Surf Ninjas.

Surf Ninjas. Possibly the best movie about surfing ninjas that has ever been made.


This movie is eXtreme to the max.

Scott Pilgrim VS The World: An epic Epic of Epicness

This movie is like someone took some episodes of Speed Racer, some old NES games and a handful of comic books, put them into a blender and hit the awesome button. It's an amazing mish-mash of color and pop.

Scott Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera from Arrested Development)) plays bass in a band called the Sex Bob-ombs (NERDGASM) and non-creepily dates a high school girl named Knives (Ellen Wong), and things are fine until he meets the girl of his dreams, literally. Thing is, the girl, Ramona Flowers (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Death Proof, Live Free Or Die Hard) has some emotional baggage in the form of 7 evil ex-lovers that have vowed to obliterate anyone who makes the moves on Ramona. Scott has got to dig deep, figure himself out and kick some ass if he wants to be with her.

Where to start? The source materiel is great, the script is like a breathing comic book, the directing is stellar, and the acting is spot-the-fuck-on.

Edgar Wright, the same mad Brit who brought us Hot Fuzz and Shaun of The Dead, brings his bountiful nerd talent to both the script (with the help of Michael Bacall, who played one of the Nazi-killing jews in Inglourious Basterds) and the direction. His unique way of blending the branches of pop culture lends itself perfectly to the subject matter.



Michael Cera does what he does best, which is being amusingly awkward, but the bevy of fight scenes allows him to finally start inching away from his ultra-shy style comfort zone. Although he may look like he has never, ever raised a fist in anger in his entire life, Cera sells the fight scenes like a fucking snake oil salesman.

I have to say, I must, that Winestead is insanely beautiful and somehow, doing things like pulling giant sledge hammers from her pursue and wearing goggles just makes her all the more beautiful. In SP VS TW she is tight lipped, intelligent, a li'l bitchy and creative -- in other words, she is perfect.

The unexpected brilliance comes from Kieran Culkin (Igby Goes Down, but probably better known as Macaulay Culkin's little brother) as Wallace Wells, Scott's gay roommate. He plays his character with hilarity and sort of self-absorbed thoughtfulness. It is really a crying shame that the Culkin clan doesn't do more work.

I really could just keep gushing about the entire cast; there isn't a weak link amongst them, not even Chris Evans.

Out of 5 stars, I give Scott Pilgrim 7, one for each ex.

Land Of The Lost wasn't lost on me.

Rather than explain the plot of Land of The Lost, I will just post a YouTube clip of the original TV show.


In my review of The Other Guys, I gave Will Ferrell a thorough verbal smacking, and today I have come with a fork and knife to eat my words. In Land of The Lost, Will Ferrell is hysterical. He is kind of doing his same old schtick, but in this setting it works.

Will Ferrell plays shamed scientist, Rick Marshall.

Danny McBride (Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express) plays Will, the redneck owner of a failing tourist attraction.

Anna Friel (the dead girl from Pushing Daisies) plays Marshall's assistant, Holly.

And lastly Jorma Taccone (who hasn't done any notable acting before) plays the monkey creature Chaka.

This movie floundered in theaters -- I only really rented it because I dug the aesthetic.

How can anyone resist seeing the Golden Gate Bridge half buried while Big Ben leans in the background like a drunk uncle at a baseball game? I was not disappointed: collapsing drive-ins, Cadillacs sticking out of the ground like freshly grown sunflowers, and a storefront that is literally just the front of a store. The look of the movie is pretty impressive.

Danny and Will ad-lib a lot and it was probably an improvement on the script. I can't tell if Anna does any improv and Jarme does nothing but grunt and bob around, but both are still good companions for Danny and Will.

The Lizard people (I think they are called Sleestacks) look fake, the dinosaurs look real, and an ice cream man gets eaten. I seriously can't figure out why this movie flopped: it is by no means what one might call "high brow," but neither is it a pile of shit like Gigli.

It is a good rent.

3.5 stars.

