Aylmer to Zazzoo and Beyond: September 2012

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Pitch Perfect - Review

Pitch Perfect
(2012)
Comedy | Music
112 Min.

Rated: PG-13
Grade: B+

Director: Jason Moore
Writers: Kay Cannon (screenplay), Mickey Rapkin (book)
Stars: Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow and Rebel Wilson | See full cast and crew

The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory

Beca (Anna Kendrick) is that girl who'd rather listen to what's coming out of her headphones than what's coming out of you. Arriving at her new college, she finds herself not right for any clique but somehow is muscled into one that she never would have picked on her own: alongside mean girls, sweet girls and weird girls whose only thing in common is how good they sound when they sing together, in the new out-loud comedy Pitch Perfect. When Beca takes this acoustic singing group out of their world of traditional arrangements and perfect harmonies into all-new mash-ups, they fight to climb their way to the top of the cutthroat world of college a cappella. This could wind up either the coolest thing they'll ever do or the most insane, and it will probably be a little of both. -- (C) Universal

Pitch Perfect is Aca- Awesome!

This film is based on Mickey Rapkin's non-fiction novel Pitch Perfect.(buy it here) Rapkin, senior editor at GQ magazine, spent a season covering competitive collegiate a cappella. He followed the groups from Tufts University, the University of Oregon, and the University of Virginia, writing about the singing, groupies, partying and rivalries.

Pitch Perfect is lots of fun, irreverent, but fun. Pretty much nothing worse that you might see on regular broadcast TV. Anna Kendrick heads up the cast as Beca. She is good but for me Rebel Wilson steals a great deal of the show. She, with her self deprecating humor, is delightful, endearing and funny. Vocally the entire cast is superb. There are a lot of suggestive lyrics and dance moves (much like you would see on the TV show, Glee, or pretty much any rock or pop concert). Speaking of the obvious Glee comparisons, at least these actors look fairly close to the age they are portraying, as opposed to the 30-somethings on Glee pretending to be High School students. The popularity of Glee has made possible the the success of a new mo Both shows showcase excellent singers and dancing. An added plus for Pitch Perfect is that you are not pounded over the head with the message that gays are morally and ethically superior as is the case in almost every episode of Glee.)

Pitch Perfect as a musical comedy is formulaic, with all the elements of dealing with familial conflicts, trying to fit in at college, dealing with roommates, first loves and just finding your place in the world and in life in general. Formulas are used because an original story is a pretty rare bird indeed. Formulaic in and of itself is not a bad thing but it can bog down a book, play or movie. In the case of Pitch Perfect...who cares if it's formula? The formula works.

Pitch Perfect escapes the snare with the novel approach it takes on the formula, even though you know where the film is headed and think you know how it will end, because of the performances and the excellent singing you don't really mind knowing the outcome but are satisfied to simply enjoy the ride all the way to the end of the line. We all know how Romeo and Juliet ends and how the characters get to that end, but that doesn't mean that Frano Zeffirelli couldn't make an intriguing film about it (and no, I'm not saying that Pitch Perfect is in the same literary league as Romeo and Juliet). Incidentally, I have worked with Sir. Fanco Zeffirelli on two occasions once at the Met and once on screen, but that's another story for another time.

Cast

Anna Kendrick Skylar Astin

Beca Jesse

Brittany Snow Anna Camp

Chloe Aubrey

Rebel Wilson Adam DeVine

Fat Amy Bumper

It is pretty amazing the music that can be made by just the voice alone.

House At The End Of The Street - Review

House at the End of the Street
(2012)
101 min.
Horror | Thriller
Rated: PG-13

Grade: C+
Director: Mark Tonderai
Writers: David Loucka (screenplay), Jonathan Mostow (story)
Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Elisabeth Shue and Max Thieriot | See full cast and crew

Seeking a fresh start, newly divorced Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) and her daughter Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) find the house of their dreams in a small, upscale, rural town. But when startling and unexplainable events begin to happen, Sarah and Elissa learn the town is in the shadows of a chilling secret. Years earlier, in the house next door, a daughter killed her parents in their beds, and disappeared - leaving only a brother, Ryan (Max Thieriot), as the sole survivor. Against Sarah's wishes, Elissa begins a relationship with the reclusive Ryan - and the closer they get, the deeper they're all pulled into a mystery more dangerous than they ever imagined. -- (C) Relativity

House At The End Of The Street is not a great film and will not become a 'Horror Classic' but it is entertaining and a cut above the recent Horror offerings like Apparition and Possession. Critics have not been kind to it but better than half of those buying tickets have thus far given it a thumbs up. Perhaps it is due to the performances, I did like Max Ththeieriot's quirky interpretation of the 'everybody hates the weirdo neighbor' character.

