No, not the Sarah Palin adult film spoof, but a certain comedy with "adult situations" within. This week, there is an easy choice for my PICK OF THE WEEK, and it also happens to have been one of my 10 favorite films of the year (as you can see on the top 10 of 2008 section of the main page). It's:
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
This romantic comedy from director Kevin Smith may not be his funniest or his most dramatic film to date, but it's the best combination of elements I believe in his career, making for an incredibly complete film. Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks show a deft hand for comedy as we already knew, but handle the more dramatic third act quite well, opening eyes especially for Rogen (which is good to know considering as scripted, his role in Judd Apatow's upcoming Funny People is the most dramatic of the bunch). This flick is actually at its core a very sweet story of discovering love and the love of filmmaking. If you missed it in theaters, as far too many people did (though it's now Smith's highest grossing film), now's your chance to pick it up and enjoy immensely.
-Also out worth a very positive mention is Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Michael Cera and Kat Dennings headline a teenage version of Before Sunrise that charms the pants of you if you let it. The book was slightly better, but that's not to say this film is bad at all. Quite the opposite, and in almost any other week would get top billing. Definitely check it out.
-Hitting shelves as well this week is Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which is pretty much the same as the first animated tale, so you know what you're getting into, Alan Rickman's wine comedy Bottle Shock, which is amusing but nothing too special, The Secret Lives of Bees, which is a bit too melodramatic at points but has a bunch of very nice performances within it, and the rather poor Space Buddies, a cartoon with almost nothing worthwhile in it to anyone over 5 years old.
-My Vintage pick this week is Cloverfield, one of the best movies of last year that nobody remembers came out last year. It's a rollercoaster ride that doesn't play quite as well on DVD in terms of thrills, but is better in terms of noticing details. See if you can spot the "splash" at the conclusion...
-What will everyone be watching this week?
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it was a crime that Zack and Miri didn't make Apatow level money, and also...MAKE SURE YOU BUY THE MOVIE AT BEST BUY OR AMAZON OR A STORE LIKE THAT, NOT TARGET OR WAL-MART, WITH THEIR BASTARDIZED COVER "ZACK AND MIRI"!
ReplyDeletei concur, if i didn't love Kevin Smith so much, i'd be tempted to advocate boycotting the Zack and Miri discs so only Zack and Miri Make a Porno gets sold, but i know how important dvd is to his career
ReplyDeleteNick and Norah along with Zack and Miri are great choices!
ReplyDelete-Danny
glad Zack and Miri seems like it'll have an audience on dvd
ReplyDeleteCloverfield was awful! How could anyone call that a god movie? The acting was nonexistent, the constant escapes from danger were so unrealistic (they pulled the girl off a construction wire beam and she made it anywhere without bleeding out?), and maybe the monster would have been scary if it hadn't been a combination of every other movie monster. This seemed like such a rush job to capitalize on the "genius" of J.J. Abrams. Please, even Alias started to blow mega balls after the send season. I laughed through most of this piece of garbage and the only reason I didn't feel totally jipped in the end was because everyone was dead. They deserved it for signing on to a completely ridiclous movie.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: "...a *good* movie?"
ReplyDelete