This Is the End is one of the few comedies to come out this summer and it does not disappoint. [Read more...]
Film Review: Django Unchained
12/24/2012 by Leave a Comment
Django Unchained is the latest from Quentin Tarantino and the results are what you expect with him; great performances, engrossing dialogue and a lot of stuff most people have never seen before. [Read more...]
Looking Ahead to 2012: 3rd Quarter (July – September)
07/01/2012 by Leave a Comment
For those of you not keeping track we are about to enter the second half of the year, full of just as many exciting things as the first half. So far some entries have disappointed, some have surprised, and some have lived up to and surpassed expectations so far, so lets keep our fingers crossed that there will be more of the latter options in the months to come. So what are you excited for? Let’s give you some options to consider with this list of what the writers of HST can’t wait for. [Read more...]
Film Review: 21 Jump Street
02/14/2012 by Leave a Comment
If you don’t know what 21 Jump Street is before seeing this movie, then welcome to my club. I knew that it was a show back in the 80′s, but I was too young to know what it was. Luckily for me (and for the three of you who are with me), they decided to re-imagine the show and transform it into a 109-minute Hollywood action buddy-cop comedy. As much as I personally hate the buddy cop genre (Hot Fuzz not included), 21 Jump Street took that format, spun it, and made it into one enjoyable experience; regardless of the lack of knowledge I had for the source material. [Read more...]
Film Review: Moneyball
09/23/2011 by Leave a Comment
Growing up in St. Louis, baseball has always been an important part of my life. I made myself sick on stadium food as a child, I was way too proud of myself when my neighbor came over to compliment the strength of my pitch into my father’s glove, currently strangers and I are bonded in the hopes of the Cards furthering themselves in the Wild Card race, as well as a mutual hatred for the Boston Red Sox. Point is, this is America, and we love baseball. Sometimes maybe too much. [Read more...]
Review: Megamind
11/05/2010 by Leave a Comment
Megamind is a not bad but not great film that takes a very scatter shot approach at lampooning the superhero genre and never steps out with its own message or voice.
The premise of the film is familiar as it is basically ripping off every superhero movie before it. Megamind, like Superman, is jettisoned from his plant at the cusp of its destruction only he doesn’t have superpowers beyond high intelligence. But don’t worry; there is a Superman in this story. Megamind’s arch rival is sent out as his race’s last hope, a much more human like race, from Megamind’s neighboring planet before it too is destroyed. The two become rivals unlike any other in Metro City and they do countless battles where Megamind’s greatest victories are near ones. It’s when an unlikely twist is thrown into their relationship that Megamind is forced to rethink his ways.
Now Playing Review – Megamind
11/05/2010 by Leave a Comment
As the world comes crashing down around two desperate parents, their one last act before their planet is destroyed is to send their son far away to the promising planet of Earth, where he can grow up to live the life that would have been cut short without their intervention. On Earth he will be raised by two loving parents who will give him everything he needs so that he will grow up to be the moral and just person he is meant to be, using his powers for good. Wait a minute… This isn’t a story of Superman. Or Metro Man. See the guy he is punching in the face? Yeah, this is his story.
Megamind could have grown up to be Metro Man had his similar origin story not ended in a rougher part of the neighborhood. Instead his moral compass was smashed during his landing and he chose the path of evil. [Read more...]
Comic-Con International 2010 – My Experience in Nerd Heaven
08/02/2010 by 1 Comment
A couple of weeks ago I excitedly told my aunt that I was going to Comic Con in a week, with a big ol’ smile on my face. I didn’t really expect her to be jealous, but I was overly excited. Then she asked if it was a gathering of comics or something. As in comedians. I then proceeded to try and explain that it was this really cool event that happens each year that has been taken over by Hollywood in the past decade or so. Basically it has everything a nerd would desire to see, including comics, writers, artists, video games, tv shows, and movies. I told her about the panels I was planning on sitting in on and some of the people that were scheduled to attend. I was adamant about making her see how awesome it was, but she just didn’t get it. Color me deflated. Oh well, I guess Comic Con is just for certain people…
Like this girl:
Review: Cyrus
07/09/2010 by Leave a Comment
The first non-micro budget feature from the Duplass brothers keeps the realistic tone, gets great performances out of their leads, and knocks the humor out of the park when it tries to be funny.
Now, don’t let that last bit scare you, this film is a comedy first and foremost but there are many quiet and sweet moments of introspection that really help elevate the film to another level of being just a comedy. The story follows John, a still sort of love sick divorcé who still works closely with his ex who is also his closest friend after seven years apart, that finally meets a woman, Molly, that seems to gel with him but she has a minor hindrance; her 21 year old son who still lives at home, Cyrus. Now, this wouldn’t seem like the biggest problem but their relationship is a bit too close for most peoples comfort. Home schooled and having never gone off to college, Cyrus, is a bit of a mama’s boy and doesn’t know much of a life beyond his mother and his electric industrial synth music.
