Movie Reviews...

So I am still working on making friends. In the meantime, I am still seeing a lot of movies. Here is the tally from this week:

Accepted

Teen comedies are what they are and if you know that going into it, you will come out better in the long run. So Accepted is just that, a teen comedy with some interesting aspects. The basic plot of the movie is that a kid and some of his friends don’t get into college so they start their own, including a functioning website. The end result, a whole bunch of the losers and geeks of the world show up for orientation and pay their dues and the South Harmon Institute of Technology is born. (Pay attention to their initials. It is a running gag through the movie.)

What I like about it: It wasn’t over the top in terms of sexuality. Sure, there is some of it there but nothing horrendous that I recall. It is definitely funny and Lewis Black is hilarious. And believe it or not, I think the movie really makes an excellent point about education in America. The long and the short of it is that education has essentially become the regurgitation of facts so you can go to college, regurgitate some more facts and get a job making lots of money. But there is no actual education happening. That is why at my last church, the honors kids all read the Cliff Notes rather than the actual books. They got degrees but I am not sure that the Coweta County schools gave them an education.

What I didn’t like about it: For a teen movie, it was funny. It used stereotypes. Basically, if you are very PC, then this kind of movie will always offend you. If you can lighten up, then it is okay.

John Tucker Must Die
Sue me, I was bored and I don’t have cable yet.

Essentially this movie was a way lame, tamed down attempt at looking at high school life and how to navigate it. The basic plot is that John Tucker is the star everything at this school and dates and sleeps with girls from different cliques, telling them all that each of them is his girlfriend. They all find out and plot a revenge using the new nerdy girl as bait.

What I like about it: It is okay. Towards the end there are actually some pretty profound little speeches that I can see using as movie clips in youth group one day. But, it has been done better and in other places. The speeches from Can’t Buy Me Love (“Nerds, jocks. My side, your side. It's all BS. Its hard enough just trying to be yourself.”) or Angus (“But most of them walk through these halls EVERY DAY, never telling anybody what they really think, or feel, or believe, because people like you, NORMAL people like YOU, have them TERRIFIED of being who they REALLY are. If YOU'RE normal, what does that make all of them? So which is it, Rick? Are you normal? Or are you just one of us?”)

What I didn’t like: Teen skanks. I just really, really don’t get what makes teenage girls feel so worthless that they would value a movie like this. (A teenage girl I know calls this “the best movie ever.”) Essentially the end of the movie is that John Tucker is okay now because he tells the girls that he is sleeping with other girls. (And these are the “winner” girls.”) And this country wonders why teenage girls have self-esteem issues.

Invincible
So today I went to see the new Marky Mark movie. (He can cry Mark Wahlberg all he wants, but I will always know him as Marky Mark. “C’mon, c’mon, feel the vibrations.")

Basic plot: A guy from South Philly tries to make the Philadelphia Eagles during the early 1970s. It is about his quest to be on the team and be a part of something big for the people of his neighborhood.

What I liked: It is a good, real, true story. So I am a sucker for those. It is a football movie, which in general I like, even the bad ones. The soundtrack is really, really phenomenal and the editing, especially in the opening sequence set to a Jim Croce song does a fantastic job of setting the scene for the rest of the movie. Marky Mark was okay, which has always been true except when he made it on to the list of "Guys Who Play Psychopaths because They May Well Be One" from the film Fear. Greg Kinnear does a really, really fantastic job as Dick Vermeil. It is just a good, clean, feel-good story.

What I didn’t like: It was a bit over the top at times. A bit long. On the whole a good flick.

What is on tap this week:
The new season of Veronica Mars came out on DVD last week. So needless to say, I will be using my Netflix account to run through those discs. And maybe some 24. Plus I need to save some cash.