Some More Film Reviews

The Squid And The Whale – three and a half stars

This movie captures the result of children growing up with deficient parents. By deficient I am not referring to completely psychopathic physically and sexually abusing parents. I am referring to the parents below that level. Just below the level that the law can intervene. Parents who verbally abuse one another and their children in addition to psychologically and emotionally abusing all the members of the family.

Usually, I like movies that depict life as it should be; however, I do enjoy some dark film because they expose unexplored problems. This is one such film because few people discuss the extraordinary damage a family can cause. Obviously, family can be good, but just the fact that people are a family, are related, does not make it good. It is the family members’ actions that make them good. In The Squid And The Whale none of the characters use their family status as an excuse, as a way to identify their actions as good. I believe maybe once or twice someone says lines similar to “I am your father,” or “I am your brother,” which is exactly like saying “we are family” as to justify vicious actions. However, the mother and father do get divorced; therefore, the “we are family” justification cannot be used prevalently. What is more disturbing is that no one really tries to justify their actions, suggesting that everyone assumes what they are doing is virtuous. What their assumed virtuous actions but really vicious actions produce is a son who hates his mother and is trying to pursue a promiscuous life style and another son who abuses himself and destroys property through unhealthy sexual activities.

At the end of the film comes the moment I like. A period that shows what life is supposed to be like. The son who hates the mother and always supports the father finally realizes something is wrong. He abandons his father at the hospital and visits the last place he felt happy. It is as if he is identified there is a problem, avoided everything wrong with that problem, and then asks, “What can I do to make things better?” meaning, “What can I do to be happy again.?”

Pineapple Express – two and a half stars

How could someone mess up this idea? Answer: to much pot humor, not enough Hot Fuzz. Pineapple Express was allegedly supposed to be the frat pack’s and Judd Apatow’s crew’s humorous interpretation of action films. Instead, it was a stoner film with a few schizophrenic breaks into poor action humor.

Pot humor is funny; however, there is so much ground that can be covered. It is relatively easy to make a pot joke. The smokers’ mental capacity is already diminished because they are high, so naturally they are going to act goofy. That is basically the pot joke, which was basically the movie. James Franco’s portrayal of a stereotypical pot head was well done, and after seeing him in Spider Man I doubted his acting ability. Pineapple Express was his movie, but since pot humor is simple and limited, and he was a pot head, even his material was overused by the end of the film.

Unlike pot humor, making a comedic homage to action films is more difficult, and Pineapple Express did not rise to the challenge. The action sequences were ridiculous enough to be unrealistic but they were not extreme enough to be unbelievably hilarious. Personally, I was expecting something more like Hot Fuzz, which masters the humorous honoring of action films like Point Break and Bad Boys II.

The reason that Pineapple Express gets three and a half stars is because I just saw Step Brothers and there is no way this was as bad as Step Brothers. Pineapple Express definitely had more funny moments. My favorite part was the ending of the film where James Franco, Seth Rogen, and Danny McBride are sitting around a table talking about their adventures. It reminded me of Boy Scouts where I and other members of the troop would sit around and talk about what we did that day, a movie we saw, or a game we played. It was not like we sat down and asked, “So what did you do today?” like a married couple going through the motions. It was more like, “Guys, you should have seen what John did today on the ropes course. It was hilarious,” or “Okay, so I was about the grab the other team’s flag, then all of the sudden Jack pops up from the tall grass like he’s a marine sniper or something.” I like that kind of setting and dialogue because it shows people enjoying what they did, and not being ashamed to talk about how much fun they had.

Clue – four stars

Yes, this is a movie based on the board game. Obviously, that sounds like an atrocious idea, but it is hilarious. Infinitely better than any frat pack comedy, and I would put it right up there with The In Laws and The Blues Brothers. Basically, all the characters are brought together by mysterious letters inviting them to some dinner party. They are all given pseudonyms, which are the characters’ names of the Clue board game. Then it is revealed that all the characters are involved in scandals and the host of the dinner party has been black mailing all of them. The host then gives everyone a gift. Each gift contains one of the weapons from the board game. Then, for some reason, the host turns off the lights. Let it be known that all the characters have weapons, and the host has already told all of them that he is blackmailing them. Obviously, there are crashes and gun shoots in the dark. When the lights are turned on the host is dead. Then, hysteria ensues as other people in the house are killed while the Clue characters try to figure out who the murderer is. I will not reveal the murderer here, but here is a hint, there are three different endings and none of them make real sense. The film includes such classic lines as, “Communism was only a red herring,” and “I hated her so much. It was like flames… flames on the sides of my face.”