There are many good laughs to be had in This Is the End—perhaps the first apocalypse movie centering around a Hollywood brat pack—but the best moment comes when pop star Rihanna slaps the ever-loving shit out of Arrested Development's Michael Cera. It is a slap for the ages, and so very, very gratifying. It's worth […]
Film
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Stranger in a Strange Land
Superman saves world, enjoys eating at IHOP
“Superheroes are the copyrighted property of big corporations,” comics writer Alan Moore recently told the Believer. “They are purely commercial entities; they are purely about making a buck. That’s not to say that there haven’t been some wonderful creations in the course of the history of the superhero comic, but to compare them with gods […]
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Staff Summer Favorites
What to watch this summer
Wet, Hot American Summer (2001) With tube socks pulled all the way up, this spoof should be on the top 10 funniest movies ever. Early in their successful and very funny careers, Janeane Garofalo and Paul Rudd (in shorty shorts) play counselors at a summer camp doomed for destruction. Slapstick and clever sketch comedy and […]
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Yippie-Ki-Yay!
Cowboys can be funny
At the height of his career, Billy Crystal starred in City Slickers (1990), a fish-out-of-water story about three New Yorkers who land on a Southwestern cattle drive by way of a midlife crisis. The smashhit came for Crystal on the heels of When Harry Met Sally (1989), and he had just hosted the first of […]
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Doctor, doctor
Escape Fire proscribes more than two aspirin
The best story in Escape Fire—a documentary skewering the health industry that the recently departed Roger Ebert called “extraordinary” and gave his trademark thumbs up—is about a young soldier who has returned injured—both mentally and physically—from the war. Self-identified as a “hillbilly,” the young man explains that he would have scoffed at what he calls […]
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Parents Just Don't Understand
After Earth: Parents Are the Same, No Matter Time or Place
M. Night Shyamalan: a dude who went from being crowned “The Next Spielberg” on the cover of Newsweek (circa Signs) to a guy who had his name laughed off the screen (circa The Last Airbender). Considering his last few f-ups, it's not surprising that After Earth—which he directed and co-wrote—doesn't feel at all like a […]
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Spokes to be You
We demand more bicycling movies
There is a scene in Breaking Away (1979) that is perhaps the greatest cinematic moment of innocence lost. David Stoller is an Indiana boy, but has convinced himself he is Italian, singing arias, calling his working class parents “papa” and “mama mia,” and, most importantly, touring around the countryside on his 10-speed, biking cap turned […]
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Mud = Best Film of the Year!
Matthew McConaughey = My New Boyfriend
OMG. OMG. O-M-Gee! Mud is wonderful. Have you been wanting a male companion to Beasts of the Southern Wild? Wait no more! Do you remember the tall tales of Big Fish? Check! Do you fondly remember River Phoenix in Stand By Me? Who doesn’t? Were you enchanted and spooked by the creepy-but-kind Boo Radley in […]
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Gran Toretto
The Power and the Glory of Fast & Furious 6
There are going to be jokes about Fast & Furious 6 that go like this: “But if I didn’t see Fast Five, will I be able to follow the plot?” Haha, good one! Also: No, you won’t, idiot. Because Furious 6 relishes in the kind of meticulous soap opera usually only seen on Mad Men […]
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D-bags on Parade
Yep, it’s another Hangover
The Hangover‘s “trilogy” is the cinematic wet dream of guys who wear backward baseball caps and call their friends “brah.” It is lazy and douchebaggy. I scoff at the movies because I am a snobby feminist killjoy, and they make it so easy by being obvious in their contempt of the female audience. (Or maybe […]
