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 (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
I'm here to advise you to lower your expectations dramatically. This is less funny than Hot Rod, and I'm not even a big fan of Hot Rod. These guys are inherently likable, but maybe that's part of the problem, because this is a really lazy movie that manages to miss what one would think would be an unmissable target. The major problem is that they never fully commit to the idea that Connor 4 Real is a pop star that could plausibly win over the adoration of fans and the respect of his peers. He's pretty much a disaster from beginning to end and it's hard to imagine that even the most naive teen pop consumer wouldn't realize it. Spinal Tap worked because their excess and self-seriousness was never far removed from the real thing. In this movie, Andy Samberg (and everyone else) is clearly in on the joke and that joke is never all that funny to begin with.
Instead of taking a shot at an artist that is somewhere between Timberlake and Bieber, a funnier film might have been made tearing apart the ego machine that is Kanye West with his messiah complex and his aggressive self-promotion. Instead, we get weak shots at targets that don't need tearing down, although I must admit, I did enjoy the seeming swipe at Macklemore's 'enlightenment' in Connor's socially conscious song.
There's lots of cameos that are less fun than you might think, although you won't be surprised which pop star/frequent SNL host comes out the best with a simple believable character that is more fully realized than the actual lead.
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 (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
The fact that you state you aren't a fan of Hot Rod means I can safely ignore all the obviously outright outrageous lies written here.... Cool beans!
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
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
I've already kept my expectations at bay because though some reviews/reactions have been really enthused, none of them quite measure up to my dream version of this. BUT considering that their Turtleneck & Chain album was probably my soundtrack of Summer 2011 (seriously, looking back, there weren't many fun blockbuster albums released that summer), I'll probably enjoy it no matter what, even if I wish it'd've come closer to that end of the decade.
I didn't really like Hot Rod or particularly love MacGruber the first time I saw them, but those movies have only gotten better for me subsequently, and it's really the Digital Shorts that seal my love for them, and especially because they're them all together writing/directing/performing, and considering this is the first movie they've done like that from the ground up (Hot Rod was Pam Brady's script that they inherited with only the SNL off-season to work on), I'm really looking forward to it.
Basically, if the movie is even half as good as "We're Back" (which me and my friends would sometimes deliriously watch multiple times in a row that summer), then I would like to see that:
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)
I've heard some of the songs off of the soundtrack and they're pretty good, which is the only reason I was thinking of seeing it. Otherwise, I do find their feature films to be the weak link in their otherwise fun and very funny body of work.
I did still enjoy Hot Rod, tho, so who knows. None of the trailers for this one looked good to me (I was pretty much worried it would be exactly what Spinal described). I honestly wouldn't mind just spinning that soundtrack a few times and calling it right there, the movie will just be a nice bonus if it turns out decent.
Giving up in 2020. Who cares.
maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Sky Hopinka) ***½
Without Remorse (Stefano Sollima) *½
The Marksman (Robert Lorenz) **
Beckett (Ferdinando Cito Filomarino) *½
Night Hunter (David Raymond) *
It's rare that I'm the first one here to see something, so I'll be curious to see which way this goes.
(90% on RT so far. Sigh.)
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 (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
Haha yeah I only just saw this. Did not expect out of the gate. (20+ reviews as of typing.)Quoting Spinal (view post)
Honestly anticipated more along the lines of your feelings, or worse: worse.
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)
I mean, I'll be honest. I'm more excited for the soundtrack than the movie, but I also expect it to be something that grows funnier every time I see it as Henry said, since that's exactly the case with both Hot Rod and MacGruber. So I am expecting to only like this moderately in theaters and then have it become one of my go-tos like 5 years from now.
Movie Theater DiaryQuoting Donald Glover
"I'm So Humble" has been stuck in my head for the past week.
I loved MacGruber first time, for the record.
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 (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
If there isn't a duet with Samberg and Justin Timberlake, I'll be disappointed. Those are always gold.
Last Five Films I've Seen (Out of 5)
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Mackesy, 2022) 4.5
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford, 2022) 4
Confess, Fletch (Mottola, 2022) 3.5
M3GAN (Johnstone, 2023) 3.5
Turning Red (Shi, 2022) 4.5
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) 5
615 Film
Letterboxd
Same. Friend and I were laughing so hard we were crying in a theater with a dozen other confused, silent patrons.Quoting Spinal (view post)
"Just tell me what you want me to fuuuUUUuuck!"
I was the only person in my screening on opening day.Quoting Dead & Messed Up (view post)
When Ryan Philippe found his notepad, my laughing escalated from chuckles to cackling in mere seconds.
Last Five Films I've Seen (Out of 5)
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Mackesy, 2022) 4.5
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford, 2022) 4
Confess, Fletch (Mottola, 2022) 3.5
M3GAN (Johnstone, 2023) 3.5
Turning Red (Shi, 2022) 4.5
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) 5
615 Film
Letterboxd
A.V. Club is calling it the next best thing to This is Spinal Tap. Yeah.
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 (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
I just watched Hot Rod because you guys brought it up here, and I could not stop laughing.
Sorry, Spinal. This is hilarious.
I don't know if it would have worked if it was just about egomania. I think part of Samberg's whole thing is that his characters are pretty sincere, which is what drives the narrative of this thing. On top of that, it's a pretty spot on parody of the Bieber documentary (which I really suggest people watch before seeing this) because of that sincerity.
Hunter, the fake Tyler the Creator character, is incredible.
Movie Theater DiaryQuoting Donald Glover
It's my favorite comedy in a long time.Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
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
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
I'm not even sure that Samberg is playing a character. How is this persona any different than if it were actually Andy Samberg? How would we know? Again, compare and contrast with Nigel Tufnel.Quoting number8 (view post)
And I think the basis of my disagreement is that I did not consider this to be a sincere performance. I didn't believe in the authenticity of any of it.
Last edited by Spinal; 06-05-2016 at 08:24 AM.
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 (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
I SAID YOU LOOK SHITTY GOODNIGHT DENISEQuoting Dukefrukem (view post)
BWHAHAHHahahahahaQuoting Dead & Messed Up (view post)
Will Arnett, Mike Birbiglia and Eric Andre as the TMZ parody made me laugh so hard, I cried.
This movie blew my expectations out of the water. It's definitely as hilarious as Walk Hard.
Last Five Films I've Seen (Out of 5)
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Mackesy, 2022) 4.5
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford, 2022) 4
Confess, Fletch (Mottola, 2022) 3.5
M3GAN (Johnstone, 2023) 3.5
Turning Red (Shi, 2022) 4.5
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) 5
615 Film
Letterboxd
The TMZ stuff was some of the strongest material. No doubt.
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 (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
I will say, though, that a lot of these will feel really dated in a decade or so. The CMZ and Macklemore parody (which are the film's funniest jokes), and the DJ Khaled appearance feel really specific to a time in pop culture. Not necessarily a fault, but it's certainly the kind of comedy that's funnier in the now, unlike MacGruber and Hot Rod's humor-mining from the retro.
P.S. After Dope and now this, I'm starting to really like A$AP Rocky as an actor. He was the most convincing out of all the celebs acting like StyleBoys fans.
Movie Theater DiaryQuoting Donald Glover
This bombed really, really badly, btw. Only made $4.6 mil for the whole weekend.
Movie Theater DiaryQuoting Donald Glover
Yeah, I was surprised when I went to the preview and barely a third of the auditorium was filled. They were turning people away from Jupiter Ascending when I went last year.Quoting number8 (view post)
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 (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***