Each and every one of these is rated R. These are hilarious for adults, but nightmare fuel for children.
Watching these movies, the only thing that I can think is, how bored must Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost get in Britain. These are the kids of plots that Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes would come up with sitting in his desk at school. Normal England must be too boring for this lot cause all their movies feature some crazy circumstance going on there. These range from zombie apocalypses to *spoilers* murderous neighborhood association cults and alien overlords. These movies are a perfect blend of everyday life and bizarreness that somehow gives these movies a feeling of reality, despite their outlandish plots. The Cornetto Trilogy would be what would happen if Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett got together to make a film. Just to clarify, this isn't a trilogy in the sense that their plots are connected. They do have common themes though, such as absurd happenings in everyday life, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, jumping over fences, pubs, people getting hit by cars, general shenanigans, and Cornettos. Hot Fuzz (Dir. Edgar Wright 2007) My personal favorite out of this trilogy, this may be because it was the first one I saw. I didn't even realize it was a "trilogy" until a while after I'd watched Hot Fuzz for the first time. This movie is Epic. Simon Pegg is by no means the most handsome man on Earth, but let me tell you I fell in love with Nicholas Angel (The character Simon Pegg played). Nicholas Angel is the classic "married-to-my-job" by the book detective featured in many classic films, however Angel is just a little TOO good. Thus he is shipped off to a small sleepy town in the country where there is seemingly no crime. But nothing gets past Nicholas Angel! And soon bad-assery abounds as Angel and his sidekick Danny (Nick Frost) paint the town red (HA get it??). Shaun of the Dead (Dir. Edgar Wright 2004) You've got red on your header. Watch the movie to get the joke (I've got you now). This has got to be the most realistic zombie apocalypse movie I've ever seen. Yes, I do realize realistic zombie apocalypse is a bit of an oxymoron. Lord knows I'd mostly be bumbling around whacking zombies with whatever blunt object was closest to me. I did cringe a little whenever they threw those vinyl records though... rip. The action scenes weren't as amazing as in Hot Fuzz, but we can't all be perfect. This movie features the worst reason to get back together with someone, "Well, you don't want to die alone...do you?". MAYBE I DO. What are you gonna do about that?! This movie has all the classic zombie movie tropes. Thinking the zombies are just drunk or high people, whacking heads off, someone hiding the fact that they've been bitten, that's not your *insert loved one here* any more, and the obligatory mutual murder/suicide that they don't actually go through with scene. World's End (Dir. Edgar Wright 2013) World's End is my least favorite in the trilogy, it's still a really good movie though. I had no idea where this movie was going to go when I first started it, I knew something crazy was going to happen, cause that's how all these movies go, and boy, I was not disappointed! This one really feels like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett wrote it from beyond the grave, also it has a little bit of a Doctor Who vibe at the end. The whole idea of "We're humans and our imperfections/stubbornness/passion/etc. is what makes us human, and we're somehow special because of it" is pretty common in pretty much anything with aliens. Humans have a mighty high opinion of themselves if you ask me. I just realized that that last sentence makes me sound like an alien. I'm totally not an alien *wink*.
1 Comment
PG, this documentary is totally family friendly unless you have ichthyophobia
Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a documentary telling the story of Jiro Ono, a master sushi chef. His restaurant is world renowned and, despite its humble setting, has received three Michelin stars. Both his sons are also sushi chefs, his eldest will take over for Jiro when he retires, and the younger owns a restaurant of his own. I do not consider myself a foodie, I don't even like sushi, but watching this documentary made me wish that I did. The amount of work put in by Jiro and his apprentices just to prepare the sushi is insane. They massage the octopus for forty to fifty whole minutes to bring out the flavor. The octopus gets treated better than I treat myself, though I am still alive so that's one thing I've got going for me. I actually cannot comprehend the amount of work and discipline that goes into training to make this kind of sushi. I learned after watching the documentary that Barack Obama once ate at Jiro's sushi restaurant, Obama's opinion, "I was born in Hawaii and ate a lot of sushi, but this was the best sushi I've ever had in my life.". I feel like this has turned into more of an add for this restaurant than a film review at this point, but I'm just going to roll with it. In terms of film style, I liked how the background noise was used to fill the silence rather than music for a majority of the documentary. This really gave a feel for what day to day life is like for Jiro. When music was used, it blended beautifully with the background noise. The scene when the fish vendors are bidding on the daily catches is my new favorite thing. This documentary could have been very boring if it just focused on how Jiro made sushi, but it also covered topics such as the Ono's family dynamic, the effect overfishing is having on the sushi business, and Jiro's own history. Added to Jiro's own personal brand of humor, this documentary is not only interesting, but entertaining, and it doesn't hurt that the film style has a very artistic feel to it. Tl;dr: This documentary will make you hungry, but you should watch it anyway. This film is Not Rated. I wouldn't let small children watch it, but I honestly don't think many small children are interested in foreign french films so I'd say you're safe.
Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, or Welcome to the Sticks, is the story of a Southern Frenchmen, Philippe Abrams (Kad Merad), that is transferred up North for his job. At the beginning of this film I was almost reminded of Hot Fuzz, a personal favorite of mine. A big city postman is moved into a sleepy small town for his job, and befriends a simple yet kind local man that he works with. Except *Spoiler Alert* the townspeople do not turn out to be a part of a murderous cult in this one. Upon Philippe's arrival he goes through many misunderstandings because of the northern french accent. This "Shti" accent is to the French what stereotypical rural southern english is to Americans. Despite Philippe's initial misgivings, he grows to love the northern town and the people in it. Unfortunately, he cannot tell his wife this. When Philippe moved north, his wife stayed at their home in the south with their son. His wife, thinking Philippe is miserable in the north, showers him with love and affection over the "sacrifice" he is making for his family, and so their marriage is doing better than ever. My favorite quote from the film has got to be, "My wife loves me. Why should I ruin it with the truth?". Overall this is a comedic film about overcoming regional differences and stereotypes. I loved how this film did not rely on dialogue for comedy, but made good use of situational humor. This allowed the film to have serious moments, without losing the overall tone of light heartedness. |
Aubrey KirchhoffI'm just screaming into the void and somehow getting graded on it. Archives
April 2018
|