Netflix And Chill: Superbad (2007)

Did I have any specific reason for suddenly wanting to revisit Superbad? Yes. I wanted a reminder of the time when I enjoyed the work of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. The pair of them have been receiving a fair bit of praise recently for their latest TV show, The Studio, and I don't know what others have seen in that show that I am missing. It's smug, absolutely relies on some great cameos to make it work, and feels like what you would get if someone wanted to make The Player, but with no teeth and someone in the lead role who has 1000% less charisma and presence than Tim Robbins. But I seem to be in the minority with that opinion. Ah well, I knew I could revisit Superbad with a sense of optimism. It may have been some time since my last viewing of it, but I hoped that it held up.

Phew. It holds up. There are issues with some of the language and attitudes, but that's par for the course with almost every teen movie. This holds up a LOT better than many others I could mention.

Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) are besties about to go on different life paths after high school. That inspires them to do try their hardest when they get a surprise invite to a party that should have both alcohol and girls present. Although they have to supply some of the alcohol, which they hope to do with the help of their friend, Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), owner of one fake ID that has him named as McLovin. As they try to get the alcohol and make their way to Becca (Martha MacIsaac) and Jules (Emma Stone), our young leads end up plagued by problems. There's a robbery, a couple of friendly cops (played by Rogen and Bill Hader), and a guy named Francis (Joe Lo Truglio) who drives as poorly as he interacts with others in his own age group. 

There's nothing really special about Superbad. It's a typical teen movie, in many ways, but also avoids feeling too familiar because of the moments that choose to focus on the co-dependent nature of the friendship between Seth and Evan. It IS funny though, which is a big bonus, and the timing worked out well for it becoming a fantastic showcase for a wide variety of performers. Although not his first feature, director Greg Mottola also did a lot of TV work, some of which had him working with a number of the main individuals featured here.

Hill and Cera have a great rapport with one another, the nervous energy and crudity of the former nicely complementing the quiet anxiety of the latter.  Mintz-Plasse is almost a combination of the two of them, with an extra helping of unfounded confidence added in to the mix, and having the three of them approach their teen troubles in their own unique ways helps to make the film more interesting and fun than it otherwise would be. Rogen and Hader are a blast as the friendly young cops, MacIsaac is sweet enough, Stone is very cool and adorable, and Lo Truglio is a lot of fun as he helps to fill out a large supporting cast that also includes Kevin Corrigan, Dave Franco, Martin Starr, Clark Duke, and a few other familiar faces.

If you don't like any of the main players involved with this then I would advise you to give it a miss, especially if you have somehow never got around to seeing it before now. If you think you don't like some of the main players, but also remember a time when you might have found them much more enjoyable and entertaining than they are today, then you may want to put it on your viewing schedule. I'm glad I did, and I could happily rewatch it any time. It almost felt like a cool drink of water after tolerating the disappointing comedic desert of The Studio.

8/10

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The Interview (2014)

You would have to be very isolated indeed to not have heard of The Interview by now, the latest comedy movie involving Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen and James Franco. Oh, and Kim Jong-un. Yes, THAT Kin Jong-un. It's the film that seemingly sparked off an international incident, involving threats of terrorism and a release that was halted and then put back on the cards. Some starts to smell a rat, wondering whether or not a lot of publicity had simply been drummed up by Sony for a film that otherwise wouldn't have done great business. I'm not sure what the figures will be when the dust settles, but I am sure that more people heard more about The Interview in the past two weeks than they ever heard about previous Rogen-Franco collaborations.

Franco plays Dave Skylark, a TV chat show host who always tries to get the juiciest morsels of celebrity gossip to work with. Rogen is Aaron Rapaport, his producer and BFF. The two men are approached by government agents (led by Agent Lacey, played by the lovely Lizzy Caplan) when the opportunity arises for them to head to North Korea and interview Kim Jong-un. This has all come about due to the fact that Jong-un is, it turns out, a big fan of "Skylark Tonight". The US government sees this as a chance to pull off a fine piece of assassination work, which is all well and good if only a) Skylark and Rapaport weren't such idiots and b) Skylark didn't have the potential to see a new close friend in the disarmingly charming Jong-un.

There are some laughs to be had here, not least from Franco as he once again shows how perfectly he can play the vapid idiot. The friendship that develops between his character and Jong-un (played by Randall Park) is very funny, especially in the way it puts Rogen's character out of sorts. And a few individual lines of dialogue made me laugh aloud.

Unfortunately, it's all overly familiar to fans by this point. That's not bad in itself, but it is bad when the familiarity removes most of the potential for big laughs. Rogen and Goldberg co-direct with a near-slavish adherence to their usual bag of tricks (celebrity cameos - check, hard party montage - check, Rogen and Franco having the potential to be hetero life partners - check, use of the word "shart" - check). Some of the fault may lie with writer Dan Sterling, but I'm willing to pass the buck along to Goldberg, Rogen and Franco.

Park is a lot of fun as the dictator, Diana Bang is also great (playing Sook, a woman who is overseeing the technical aspects of the interview), and Caplan does well with a fairly small role. This is all about Rogen and Franco, and it plays out as you'd expect, with both leads using personas that they've used at least a dozen times now in the past decade. Which is a great shame, because this vehicle should have been more willing to take some major risks. The central premise isn't that daring as it wants you to think it is, and the political points scored aren't really that worth bothering about. The most interesting aspect of the movie is the discussion it has raised regarding the social responsibility of those with a global platform for their comedy/art. Personally, I don't think that this film should have ever been threatened with a non-release, yet I also think that it could have been just as funny if minor changes were made to fictionalise the main area and character.

