Tom's Random Reviews

[Tom]

Title: Bedazzled
Year: 1967
Director: Stanley Donen
Rating: 12
Length: 99 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Stereo

Stars:
Peter Cook
Dudley Moore
Eleanor Bron
Raquel Welch
Alba

Plot:
Desperate to win the girl of his dreams, short-order cook Stanley Moon sells his soul to the devil (aka George Spiggott) for seven wishes. With the magic words 'Julie Andrews' he becomes everything from a rock star to an intellectual to try and impress her.But the 'horned one' has a wicked sense of fun (he tears the last page out of Agatha Christie novels) so things never go quite according to plan.

Bedazzled is Peter Cook and Dudley Moore at their very best and a true comedy classic. The dialogue is unforgettable ('The Garden of Eden was a boggy swamp just south of Croydon') and the sight of Dudley Moore as a trampolining nun has got to be one of the funniest in cinema history.

Extras:
Featurettes
Interviews
Scene Access

My Thoughts:

After recently watching the remake of this movie, I became interested to watch the original. You see a lot of ideas and jokes here, that became part of the remake. I liked the interaction between the devil and Stanley. It was little Pythonesque. I could picture Eric Idle as the devil and Michael Palin as Stanley instead of Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore. At least they both reminded me of them during the whole movie.
If you like the remake, I think it's worth to check out this original.

Rating: [mr]3[/mr]

[Tom]

Title: Stranger Than Fiction
Year: 2006
Director: Marc Forster
Rating: PG-13
Length: 113 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles: English, French

Stars:
Will Ferrell
Emma Thompson
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Queen Latifah
Tony Hale

Plot:
Will Ferrell stars as Harold Crick, a lonely IRS agent whose mundane existence is transformed when he hears a mysterious voice narrating his life. With the help of Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), Harold discovers he's the main character in a novel-in-progress and that the voice belongs to Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), an eccentric author famous for killing her main characters in creative ways. Harold must quickly track down Eiffel and stop her before she conjures up a way to finish him off.

Extras:
Closed Captioned
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

A wonderful movie. Very untypical for Will Ferrell. If you refused to watch it because it has Will Ferrell in it, do it now and you won't regret it. Another highlight in this movie is Emma Thompson as the novelist with a severe writer's block. Even Queen Latifah didn't annoy in this movie.

Rating: [mr]5[/mr]

[Najemikon]

I've only seen it once, but already the scene where she makes him have cookies is one of my favourite moments. It's just sublime...

[Tom]

Finally I have renamed this thread from "My random reviews" to "Tom's Random Reviews" as it has been a long time since it was one of very few threads of this kind. Makes it easier for you to avoid my bumpy little reviews

[Najemikon]

my bumpy little reviews

"Bumpy"? Are you planning to review Jimmy's favourite genre now as well? Oh hang on, that's "Humpy"... 

[Tom]

Title: Superbad
Year: 2007
Director: Greg Mottola
Rating: 15
Length: 118 Min.
Video: Widescreen 1.85
Audio: English: Dolby Digital TrueHD, Italian: Dolby Digital TrueHD, Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1, Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Other, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish

Stars:
Jonah Hill
Michael Cera
Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Bill Hader
Seth Rogen

Plot:
From the guys who brought you Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin comes SUPERBAD. Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) want nothing more than to hook up with the girls they like before heading off to college. To do that, though, they need to get alcohol for the big party that night. With the help of their friend Fogell, a.k.a. McLovin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), and his fake I.D., the three of them go on a chase for that elusive booze, dodging incompetent cops (Knocked Up Seth Rogen and "Saturday Night Live's" Bill Hader) while attempting to reverse a lifelong losing streak in one hilarious night.

Extras:
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Interactive Game
Outtakes
Scene Access

My Thoughts:

I expected more of this movie. But it was rather dull. There were a few funny scenes, but in general the movie was very uneven.
One of the cops (Officer Slater played by Bill Hader) reminded me very much of Moss from the IT Crowd.

Rating: [mr]2[/mr]

[DJ Doena]

I expected more of this movie. But it was rather dull. There were a few funny scenes, but in general the movie was very uneven.

I had the same problem. I only saw the trailer, bought it blindly and then watched it. And then I waited and waited and waited but the fun never really came. If someone had said to me "hey, it's amovie about two BFFs who will go to different schools soon" I would have had a totally different expectation of it.

