2 movies one post

Ok I never got around to my second review last week and now I have a backlog. This is just not right. I have nothing to do yet I can’t get anything done. Say what? I know, it makes no sense, dollars and cents. See what I did there? Hilarious. It’s all me baby, all me. So this week instead of doing separate reviews I will just put them together because who knows if I will make it back to do the second one; then I will have this happen again next week; and it will just go on and on till the end of time. Nobody wants that. So here you go.

First I saw the latest SNL movie MacGruber. I don’t know why I was so psyched to see it but I was. It is a hilarious skit on the show but that doesn’t always translate into a good screen adaptation. I mean SNL has produced crap like It’s Pat, Superstar, Night at the Roxbury, and The Ladies Man that was great for 5 minutes but that is as far as they should have gone.

In this spoof of MacGyver, MacGruber (Will Forte) an ex-special ops man is brought back into action after 10 years to stop his archenemy Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer) who has stolen a nuclear warhead and is planning to destroy Washington DC. With the help of Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) and his friend Vicki St Elmo (Kristen Wiig) he will stop the man who killed his wife.

Don’t expect too much from this movie and you will have a good time. I have to say it is better than the SNL movies I listed above. It is cruel, it is vulgar, but you will laugh. The storyline is straight forward but filled with randomness and loop holes that are easy to get over simply because of all the nonsense the film throws at you.

You can tell that the actors had a good time making the movie. No one took their roles too seriously but that may just be because of the sheer ridiculousness of it all. There was even a cameo by Maya Rudolph and there were 4 wrestlers in the movie, apparently. I haven’t watched wrestling since Jake “The Snake” Roberts got bit so I am not too sure who they were but if you are desperate to find out well…that is what Google is for.

In the end I would say see MacGruber. You don’t have to see it in the theatre but it is a good rental at least.

This past weekend I saw Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time the latest movie based off a videogame. I was totally expecting to be disappointed when I saw this film (apparently I like to be willingly tortured. That is masochism, right?) but amazingly I wasn’t. It didn’t suck as hard as Clash of the Titans which is great however it wasn’t mind blowing either.

Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) was an orphaned child of the streets who became the adopted son of the king through an amazing act of bravery. Unlike the king’s true sons he does not fight for the crown but still manages to become a mighty warrior in his army. He is then betrayed and framed for the beloved king’s murder, his brothers and the whole kingdom set out to capture him to pay for his crimes. The rogue prince and the mysterious princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) uncover who the true culprit is and set out to right this great wrong. In the midst of all of this they must safeguard an ancient dagger that has the power to release the Sands of Time. It was a powerful gift from the gods that can reverse time and give its possessor the ability to rule the world.

Like MacGruber if you don’t expect too much you will like this movie just fine. It is a fun ride that is told in a my-audience-isn’t-stupid-but-lets-stick-some-stupidity-in-there-anyways kind of way. The story is far from perfect, there is one fix for any kind of jam they find themselves in, and the rest is a bunch of running and jumping. The ending is completely expected but a copout nonetheless erasing everything that came before it.

The acting isn’t too bad. Every single person in the movie had a completely different accent which I found incredibly distracting. There was British, American, and I am not sure what Jake Gyllenhaal was trying to do. He did a good job jumping around and waving swords though. Ben Kingsley was the bad guy Nizam and played him menacingly. Then there was Gemma Arterson, who somehow keeps managing to find work, with that placid look on her face, again. I get that she looks pretty but once she tries to “act” she purses her lips, excessively enunciates, and does nothing with the rest of her face besides raise an eyebrow every once in a while. Arg! When will she go away? And the rest of the cast fit there roles. Alfred Molina was entertaining as Sheik Amar and a good comic relief but there was no one else that really stood out.

In the end I say see Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. It is beautifully shot with a sprawling landscapes and action sequences without over doing the CG.

So there you go 2 movies worth a gander. Now I am all caught up.

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