I thought this was a lot of fun. I honestly think a significant amount of the film's humour resides in Peele's masterful facial expressions and endless ways of projecting muted fear. It often seems like he's the less praised of the two (to the point that Keegan got an Emmy nomination this past year without him), but I honestly think he's the perfect balancing act (and then some) to Key's sometimes overly heightened, higher-pitched directions, counteracting that with more nuanced and unpredictable instincts. They're both very good here (as is almost everyone, particularly Will Forte, luckily in this more than I assumed he would be), dialogue-wise it feels like it often too repetitively relies on the guys using the n-word to sound hard one or two too many times per scene, but for the most part that still plays fine off of their panicked lack of methods to seeming more dangerous than they are, and ultimately that's the only really consistent overhanging issue I could think of after it was done.
Atencio's direction is as tight as it was for pretty much all of their series, Jablonsky & Whitehead's beachy '80s/'90s cop-action score is pretty perfect (if a bit short of varying themes), the supporting cast is impressively varied and versatile in knowingly stock roles, and what can I say -- the kitten(s?) gives some of the best animal acting I've seen. It's not a revelatory comedy, but it's an extremely focused and consistently funny one, and that sort of well-roundedness feels like a rarity.
I can now only hope it does very, very well for Key & Peele to be able to do this sort of thing every year to make up for the cavernous hole left without new episodes of their show. It's just a really solid, smartly modestly ambitious and budgeted genre riff that lets the duo show their stuff as personalities that feel something like them and not broad sketch characters (which they can obviously do stunningly well too, and there is a dark-edged smidge of that here with doppelganger characters they play), letting them break into the film world with something that has a similar sensibility to the show but proving they, with Atencio, can carry a full movie. I laughed a lot and kind of want to watch it again, but I think this is as good a reason as any to re-watch their show from Episode 1.
Last 11 things I really enjoyed:
Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
Safe (Haynes, 1995)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
Diva (Beineix, 1981)
Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
Anyone know if there's any truth to the rumor that Keanu Reeves actually plays the voice of the cat?
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
[]Quoting megladon8 (view post)
Last 11 things I really enjoyed:
Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
Safe (Haynes, 1995)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
Diva (Beineix, 1981)
Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
Why did nobody see this? It's a lot funnier than Popstar.
Loved the cameo by []
Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
Climax (NoƩ, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
This is one of the worst movies that I have seen in a while. Exceptionally unfunny.
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
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