even though his original is probably more to their tastes, but to those who don't like him or don't like screwball comedies, you should probably pass on it.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0395251/

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

3/5

The first time I saw this I was much younger and hated it, mostly because I absolutely loved the first Austin Powers movie and thought it didn't live up to the original. But with age, I have grown to enjoy this much more. I laughed an embarrassing amount while watching this (on a quiet airplane, no less), despite the horrendous candy-ditz acting by Heather Graham. There were a lot of unspoken, subtle jokes that I got this time, as well as movie references, that allowed me to experience the movie anew. The comedy was painfully bad sometimes and the jokes occasionally got old or went on for too long, but the movie overall was hilarious. I enjoyed the music very much, as well as the 60's style camerawork and editing. And really, that's all you should be looking for in an Austin Powers movie. It's a lot of fun. I don't really know why I'm writing this review, since the only people who are interested in this movie have probably already seen it. But if you haven't and are interested, feel free check it out.

Note: I saw an edited-for-TV version of this on an airplane with distractions (a baby kept kicking my seat) and a portion of the movie had its audio cut for an announcement from the pilot.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0145660/

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

4/5

Stranger Than Fiction is one of those ambitious movies that tries to be every kind of movie imaginable. It's a romance-comedy-drama that's happy and sad and happy again with an impossible storyline treated in a strictly realistic manner. It manages to be emotional and meaningful without being sappy. It manages to be sad and touching without being depressing. It manages to be hilarious without being outlandish. It succeeds on almost every front, but it never really exceeds in any of them. It would never stand out amongst any movie that is solely romance or solely comedy or solely drama. Where this movie did exceed in was the acting and directing. Will Ferrell gives without a doubt his best performance here: quirky, cute, and lovable. I love Marc Forster movies because he always manages to elevate the script beyond the words and truly make it into a film.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0420223/