Now Playing Review – Get Him to the Greek
06/09/2010 by Leave a Comment
2008’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall introduced the scene-stealing character of Aldous Snow, who quite deservingly got a spin-off of his own with Get Him to the Greek. Though it was not exactly what I hoped for, it had enough hilarious bits to tip the scales in a favorable direction.
Following the events of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Aldous Snow’s life has become something that would be the perfect source material for an episode of the E! True Hollywood Story series. His sexual prowess is as strong as ever, but his sobriety has gone out the window, along with his career as a relevant rock star. Luckily enough for him there are people like Aaron Green out there who remember the better times of Snow’s musicality. During a staff meeting at the record company he works for, Aaron throws out the idea that they should have a 10-year anniversary concert at L.A.’s Greek Theater in a few days. Now he just needs to get Aldous there. [Read more...]
Review: Get Him to the Greek
06/04/2010 by Leave a Comment
The Forgetting Sarah Marshall spin off, Get Him to the Greek, is a scatter shot of randomness and hilarious that is a tad disjointed but more than makes up for any awkwardness with some great humor from its three leads.
The film picks up sometime after Sarah Marshall’s timeline, Aldous Snow is no longer sober and is a menace/laughing stock of the music scene after his band Infant Sorrow’s offensive album knocked them out of the seemingly deserved spot light. Enter Aaron, a low on the totem poll member of Aldous’ record company who suggests to his irate and frustrated boss Sergio that they should do an anniversary show of Infant Sorrow’s legendary performance at the Greek Theater in an attempt to make the company some money again. Aldous agrees and Aaron, after a seeming break up with his girlfriend, is dispatched to England to make sure Aldous shows up on time and sober to LA for the concert.
Now Playing Review – How To Train Your Dragon
03/29/2010 by Leave a Comment
DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon is an entertaining and adorable (don’t worry boys, you will still be manly if you see it) film that is by far one of their best attempts at removing Pixar from the computer animation throne.
In the Viking community a name can say a lot about the person; so with a name like Hiccup people probably aren’t going to expect that much from that individual. Growing into his name, Hiccup is seen as the community screw-up, far from one with the battle prowess of the others in the village. Especially when it comes to killing dragons, the village pest problem. Though everyone has little faith in what Hiccup is capable of, he has not given up on becoming a great warrior against the dragons and actually brings an elusive Night Fury down with one of his inventions during a dragon food raid on the village. With this final straw, the village warriors (AKA the majority of the village) leave to find and eradicate the dragon nest, leaving Hiccup to his own devices. However, when he finds the downed dragon he realizes that maybe he just doesn’t have what it takes to do what is expected with him, starting an unheard of friendship with the enemy. [Read more...]
Review: The Invention Of Lying
10/12/2009 by Leave a Comment
Ricky Gervais makes his American writing and directing debut with the help of Matthew Robinson and the results are a dramedy that doesn’t deliver the laugh a minute pace you might be expecting, but it doesn’t try to and it works fairly well.
The premise of the film is very high concept and takes place in a world where everyone tells the brutal honest truth. They don’t hide things by just ignoring saying the things that might be inappropriate, they have no barometer for what is appropriate or not, they just say whatever is on their mind and believe everything everyone says because there are no lies. Our focus is on Mark Bellison, an average bloke who doesn’t have much money, no romantic prospects, and is probably at risk of losing his job. [Read more...]
Review: Funny People
07/31/2009 by Leave a Comment
Judd Apatow’s latest is his lesser effort to date, but is still quite funny at times it just drags on a bit to long and doesn’t hit the emotional highs I think it was going for.
George Simmons is a comedy superstar. He lives the life of celebrity, alone, in a large mansion paid for by the countless blockbuster hits he has starred in. This all seems well and good until one day he finds out that he has a form of leukemia and that it is too late in the game to do anything conventionally associated with cancer treatment. So while George takes his experimental drugs he decides to get back to his roots of stand up and recruits a young and upcoming comedian, Ira, to be his assistant and joke writer as well as being the only person that knows of his condition.
The film kind of goes where you think it will from there, finding himself, becoming a better man, trying to reconnect with that one lost love, the usual. Apatow does bring a lot of fresh humor and laughs to the proceedings though, and makes the conventional worth experiencing again as this is far more a straight forward effort then his bit crazier previous features. James L. Brooks has been heavily cited as Apatow’s influence here and that is clearly seen throughout the film; albeit a bit raunchy, crude, and dirtier. [Read more...]
Now Playing Review – Funny People
07/28/2009 by Leave a Comment
As I walked out of the theater after seeing Funny People, I felt a little let down by this sloppy addition to Judd Apatow’s empire. Based on what my fellow audience members were mumbling, most of us seemed to agree. It was funny, but man was it way too long; both obviously and painfully so. It was as if after the production wrapped, the editor had a dilemma on their hands, and this is what I could discern from the movie. There are all these moments that should have been trimmed for time, but when the final edit came to be they couldn’t decide what should go, so they just stuck it all in. Because of this, it was almost like this whole film was a montage sequence, a collage of some of comedies finest moments.
