DVD Review: RV (2006)

I must have really bad taste in films.  Good thing I’m not over in the Film Department half of our school.  Carole and I watched RV last night — you know, the movie with Robin Williams as the Type-A worker bee who drags his family along in a ginormous RV on a business trip under the guise of a bonding family vacation?  This movie got really awful reviews from both users and critics on RottenTomatoes.  Worse even than The Omen, which I also thought was not too bad.  Maybe it’s something about the expectations I have for these movies; I’m not putting a whole lot of stock into them, so when I actually get around to watching them on DVD, I’m sometimes pleasantly surprised.  Such was the case with RV.

Thing is, I thought this movie was hilarious.  I always love physical comedy, even if the plot is ridiculous or underdeveloped, and Robin Williams can do physical comedy like a champ.  Like Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Vacation, poor Robin keeps digging himself deeper and deeper.  Something about seeing someone who has it worse than I do, I think, is the key here.  Aside from his homeboy/white boy from the hood routine (which Steve Martin also did to ridiculous effect in Bringing Down the House) I was laughing pretty much through the whole movie.  It was good to see Jeff Daniels again, and it’s also nice to see Will Arnett and Tony Hale in something again (I was sad to have learned about the series Arrested Development recently, on DVD).  I also deeply identified with the lack of sleep Robin’s character experienced.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of slapstick comedy and don’t take it too seriously, I think you might get a kick out of RV. 

The Good: The scenes where poor old Robin had to empty out the septic tank and where he had to try and maneuver the metal behemoth through Diablo Pass had me in stitches. 

The Bad: I’m a little tired of the “fully-grown-upper-middle-class-white-man-acts-like-a-homey-from-the-hood routine” which I guess some people think is funny.  I have to disagree.  Martin’s version was bad, but almost bearable.  Williams’ version was even worse.

Grade: A-

NaNoWriMo Day 4/30: Day of the Beast

With Bonus DVD Review: The Omen (2006)

In honor of today’s writing goal (6,668 words) Carole and I finished watching the remake of The Omen last night.  This was supposed to be part of our Halloween Movie Marathon last weekend, but it turns out you need at least an entire week to watch movies with a baby.  Especially movies like The Omen, which might be a little mature for a .25 year old.  It was definitely not a great movie, but it didn’t seem to be as bad as the folks over at Rotten Tomato seemed to think.  There was some beautiful cinematography, and they managed to find the creepiest kid alive for the role of Damien.  I never saw the original, for some reason, but I remember hearing about it as a kid.  One of those movies mom and dad wouldn’t let me watch growing up.  Ha!  Can’t stop me now, can you mom?!

The Good: Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick (the boy who played Damien) and Mia Farrow were both super-creepy.

The Bad: I wasn’t overly impressed with Liev or Julia.  The monkeys and apes in the zoo gave better performances at points.

Grade: B

As for my novel, I now have a title!  It’s called Drifting West, and no, it’s not a prequel to Brokeback Mountain.  Writing is still pretty easy, but I’m trying to stick to no more than 1,667 words a day.  Don’t want to burn out too early! 

I had to wrestle with a few lines today, as my genre keeps threatening to slip from a sort of creepy romance tale to a full-on spoof and comedy.  Don’t want that to happen, but if the story demands it, it must be done. 

My total word count (as of today) is 6,777 words.  This is a much more positive number, I hear.

DVD Review: Slither (2006)

Carole and I kicked off our Halloween Movie Marathon with director James Gunn’s Slither (2006).  No big names, a relatively small (20 mil) budget, and a cheesy aliens-no-wait-zombies-no-wait-both are taking over the world plot promise disaster and boredom, right?  Wrong!  It was a really enjoyable flick with lots of great gross out moments and plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor.  I wonder what that means exactly (tongue-in-cheek).  Hmm, let’s look it up:  apparently, the phrase “tongue-in-cheek” first appeared in the writings of Richard Harris Barham in 1845, in his The Ingoldsby Legends to describe a Frenchman.   It is “a term that refers to a style of humour in which things are said only half seriously, or in a subtly mocking way. ”  Thanks, Wikipedia.  Umm, oh yeah, back to the movie.  So, to summarize, go to Blockbuster.  Rent good movie called Slither.  Wear metal plate over mouth to protect self from brain eating slugs.   Movie good; me like much.  The end. 

The good: Special effects, great lines, and noone takes themself too seriously.

The bad: It gets off to a bit of a slow start, but recovers quickly.

The grade: A

DVD Review: The Break Up (2006)

In honor of Carole’s birthday, I rented a nice chick flick on DVD: The Break Up, with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. Started off pretty decent, then rapidly devolved into a steaming pile of poo. Why was it so bad? Well, for one thing, Vaughn’s character is pretty damn hard to sympathize with for most of the movie. I mean, gimme a friggin’ break — just help do the dishes already! There are a few great comedic exchanges between Vaughn and the new beefy version of Favreau, but overall watching the movie is like watching one long, drawn out, uncomfortable argument. Jason Bateman’s talent is wasted on a bit part. Slap on an ambiguous ending and an unlikely (seemingly split personality) character growth moment for Vaughn, and there you have the movie. Like I said, spop.

The good: Vaughn is always good for a laugh. His exchanges with Favreau and the “dates” Aniston’s character brings home are especially memorable.

The bad: Everything else.

The grade: C-