The plot is formulaic Horror/Suspense drama including the angst ridden teenagers that look like they are late twentys/early thirtys defying parental advice that will lead to their peril, and of course, the requisite plot twists at the end. Make no mistake, House At The End Of The Street is no Silence of the Lambs or Psycho, although it does have some Psycho elements to it. So if you will just sit back with your popcorn and soda and enjoy it for what it is and you will probably have an enjoyable evening at the movies.

The theater was fairly full with 'date-nighters' when I saw it and there there were lots of gasps, screams and nervous giggles from the audience in all the right places.

There is a lot of buzz about Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games) and how her performance will disappoint her fans, others saying it is her performance that lifts House At The End Of The Street above the average schlocky Horror film. Personally, I don't get the fascination with Miss Lawrence. I find her annoying, bland looking and an average, ho-hum actor. I thought her an unlikely heroine in Hunger Games. Elizabeth Shue was, well...Elizabeth Shue, no big whoop. No one else stands out in a positive way, in fact, the Sheriff does stand out but not in a good way.

Cast

Jennifer Lawrence Max Thieriot

Elissa Ryan

Elisabeth Shue

Sarah

Friday, September 28, 2012

Looper - Review

Looper
(2012)
Action/Adventure, SciFi/Fantasy
Runtime:1 hr 59 min

Rated: R Some Sexuality/Nudity, Language, Drug Content and Strong Violence

Grade: B+

Director: Rian Johnson
Writer: Rian Johnson
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt | See full cast and crew

In the futuristic action thriller Looper, time travel will be invented - but it will be illegal and only available on the black market. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target 30 years into the past, where a "looper" - a hired gun, like Joe - is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good... until the day the mob decides to "close the loop," sending back Joe's future self for assassination.

Looper is very original, creative, and well crafted storytelling. It has a sort of Twelve Monkeys / Blade Runner / Total Recall feel to it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. In my opinion the best Sci-Fi movie of recent years, and perhaps one of the top 10 of all times. I'd have given it a higher grade if not for the unnecessary nudity and profanity. Although it is still early, according to the movie tracking website 'Rotten Tomatoes', both critics and the public agree on this film by a positive rating of 92% and 91% respectively. (Read more)

Old Joe (Bruce Willis) and wife Summer Qing (Qing Xu)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis are excellent. Pierce Gagnon as the little boy Cid is also a standout performance by a child actor. Emily Blunt (like Collin Farrel) does a great job of obliterating any trace of her English accent. The script and direction by Rian Johnson (in his second film) keeps you engaged throughout. It certainly didn't feel like a 2 Hr. movie, I never once checked my watch.

Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Beatrix (Traci Toms) and Old Joe (Bruce Willis) at the diner.

The trailers tell you enough of the story without giving away anything that will ruin the ending. Joe is a looper, a hired assassin, who a criminal syndicate from the future pays, in bars of silver, to get rid of people they want eliminated so they end them back in time to the 'looper' to kill and dispose of the body erasing any trace of that person in the future. When the syndicate no longer needs the services of a particular looper, they close the loop. This is done by locating the looper in the future and sending him back in time with bars of gold strapped to his body as payment to the looper himself to be killed. The gold bar retirement program is to provide a good lifestyle for the looper for the next 30 years at which time he will quickly begin to disintegrate until he vanishes into oblivion. Joe suddenly finds he has just been 'retired' but Old Joe escapes and now he has a real problem on his hands and must hunt is future self down and eliminate him before his boss (Jeff Daniels) has him killed for his screw-up. Entanglements with an assortment of other characters complicates this task even further.

I don't want to write a spoiler here, so I won't do a synopsis. Suffice it to say that I recommend it, with the considerable caveat of the nudity and language, which is really unfortunate because I think it would be intriguing to teens, but I don't approve of subjecting them to those negative elements. Yes, I know they have heard it all and worse from the mouths of their peers at school, at the the mall, well...practically everywhere but that's no reason to tacitly condoning such conduct by paying to subject them to more of it.