Little Miss Sunshine (dir. Dayton & Faris) - A charming little road movie that I just know will be one of those movies. The ones that when I'm bored I will go "hmmm, I'll watch Little Miss Sunshine". It's not brain surgury sitting through this movie. Performances are all great, I particularly loved Steve Carell. Abigail Breslin was adorable but was also a generally fine performance (that justifies the Oscar buzz). Toni Collette is yet again doing her always lovely every-woman act. Alan Arkin is a hoot as the foul mouthed grandpa and Greg Kinnear and Paul Dano round out the family with solid but unshowy performances. Writing is superb and the film looks great. It's not the sort of film that you find yourself laughing constantly throughout (although there are a few laugh out loud moments), but it sticks with you. My only concern is with the final act. Yes, the film comes out against beauty pageants quite strongly, but I'm not sure if grossing out the audience was a good movie. If you're going for "charming family dramedy" why feature of scene of grotesqueness? Still, it was a good way to spend an hour forty minutes. B+
Scary Movie 4 (dir. Zucker) - Okay, I don't care what you say, but the original Scary Movie was hilarious for me as a 15-year-old (it actually holds up quite well) who had religiously watched all the horror movies that came out in the wake of Scream. Scary Movie 2 on the other hand is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4 are very similar. Both directed by Jerry Zucker, they both feature 100 skits per minute with only a few hitting the mark). However, Scary Movie 4 gets a few extra points for being a bit more on-the-ball. I'm glad they recognised the complete and utter stupidity of War of the Worlds (seriously bad filmmaking there Mr Spielberg) and how fucking annoying that white-faced kid from The Grudge or the stupid tricycle-riding weirdo from Saw were. I sat for stretches of this movie nodding my head going "Yes! That's what I thought!" Don't get me wrong, it's not good filmmaking, it's really quite lazy, but if you dislike the movies that are prominent you'll get a good few chuckles out of it, which is essentially all the filmmakers are going for. For whatever reason, the bit that I got a big proper laugh out of was the random Hustle & Flow bit and an extended Million Dollar Baby spoof. Thankfully thought there are actually some good lines in the script that are probably funnier due to seeing the actors rattle them off without batting an eye. "Brenda?" "Cindy! It's been so long" "Yeah... I thought you were dead." It's true, she did die in the last three movies. What on earth was Jeff Daniels doing here though? C+
When a Stranger Calls (dir. West) - I was originally quite excited when I heard they were remaking When A Stranger Calls as the 1979 original (starring Carol Kane as the terrorfied babysitter) was about as scary as a box full of old dishrags. But something weird happened on the way to the multiplex. The makers forgot to film the last hour of the movie! The original featured the young babysitter getting scary phone calls and all that jazz, in a scene much like the opening of each of the Scream franchise. Then it jumped forward many years later when the same babysitter was now married with children and starts thinking the same man is after her again. This "remake" actually only remakes the first 10 minutes and stretches it out to 80 (and even that is too long). It runs out of things to fill in the time, and what they do have there already isn't exactly mindblowing. Shame, really. The production design is wonderful (that house is stunning), the score would be effective in a different movie (one that was actually scary) and Camilla Belle is definitely easy on the eyes and at least tries to keep the film's head above water. But in the end, we know absolutely zero about anything. None of the characters (including the mystery man voiced by Lance Henriksen surprisingly, but acted by Tommy Flanigan) are particularly interesting, the scares are pretty much non-existent and the end is ridiculous. However, for what it is I certainly didn't hate watching it like I did with unbelievable crap like The Grudge. C-American Dreamz (dir. Weitz) - Okay, a major peeve of mine when it comes to movies is when they feature performances on a stage that don't make sense in the physical world. Like, when I'm sitting there going "if I was in that audience, that would be impossible". Sometimes it's incredibly frustrating (Centre Stage), other times it's hilarious (Stayin' Alive). Here it made me angry. It's not so much that there we, the audience, are seeing things that would be impossible, it's that we're seeing things that are a shit.
So, apparently this "American Dreamz" TV show is the most watched show in the entire world (why on earth would people care about an American talent contest in Iraq?), yet I don't see any evidence to show me why or how. Hugh Grant's character hosts the show and is the sole judge and he is so completely dull. The talent is bad (he keeps bad singers in for ratings, but if there are so many disaster contestants people won't watch) and the set is boring. The format of the show too is confusing. Apparently the 50 (50!!) performers are on it. Do people vote for those who get kicked out or just for the finale?
And then there's the fact that Weitz has absolutely ZERO understanding of Idol type programs and politics in general. None. Zip. Nada. It should come as no surprise that IMDb trivia says "Writer/director Paul Weitz claims that he wrote the original draft of the "American Dreamz" script before he had ever watched an episode of "American Idol"." People aren't gonna vote for somebody that is blatantly bad. The crowd reactions are completely wrong (these audiences will scream their knickers off at even the slightest high or extended note) and there is no way in hell that the finale of the world's most watched TV program would go to air with only one commercial break. Presidential judge or not. And what's up with the White House scenes? That is seriously gotta be the quietest White House ever on film. I think there were two people walking around that place.
And then there's the performances. Hugh Grant is abysmal. Truly astonishing how bad he is. Dennis Quaid, Willem Dafoe and Marcia Gay Harding are annoying playing real-life people disguised as fictional ones, and all the contestants are just non issues. The only one I liked was the gay wannabe contestant. At least he had some enthusiasm. "You move like a reanimated corpse in a zombie movie". Paul Weitz, you stupid stupid man. Do some fuckin research before you make a movie. Disgraceful. D-
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