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Though it’s not as consistently or as unrelentingly hilarious as The Lego Movie, Chris McKay’s comic book spin-off is nevertheless a clever and enjoyable spoof of comic book movies in general, and the Dark Knight in particular. After the morose beat-down that was the ludicrously self-important Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, it’s a much needed … Continue reading
An eight-year passion project from the thoroughly baked minds of Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and Evan Goldberg, Sausage Party is an hilariously vulgar and unabashedly pointed satire on religion and send-up of the Pixar formula. At last, an animated movie for those of us who have pondered the existential dread at the heart of the Toy … Continue reading
Paul Feig’s relaunch of Ghostbusters was slimed by controversy from the get-go. Depending on whom you asked, it was A. Hollywood at its money-grabbing and creativity-bankrupt worst; B. a feminist broadsides of some sort; or C. some much-needed nostalgia subversion. Truth be told, it’s a little of each. It’s also what your average summertime megaplex fodder is supposed … Continue reading
A gritty, cynical, hilarious, and mostly satisfying bit of L.A. noir, Shane Black’s The Nice Guys sees the bad boy writer-director make a slick return to his signature brand of buddy action comedy. It’s best described as a worthy successor to The Big Lebowski, an irreverent take on Chinatown, and Inherent Vice without the art-house pretension. The Nice … Continue reading
Deadpool may be the comic book movie spoof to end all comic book movie spoofs. It playfully and cleverly deflates the conventions and cliches of superhero flicks — as well as its own damn self — with the snarky, sadistic glee of a stoned fanboy who’s binge-watched too many Chuck Jones-era Looney Tunes. No cow is too sacred here, and … Continue reading
Joel and Ethan Coen make a welcome and long-awaited return to comedy with Hail, Caesar!, a slap-happy valentine to the Technicolor heyday of Hollywood that lands somewhere between the trippy brilliance of The Big Lebowski and the goofball parable of O Brother, Where Art Thou?. It is a lighthearted yarn that goes down easy like the old-fashioned popcorn pictures it so lovingly spoofs. … Continue reading
Quentin Tarantino is as self-indulgent as ever with his eighth (or ninth, depending on how you choose to catalog Kill Bill) motion picture, which is both a good and bad thing. His pacing and story structure idiosyncratic, and he has always been a little too impressed with his own cleverness. Fortunately for him, he is a … Continue reading
The epitome of the failed genre mash-up, American Ultra probably played better on paper than it does on the screen. The idea is sound — stoners turn out to be super-agents and wackiness ensues — but the passion is so lacking and the execution so slack that it feels like everyone involved wanted to be somewhere else. … Continue reading
Amy Schumer and Judd Apatow do the world a long-overdue favor by zinging the hell out of the ubiquitous “Professional Woman Who Tries to Have It All and Find Romance in the Big City” rom-com formula, and do it with style, wit, and energy. The trope has been ripe for subversion for some time, and Schumer … Continue reading
If there was ever a movie that didn’t need a sequel it was Steven Soderberg’s Magic Mike. That’s not to say that Soderbergh’s 2012 film was a failure or a flop; quite the opposite in fact. A pseudo-biographic dramedy loosely based on its lead actor Channing Tatum’s brief career as a male stripper, it caught viewers off-guard with … Continue reading
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