Review: Drag Me To Hell (2009)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 17/08/09.

Drag Me To Hell

Sam Raimi returns from the multi-picture Spider-Man juggernaut to return to self-penned (with brother Ivan) horror/slapstick amalgamation Drag Me to Hell, in a style not seen from the director since 1993’s Army of Darkness – the third in the Evil Dead trilogy.

Drag Me to Hell sees Christine Brown (Lohman), a loans officer of the proverbial mild-mannered variety, longing for a promotion to assistant manager at her branch – a position which co-worker Stu Rubin (Reggie Lee, whose middle name should be awesome) is also gunning for. To impress her boss and to prove that she can make the tough calls, she denies old gypsy woman Mrs. Ganush (Raver) a third extension of her mortgage and thus sealing her fate as the curse of the Lamia is placed on Christine by the scorned Ganush – a curse which will plague and torment Christine for three days until finally dragging her straight to Hell (It’s not just a clever title). With her cynical boyfriend by her side (Long), Christine must seek the aid of psychics Rham Jas and Shaun San Dena – the latter which has encountered the Lamia before – to help abolish the evil spirit before it is too late.

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by Luke Miksa on July 9, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Luke Miksa on July 9, 2012

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Review: Adventureland (2009)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 14/07/09.

Adventureland

Adventureland opens in the summer of 1987, where recent college grad James Brennan (an excellent Jesse Eisenberg), unable to fund his planned European trip and a future tenure at the prestigious Columbia University on the horizon, must now endure a summer slogging it out in the titular theme park – home to an assortment of rejects, outcasts and stoners. There he meets the mysterious Em (an also excellent Kristen Stewart), of whom James falls for despite her involvement with the married park maintenance man Mike (Ryan Reynolds, sans the sass talk), a serial lothario with the annual influx of younger girls at the park.

Despite being Greg Mottola’s follow up to the side-splitting Superbad – and in spite of the misleading trailer – Adventureland is not the Apatow-esque comedy that you may have been expecting, but a surprisingly charming and tender dramatic character study. This one will definitely be a crowd divider, as we have seen many a coming-of-age story before, but not one with as much heart and devotion to the confusion and inner frustrations that we all get at this age. Although being genuinely funny – all without the need to resort to cheap jokes and potty humour – Adventureland does in fact have some very dark and understated thematic elements mixed in with all the comical moments that you would expect from working at a low-rent theme park.

Don’t get me wrong, though – the movie is funny. James and Em first meet when Em saves James from getting knifed by an irate park-goer during a dispute over a Giant Ass Panda, and shenanigans ensue when angry jock-douche customers uncover one of the Adventureland’s many dubiously rigged games. Then there’s Frigo, with an affinity for punching dicks, and a fair share of boner jokes to please the masses.

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by Luke Miksa on July 9, 2012  •  Permalink
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Review: Fanboys (2009)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 21/06/09.

Fanboys

It’s 1998, and for four die-hard Star Wars fans (they’re fanboys. Get it?) anticipation for the new Star Wars movie, The Phantom Menace, to be released in nearly fifteen years has reached boiling point. Upon revealing that one buddy Linus (Marquette) has terminal cancer, and with not enough time to live to make the theatrical release of the film, the group (Huntington, Baruchel and Fogler) embark on a cross country journey to George Lucas’ famed Skywalker Ranch and steal a rough copy of the film. Joined by nerd-girl Zoe (Bell), road trip fun and shenanigans ensue on their very own hero’s journey.

Don’t be turned off by the very clichéd road movie plot, because although Fanboys follows similar tropes seen in many that have come before it, the film is just too damn charming to not like. And it’s quite possible that it couldn’t have been. Producer Harvey Weinstein’s vision of this much maligned film (originally set for release in 2007) was a final cut that saw the cancer subplot ditched for, well, nothing apparently. A big mistake it would have been, our friend Yoda would have said. The cancer subplot drives the entire narrative, and was never played with too much emotion but enough for to get a connection with the audience without being depressing. Kudos to the filmmakers involved who stood for their original vision, even though it delayed the release by years.

Also, without the cancer plot, the driving force and emotional core that it is, this movie would have been in major jeopardy of receiving a Dr. Ian Malcolm. Not cool.

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by Luke Miksa on July 9, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Luke Miksa on July 9, 2012

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Review: Terminator Salvation (2009)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 11/06/09.