I DID laugh. I enjoyed myself, for the most part. But this isn't a great comedy, by any stretch of the imagination. It certainly isn't worthy of the attention it has received in recent weeks. In fact, such controversy and debate deserves a better movie at the heart of it.

6/10

You can rent The Interview on a number of VOD platforms right now, or you could do yourself a favour and buy this film instead - http://www.amazon.com/This-Blu-ray-UltraViolet-Digital-Copy/dp/B00BEJL69U/ref=sr_1_4?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1419687087&sr=1-4&keywords=seth+rogen+evan+goldberg

The Watch (2012)

A comedy sci-fi movie, starring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Richard Ayoade and Jonah Hill, and directed by Akiva Schaffer, The Watch just falls short in the comedy department. Of course, there will be many people reading this review who immediately switch off once they find out that Stiller and Vaughn are involved, but I'm a fan of those guys and they have some good moments in this movie. Just not enough of them.

The plot is simple enough. There's an alien invasion happening, but nobody is aware of it. The only people who stumble on to the horrible truth are four men (those actors named above) who have recently come together in a newly-formed neighbourhood watch group. Unfortunately, they may not be the best people to deal with the situation, even if they're more up to the task than the main local law enforcement (headed up by Will Forte).

The Watch should have been a lot better than it is. I know that there are people who dislike most of the main stars, but I'm a fan of their work and looked forward to seeing them all having fun together onscreen. Unfortunately, the mix of alien invasion and comedy just doesn't work here. I laughed at a number of scenes, and I enjoyed the last few scenes, but the two main elements of the movie never feel as if they belong beside one another.

Everyone gets to have at least one chance to steal a scene, with Ayoade getting more chances than anyone else, because he's Ayoade (I'm a big fan of his work, in case you couldn't tell). Forte is very funny in his supporting role, Rosemarie DeWitt, Erin Moriarty, Billy Crudup and Jared Stern all cause some stress, in very different ways, for a few of the main characters, and R. Lee Ermey stretches his acting ability by portraying a foul-mouthed old man quick to grab his gun.

The whole movie gets by more on goodwill than anything else, but the script by Jared Stern, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg manages to set up a solid enough foundation for the main performers to have fun on, which allows for the film to be liked or loathed in equal measure, depending on your taste.

Many will view the fact that I liked it as just another example of how bad my taste can be.

6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Watch-Blu-ray-UV-Copy/dp/B006DZY6Z6/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1389128488&sr=1-2&keywords=the+watch

Goon (2011)

I like Jay Baruchel a lot. I think he's a funny, sweet young guy and have enjoyed him in everything that I've seen him in (from the likes of Knocked Up and Fanboys to She's Out Of My League to The Sorcerer's Apprentice and the animated delight of How To Train Your Dragon). So hearing the praise that was heaped upon Goon when it started doing the rounds really made me hope I would enjoy it and be able to recommend it to others. Baruchel has a role in the movie but, more importantly for his career path, he also co-wrote the screenplay with Evan Goldberg (based on the book "Goon: The True Story of an Unlikely Journey into Minor League Hockey" by Adam Frattasio and Doug Smith).

The story is a standard, simple tale and one that we've seen many times before. With a slight twist. Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott) is a young man who doesn't really have a "thing" in life except being able to take a punch and really give back as good as he gets, and then some. When he's spotted by a manager at a hockey game his life takes a major upturn and he's signed up to play hockey. It doesn't matter that he isn't actually all that good at hockey. It simply matters that he gets on the ice when required and causes some bruising to the players that need kept out of action for a while. Jay Bruchel plays the friend who loves seeing his buddy make good, Eugene Levy is the stereotypical Jewish father unimpressed by this turn of events, Alison Pill is a potential love interest and Liev Schreiber is the former biggest badass on the ice who fans want to see in one titanic battle with Doug "The Thug".

Director Michael Dowse hits all of the right notes as this movie runs through all of the sports movie cliches but when things step up a notch in the second half he really serves the material well. As unexpected as it was, I was literally close to tears during the grand finale.

As the different posters stated, Doug is "dumb as a puck" and also "the nicest guy you'll ever fight" and it's a role that really needs a sweetness at the centre, hidden beneath the mass of punches and bloodhsed and bruises, and Seann William Scott gives his best performance yet. Cynics may say that it's not hard for Scott to top his past performances but it would be unfair to the man to try and damn this performance with faint praise. It's a captivating lead performance and something that may remain an all-time career high. The rest of the cast all acquit themselves equally well. Jay Baruchel is as enjoyable as ever, while the same can easily be said of Alison Pill and Eugene Levy. Marc-Andre Grondin, Richard Clarkin, Jonathan Cherry, Kim Coates and everyone else involved with the hockey team do well with their various highs and lows while everything takes on more of an edge whenever Liev Schreiber comes onscreen to warn the sweethearted Doug of the shape of things to come.

The script IS good but it's good in the way that it balances the really revealing character moments with the expected lashings of violence. There's just as much here that you won't expect mixed in with everything that you've sat through 100 times before but even the cornier moments and the cliches feel fresher and more enjoyable because of that wonderful central performance.

Goon is certainly not a standard sports movie to recommend to everyone but I hope that it finds an audience that will give it a home and keep introducing it to others whenever possible. Just like the lead character, it's a rough and ready piece that deserves some praise and love.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Goon-Blu-ray-Seann-William-Scott/dp/B006E00FIC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1336858298&sr=8-2