Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Movie Watch: Watchin' Movies
SEMI-PRO: Better than I expected. It really did feel like two different movies, though. It's like a typical absurdist Will Ferrell comedy sprouted up around a capable, if unspectacular, Slap-Shot homage. It's a little off-putting, and the movie would probably be better had it stuck simply to either style. Disjointedness aside, though, it's still pretty damn funny, and more mature and foul-mouthed than the last few Ferrell movies. The highlight is probably Andrew Daly, who I've never heard of, but who's excellent as a stereotypical '70's play-by-play man. It's like he's channelling Gordon Solie at times. And about a third of the way into the movie there's a poker scene that's one of the best scenes in any Ferrell movie to date, and that has almost nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Anyway, I'd probably recommend this for a matinee, and definitely for a rental.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE NEW FRONTIER: This is an animated adaptation of Darwyn Cooke's fantastic DC: The New Frontier comic from a few years back (and which I wrote about here). The comic remains probably my favorite mainstream superhero thing of the decade, and still blows me away after repeated readings. The movie is fine on its own, but doesn't quite do the comic justice. The brief 75-minute runtime probably has a lot to do with that; much of the nuance and many of the subplots have been dropped, including the comic's amazing prologue that made reference to both the Losers and The War That Time Forgot. It still focuses primarily on Hal Jordan, aka the white Green Lantern, with attention paid to J'onn "Martian Manhunter" J'onzz, but most of the secondary stuff with characters like the Suicide Squad and the Challengers of the Unknown has been replaced with new content featuring heavy-hitters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. I can understand piling up the icons, since Warner obviously wants this dvd to sell, and the comic mostly features lesser known and/or unmarketable characters. Unfortunately the new scenes are generally the movie's worst moments, full of stilted dialogue and exposition dumps, and often feeling completely unnecessary. And much of the voice-acting is just bad, primarily David Boreanaz as Jordan and Lucy Lawless and Wonder Woman. Old Twin Peaks buds Miguel Ferrer and Kyle MacLachlan are great as J'onzz and Superman, respectively, and some of the other voice actors do fine work (Jeremy Sisto as Batman, Neil Patrick Harris as Barry "Flash" Allen, and John Heard as Ace Morgan, primarily). For the most part, though, the acting fails to make much of an impression. Still, the source material is strong enough to keep the movie from failure; the villain is as convincingly apocalyptic as it is in the comic, and the final battle just as inspiring. An extra twenty minutes could've made a world of difference, though.
SEMI-PRO: Better than I expected. It really did feel like two different movies, though. It's like a typical absurdist Will Ferrell comedy sprouted up around a capable, if unspectacular, Slap-Shot homage. It's a little off-putting, and the movie would probably be better had it stuck simply to either style. Disjointedness aside, though, it's still pretty damn funny, and more mature and foul-mouthed than the last few Ferrell movies. The highlight is probably Andrew Daly, who I've never heard of, but who's excellent as a stereotypical '70's play-by-play man. It's like he's channelling Gordon Solie at times. And about a third of the way into the movie there's a poker scene that's one of the best scenes in any Ferrell movie to date, and that has almost nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Anyway, I'd probably recommend this for a matinee, and definitely for a rental.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE NEW FRONTIER: This is an animated adaptation of Darwyn Cooke's fantastic DC: The New Frontier comic from a few years back (and which I wrote about here). The comic remains probably my favorite mainstream superhero thing of the decade, and still blows me away after repeated readings. The movie is fine on its own, but doesn't quite do the comic justice. The brief 75-minute runtime probably has a lot to do with that; much of the nuance and many of the subplots have been dropped, including the comic's amazing prologue that made reference to both the Losers and The War That Time Forgot. It still focuses primarily on Hal Jordan, aka the white Green Lantern, with attention paid to J'onn "Martian Manhunter" J'onzz, but most of the secondary stuff with characters like the Suicide Squad and the Challengers of the Unknown has been replaced with new content featuring heavy-hitters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. I can understand piling up the icons, since Warner obviously wants this dvd to sell, and the comic mostly features lesser known and/or unmarketable characters. Unfortunately the new scenes are generally the movie's worst moments, full of stilted dialogue and exposition dumps, and often feeling completely unnecessary. And much of the voice-acting is just bad, primarily David Boreanaz as Jordan and Lucy Lawless and Wonder Woman. Old Twin Peaks buds Miguel Ferrer and Kyle MacLachlan are great as J'onzz and Superman, respectively, and some of the other voice actors do fine work (Jeremy Sisto as Batman, Neil Patrick Harris as Barry "Flash" Allen, and John Heard as Ace Morgan, primarily). For the most part, though, the acting fails to make much of an impression. Still, the source material is strong enough to keep the movie from failure; the villain is as convincingly apocalyptic as it is in the comic, and the final battle just as inspiring. An extra twenty minutes could've made a world of difference, though.
