Some Movies I Saw This Week

My eight bucks was among the 19.2 million that EPIC MOVIE made at the box office this past weekend. I love these types of movies where it's just joke after joke after joke, and some of the jokes are good and even more of them are bad. Even though I had a good time at this movie, I was a bit disappointed that the filmmakers were more concerned about working in as many pop culture references as they could instead of actually parodying anything. Of the dozen or so movies that EPIC MOVIE comically recreate they really only manage to parody NARNIA and maybe SNAKES ON A PLANE. There is also a great impression of Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow by Saturday Night Live's Darrell Hammond. But after the Captain Jack character is introduced, they go into this musical number which is supposed to be a parody of SNL's "Lazy Sunday" video called "Lazy Pirate Day" and then it turns into some sort of Pussycat Dolls sendup (I think?) I'm not really sure what was going on except that it was one of the most stupid things I had seen on a movie theatre screen in quite some time. The whole flick though is really incredibly stupid and pointless. Needless to say, I loved it! If you like those kind of films, go check it out!

Accepted is a fantastic movie that I wanted to see in theatres, but just caught it on DVD. It's a high school/college comedy - another one of my favorite genres. A high school senior who's been rejected by every college he's applied to fakes a letter of acceptance from a fake school to keep his parents happy. That lie turns into another lie, followed by another lie and pretty soon the kid is running a fake school with 300 students. Very funny...one of the best films in this mold since 1994's P.C.U. I think it made like $32 bucks at the box office when it came out last year, but it's worth checking out. It's funny all the way through and never gets bogged down with unnecessary things like plot or story!

Usually after I profess my love for crap it's hard to convince people something else is really good. WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? is a fantastic documentary about the auto industry's lack of cooperation in producing zero-emission vehicles for the public. It's well told, in a fast breezy style. It's not pompous and artsy like so many other documentaries nor is it Michael Moore influenced like so many other docs. It's to the point and tells an interesting story with some surprising little side stories. If you wanna get all worked up about how government and big corporations are running this country into the ground you should take a look at this fine film.

Finally this week I got around to watching 2005's big screen adaptation of THE DUKES OF HAZZARD. And wow, what a steaming pile of garbage that is. I don't understand why they keep making movies based on TV shows, but they want to reinvent the show and give it a new twist. TV shows are loved for certain reasons, and when you make a movie that is obviously going to appeal to the shows original audience, but then you change the things the audience likes about show...you're going to make a horrible movie! They didn't stick to the characters of the original show. They had the same names, and they dressed the same...but they weren't the same characters. Second of all, the TV show wasn't vulgar and wasn't sexual!? I hate to sound like a grandparent, but why they thought a new version had to be filled with cuss words and sex jokes, I don't know why.

Another HORRIBLE movie I saw this week was NATIONAL LAMPOON'S PLEDGE THIS! staring Paris Hilton, but I guess I was pretty much walking right into that one!