[Najemikon]

Interesting, because I felt the same. I saw it at the cinema and decided to give it another run on DVD, but it just doesn't seem to be good enough. It is good, just not enough...

I did wonder if I was jaded by too much Judd Apatow. I really liked Knocked Up but pretty much ruined it by watching the second disc. Superbad has a similar problem. As you almost certainly realise, Apatow's films are largely ad libbed which works brilliantly, but there is a huge amount of b-roll footage which they include on the second disc. It can be funny, but it's just the same scenes endlessly played, often going in angles that they surely knew could never be used. Eventually you get seriously sick of it.

[Dragonfire]

Interesting, because I felt the same. I saw it at the cinema and decided to give it another run on DVD, but it just doesn't seem to be good enough. It is good, just not enough...

I did wonder if I was jaded by too much Judd Apatow. I really liked Knocked Up but pretty much ruined it by watching the second disc. Superbad has a similar problem. As you almost certainly realise, Apatow's films are largely ad libbed which works brilliantly, but there is a huge amount of b-roll footage which they include on the second disc. It can be funny, but it's just the same scenes endlessly played, often going in angles that they surely knew could never be used. Eventually you get seriously sick of it.

I never saw Superbad..I just wasn't sure I wanted to.  Someone I know went to see it in the theater and hated it. 
I only sort of liked Knocked Up.  I saw it once on HBO and that was enough for me.  I just didn't think it was as funny as so many others seemed to think it was.

[Achim]

I enjoyed Superbad. But going by what Karsten said, maybe it's because I had no expectations at all, not knowing what will come. I had bought it merely on the base of Judd Apatow; loving Franks and Geeks and enjoying most his other stuff.

[Najemikon]

But professional reviews all sort of implied this was something quite sophisticated, a welcome change to the genre. I couldn't see that. It was sometimes very funny and McLovin was a great character, but against American Pie, Animal House, etc, it doesn't hold up. They all seemed to focus on the bitter-sweet end of a period in a lifelong friendship because of college, but I think it could have been done better. Stand By Me meets Porkys? I don't think so!

[Achim]

I agree, if reviews tried to sell it as something sophisticated then they were probably reading too much into it. I even doubt they were going for that, there were just having fun.

Comparing it to American Pie in such way is a bit rough though... I mean I enjoy American Pie just as the next guy, but it is way more juvenile than Superbad.

[Najemikon]

I agree, if reviews tried to sell it as something sophisticated then they were probably reading too much into it. I even doubt they were going for that, there were just having fun.

Comparing it to American Pie in such way is a bit rough though... I mean I enjoy American Pie just as the next guy, but it is way more juvenile than Superbad.

Yeah, but Pie was funnier! And quite an important film in some ways that they tried to make Superbad out to be. There hadn't been such a successful teen based comedy for sometime and it also tried to give the female characters a bit more substance, something even Animal House pretty much fails to do.

[Tom]

I have upgraded my rating from [mr]4[/mr] to [mr]5[/mr]. I have watched it again twice this week and I still love it

[Tom]

Title: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Year: 1997
Director: Jay Roach
Rating: 15
Length: 91 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Mike Myers
Elizabeth Hurley
Mike Myers
Michael York
Mimi Rogers

Plot:
Follow 60s' hipster, Austin Powers (Mike Myers - Wayne's World), the suave shag-monster spy and his gorgeous sidekick Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley) in their hilarious battle of wits to save the world from old arch-enemy, Dr. Evil. Featuring cameo appearances from many famous faces including Mimi Rogers, Robert Wagner, Michael York and Burt Bacharach. You can't help but dig this film, baby!

Extras:
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Production Notes
Scene Access
Special Cameo Menu
Trailers

My Thoughts:

Because of our James Bond marathon I had the urge to watch the Austin Powers films as I was constantly reminded of characters and scenes in Austin Powers while watching the early Bonds.
Actually, it is only the second time I will watch most of the Bond movies during this Bond marathon, especially the early Bonds. This is why I am more reminded of Austin Powers while watching those Bonds than the other way around.
I always thought that the hairy chest of Austin is a general reference to the fact that these were considered sexy in the past. But now I realize, that it is a full-on parody of Connery as Bond, who seems to use every opportunity to prance around with his hairy chest like Austin does in his movies

Rating: [mr]3[/mr]