Terminator Salvation

The fourth instalment of the Terminator franchise sets us directly in the post Judgment Day world of tomorrow (2018 to be exact), where John Connor (Christian Bale) is forging on as the destined leader of  the human resistance against Skynet’s robotic army of Terminators. The appearance of the mysterious Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) seemingly alters the future in which Connor was lead to believe, an uncertain outlook which leads both Connor and Wright into the heart of Skynet to save a vulnerable Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) and uncover Skynet’s secrets to take them down permanently.

Off the bat, let it be known that I am a massive fan of this franchise. Hell, I even think Terminator 3 had some strong points (some). With that being said, I found the above synopsis incredibly hard to write. Why? Well, there isn’t that much of a story to write about. Don’t think I’m saying that as a bad thing though. On the contrary, I walked into the theatre to see pretty much one thing, robots getting blown the shit up.

I got my wish. Although the ‘family friendly’ rating severely limits the amount of violence shown, especially against humans, an ‘M’ rating apparently allows to let rip on cybernetic humanoids to no end. So I guess ratings are based on violent behaviour against living creatures and not kick ass robots.

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by Luke Miksa on July 8, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Luke Miksa on July 8, 2012

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Review: My Best Friend’s Girl (2008)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 21/05/09.

My Best Friend's Girl

Tank Turner (Dane Cook, Good Luck Chuck) is a call centre worker with a side business: dumped boyfriends pay him to take out their slighted ex-girlfriends, and in that date be such an asshole to the degree that they come running back to the boyfriend who looks angelic in comparison.

Things get complicated when he is hired by his roommate and best friend (the one from the title, you see where this is going yet?) Dustin, played by Jason Biggs (American Pie 2), to take out his co-worker and “friend” Alexis (Kate Hudson, Almost Famous). Things go pear-shaped when Tank actually falls for Alexis, putting her between the two best friends. Tank is torn between loyalty and love, while Dustin desperately tries to keep himself as an integral part of Alexis’ life.

Needless to say that the storyline for this movie is nothing special, but when it comes to comedies the story isn’t important, what’s important is that I’m entertained. And was I? This movie is pretty much a vehicle to get a large part of Dane Cook’s stand-up routine onto film and looking at it from that perspective I would consider it great success. Now, don’ be fooled by the trailers and the posters and the Kate Hudson, this isn’t your standard Hollywood feel-good chick flick barf fest. It’s vulgar, really, really vulgar and at times very mean spirited. Awesome for me, but if you’re the type of person that complains about shit like McDonald’s commercials during kids TV or trying to get movies censored, then you should really not go anywhere near this. Actually, you shouldn’t go near anything because you’re just gonna COMPLAIN about it, aren’t you? What are you ever doing reading this? Let’s move on.

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by Luke Miksa on July 8, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Luke Miksa on July 8, 2012

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Retro Review: John Carpenter’s They Live (1988)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 22/07/09.

They Live

An unemployed drifter on the move, George Nada (Piper) finds work labouring in an LA construction site as well as discovering some lodging at a local shantytown. Soon Nada discovers that a nearby church is a front for a mysterious rebel group which possess motives of unknown nature. When the shantytown and the rebel front is bombarded and destroyed by police, Nada finds something that the insurgent group was stockpiling – rad 80’s sunglasses. These sunglasses, however, hold much darker secrets – they allow the wearer the see the world as it truly is – full of subliminal advertising aimed at controlling humans, and all at the hand of aliens living among us! A paranoid Nada is now on an unstoppable path for answers: he’s here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and unfortunately for the ghoul-like aliens, he’s all out of bubblegum.

No-one does 80’s style B-movie classics quite like John Carpenter. A Sorry I’m Late.com favourite, Carpenter here, as always, has a message to deliver – this one about corruption, commercialism and 80’s style excess. His throwbacks to 1950’s paranoia themed movies, such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, are evident – even down to the out-and-out cheesy special effects (Go, flying saucer, go!). Sublimely slow paced and low-key, They Live is probably Carpenter’s most intelligently written observation of the times (still relevant, perhaps?), but don’t let that fool you – this movie has enough silly B-movie shenanigans to make a truly entertaining feature. What may said shenanigans be, you ask? Well…

– One liner’s? Hell yeah.

– Killer, low budget action set pieces? Umm, yup.

– Piper giving the finger to the aliens in one final act of defiance? It’s right here.

– And the final coup de grace of awesome, when Nada’s only ally (perennial bad-ass Keith David) won’t wear the sunglasses, what happens? A five and a half minute fistfight, that’s what. Awesome. Definitely a moment of filmic significance, even parodied on South Park’s Cripple Fight episode, blow for blow.

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by Luke Miksa on July 8, 2012  •  Permalink
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