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MrTrees
Reviews
Scary Movie (2000)
Scarey Movie review
If the Scream films were Wes Craven & Co. quietly subverting the horror genre by giving us the blood and death, but whispering irony to us, then Scary Movie is some idiot with his trousers down shouting all the rude words he can think of.
This film obviously had good intentions, but lifting whole scenes from other films and changing a few words is merely lazy, not funny.
After a promising start, the film soon runs out of ideas - and the ones it uses will promote a sense of deja vu. Remember those hilarious 'camera jokes' Mel Brooks used to use? Well, they're here, just not done as well.
The character of Doofy - the equivalent of David Arquette's scene-stealing Dewey - is a spectacular failure and, if it weren't for the films lousy ending, could be edited out altogether. Something that could be said of much of this film.
As for 'feeling sick' at this so-called gross-out comedy, it didn't even manage that. Only the Mr. Creosote scene from Monty Python's Meaning of Life manages that.
It's easy to see why this film was so popular in America - it's big, loud and dumb, the opposite of Scream in fact.
Guest House Paradiso (1999)
"Candle in the eye!"
I've always liked to think of myself as an intelligent and sophisticated viewer of both movies and television. I've always prided myself on appreciating films with strong, uncompromising stories. I know what David Lynch is going on about, okay?
The only trouble is that, for some bizarre reason, the sight of Rik Mayall pretending to kick Adrian Edmondson in the groin (accompanied by an over the top crunching sound effect) never, ever fails to make me laugh like an idiot who's just seen an ex-Doctor Who slip over on a banana skin.
So excited was I at Richie and Eddie's leap to the celluloid fantasy of the big screen ('ere, 'ark at 'im) that I arrived an hour and five minutes early. I'd been waiting for the film ever since the first rumours about a year and a half before hand.
With such a build up, how could it leave up to my expectations? Well, I don't know, but it did.
Hysterical laughter ensued right from the off (that's right, I even laughed at the close up of Richie sleeping that starts the film) and didn't stop for, ooh, some time (half way through the ending titles, I think).
As movie sandwiches go, this one had a good spread, but had some very good chunks added to the mixture. Amongst the best were Richie's hysterical laughter/wince inducing 'Candle in the eye' and the scene with Simon Pegg's nipple ring that got a truly amazing reaction from a woman sat near me.
So, I loved it. True, not everybody finds somebody getting a fire extinguisher in the face, or getting trapped in an oven, or all of the other really painful goings on funny, but we don't talk about them.
Any problems? Well...it ended a bit suddenly. It took me a couple of seconds to realize the film was actually over. It did lack Rik and Ade's usual bitter nastiness - just look how many Bottom escapades ended with Richie and Eddie's untimely deaths.
Still, a good note to end on: It's bloody funny. No, bloody bloody funny.
The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix: Battle Against Sleep
I hate to be completely negative about a film, but this was truly, truly, truly awful.
Remember how Bound looked like the Coen Brothers had cross-bred with David Lynch and some how lost their film making talent on the way? Well, this is like James Cameron, David Fincher and John Woo mixed in a blender with The Terminator, an old Doctor Who story about people on trial in a computer generated world (which was called The Matrix) and some really bad ideas.
Where can we start? The plot is a mess, the acting is terrible all round, the directing is plagiarized beyond belief, it lacks any new ideas, the atmosphere is about as enjoyable as the pause following a doctor telling a patient they've got a terminal disease and - the clincher, because you can get away with most of those things - it is truly boring. At no point did I actually believe Keanu Reeves was in any real danger.
As for Keanu Reeves new found (according to some) 'acting' skill, the only reason he looks good is because the rest of the cast is so bad you could make coffee tables out of them.
This is quick fix blasting action for the idiot generation. To say that the two people next to me fell asleep about half way through says it all. I just wish I could have joined them, and missed out on the terrible, macho ending.