A Parody of themselves

     One of the world's guiltiest pleasures is Parody or Spoof films. Films that make fun of mostly melodramatic award winning movies. Usually viewed as really stupid by critics but always doing well at the box office, these films always wind up with a cult following.
      Austin Powers is probably the famous character to come out of a spoof film. The entire movie makes fun of James Bond films with Mike Myers as the villain and the hero. The characters have hilarious names much like the Bond girlfriends and villains always did.
      The Powers films were a rare example of a spoof film staying true to the original premise of the film being made fun of, and I personally found those movies to be humorous. Many parody films are overly goofy and terribly tacky.
      Epic Movie is one of the dumbest films I've ever seen. Lots of gross out humor and breaking the fourth wall. The movie makes fun of big budget elaborate movies that do thirty times as well at the box office due to appeal it might have. This movie wasn't epic and had zero appeal. The title is erroneous beyond measure.
      Disaster movie was a disaster. This movie doesn't lie to you in the title. It's about big budget natural disaster films (Twister), but this movie is really stupid. Maybe that was the intention, but come on, it wasn't even funny stupid, like South Park or Monty Python. It plain stank. Putting movie in the title feels so pretentious to me.
      Scary Movie (pretentious) was actually really funny. A parody of the movie Scream, it features many amusing references to the original gfilm and the actors who portrayed the roles of the characters. Like many "horror" films, Scary Movie spawned four sequels, all of which were awful. Fits the horror genre formula. Well done, Wayans Brothers.
       I must admit there are two parody films I am in love with. Shaun of the Dead and hot Fuzz, both done by the same people. The British made films were both hilarious, original, and down to earth. Hard to come by in any spoof film.
        Shaun of the dead was about a slacker who loses his girlfriend in the midst of a zombie invasion. The epidemic was largely ignored by Shaun and his friend for a while, until they saw warnings on the TV. Then they went to pick up their loved ones and go to a bar they think will be safe. The movie was very relatable.
         George A. Romero himself found them really funny. Romero created the zombie genre thwe writers of this film loved so much. Dawn of the Dead and land of the dead were the two biggest inspirations for Shaun of the dead. And there's the biggest thing. This film had original characters in a different situation. It was a romantic comedy with zombies, a unique departure from the spoof film norm.
         Hot Fuzz was the other spoof film by the Shaun of the dead guys. It made fun of the hard edged detective and his wise cracking sidekick buddy cop films. It's not as funny as Shaun of the Dead, but it far surpasses Shaun in storytelling, acting, and certainly action. The dialogue in both films is phenomenal. More proof that the British are much more talented than Americans.
         I hate most spoof films but some guys get it right. I'm guilty of making my own parody versions of songs, kind of like Weird Al Yankovic. Movies are harder to spoof because it's ninety minutes of assault on an original product. That's tough to do right, and personally I'd never try it. Let the original movie speak for itself.

Animation domination

      Who says quality films can not be animated? Not me. In fact, animated films today are better than what most live action films put on the table. Toy Story 3 was incredible. Transformers Dark of the moon, I'm not so sure.
       Walt Disney is the man personally responsible for making animated feature films profitable. 1937 marked the year Snow White and the Seven Dwarves came out.
        Based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale and consisting of nine musical numbers, the film was an instant smash. Not bad for a guy who had made a fortune making seven minute animated shorts featuring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
        For fifty seven years the tired formula of musical fairy tales applied to almost all animated features. The Pixar minds said "enough of this. We're making a buddy picture". That picture was Toy Story, the first EVER CGI feature film released. I personally think the Toy Story series is the best animated film series ever.
        Dreamworks followed Pixar's new, improved formula of Original Characters and NO breaking into a four minute musical number with funny flicks Antz, Shrek, the Shrek Sequels, and Kung Fu Panda. All funny films but none can compare to Pixar films, not even the tediously boring WALL-E.
         The Incredibles had great action and killer dialogue. A Bug's Life was clever and had a great cast. Monster's Inc. still makes me laugh. Ratatouille is overrated. A 96? Really Metacritic? Toy Story and Toy Story 3 got 92's and Ratatouille gets a 96?! There's something really wrong with this picture.
          The Simpsons movie once and for all proved that those five yellow skinned freaks could dominate the movie screen in addition to t shirts, television screens, and every merchandising product imaginable. The film had a great plot. It was like a big, explosive, 88 minute long episode with more emotion than normal. 100/100 for my tastes. I'm a fanatic as it is.
          Animation is truly a fantastic medium. Characters can achieve the physically impossible, the voices can be zany and nonsensical without having to worry about the silliness, and Anthropomorphia is as accepted as the common cold. Those are the main reasons why I love animation so much and sometimes wish I was a cartoon. If a mistake is made, the scene can be deleted or I can be erased and redrawn. What a life!

The Dark Knight

 
    It's simple: we watch the Batman. And that is what a billion people did when this film hit theatres in July, 2008. Everything about this movie made me personally believe that it is the film of the 2000's.
    The action is awesome and required NO computer generated imagery. Even the maniacal blowing up of the hospital was all practical. The dialogue was sometimes hilarious and often times prophetic in tone and in delivery. Every actor was stunning, but none more so than scene stealing Heath Ledger.
     The Joker was never played this way on screen before. A psychopathic, masochistic, mass murdering, schizophrenic madman who gladly terrorizes the city of Gotham and every good guys morality for his own unusual amusement. Jack Nicholson was crazy and narcissistic in his performance in 1989 no question, but it was extremely campy 80's style especially Jack's dancing with his cronies in the mansion scene.
     Heath Ledger was mesmerizing. Aaron Eckhart played Harvey "Two Face" Dent more realistic and tortured than I ever thought imaginable, being a fanatic of the Batman series. His turn from incorruptible goodie to a revenge seeking murderer was perfectly played by Aaron, who deserves a lot more recognition but Heath Ledger was in this movie too, so....
     Christian Bale, who everybody rips on, nailed the physicality of the role of the Batman and acted with an American accent, which is incredibly method on his part. And also the no name actors Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Maggie Gyllenhaal make appearances.
      Metacritic gives this film an 82/100, which I find appaling. It deserved at least a 92. Christopher Nolan, who also did "Inception", proved he was one of the best directors on the scene today. What an extraordinary mind. He also was a co-writer and co-producer on this film. Christopher wrote many of the Joker's lines that appeared in the film, which scores big points with me.
      One thing I haven't mentioned is the fantastic cinematography in this film. No matter the action in the scene, the camera stays with the film and I never once checked my watch in the entire 139 minutes when I saw it in the theatre on my 14th birthday. My Grandma covered her eyes during a few scenes, which I still believe proves this movie is effective.
       Although Heath Ledger died in a tragic overdose six months before the movie was released, he still became only the second actor to win an academy award posthumously (after death). The other was Peter Finch who won for 1976's "Network" after his untimely death.
      The movie is already a Hollywood phenomenon only three years after its release. The haters would probably say Heath Ledger's death sparked the hype for the film, which I find to be total bubkus. The movie is fantastic and a death wouldn't heighten a film's prestige. Besides, Heath Ledger's Joker has become iconic both in appearance and in quotes. "Why so serious"? I strongly recommend this movie to everybody.