Hot Tub Time Machine

“It’s like some kind of Hot Tub Time Machine!”

Lover: Taken from IMDB
“Just watched this flick on DVD. What great FUN!!! It was funny, the comedy was in perfect timing with the gags. A retro ride to the 80's specifically 1986, now what were you 40 somethings doing in 1986. Oh yeah, the plot is so classic 80's movies that it is predictable.Like any comedy movie in the 80's, to think to much, go with the flow and don't spill the "Tab" soda (that is for those who remember). During the time vortex in the movie see how many stars you can name, I was able to recognize about 12 of them including the late great King of Pop. So see the movie to be to serious about it and enjoy the popcorn and the Tab soda.”
It is important to remember to have your tongue solidly in cheek for this on, done just right this is a very funny film.

Hater: Taken from IMDB
“This movie is absolutely the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. I left the movie later than I should have because it never got any better. If you want to see guys throwing up, peeing, and discussing disgusting things with the f-bomb every other word...this movie is for you. It really makes me sad that nobody in Hollywood is intelligent enough to make a real comedy. It isn't funny, it isn't a movie you would want a child or teenager to see, it isn't a movie than anyone with any kind of values would want to see...just terrible. I don't even normally write reviews about movies, but if I can keep one person from paying to see this movie...I will feel okay that I paid to see it.”

A highly mis-guided review, almost every hater review I read states that they don’t normally write review using IMDB. I personally feel there is a reason for that, because your reviews are not reviews, they are just a chance to slag off a film you didn’t like.

What I thought:
Each time I have spoken about this film since watching it I have mentioned one laugh out loud moment, when one character hilariously breaks the fourth wall to admit to the audience what a silly name the film has. It’s mentioned a LOT during the film and it’s this kind of un-ashamed honesty that sets this apart. Most 80’s focusing comedies (that weren’t made in the 80’s) are chock full of references to the 80’s that they forget the characters themselves. What I like most about Hot Tub is that the characters take centre stage.

Everything else just winks at you, from references to old pop stars to cold war hysteria all used to move the story along instead of a focus. What this means is that the characters are given chances to really shine and all get an opportunity to make you belly laugh. John Cusack doing the kind of down and out on life that made him so watchable in things like High Fidelity and Grosse point. Clark Duke, forcing his way into a film that could have made him nothing more than a bit part. Craig Robinson timing in this film is near perfect and he has the honour of the fourth wall breaking I mentioned earlier. Rob Corddry is the fall guy and the butt of a lot of the running humour, though he is just as funny as the rest, you’re supposed to follow his arc from an act of suicide to great success and you just don’t care.

Ok so the character development is a little thin on the ground and you won’t really care anyway but it does have a cameo from Chevy Chase. It’s a predictable mess of a movie but a loveable postcard to the 80’s with just the right amount of laughs.

Being John Malkovich

Get your head around this one

Lover: Taken from IMDB
“This film was absolutely incredible. Attempting to explain the plot in any way that would do it justice would be an excercise in futility, but let it be said that I see many, many movies, and in my lifetime, I have never seen a movie such as Being John Malkovitch. The acting is completely brilliant .. Cameron Diaz is nearly unrecognizable, both in behavior and appearance, as is John Cusack. John Malkovich was presented with an interesting opportunity in playing himself, and he seems to have seized the opportunity with relish. He is most definitely not being himself in front of the camera, but instead creates this wonderful character of John Malkovich the vessel. I've admired Spike Jonez's work for a good long time, and I'm pleased to say that in his first full length feature as a director, he succeeds with flying colors in creating an original, beautiful, humorous, and good natured picture. See Being John Malkovich, because come Oscar time, you're going to want to know why its winning!”

I liked being John Malkovich because on paper it shouldn’t work, a puppeteer gets a job in an office and finds a secret door that leads into John Malkovich? That’s the core idea, and then you have the weird office floor that is between floors like something out of Harry Potter. Fortunately all of these things just fall perfectly into place around a great cast a wonderfully funny and written piece of cinema.

Hater: Taken from IMDB
“Is it original? Yes. Is it creative? Yes. But is it GOOD?? A big NO. I must have looked at the clock every 2 minutes, just waiting for this….THING….in front of me to be over with. Just because a movie is new and original does not mean that it is good. I hate to generalize, but I certainly can see this garbage being a favorite of pseudo-intellectual, java sipping art house gurus, due to its bizarreness and originality. For most normal people, however, this movie will be nothing but a miserable experience. I've never seen a comedy that was less funny. The plot went from mildly interesting to surreal, the acting was stiff, the characters weren't compelling or endearing (how can one like a movie if the characters aren't likable, or, at the very least, interesting?), and, oh yeah, it was NOT funny at all. It will take a court order (and 10 stout men to enforce it) to ever get me to watch this horrid movie again. In fact, it'll take something extraordinary for me to ever see a Spike Jonze movie again. Yup, it was THAT bad. I've probably seen worse movies, but you'd have to give me a day or two to think of one.”

I’m not a pseudo-intellectual and I quite like this film, ok so most of the biggest laughs are gone by the time you get to middle of the picture and the more serious undertones of what is actually gone take over. Caring for the characters is an issue of taste and solely up to the viewer. I spent the whole film feeling sorry for most of the characters and it only made their situation all the more desperate.

What I thought:
This really will be a short one, at least for now anyway. Being John Malkovich is an impressive film if not just for the acting which is second to none, or the laughs; which fair enough are not thick and fast but when they do they come big. It’s the fact that not only did someone come up with this idea but that they pulled it off.

Told you this one would be short.

The Buzz: 16/12/10

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Say Anything

One you haven’t seen

Lovers: Taken from IMDB
“I rented this movie solely based on the excellent reviews that it has gotten everywhere. I missed it during its theatrical release (as so many others did) and had the hardest time finding a copy of it at our local video rental stores. Not because it wasn't popular but b/c, according to the clerks, people kept stealing or "losing" their copies...especially around Valentines Day. When I finally got my hands on a copy I was blown away. I had thought this was going to be just another in a long link of Pretty in Pinkish movies with predictable characters and a bad case of puppy love, but what I got was a surprisingly refreshing, unconventional story with a complicated and well-developed emotional depth flawlessly captured by the actors and Cameron Crowe.”

Say Anything is even today quite unconventional so yeh good points made I think.

Haters: Taken from IMDB
“I barely made it through this film. After reading such a great review of it, I was expecting something decent if not great. Instead I found it to be one of those films that feels like it goes on forever. I didn't feel anything for the characters, good or bad, there was no chemistry between the love interests. There is only a very general plot, but you sit there asking yourself "what on earth has happened in the last 2 hours? Nothing." It simply misses the mark at every opportunity. Save yourself from two hours of monotony and misery and pick something else to watch.”

Well a fairly scathing review with no points what so ever, that’s helpful.

What I thought:
Well firstly it was impossible for me not to like this film as I’m a big fan of John Cusack ever since Grosse Pointe Blanke. Say Anything shows you the early signs of a very talented actor, not a conventional character actor and plays his characters very similar to the last but its works. With charm and comic timing it’s entertaining to watch him do his thing.

This film is still a very original film today, it throws away conventions and gives you a character that is very sure of himself, very much in love the whole way through and always knows what to say. The confusion in a round about way comes from the female lead and who can blame her with a corrupt father! That’s the other surprise, I mean how many teen movies have you seen where the father gets sent down for fraud!

In a time when the teen movie genre has become about getting laid or getting the girl it’s nice to watch earlier ones like this or the Breakfast club, where the point was just growing up.