2008 / Kent Alterman > Somehow, Will Ferrell has become a product (and that’s fine). Since Frank the Tank first streaked through the college campus in Old School, his hyper-persona has become a face that sells movie tickets. This has led to many memorable parts: Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights, Buddy in Elf, and a subtler Harold Crick in Stranger than Fiction. But a hyper-persona alone cannot make a film work. Without proper casting, writing and direction, this throwback comedy during the days of the American Basketball Association, with crazy balls, crazy moves and Julius Erving, falls flat even before it begins. Simply put: There’s just too much Ferrell and not much of anything else. If we want that, there are better options. Sure, the viral marketing ploy with Heidi Klum in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue was brilliant, but that was better than the film itself. Hopefully the studios got the message, as Semi-Pro is Ferrell’s worst performing film to date.
Category Archives: 2.0
Beautiful
2008 / Jeon Jae-hong > A social commentary on the heels of Kim Ki-duk’s Time by protege Jeon, Beautiful stars the naturally gorgeous Cha Soo-yeon as a woman who makes everyone drop at her feet. Then an act of tragedy occurs that makes her think twice about what it is that she’s flaunting. The script, written by mentor Kim, is undoubtedly trying to tell us something about how superficial the world has become, but isn’t this obvious by now? The cliches in the film are blatant, and the exposition sensational. There’s something in there, somewhere, that’s worth examining further, but the film seems to simply tip toe around it for an hour and a half, acting superior to the audience. Face it: Nobody who watches this ought to discover any new realities of the world afterwards, and if either Kim or Jeon think they’re pushing out something revelatory, it’s time for them to get their own reality check.
The Oxford Murders
2008 / Alex de la Iglesia > The Oxford Murders is a mostly forgettable, unimaginative thriller that tries to dumb down The Da Vinci Code into a mathematical trick. Elijah Wood is woefully miscast and Leonor Watling’s there for mostly her naked body behind a lonely kitchen apron. The twists and turns are ludicrous on the back of a surprisingly bad effort for de la Iglesia’s follow-up to the enjoyable The Perfect Crime.
Open City
2008 / Lee Sang-ki > Open City is effectively a showcase for Son Ye-jin and her costume designer. Her dresses are smart and sexy, a couple of things the film completely fails at. It’s bad enough that the story centers around pickpocketing gangs, it’s even worse than it takes itself so seriously that it never achieves the level of depth or structure necessary to justify its silly premise. It arguably tried to piggyback on the success of Tazza domestically, but fell very short with its superfluous melodrama and undeveloped characters.
M
2007 / Lee Myung-se > It’s probably not a stretch of the imagination to call Lee the most visually stunning director in Korea, if not Asia, but there continues to be a disconnect in his storytelling cohesion. The colors, atmosphere and mood are striking in M, but what the movie is supposed to be is hard to tell. The direction keeps on changing, shifting genres with absolute disregard to the viewer. This would, of course, be completely fine if it ended in an understandable manner, but even that rationale is mostly thrown out the door when the credits roll.
Good Luck Chuck
2007 / Mark Helfrich > There’s something disturbing about watching Dan Fogler in the presence of other women. In Good Luck Chuck, his sleaze factor is through the roof, which actually becomes mildly fascinating after a while. Either way, this gross-out romantic comedy is both enjoyable and forgettable for its over the top premise. Dane Cook is likable and Jessica Alba is in it. So, that was good.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
2007 / Tim Story > For some reason, I thought it couldn’t get worse than the original, but indeed that was a naive assumption. Sequels are generally worse and this is no exception. Silver Surfer should have saved this, but he comes off pretty bland and one-dimensional, and the climactic sequence is lacking proper character development to be effective. Jessica Alba is in it, though. So, that was good.
Mr. Brooks
2007 / Bruce A. Evans > Mr. Brooks takes multiple pages out of serial killer thriller flicks and tries to package it together, but it’s all been done before. There’s really nothing fresh that the film offers that makes it stand out, though the interactions between Kevin Costner, William Hurt and Dane Cook are surprisingly entertaining.
Music and Lyrics
2007 / Marc Lawrence > When the basis of the film is based around a songwriter, its ultimate sin is what Music and Lyrics commits: Having a rather boring, homogeneous treat for the ear. Other than that, the story is a bit ho-hum, and Drew Barrymore is simply annoying. The sort of childish charm from 50 First Dates is gone and instead replaced by a character built around silly paranoia and self-pity, exactly what you don’t want to deal with in a romantic comedy.
Balls of Fury
2007 / Robert Ben Garant > As silly as it sounds, the idea of Dan Fogler making out with Maggie Q takes Balls of Fury two full notches down on the totem pole of love. In theory, there wasn’t much that could go wrong with a parody of Enter the Dragon starring Christopher Walken and ping pong, but the show quickly runs out of meat and starts packing the minutes with unremarkable filler that stretches thin by the climactic sequences. There are some good moments, though better fit to be viewed as clips on YouTube, not with full attention in front of the screen.