Movie Review - The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Director: Aaron Horvath, Michal Jelenic, Pierre Leduc
Genre: Animation/ Family/ Action/ Adventure/ Comedy
Runtime: 92 minutes
Year: 2023
Starring: Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen
 
Description: A plumber named Mario (Chris Pratt) travels through an underground labyrinth with his brother Luigi (Charlie Day), trying to save a captured princess (Anya Taylor-Joy).

Review: Thirty years ago, there was a movie adaptation of the wildly popular Super Mario games. This was a giant failure. I’m glad they decided to give it another try, in the form of an animation. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is such a fun film.

In this movie, an origina story of Mario and Luigi has been created. Thus, we get to see the family of the plumber brothers for the first time. They just started their own company and have not yet managed to get jobs. When they do, their first job goes horribly wrong. In addition, the New York borough of Brooklyn suffers from overflowing sewers. Since Mario and Luigi could use a little success, they decide to “save New Yorj”. But instead, they get sucked into a sewer pipe and end up in underground world. Luigi is stuck in the dark world of Bowser and Mario meet Princess Peach in her Mushroom Kingdom.

Once Mario and his brother have entered this world, the writers pull out all stops to match the games, complete with power-ups. It looks great and it’s tons of fun. They did change up Peach’s character a bit. Instead of playing the damsel in distress, as usual in the games, she fights along with Mario this time. And I liked this change.

Even though the world if Super Mario is already quite extensive and diverse, they ingeniously manage to involve Mario Kart and the Donkey Kong series in the adventure. And Jack Black voicing Bowser is probably the best choice of the entire film.

Videogame adaptations have always been tricky, but the succeeded here. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is a colorful, action-packed, adventurous and funny film for all ages and a guaranteed good time.

Rating: 4/ 5

10s Movie Review - Jay and Silent Bob Reboot

Director: Kevin Smith
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 105 minutes
Year: 2019
Starring: Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Fred Armisen, Harley Quinn Smith, Shannon Elizabeth, Rosario Dawson, Chris Hemsworth, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Joey Lauren Adams, Justin Long

 Description: Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) inadvertently sign away their names and rights to the new Bluntman and Chronic movie. Now they head to Hollywood to stop the film from being made. Along the way Jay discovers that he is a father.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2022 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 18: A FILM STARRING YOUR CELEBRITY CRUSH
 
Review: Kevin Smith was once considered an up-and-coming talent. The American made such gems as “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy” with which he proved that coarse humor and obscene language could be combined perfectly with the pain of an unattainable love or hopeless job. These films were layered narratives about real-life problems. Smith grew increasingly famous and began to shift his field of work to include writing comic books and canning genre films.  

“Jay and Silent Bob  are character , played by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, that kill time by smoking weed and hanging around. They first appeared in “Clerks” and later in “Mallrats”, “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma”, as side characters. In “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” they got their own movie. In “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” they hear that the comic book based on their lives, “Bluntman and Chronic”, will be turned into a movie. They decided to go to Hollywood to stop it.

I always love a film that mocks itself and is very self-aware, making meta-jokes and be self-referral. Kevin Smith takes it a bit too far and fills his movie with these types of jokes. This makes the film annoying at times and not really all that funny. I just didn’t enjoy it all that much. Sad, because I really like Jay and Silent Bob. And Kevin Smith.

Rating: 2 / 5

Movie Review - The Bubble

Director: Judd Apatow
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 126 minutes
Year: 2022
Starring: Karen Gillan, Leslie Mann, David Duchovny Pedro Pascal, Keagan-Michael Key, Iris Apatow, Peter Serafinowicz, Kate McKinnon, Fred Armisen
 
Description: A group of actors and actresses tuck inside a pandemic bubble at a hotel attempts to complete a film.

Review: Judd Apatow directs a film, which can be streamed on Netflix now. A group of actors is stuck in a lockdown situation in a hotel, while trying to finish the movie “Cliff Beasts 6”. The trailer looked fun and Judd Apatow is one of the better comedy directors.

Unfortunately the film wasn’t well-received, by both critics and the audience. And I can actually agree with them and saying this is one of Apatow’s worst movies ever made.

Apatow was inspired by the evets of the filming of the movie “Jurassic World: Dominion” in which the entire cast was stuck for months in the heavy lockdown in Britain, filmind had to be stopped each time die to positive tests and the actors were given a stick up their nose daily.

So too in this comedy, with the fun-loving Karen Gillan playing the female lead. About the movie business, the film can be quite funny at times. But the overall films is just very unfunny. Moreover, the film runs a half hour too lone, and three are fewer and fewer laughs toward the very mediocre finale.

Rating: 2/ 5

Movie Review - The Mitchell's Vs. the Machines

Director: Michael Rianda, Jeff Rowe
Genre: Animation/ Family/ Adventure/ Science Fiction/ Action
Runtime: 114 minutes
Year: 2021
Starring: Abbi Jacobsen, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Michael Rianda, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen, Eric André, Beck Bennett, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Conan O’Brien

Description: A quirky dysfunctional family’s road trip is upended when they find themselves in the middle of the robot apocalypse and suddenly become humanity’s unlikeliest last hope.

