Media Diary

Defendor (Rental) Four out of Five Ziggies

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 12:58:10 -0700

Logline: A mentally challenged man takes it upon himself to be a real-life super hero. Unfortunately, there’s so much about the world he doesn’t understand and he quickly finds himself out of his depth. Yet, certain simple truths about justice are undeniable, and his actions become an inspiration in a cynical world.

Review: This film hits on all the levels that KICK-ASS missed, and I liked KICK-ASS. What a wonderfully-drawn character piece, masterfully acted, and well cast. A surprising movie that should have gotten more attention when it came out. Absolutely worth watching.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (Rental) Three out of Five Ziggies

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 19:01:56 -0700

Logline: Mr. Fox is a zany troublemaker who absolutely loves pushing the envelope. When he organizes a massive heist from local farms, the farmers pledge revenge at all costs.

Review: Wes Anderson is a certified genius. This film’s hipster take on the classic children’s book is full of reverence for the material as well as off-beat humor. Yeah, it’s draggy and weird, but how can you not love Anderson’s world of corduroy and catchy geek-rock. A nice film to rent on a night home with a bottle of wine.

Legion (Rental) One out of Five Ziggies

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 19:01:26 -0700

Logline: After eons of watching humankind screw up, God’s decided he’s over it. All of humanity will be wiped from the earth, unless the savior of humanity is allowed to be born to stop the whole process.

Review: The trailers made this film look pretty fantastic. I mean, come on, who doesn’t want to see God smiting people? Unfortunately, this one broke the cardinal rule in my book: thou shalt make sense. We never understood why the baby was so important. And why were the demons were attacking the way they were, leaving wide open gaps for way too many slow character moments. If I don’t know why things are happening, I’m not a happy camper.

Whip It (Rental) One out of Five Ziggies

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:24:26 -0700

Logline: A funky yet repressed Texas teenager learns to express her newly hatching womanhood through roller derby. A hipster coming of age.

Review: I was so utterly and completely disappointed by this film. It’s exactly the sort of JUNO tone that I normally eat up and love. To me, this one just absolutely failed everywhere. It seemed like Drew Barrymore wanted to grab a camera with a bunch of her celebrity friends and shoot some in jokes. I can’t think of an Ellen Page movie I haven’t loved before this and I couldn’t even look to her performance to save this lemon. At it’s heart there’s a message of empowerment for women. There, I said the one good thing I can say about this flick.

It’s Complicated (Rental) Two out of Five Ziggies

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:41:47 -0700

Logline: A rich, privileged, entirely empty, and boring woman has an affair with her rich, privileged, and entirely douchy ex-husband who we all know she’ll never end up with.

Review: This film was not complicated. It was asinine. It’s Asinine would have been a much more descriptive title. What a waste of a genius cast. By the way, without subjecting myself to another hellish viewing to be certain, I’m pretty sure that the only non-caucasian character in this film is a nurse at a sperm bank whose job mostly involves cleaning the ejaculate of the affluent from remote controls in the wanking room. How, in a contemporary movie, is it possibly cool to have zero diversity? And who cares about a heavily derivative portrayal of bunch of self-absorbed whitey losers wallowing in their fabulous Santa Barbara mansions and complaining that they just can’t be complete unless they find another saggy multimillionaire to love? Well, if you do, then you’ll enjoy this film and I highly recommend it to fill up two hours of your empty existence.