The Other Guys Cop Out

Here is recipe for an average Will Ferrell movie.

1. Get Will Ferrell.
2. Give him a wacky character.
3. Give his wacky character a job.
4. Add water and stir until done.

I loved Anchorman as much as everyone else, but at this point, I think Ferrell is just beating the dead horse in an attempt to restart its heart.

The story is about two desk jockey cops, one itching to bust heads, the other contentedly crunching numbers. By sheer accident, they stumble onto a Ponzi scheme which leads to explosions and gun fights, as Ponzi schemes tend to do.

Micheal Keaton plays the police captain who often quotes TLC lyrics.

Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson play the kick-ass Die-Hard-style cops who often wreck vintage sports cars, but their bit in the movie is minuscule at best.

There is the usual bunch of guys who you have seen a half dozen times in every Will Ferrell or Vince Vaughn movie but still can't remember their names.

Mark Wahlberg, in a surprising move, plays the cop who is itching to bust heads.

And Ferrell is the eccentric but quiet accountant who would rather crunch numbers than shoot bad guys.

The movie tries hard but falls flat. It's everything we saw in Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Semi-Pro, so maybe if you haven't seen all these movies, you might think The Other Guys is a fucking laugh riot.

Wahlberg drives the plot forward with the grace of a drunken truck driver, but in his defense, he is pretty funny with how serious he is and some of his insults I have made a mental note to use when I want to get in a bar fight ("When your piss hits the urinal, it sounds feminine.") But it isn't enough to save the movie.

The only other bright spot was Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder), who played the villain. Maybe it's just because he is British, but he came across as charming, befuddled, and is the only guy in the whole movie who made me chuckle.

Other than Wahlberg, Coogan and Ferrell's tired A game, the movie has nothing going for it, nothing. The other characters aren't funny, the action is pretty tame (except that bit with the golfers, that was freakin' sweet), and the guy who invented the cop genre once again spins in his grave.

If you want to see a good police comedy, get Cop Out, it's on DVD.



This movie was widely panned by critics, but I ask you, what Kevin Smith wasn't? I also ask you, what Kevin Smith movie isn't completely awesome? That is a trick question because THEY ARE ALL COMPLETELY AWESOME.

Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan play a couple of detectives trying to get a baseball card back.

That right there sets it apart. Name one cop flick where the characters don't accidentally blunder into some huge case. THEY ALL DO. Not these guys, though, they are just trying to get a baseball card back. (Okay, so maybe along the way they blunder into a big case, but they are still trying to get the card.)

Tracy Morgan is freaking hilarious and Willis makes a great straight man while still doing his whole bad-ass-with-a-heart-of-gold thing.

Laughs, action, and a little kid getting punched in the dick make Cop Out way better than The Other Guys.

Cop Out gets a 5 star accommodation.
The Other Guys gets busted down to parade duty and made to clean horse shit.

Exit Through the Gift Shop: Don't Let The Sliding Doors Hit You On The Way Out

How to explain Exit Through the Gift Shop to your friends in 4 easy steps.

Step 1
Ask your friend if they know who Banksy is.
Step 2
Act completely disturbed when they tell you that they have no idea who Banksy is.
Step 3
Show your stupid friend these images.


Step 4
After your friend smacks their forehead and says "Oh yeah, I know Banksy. Is the movie about him?" you respond with "Well... sort of."


In its baby form, this documentary was supposed to be about graffiti art and artists, including Banksy, but Banksy flipped the camera around without actually touching it.

The movie became about the director, Thierry Guetta, and how he morphs from a man filming street art to a man making street art, and eventually into a man-made street art explosion.

Thierry films every moment of his life and when he finds out that one of his family members does graffiti, he tags along with his camera in tow. From there it is a downhill tumble that, in the end, shows us that Thierry is passionately insane.

The movie is a mishmash of Thierry's home movies, shot from various handheld cameras. He follows some of the worlds greatest artists around, and when I say "follows," I mean he is there on rooftops and climbing on ledges right behind them. He is like the trained bird no ninja assassin should be with out.

