The Bad Guys is a big screen adaptation of a popular book series for kids, perhaps to tide over the Diary of a Wimpy Kid crowd. But even as someone who was completely unfamiliar with the series, I thought its feature-length debut was great. It’s one of the coolest and most exciting films of the year.
For a movie to be inspired by or use a real-life tragedy as a primary factor in its story, the filmmakers have to justify their utilization well. Not only does Songbird fail to do this, a film using an ever-evolving case of COVID-19 as its crux, but Adam Mason’s movie proves that there shouldn’t be a film centring around this pandemic (or something like it) for a very, very long time. Educational tools (Totally Under…
Two teenage girls come-of-age in a small town. They use “teen speak”, spend all their time on social media, and find themselves consumed by their various hobbies. What makes Tragedy Girls different from a plethora of similar films is that one of these girls’ hobbies is murder.
Austin Found is yet another case where the trailer sells the audience on a different kind of movie. In two-and-a-half minutes, the film is presented as a foolish dark romp featuring incompetent criminals. At 100 minutes, it’s warped southern goodness that’s tonally confused and ends in irony.
Sausage Party is a shock comedy that’s heavy on “shock” and light on “comedy”. The film is supposed to subvert clean-cut animated films with inappropriate dialogue and black humour, but ends up becoming a crass and awkward in-joke between the comic cast.
By: Addison Wylie If Hot Tub Time Machine caught lightning in a bottle, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 begs the sky for another bolt. Steve Pink’s predecessor doesn’t nearly get enough credit. Hot Tub Time Machine has a niche, but rarely does it receive the recognition it deserves for going beyond the call of duty. The film could’ve been just another R-rated comedy filled with perverse shock, but Pink’s production decided to reach higher and use…
By: Addison Wylie It’s more than likely Peeples has a script that was generated from ideas thought by a living being and then written with human hands. But, try convincing yourself of that as you watch Tina Gordon Chism’s comedy. It’s impossible. The screenplay – written by Chism – is more of a systematic sitcom template structured like an edition of Mad Libs. Audiences can see each set-up, misunderstanding, and the results the mishaps create…
By: Addison Wylie The apocalyptic comedy This Is The End is a pretty good directorial debut from screenwriters/producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and on top of that, it’s pretty funny. More notably, it’s just about the closest thing North American cinema will get to emulating the meta movies of UK filmmaker Michael Winterbottom – for now Winterbottom has made popular films featuring actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon playing exaggerated versions of themselves. Their…
