Here you go

Ok. Ok. I know I didn’t posted all last week and I missed yesterday. My bad. It was just that…Well you know when…To tell you the truth, I don’t actually have an excuse. I just never got around to it. It is horrible of me.

I was gonna write my usual movie review last Monday but the movie just didn’t leave much of an impression on me so I couldn’t get the words out. I started writing it 3 or 4 times and it just wouldn’t happen. I saw Extract, the new Mike Judd movie with Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig, and Ben Affleck. I was really expecting to have a good laugh with this movie but I found it to be too … subtle. Yeah there were a couple of funny things but nothing to give you a good laugh. The movie wasn’t horrible but there is nothing great about it, nothing that makes it stand out. And that is all I got to say about it.

But this last weekend I saw two movies. One an animated feature that I was totally hyped about and the other a Canadian film that premièred at TIFF.

On Friday I say the movie 9, the post-apocalyptic rag doll movie. It is based on the Oscar nominated animated short by director Shane Acker. Visually the movie is just amazing. It is dark, dreary, and foreboding. And the style of the animation brings a realism that has to be seen to believe. I believe that is why Tim Burton was drawn to producing such a film. It fits into the strange characters and setting that he is known for. But, I am sad to say, even with all the stunning visuals the movie is far from entertaining.

Everything in the movie falls flat besides the visuals. There is no dialogue for the first about 5-10 minutes of the movie and up until that point it was engaging and interesting. But as soon as the dialogue is brought in it seems to lose some of its mystery and intrigue. The scripting is flat and uninteresting. Even the voice actors sounded bored. With talent like Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Elijah Wood, Crispin Glover, John C Reilly, and Jennifer Connelly, you would think they would make it work but there just wasn’t enough there to work with.

The plot. What can I say about the plot of 9? It was meh. But that really shouldn’t have been a problem. There are many movies out there that have a mediocre plot but are great movies. It is just about how it is all put together. The story just seemed to have a lot of holes with little reasoning for certain actions and consequences. It just didn’t work even though it was clear that it easily could have.

Now I mentioned this to my cousin who really wanted to see the movie. His response was, “I am just in it for the visuals. I will have to watch it on mute.” I think he has the right idea.

On Sunday afternoon, I trekked downtown and braved the crowds to see a movie at TIFF. It was a movie called Suck; a comedy, vampire, rock ‘n roll movie by Canadian writer, director, and star Rob Stefaniuk. And I have to say it was pretty good.

The movie has a simple premise. It is about an ailing Canadian band, the Winners (it’s ironic), trying to make it big when their only female member of the band and guitarist, Jennifer, becomes a vampire. With her new persona on stage the band becomes a hit. It is a simple but fun plot that works.

The movie is funny. It is filled with pop culture references, drummer jokes, clay-mation, and some general nonsense. It has a good but pretty much unknown cast, Jennifer Pare, Mike Lobel, Paul Anthony, and the most famous Malcolm McDowell. There were also some pretty famous cameos that include Henry Rollins, Moby, Dave Foley, Iggy Pop, and Alice Cooper.

Last year I saw another really great Canadian movie called Pontypool. It was a zombie movie where the infection is spread by the English language. It was really good, and funny, and creepy.  So I am impressed with the Canadian films coming out. Yeah they are quirky, but quirky is in, and they are kinda low budget but they are still pretty awesome.

So there you go, 3 short reviews and a sorta review like mention, So, Extract is ok but you can wait for it to come to TV or rent it. For 9 I will say the same thing but just watch it in mute. And go see Suck and Pontypool you will not be disappointed.

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