Reviews

While it fails almost as often as it succeeds, there's so much going on here I couldn't help but like it. You REALLY have to be familiar with the material being spoofed, though. And part of the fun is ticking them all off in your mind if you're a movie geek like me.

NATM has two levels and target audiences. For teens who have seen all the recent flicks, it's a direct, Mad magazine style parody. For 30 somethings like me, it's an homage to the 80's flicks. The opening scene is an obvious "American Pie" spoof, but in a much more subtle way, it's drawing on "Sixteen Candles". To top it off, the scene is still funny even if you haven't seen either targets. Bruce (Sam Levine from Freaks & Geeks) is a parody of Seth Green's character in "Can't Hardly Wait", but he's also an homage to Long Duk Dong.

Several people have mentioned that kids probably haven't seen the old flicks and older people haven't seen the new ones. Well, if you're a kid, you don't need to have seen the old flicks to appreciate it as a broad parody. The 80's jokes tend to sit in the background- like the signs on the walls and the musical cues in the Molly Ringwald scene (which actually was a weak point IMO). And I've found that most people my age HAVE seen most of the newer teen movies. They came out just about the time we were starting to get married, buy houses, have real jobs. And they were a nice bit of nostalgia for our youth. Even if we didn't go pay $7.50 to see them, we've seen them on USA on saturday afternoon.

It's no accident the that soundtrack is almost entirely new, young bands doing covers of 80's songs.

As far as the gross-out factor goes, it's really not that bad. The filthy opening scene is forgivable because it's so dang funny. There is one gory joke on the football field. (A "Lucas" homage inside a "Varsity Blues" parody.) A sick unfunny scatalogical joke at the beginning of the movie pays off with a big laugh when it's turned around at the end. And the mother of all "poo" jokes is tempered by the fact that the victim is a delivering a tirade against "poo" jokes. And then there's granny's kiss- unfunny and nasty. But it's nowhere near the level of "Scary Movie". It's also nice to see a movie like this without any gay jokes or fat jokes. (There is a fat guy, but being fat isn't the joke.) Under the filth, this is a pretty gentle movie.

I avoided this when it came out, but another 30-something friend recommended it to me recently. I'd recommend it to anyone who old enough to have seen "Sixteen Candles" in a theatre...as long as you've seen most of the newer flicks as well.

Oh...LOVED the slow clap guy!

Nice to see all the good reviews here, seeing as how the mainstream critics seemed to have missed the point completely. (Except EW which gave it a B+.) But don't get your hopes up too high...Monkeybone still fails on a lot of levels. First of all, it's NOT very funny. That's OK, because it's not really a comedy. It's more of a horror/fantasy than anything else. And because they decided to market this towards kids (big mistake), the horror isn't as horrific as it could have been. There's some really creepy scenes here, but they all stop short of their possiblities. And it's obvious that a lot of plot has been edited out to speed things up. Sometimes dialog scenes cut short while the dialog continues on, being drowned out by an action sequence. It's very hard to follow.

But if you go in expecting to see a experiemental, surreal flick (this is going to be big on video with the drug crowd), you'll find a lot to like. The portal from purgatory to earth is through Abe Lincoln's mouth! (With no explanation!) The grim reaper is a bureaucrat! Steven King and Edger Allen Poe were normal guys before getting their bodies stolen! And for God's sake...TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHES BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!

And just when it starts to look like a syrupy love story, we get a walking corpse with duct tape holding his organs in (unsuccessfully).

Monkeybone could have been great. It's not. But at least it isn't your average assembly line studio flick. And even though it rips off quite a few films...Beetlejuice, Death Becomes Her, Cool World... it still feels original. And it's certainly better than Cool World.

After Jerry Bruckheimer and his minions destroyed the dumb action movie in the 90's, it's nice to see a genuinely fun flick like this. Sure you could pick it apart for days. The race car scene serves no purpose (and makes no sense). The closing credits montage seems to have been edited by a monkey with ADD. But why bother. It's just a fun way to spend a couple of hours. I mean, I don't want to see a flick like this every week. But sometimes it's nice to see a brainless movie that doesn't automatically assume the AUDIENCE is brainless.

I am surprised Drew didn't give herself a juicier role. Cameron gets most of the laughs, and Lucy is the "coolest". Drew just gets to show off her cleavage and has one decent fight scene. I was hoping for a bit more, especially considering the hilarious "bad girl" bit in the opening montage.

I also don't understand all the kudos Bill Murray has been getting...he gets the job done, but he's phoning this one in. But it sure is nice to see Crispen Glover working. He's perfect in the virtually non-speaking henchman role. This is the role that would normally be played by a giant like Richard Kiel in a Bond flick, but Glover's creepiness makes up for his tiny stature.

Just go see it.

Somehow, I missed this one back in the glorious 80's. I suppose I was a bit young for it and it didn't run on TV like Fast Times. Anyways, I rented it a few years back, primarily to hear the rare Oingo Boingo song on the soundtrack. I found it to be a semi-tedious, occasionaly funny bit of fluff. The tedious part was augmented by the fact that I had already seen the worst scenes in "Private Popcicle". The scenes were so identical, they almost looks dubbed! Anyway, it was cruising along through mediocrville when it took a turn for the dramatic. The pregnancy added a bit of depth, but it had been done better in Fast Times, so I'm still bored. So why do I reccomend this film? Because the ending is so jaw droppingly depressing, it must be seen to be believed. I was stunned. It's not worth trying to describe, it must be seen. It's just teenage angst, but for a moment, you are plunged straight into the main characters near-suicidal heartbreak. I am amazed that someone had the guts to drop an ending this bleak into a mainstream, "wacky" comedy. Don't get me wrong- it's not a "good" ending. It's just worth marvelling at. There's no way "American Pie" (or whatever) could ever get released today with an ending like this.

If I had gone into this film only having seen the lame TV ads without the critical hype, I probably would have been stunned by how good it is. But after reading all the Oscar talk, I was mildly disappointed. This is a great film, but in no way a classic. (Which is really the case with most Oscar winners, so I shouldn't be surprised.) This is a funny, sad, shocking, and important movie. It has a message that needs to be told. But it could have been told better. It was slightly clumsy and very heavy handed.

Bottom line...Three Kings has a lot in common with MASH, and it will most likely become the definitive Gulf War movie just like MASH is the definitive Korean War movie. But just because it shares the same rank as MASH doesn't mean it's as good as MASH.

All I have to say is that although I gave this flick a 1 out of 10, I still think everyone interested in unusual films should see it. It's just fun to think about how something this bizarre could get made, let alone distributed. No description could ever depict how utterly awful but fascinating du-beat-E-o is.

I can't understand how anyone can be critical of this film. Not that I expect everyone to like it...in fact I'm surprised at the number of people who do. But love it or hate it, it couldn't be done any better. Do I want to see a film like this every day? No! But for what it is, it's perfect.

American Beauty is a total paradox. How can a movie with such depressing subject matter be so laugh out loud hilarious? How can a film filled with such ugly situations and people make you appreciate the beauty that surrounds us? Maybe it's because life is depressing and hilarious and ugly and beautiful.

Many people keep emphasizing that every character is unlikable...I don't agree. Which the obvious exception of one character, none of them turn out to be as bad as they appear to be. (And even that character reveals a tender side, if only for a moment.) In fact, Lester is practically a hero (OK, maybe an anti-hero).

OK, I will make one criticism. The gay couple exist only to set up a plot point. They are only shown as positive. I would have liked to have seen the negative points of their relationship as well. A movie this deep shouldn't have any shallow characters.

Any film that gets people thinking and talking is a good thing.