Review: Thanks to a selfish tech slouch in Silicon Valley, all robot and machines are tuning against humanity. There seems to be only one family that can stop the evil this man has wrought. Let that be a dysfunctional family of awkward misfits. “The Mitchell’s Vs. the Machines” is full of witty jokes about the evils inflicted on humans by big tech companies, but then seems to negate these criticisms with the decidedly meme-like aesthetic regularly chosen.
Katie Mitchell is different from others, but that’s really true of her entire family. Katie makes crazy videos, which she uses to get accepted to film school. Father Rick doesn’t quite get these videos, but he doesn’t seem to be able to get a grip on the internet and his growing daughter anyway. Brother Aaron has a very big obsession with dinosaurs and mother Linda tries to keep the family together with her patience and love. When the robots seize power, this seems like the last family that can offer any hope of saving humanity.  
Chaos is already rife when destructive robots fly around, but when a vengeful siri variant decides to shut down the global wifi, panic really breaks out. “Will someone take pictures of my food”, screams a woman desperately as the world behinds her burns. These are the kinds of highly visually elaborate cynical jokes that the film is full of, providing and extremely witty take on humans and their technologies. When murderous Furby’s, dryers bent on massacre and aggressive robot vacuum cleaners also come along, the film proves truly hilarious.
The makers also seem to want to appeal to a younger audience, it is after all a children’s film. However, they do this with an aesthetic what is midway between Snapchat filters, memes and TikTok movies. This form of animation withing animation not only looks very annoying, it sometimes actually ruins successful jokes and undermines the fiilm’s strong criticism Big Tech. the result is king of a cacophony of memes that are projected in between the successful animations when you weren’t actually looking for them. But still, because of many hilarious scenes and top-notch cast, the makers are forgiven.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

10s Movie Review - Easy A

Director: Will Gluck
Genre: Comedy/ Romance
Runtime: 92 minutes
Year: 2010
Starring: Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Dan Byrd, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Cam Gigandet, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm McDowell, Fred Armisen

Description: A clean-ct high school student relies on the school’s rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.

Review: High School student Olive is a wallflower and is pretty much invisible. Her best friend Rihannon gets more attention after she told everyone she had sex. Olive thinks it wouldn’t harm anyone if she starts a rumor herself, about losing her virginity. This rumor spreads faster than she could have ever imagined.
The story doesn’t sound all that special, but it’s the execution of this story that is almost brilliant. And Emma Stone is fabulous in “Easy A”. This is the movie that introduced me to her and I have been a major fan ever since. Her portrayal of Olive is just great and she is actually one of my favorite female movie characters. Her parents, played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, are great too. They are so funny, I love them in this film. And Amanda Bynes, as Jesus freak Marianne, is really funny as well.
I’m not a fan of romantic comedies, but when there is more com then rom, I tend to like them more. “Easy A” is one of those films, I love this movie! “Easy A” gets an A+!

Rating: 5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2017 - # 38: Eurotrip

Director: Jeff Schaffer, Alec Berg, David Mandel
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 96 minutes
Year: 2004
Starring: Scott Mechlowicz, Jacob Pitts, Kristen Kreuk, Michelle Trachtenberg, Matt Damon, Travis Wester, Fred Armisen, Jeffrey Tambour

Description: Dumped by his girlfriend, a high school grad decides to embark on an overseas adventure in Europe with his friends

Review: The teen comedy “Eurotrip” is from the same producers that made “Road Trip” and “Old School”. You know what to expect: juvenile humor and a lot of sex jokes. “Old School” I loved, “Road Trip” was fun, but “Eurotrip” is basically “Road Trip” set in Europe. And the jokes are not as funny.
Scott has a German friend, Mieke, that he has been e-mailing for a while. When Mieke e-mails him that he wants to meet him, Scott freaks out and thinks he is a pervert. Scott breaks contact, but then finds out that Mieke is a very hot girl. Together with his friend Cooper, he travels to Berlin to find Mieke.
What’s next is a trip through Europe, because straight to Berlin is somehow not an option (?). They meet up with two other friends and visit London, Paris, Rome, Bratislava and Amsterdam. And all filled with (sexual) adventures. And it’s anything but original and all stereotypical. Amsterdam is the drug capitol of the world and only knows for its red light district. In Germany there is off course a really bad Hitler joke. Hooligans in London. The makers think they are clever, but they are not. It’s super lame.
The leading actors don’t really do anything memorable. It’s the smaller roles that make you laugh, like roles played by Vinnie Jones, Matt Damon and Fred Armisen. That’s actually the only thing that I found funny.
“Eurotrip” is a really bad comedy, I didn’t enjoy it at all. One star for the cameos.

Rating: 1/ 5