ORBzine - Comedy 2008 Movie Reviews
Be Kind, Rewind
This is French Director
Michel Gondry
's commentary on the state of Hollywood today.
The Studio bosses are greedy, cracking down on the so-called Pirates.
denying the viewers a decent selection
Jack Black ( Tenacious D: Pick of Destiny ), with his usual inane capering, manages to accidentally erase every single movie in the video store. The guys' answer is to create their own remakes of the films. This is actually quite realistic. Mos Def would be good in a remake of British shows, like the 1980s TV show Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy or the 1960s film The Italian Job ! Jack Black could be in a remake of Day of the Jackal ... Why does all this talk of remakes give off a certain feeling of Deja Vu? It can't just be the predictability of the jokes about them!
Get Smart
This is a pretty decent movie.
Not just because it stars Steve Carrell [
Evan Almighty
] in the title role, or is based on a 1960s TV show.
No, it's good IN SPITE OF these things.
It actually stands on its own as a comedy-thriller!
The closest thing to this movie would be
The Tuxedo
, which means that
Anne Hathaway
is the new
Jennifer Love Hewitt
. There's lots of slapstick, rather than the endless OTT parodies of the post-
Scary Movie
comedies that proliferate these days.
The US Government's most secret spy movie, Control, is on the trail of stolen nuclear weapons. Kaos (led by Terence Stamp - Elektra ) is back in business, and they hit Control where it hurts. Agent 23 [Dwayne Johnson - Scorpion King ] and the other secret agents are compromised. Control has to deploy their last resort - Agent 99 (Hathaway) and Maxwell Smart (Carrell), an expert analyst who finally passed his Field Agent exam (8th time round).
The mismatched pair make their way across Russia, pursued by a thug from a James Bond parody. Back home, support is provided by the Boss (Alan Arkin) and Bruce the Nerd (Masi Oka - Heroes ).
Scary Movie 4
This is the fourth in the series, and the second Zucker effort,
so if you've seen the previous film you should know exactly what to expect.
Seriously. The plots are remarkably similar.
Cindy ( Anna Faris ) has moved on from the last Scary Movie. She's now taking care of an OAP lady who lives in The Grudge House. her new love interest is Craig Bierko (Long Kiss Goodnight)
Aliens invade. AGAIN. This time it's Tr-Ipods! Bierko takes the kids to safety (like Homer in War of the Worlds ) and ends up in a basement with Michael Madsen ( Sin City ).
POTUS (Leslie Nielsen) dithers, insults the entire united Nations and parodies George Walker Bush in other ways too. He also provides the most eye-catching screen nudity since Misha Barton in Closing the Ring
Cindy goes in search of the solution. She teams up with Regina Hall , who's come back from the dead as a super-horny journalist. They visit Bill Pullman ( Independance Day ) in an homage to The Village , where he lives with Carmen Electra (who died in the first movie, but who's keeping count?).
The Aliens' plan for the human race is to torture them to death. But they don't use just ANY torture chamber - it's the one from the Saw series.
Zack and Miri Make A Porno
Zack (Seth Rogan) and Miri (
Elizabeth Banks
) are a pair of slackers who have been flatmates ever since they left school.
They are down on their luck, without enough money to pay the rent or utility bills.
But a chance encounter with gay porn star Brandon Routh (
Superman Returns
) convinces them that the best way to pay off their debts is to make a porn film.
They recruit a crew (including RL porn-star
Traci lords
) and set out to make Star Whores!
This was directed by Kevin Smith , and has many of his hallmarks. The main plot, the love story, is reminiscent of Chasing Amy (and even of Clerks 2 ). However, unlike most of Smith's films this isn't part of the View Askewniverse. But while Jay and Dante don't appear, the actors who play them also portray members of the porno team!
Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave
This is a thirty-minute Xmas special made for the BBC in the mid-1990s.
Wallace and Gromit have a window-washing business,
which is an excuse for them to use their wacky inventions.
Wallace gets a love interest. Gromit gets framed for sheep-rustling!
Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were Rabbit
The plasticine pair are engaged in humane pest control.
They catch rabbits by using a huge vacuum cleaner mounted on the back of a truck.
Wallace then decides to brainwash the rabbits into hating carrots and other vegetables.
Since Wallace himself is on a vegetarian (cheese-free!) diet,
this leaves one to wonder what exactly the rabbits are meant to eat.
And naturally, something goes wrong ...
A small village nearby is overrun with carrot-eating pests. Wallace and Gromit are hired to capture the rabbits. But they have to deal with a Were-Rabbit! Worse, Wallace’s love interest (the Lady of the Manor) has a jealous suitor - Victor Quartermain, a self-styled big game hunter!
Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death
After their big-screen feature-length offering, the plasticine pair are back on the BBC again.
This is a thirty-minute Xmas special.
Wallace and Gromit now own and operate their own bakery.
The mid-sized town they live in apparently used to have thirteen bakeries,
but someone brutally murdered the other twelve.
Wallace meets his new love interest. Yes, his third in as many films. He's like James Bond these days! Unfortunately, Gromit has doubts about this particular lady ...
Santa Claus: The Movie
Once upon a time - well, we get the background story to how Santa got the job and ended up living at the North Pole.
Eventually we get to the Modern Day (circa 1985). Top Elf Dudley Moore ( Bedazzled (1969) ) tries to modernise the workshop. Dudley gets himself exiled, so he goes to NYC and works for megalomaniac toymaker John Lithgow ( Third Rock from The Sun ).
Santa befriends a homeless boy in NYC. By strange coincidence, the boy meets a girl who is evil Lithgow's stepdaughter ...
Elf
Will Ferrell is a human who was raised by Santa’s Elves at the North Pole.
However, the average Elf looks like Peter Dinklage (who has a great cameo).
Ferrell is six foot five, although he exhibits the mentality of a six year old.
The Elves can’t cope any more, so they send him to NYC to live with his real father (James Caan).
Ferrell meets Zooey Deschannel , and has hilarious adventures in NYC.
Santa Clause 2
Santa (Tim Allen -
Shaggy Dog
) takes a holiday from the North Pole to visit his kids, who are staying with his ex-wife and her new husband (Judge Reinhold - Beverly Hills Cop).
He has trouble with his teenage son, but gets to meet the gorgeous Headmistress (
Elizabeth
).
Meanwhile, back at the North Pole things are out of control. Bernard the Elf (the genius from Numbers TV show) created a replacement Santa, a big rubbery robot Tim Allen. But the Robot goes out of control …
Shaggy Dog
Tim Allen (
Santa Clause 2
) gets bitten by a genetically engineered dog in the hands of evil scientist Robert Downey Jnr (
Iron Man
). An unforseen side effect is that Allen becomes a were-dog.
All these shennanigans cause problems for Allen's marriage to Kristen Davis .
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Following on from the end of previous film ...
Our heroes discover that they are in a valley blocked by a glacier. But the glacier is melting - and the enormous lake on the other side is about to flood the entire valley. All the animals must get to the far end of the valley if they want to survive!
Manny the Last Mammoth (Ray Romano) meets a Possum ( Whoopi Goldberg ) who's a lot bigger and tuskier than her brothers ...
Bedtime Stories
Hotel Handyman Adam Sandler (
Biodome
) wants to be Manager, but this job is going to slimy executive Guy Pearce (
). Sandler's best buddy is co-worker Russell Brand (
), while Pearce is assisted by fellow Kiwi
Lucy Lawless
.
Sandler, a confirmed bachelor, is asked by his sister Courtney Cox to look after her kids for a week while she is out of town. She doesn't let them watch television or do anything fun, so he has to tell them bedtime stories instead. His stories start to come true ... and he attempts to manipulate them in order to improve his life.
The result? The comedy is dumbed down to child-friendly level, and the climax is incredibly contrived. Of course, it's a kids movie ... so the extreme predictability shouldn't matter.
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