The movie climaxes when Thierry fills an entire warehouse with his own art that bears a striking resemblance to all the pop art I have ever seen. By the end of the film, all the people who got him into the world of street art start talking like they are Dr. Frankenstein and he is the monster: "Sure, it was all fun and games 'til he started mangling villagers."

Some people get a little too big for their britches, and Thierry tears his to shreds like the goddamn Hulk, but his art is good. Before the TNT blast that is his first show, Thierry has already started selling paintings for ridiculous sums of money, paintings of John Lennon with a hole through his head and a Connect-the-Dots portrait of Andy Warhol.

This movie does something that few movies do, it entertained and it made me think. It was only as I was leaving, wondering why it was called Exit Through The Gift Shop that I realized the whole thing was about the commercialization of the art world, how some people shell out millions of dollars to get a canvas version of a painting that is sold in postcard form at the airport.

It's also about the impermanence of street art.

It's also about how Banksy is kind of a clever prick.

It's also about how there is beauty everywhere.

It's kind of a cruel joke but no one knows who it's on.

5 stars and a confused but intrigued expression.

The unforgettable Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Boy meets girl, boy wins girl over, boy and girl kiss. It's a story as old as time and with little variation: sure, the boy occasionally stops the girl at the airport just before she gets on an plane to France, but the meet/win/kiss still provides the skeleton of most Hollywood stories. This is where Forgetting Sarah Marshall is different.



Peter (played by Jason Segel from How I Met Your Mother) gets his ass dumped by girlfriend and famous actress Sarah Marshall (Kirsten Bell of Veronica Mars). In an attempt to get on with his life, he takes a trip to Hawaii, but unbeknownst to him, Sarah has also decided to visit the islands with her new rock star boyfriend Aldous Snow (played by Russell Brand, who also plays Aldous Snow in the equally hilarious Get Him To the Greek, which I also reviewed) and they are staying at the same hotel.

Peter, when not weeping like the ghost of a dead widow, seemingly befriends the entire hotel staff, including front desk Rachel (Mila Kunis, That 70's Show) and air-headed surfing instructor Chuck (played by the increasingly popular Paul Rudd, I Love You, Man.)

Not many movies have the guts to tackle the break up, but this movie beat the subject with a funny bone. Even though you are laughing at him the entire time, you connect with Peter. There were many times while watching that I was sort of smiling and wincing at the same time; smiling because it is funny, wincing because we have all had that moment where you think you are ding okay, but then your ex shows up and you go to pieces, or you see them with that new person and even though you know you should look away, you can't, like them making out is some kind of horrible traffic accident.

We get an outside perspective of all the painful steps we have all taken and we laugh.

The story telling is fantastic. As soon as the movie starts, Peter is dumped, and as the story progresses we are shown little scenes, snapshots of their relationship, and we get to see them the way we would remember our own relationship after it ends. First the good memories, the ones we can't get back, like that time you both laid in the grass, played video games, or when they kissed your nose for no reason; but as time goes on and you see your ex making out with Russell Brand, you remember all the shitty times, like when they bought you a terrible shirt that you wore to be nice, or when they just didn't get that thing you love. The flashbacks really help move the story along.

Jason Segel wrote the script, but when your cast list includes such comedy wizards as Bill Hader, Paul Rudd, Jack McBrayer, Russell Brand, and Jonah Hill, it's hard to tell what is good writing and what is good acting. The whole thing is just knock-down, drag-out funny.

Also, Mila Kunis? Li'l bit of a badass. At least, her character is: she doesn't stand for your guff and she will come at you like a junkie with a knife if you cross her. She is awesome.


The only bad thing I can say about this movie is that Jason Segel acts like he does in every movie: there is no difference between his performance in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and How I Met Your Mother or I Love You, Man, but he is funny as hell in I Love You, Man and How I Met your Mother is my favorite show, so fuck it.

5 Stars

P.S. There is a rock opera about Dracula done with puppets. If that doesn't intrigue you, than you have no soul.