Just in case anyone missed the trailer for Appaloosa here is.


I'm basically posting this because my Step Dad is a huge Western fan. Give him the title to any spaghetti western and he'll give you a quote. This movie looks interesting to me. We haven't seen to many good Westerns lately. 3:10 to Yuma and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford have paved the way for Westerns to have a strong come back. While movies like Seraphim Falls and The Missing have let me down, I am starting to see a light for Westerns with future movies like Appaloosa and Australia . Plus my Cousins band is named Appaloosa

I just had a chance to see a screening of American Teen, the new documentary about high school students in a small town in Indiana by Nanette Burstein, most well known for directing 2002's film festival highlight called The Kid Stays in the Picture. The film follows the stereotypical cliques of high school, jock, geek, rebel, princess - you know...The Breakfast Club. Was it more than just a Breakfast Club knockoff? Sure. Was it worth a watch? Absolutely.

The Awesome

This film is more than just a Breakfast Club ripoff. If you have any memory of high school, you will most likely identify with this documentary. You will feel for some, if not all of the characters at some point during the film. The film does an excellent job of providing characters that are interesting and fun to watch. High School at times can seem so trivial to someone that is past it, but for some reason you want to watch what happens to all of these people.

The film also has a fair amount of humor to back it up. I found myself laughing out loud a few times during the film. Sometimes with the characters, sometimes at them. It's no Judd Apatow production in terms of laughs, but it helps and makes the film a little more fun to watch. This movie has heart - that's for damn sure.

The Not So Awesome

The movie pretty much IS The Breakfast Club, so minus some points for not being as awesome. There are some animation things that take place every once and a while that feel completely unnecessary and out of place. I really don't know why the little animations were in the film. They just distracted me. The film has a certain MTV quality that will surely turn off documentary purists. This could be seen as a negative, or a positive.

These next few comments are not really negatives, more neutrals. Things that could be seen as good or bad depending on who is viewing the film. If you are looking for some sort of social commentary or for the "secret life of high schoolers" to be exposed here. You won't find it. It is simply an honest look at what it is to be a teenager. Not trying to make them look bad or good. It feels like a super long episode of MTV's Made that features 5 or 6 characters. And while this may be offputting to some, it seemed to work for this film.

Another thing that bothered me slightly was the fact that the "rebel/outcast" girl seemed to be the central character of the film. While she certainly was the most interesting of the characters, I couldn't help but think the filmmaker spent more time on her character simply because of some sort of "artistic" connection to a story such as hers (hates her small town, likes art, wants to go to Cali to be a filmmaker).

There is also word floating around that much of the film was staged, ala Laguna Beach/The Hills or whatever the hell those shows are. If this is the case, I'm sorely disappointed that the makers of this documentary went to those lengths for a story, but until I hear otherwise, I'll just take this as rumors.

OVERALL

Overall I think that this film is an important addition to the documentary genre, even if a little shallow in terms of it's social impact. It was enjoyable to watch with highly relative characters that were easy to relate to (even though they graduated something like 4-5 years after I did). The film has it's small share of issues, but if they can be ignored for the enjoyment of the film, they are things that can easily be overlooked. I've seen better, but I also left smiling. In this media obsessed world we live in, it must have been difficult to get some true emotion out of these students who are ever aware of the present camera. And they do. At times you can see they are faking for the camera, but the moments that slip through that and some the real side are the moments that count. Overall I would give this film a 7 out of 10.

As a side note, I really hate the marketing for this film. They decided to go with a spoof of The Breakfast Club poster. There is actually a really great yellow poster (which I am having trouble finding a good picture of because they stopped using it for marketing) - but instead they are doing this dumb Breakfast Club spoof poster. All this says to me is "we have no faith in our film and need to attach it to something respectable" what a shame.

Pineapple Express is another film by the writing duo of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and produced by...of course...Judd Apatow. One major difference between this and the rest of the Apatow crew films is this one is directed by David Gordon Green...a man known slightly for his more realistic based films. (One of my current roommates is a DGG fan and showed me some stuff along with a short by Clu Gulager called A Day With the Boys that influenced DGG). The story follows Dale Denton and Saul Silver as they are on the run from the law after Denton witnesses a cop murder someone. It is a stonerific comedy with lots of action to boot.

The Awesome

This film is funny, no doubt. It may not be funnier than some of the other Apatow films in my opinion, but it certainly delivers on the laughs. One of the things that this film does amazingly is truly blend an action film with a comedy. It isn't trying to be a comedy that has action in it, or an action flick that has the occasional laugh line. It really does a nice job of fully being both - something that I don't think I have ever seen (except maybe with the somewhat similar Hot Fuzz). James Franco knocks it out of the park once again with a comedic role (something I think he should definitely do more of), but the man who truly steals every scene he is in is comedic film newcomer Danny McBride. He has played small parts in a few comedies over the past couple years, but is definitely beginning to shine in roles like this (it really makes me want to see The Foot Fist Way).

The film is also violent to the max. It has some of the most violent scenes I have seen in recent flicks, let alone an action/comedy/bromance film. The scenes that do have their share of violent acts make sure you see what is going on also - no hiding the blood and body parts here - straight out of the 80'action flicks.

The soundtrack is also pretty awesome - and nicely used.

Everyone else turns in good performances and the movie is surely a good time.

The Not So Awesome

I only have a few complaints about the film, and they aren't too major.

1. Seth Rogen plays a fairly straight character in this film leaving most of the huge laughs to his co-stars. While not necessarily a problem, it may have been nice to see him be a bit more "typical"

2. I would have LOVED to see more cameo's. Cameo's make the world go 'round in films like this, and I just don't think there were enough. Where is McLovin (an action hero in his own respect)? Jonah Hill? Paul Rudd? Leslie Mann? Jason Segal? Jay Baruchel? I just think it could have offered many more comedic cameos than it did.

3. There is a HUGE loose end by the films ending that never gets wrapped up involving Dale and his high school girlfriend

4. The prologue seems out of place and slightly unnecessary (although it does feature the always funny Bill Hader)

Like I said, minor complaints - all things that can be overlooked once you are bending over in your seat laughing.

OVERALL

Overall, I would say that the Apatow crew (Seth Rogen and Even Goldberg writing team specifically can chalk up another gold after the below average Drillbit Taylor (their last writing effort). Apatow now has even more money in the bank and can begin to fund his global domination plots. And we are left with another great comedy to add to the collection (how long will this team go on? and who will get the torch next?). Overall, I give this film an 8 out of 10.

I just saw a trailer that has apparently been around for a while but I seem to have skipped over somehow. The film is called Taken and stars Liam Neeson and will be released September 26th (already came and went in France apparently) I found this film courtesy of John Campea over at The Movie Blog. Man was he right in his comments. This trailer alone gets me really pumped to see this film.

It feels like a combination of a really good suspense film, a Bond film, and a little bit of like...I don't know...one of the Bourne films. Suspense, action, espionage, all kinds of good stuff. And the trailer is put together in a really neat way.

It is also good to see Liam Neeson taking on a role like this (it's not quite as serious as some of his other roles, but plays off of his strengths really well). Check it out, let me know if you are pumped as well.

Poster - eh, not so much.

Looks like we have an exciting Harry Potter movie to look forward to. I haven't been overly impressed by the past two Harry Potter films due to their loss of whimsical magic and not replacing it with anything interesting. This time around it looks like they have replaced whimsical magic with a young Tom Riddle who seems to draw his character out of Damien from The Omen. Plus we see Dumbledor perform some Gandalf like wizardry.

Here's the Trailer

This may not mean much to anyone, and it isn't movie related, but just for your awesome reference, I have added a del.icio.us account and a technorati account that can be accessed through the links at the bottom of the page. If you use del.icio.us or technorati, add me to your network/list...and be sure to check out my links as well!

Coming soon! Audio/video movie reviews and possibly a weekly live television show! Yay!

Derek 8-Track and I have done a decent job of keeping you folks up to date with crappy leaked trailers that were screened at ComicCon so far. So in keeping with that tradition - At the Friday the 13th panel they showed the first trailer for the new F13 remake. Here in all its crappy handheld camera glory is the trailer. Being produced by Michael Bay and his company Platinum Dunes, you can expect lots of lens flare and even some explosions (all available to your eyes in the trailer! Lens flare galore! Yes!)



They also showed a poster for the upcoming remake: