Review: "Scary Movie 3" Quite Bad, but Funny

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 158 (of 2003)


Scary Movie 3 (2003)
Running time: 84 minutes (1 hour, 24 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for pervasive crude and sexual humor, language, comic violence and drug references
DIRECTOR: David Zucker
WRITERS: Craig Mazin and Pat Proft (based upon characters created by Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg, and Aaron Seltzer)
PRODUCER: Robert K. Weiss
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mark Irwin (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Malcolm Campbell and Jon Poll
COMPOSER: James L. Venable

COMEDY with elements of fantasy, horror, and sci-fi

Starring: Anna Faris, Simon Rex, Regina Hall, Anthony Anderson, Pamela Anderson, Jenny McCarthy, Marny Eng, Charlie Sheen, Jeremy Piven, Camryn Manheim, Queen Latifah, Eddie Griffin, Leslie Nielsen, D.L. Hughley, Ja Rule, George Carlin, Master P, Macy Gray, Redman, Method Man, Raekwon, RZA, Fat Joe, and Simon Cowell

The subject of this movie review is Scary Movie 3, a 2003 comedy film and parody of science fiction and horror films. It is the first film in the Scary Movie franchise not to feature members of the Wayans family.

Scary Movie 3 has loads and loads of belly laughs, but it is shockingly lame, dull, and an all out boring film, which gets worse as its nearly incomprehensible story lethargically crawls to the end. This installment of the franchise mainly targets The Ring and Signs for a good skewering or is that screwing? The Matrix and 8 Mile also fall in for a manhandling; the former parody is mildly funny while the latter is surprisingly sprightly and hilarious. The film, however, is one long gag reel superimposed over a deplorably bad movie.

The story this time, as it may be, has Cindy (Anna Faris) and her lame heartthrob George (Simon Rex) investigating crop circles and a killer ghost from a haunted videocassette. Somehow, it’s all tied together, and Cindy also has to help President Harris (Leslie Nielsen) stop an alien invasion.

If this doesn’t sound like much, it’s because Scary Movie 3 isn’t very much. The presence of so many stars in small roles and cameos is very nice, and some, like Anthony Anderson, Pamela Anderson, and Jenny McCarthy, actually make the film worth seeing. The cast, like the raunchy humor and endless sight gags, don’t exactly save the movie, but they can make you laugh, and in the end, those laughs might be the only reason to justify seeing this lame duck. David Zucker, part of the team responsible for Airplane and Naked Gun, lavishes Scary Movie 3 with his trademark gag-a-minute style, and it works to an extent.

I must really emphasize that this film can cause some hard and deep laughing, but I was also very shocked at how often tasteless and tactless the film was. Jokes that involve violating a corpse at a wake and pedophilia on the part of Catholic priest cross the line. It’s not so much that this kind of humor seems desperate; it’s that the filmmakers seem so willfully shameless and tasteless. Some things are not funny. They are sacred or taboo for reasons that are important to a society. It’s not that such things cannot be discussed; it’s how they are discussed. To use them as jokes is the sign of a weak, unimaginative mind – a selfish and immature person determined and desperate to get what he wants at any cost.

That said – I laughed a lot, and I cringed behind my arms almost as much. Scary Movie 3 won’t ever be listed among the great comedies. At best, it’s a temporary and exasperating thrill that is forgotten as soon as the film fades to black.

3 of 10
C-

Review: "Scary Movie 2" Bad and Funny

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 9 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux


Scary Movie 2 (2001)
Running time: 83 minutes (1 hour, 23 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong sexual and gross humor, graphic language and some drug content
DIRECTOR: Keenan Ivory Wayans
WRITERS: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Alyson Fouse, Greg Grabianski, Dave Polsky, Michael Anthony Snowden, and Craig Wayans (based upon characters created by Shawn and Marlon Wayans, Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer)
PRODUCER: Eric L. Gold
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Steven Bernstein (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Tom Nordberg, Richard Pearson, and Peter Teschner
COMPOSERS: Mark McGrath

COMEDY/HORROR

Starring: Anna Faris, Marlon Wayans, James DeBello, Shawn Wayans, David Cross, Regina Hall, Christopher Masterson, Tim Curry, Kathleen Robertson, Chris Elliot, James Woods, Andy Richter, Tori Spelling, and Natasha Lyonne

The subject of this movie review is Scary Movie 2, a 2001 comedy and parody film. Directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans, this movie is a sequel to the 2001 hit film, Scary Movie, and is a spoof of horror-thriller films.

The four survivors from the first Scary Movie: heroine Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris), gay jock Ray Wilkins (Shawn Wayans), pot head Shorty Meeks (Marlon Wayans), and his sister Brenda (Regina Hall) endanger themselves again when a college instructor, Professor Oldman (Tim Curry), and his wheelchair bound assistant, Dwight Hartman (David Cross), recruit them to spend the weekend in an old mansion called Hell House for a research project on insomnia. Cindy’s new admirer Buddy (Christopher Kennedy Masterson), Theo (Tori Spelling), and hottie Jamie Lee Curtisto (Kathleen Robertson) join them for the hijinks.

If a really bad movie can be really hilarious, this one is. How bad is it, one might ask? Well, that wouldn’t be a rhetorical question. The filmmakers nearly discard story and plot and replace them with dumb sight gags and gross humor, primarily of the bodily functions and bodily fluids type.

Directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans, Scary Movie 2 is at times quite funny, even hilarious; at other times, it is embarrassing in it over reliance on bodily fluids and sex jokes. After seeing a masturbation scene, simulated oral sex, an appearance by Lester “Beetlejuice” Green, one can only wonder if the filmmakers used a single 13-year-old American boy’s brain to create this film and passed it around during production.

Director Wayans specializes in taking scenes from other movies and parodying them with visual puns and gags, and he continues that here. He has become over time more skilled at stringing together longer strands of gags in lieu of story in his movies. He isn’t a strong storyteller. When the jokes run out, his movies rapidly run out of energy, as was the case in the I'm Gonna Git You Sucka.

Utilizing as many joke and gag writers as Walt Disney does for its animated films, Wayans turns his movie into a dirty joke book, and certainly doesn’t get the smart and sassy results Disney gets in one of its films. The plot, about a weekend experiment in proving life after death or some such lie, is merely a weak idea upon which to hang this film’s nasty proceedings. The story, if written, would only be a few lines in length, and the plot is merely a path by which Wayans and his accomplices laid out the yucks and giggles.

Small roles by James Woods and Chris Elliot are painfully embarrassing to watch, so filled with vileness and sickness as they are. Still, this movie has moments that are truly uproariously funny, and this makes the movie slyly attractive. The filmmakers certainly succeeded in making a funny movie, but they chase off many viewers with their determination to be hardcore funky. Most of the cast is actually up to the task of making the movie be what it’s supposed to be. Do we dare call that good acting?

What else is there to say? Scary Movie 2 is really bad and really funny. But beware; it is a humor that turns off many viewers.

5 of 10
B-

Review: Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 27 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux


Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon (2012) – Video
Running time: 75 minutes (1 hour, 15 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Michael Gougen
WRITER: Michael Ryan; from a story b y Marly Halpern-Graser
PRODUCER: James Tucker
EDITOR: Kyle Stafford
COMPOSERS: Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion, and Lolita Ritmanis
ANIMATION STUDIO: Digital eMation, Inc.

ANIMATION/FANTASY/FAMILY and ACTION/COMEDY/MYSTERY

Starring: (voices) Frank Welker, Matthew Lillard, Grey DeLisle, Mindy Cohn, Diedrich Bader, Dee Bradley Baker, Jeff Bennett, Gregg Berger, John DiMaggio, Nika Futterman, Kevin Michael Richardson, Tara Strong, Fred Tatasciore, Mindy Sterling, and Billy West

Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon is the 19th movie in the Scooby-Doo straight-to-video series from Warner Bros. Animation. This series began in 1998 with Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. In Mask of the Blue Falcon, Scooby-Doo and friends attend a comic book convention where they confront a monster terrorizing the convention.

Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon finds Mystery Inc.: Shaggy Rogers (Matthew Lillard), Fred Jones (Frank Welker), Daphne Blake (Grey DeLisle), Velma Dinkley (Mindy Cohn), and, of course, Scooby-Doo (Frank Welker) solving their latest case. Shaggy and Scooby-Doo are ready to take a break from mystery-solving and from being chased by monsters. Their destination of choice is the Mega Mondo Pop! Comic ConApalozza in San Pedro, California. Shaggy and Scooby plan to enter the convention’s costume contest, dressed as their favorite superheroes, the Blue Falcon (Shaggy) and Dynomutt the Dog Wonder (Scooby).

The gang arrives at the San Pedro Convention Center and finds the place packed with attendees in costumes, vendors with merchandise to sell, and even a bitter, faded actor. Owen Garrison (Jeff Bennett) was the original Blue Falcon, and he is angry that fans have forgotten him. Producer/director, Jennifer Severin (Nika Futterman) is re-launching the Blue Falcon franchise with an updated and darker movie, “The Blue Falcon Reborn: Dynomutt’s Revenge.” There is a new actor, Brad Adams (Diedrich Bader), starring as the Blue Falcon.

Meanwhile, one of the original Blue Falcon’s enemies, Mr. Hyde (John DiMaggio), begins terrorizing the convention and threatening to stop the premiere of the new Blue Falcon movie. Suspicion is directed at Garrison as the identity of the diabolical Hyde, but Shaggy and Scooby don’t believe it. Can this dynamic duo solve the mystery of Mr. Hyde or will they just end up being laughingstocks?

The Scooby-Doo animated television franchise is probably the signature creation of Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc., the former American animation studio that dominated American television animation for decades. Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon is like a reunion of old Hanna-Barbera characters and shows, especially those that appeared on Saturday morning network television in the 1960s and 70s. Of course, Blue Falcon and Dynomutt the Dog Wonder were the stars of Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, a half-hour segment of The Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour, which originally aired during the 1976-77 television season.

In fact, in one form or another, several Hanna-Barbera characters appear in Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon, including The Flintstones, Frankenstein, Jr., The Herculoids, Space Ghost, and Speed Buggy, among many. That may be why I like Mask of the Blue Falcon so much. While it is not great, I do think this movie is one of the better recent Scooby-Doo direct-to-DVD films. I am giving it a rating of 8 (of 10), which I translate to a grade of “A.” Perhaps, I should be a bit more conservative here, but I like this film enough that I could not see myself going to anything below a 7. That’s a Hanna-Barbera fan for you!

Anyway, Mask of the Blue Falcon’s animation is nice and has sharp colors (which is generally true of the series these last few years). The character animation is good, and while the characters’ motion is not as good as it is in feature animation, they never look clunky and clumsy.

What makes Mask of the Blue Falcon stand out is characterization. Mystery Inc. and many of the supporting characters have personalities, desires, goals, conflicts, etc. There is Scooby-Doo’s need to be a hero like Dynomutt, and Owen Garrison’s bitterness. Daphne’s obsession with a toy line, the “Littlest Fuzzies,” is a nice change of pace for the character. I did notice something peculiar. Whenever, Mayor Ron Starlin of San Pedro (Kevin Michael Richardson) was on-screen, the background music changed to some kind of gospel-inflected organ music. Was this to indicate that the mayor, who is African-American, is some kind of stereotypical, Black religious leader-type politician? A Rev. Jesse Jackson or Rev. Al Sharpton type, hmm?

As character development and personality go, this is minute, simple material, but it’s a step-up from recent Scooby-Doo movies. So it’s not just nostalgia that makes me love this movie; Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon is quite good… even if it is not as good as I think it is. And I do want more like it.

8 of 10
A

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

"The Godfather" Returns for Cinemark's Classic Series

ACADEMY AWARD WINNING ‘THE GODFATHER’ RETURNS TO SCREENS FOR CINEMARK’S CLASSIC SERIES ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2013

Next Round of Cinemark’s Classic Series Films to Feature ‘RAGING BULL’, and ‘THE GRADUATE’

Plano, TX (April 8, 2013) – Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK), one of the world’s largest motion picture exhibitors, is pleased to announce the final film in the Best Picture Classic Series. The 1972 Academy Award Winner for Best Motion Picture, THE GODFATHER, will play in over 120 Cinemark theatres across the country, including on the Cinemark XD - Extreme Digital Cinema screens where available. Ranked #2 on the 2007 American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, the film is scheduled to play on Wednesday, April 10, 2013, at two separate show times, 2 pm and 7pm.

"There is no greater iconic film than “The Godfather,” states James Meredith, VP, Head of Marketing and Communications at Cinemark. “It has set the standard for story-telling, launched a generation of great actors, and provided movie-goers an unparalleled experience. ”

“The Godfather,” Francis Ford Coppola's epic masterpiece features Marlon Brando in his Oscar©-winning role as the patriarch of the Corleone family. Director Coppola paints a chilling portrait of the Sicilian clan's rise and near fall from power in America, masterfully balancing the story between the Corleone's family life and the ugly crime business in which they are engaged. Based on Mario Puzo's best-selling novel and featuring career-making performances by Al Pacino, James Cann and Robert Duvall, this searing and brilliant film garnered eleven Academy Award® nominations, and won three including Best Picture in 1972. It is considered by many to be one of the greatest American films ever made. Cinemark will show the 40th Anniversary restoration version of the film, which is rated R by the MPAA.

Cinemark is also pleased to announce that the next set of “Classic Series” films will feature four diverse and groundbreaking films. All Classics will show at 2pm and 7pm on the following days:

April 24: Raging Bull (1980) R

May 1: The Graduate (1967) PG

May 8: Alien (1979) R

May 15: Blazing Saddles (1974) R

“Four very distinctive directors are showcased in this round of classic films,” Meredith adds. “From Martin Scorsese and Mike Nichols to Ridley Scott and Mel Brooks, you cannot find four other directors who bring unparalleled styles to both the visual and acting aspects of their movies.”

Tickets for Cinemark’s Classic Series, including a specially priced bundled package of $20 for all four movies, are now available at www.cinemark.com or at the participating theatre box office. For a full list of participating Cinemark locations, advance ticket purchases and show time information go to the Cinemark web site.


About Cinemark Holdings, Inc.
Cinemark is a leading domestic and international motion picture exhibitor, operating 465 theatres with 5,240 screens in 39 U.S. states, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and 10 other Latin American countries as of December 31, 2012. For more information go to www.cinemark.com.

Disney Icon Annette Funicello Dies at Age 70

Photograph of Annette Funicello as a Disney Mouseketeer is copyright The Walt Disney Company

Beloved Disney Mouseketeer and Iconic Teen Star Annette Funicello Dies at Age 70

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Actress Annette Funicello, long-time Disney and Beach Party star, passed away on Monday April 8 at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, CA, at the age of 70. She died peacefully from complications due to Multiple Sclerosis, a disease she battled for over 25 years. Beloved by television viewers in the 50s for her stint on Disney’s original The Mickey Mouse Club, and by film buffs for her numerous roles in a series of popular teen-oriented movies in the 60s, Funicello became a pop culture icon.

Commenting on her passing, Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, said, “Annette was and always will be a cherished member of the Disney family, synonymous with the word Mousketeer, and a true Disney Legend. She will forever hold a place in our hearts as one of Walt Disney’s brightest stars, delighting an entire generation of baby boomers with her jubilant personality and endless talent. Annette was well known for being as beautiful inside as she was on the outside, and she faced her physical challenges with dignity, bravery and grace. All of us at Disney join with family, friends, and fans around the world in celebrating her extraordinary life.”

Diane Disney Miller, daughter of Walt Disney, added, “Everyone who knew Annette loved and respected her. She was one of the loveliest people I’ve ever known, and was always so kind to everyone. She was also the consummate professional, and had such great loyalty to my father. Annette will always be very special to me and Ron.” Diane’s husband, Ron Miller, who helmed the Disney company in the 1980s and worked with Annette when he was a young assistant on The Mickey Mouse Club, recalled, “She was always in good spirits and ready to help out if she needed to step in when something unexpected happened.”

Oscar®-winning composer and Disney Legend Richard Sherman, who, with his late brother Robert, wrote many of Annette’s biggest song hits, said, “Annette’s sweet, unassuming spirit, her love of people, and her capacity to exude kindness and good feelings to everyone she met was part of her beautiful charisma. Because the songs we wrote for her brought us to the attention of Walt, Bob and I always referred to Annette as our ‘lucky star.’ My wife, Elizabeth, joins me in sending a heartfelt aloha with much love to our ‘Pineapple Princess.’”

Fellow Mouseketeer and long-time friend Sharon Baird observed, “Throughout all the years we were friends she never changed from that sweet person who cared so much about others. She always had time for everyone; family, friends and fans alike. It’s no wonder she was America’s sweetheart.”

Born October 22, 1942, in Utica, New York, Funicello and her family moved to Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley when she was four years old. She was discovered by Walt Disney at age 13 while dancing the lead in Swan Lake at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank and he invited her to audition for his new children’s TV series called The Mickey Mouse Club and was hired on the spot to become a Mouseketeer. The show debuted on October 3, 1955 and Annette soon became the most popular member of the group. The series ran for three original seasons and in reruns through the 1990s.

After leaving the Mickey Mouse Club, Funicello was the only Mouseketeer to remain under contract to Disney and appeared on the TV shows Zorro (1957), The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca (1958), and starred in the Disney feature films The Shaggy Dog (1959), Babes in Toyland (1961), The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964), and The Monkey’s Uncle (1965).

In the early 1960s, Annette starred in a series of beach party movies with teen idol Frankie Avalon, including Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965). During this time, she recorded a series of hit top-40 pop singles, including “Tall Paul,” “First Name Initial,” “How Will I Know My Love,” and “Pineapple Princess.” Her string of successful record albums included such favorites as “Hawaiiannette” (1960), “Italiannette” (1960), and “Dance Annette” (1961).

In 1987, Funicello again teamed up with Frankie Avalon to co-produce and star in Paramount’s Back to the Beach as parents of a pair of troublesome teenagers. In 1989 and 1990, Avalon and Funicello staged a nostalgic concert tour, performing the beach party music and pop hit singles they made famous in the 1960s.

In 1987, Funicello was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), a degenerative neurological disease and in 1992 went public with her illness. Later that year, she established The Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases. It is dedicated to funding research into the cause, treatment and cure of multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases and continues to be an active charity.

Despite battling MS, in the 1990’s Annette launched The Annette Funicello Teddy Bear Company, marketing a line of collectible bears on QVC, and developed her own perfume line, Cello, by Annette. In 1992, on her 50th birthday, she was named a Disney Legend. However, as she became more debilitated by MS, Annette retreated from public appearances in the late 1990s and has been cared for since that time by her second husband, rancher Glen Holt, who she married in 1986. She was previously married to Jack Gilardi from 1965 until their divorce in 1981. She has three children from her first marriage; Gina, Jack Jr. and Jason, and three young grandchildren.

Summing up the life of the iconic star, Diane Disney Miller quoted a verse from Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty,” that she felt “seemed to have been written for Annette:

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes
Thus mellow’d to that tender light
Which Heaven to gaudy Day denies.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Annette’s memory can be made to The Annette Funicello Research Fund at annetteconnection.com.

Review: "Catch that Kid" is a Kiddie Action Flick (Happy B'day, Kristen Stewart)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 13 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Catch that Kid (2004)
Running time: 91 minutes (l hour, 31 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some language, thematic elements and rude humor
DIRECTOR: Bart Freundlich
WRITERS: Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (based upon the Danish film Klatreøsen by Nikolaj Arcel, Hans Fabian Wullenweber, and Erlend Loe)
PRODUCERS: Andrew Lazar and Uwe Schott
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Julio Macat
EDITOR: Stuart Levy
COMPOSER: George S. Clinton

ADVENTURE/COMEDY/CRIME/FAMILY with elements of action and thriller

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Corbin Bleu, Max Thieriot, Jennifer Beals, Sam Robards, John Carroll Lynch, James Le Gros, Michael Des Barres, Stark Sands, and Grant Hayden Scott & Shane Avery Scott

The subject of this movie review is Catch that Kid, a 2004 adventure-comedy and crime film from Fox 2000 Pictures, a division of 20th Century Fox. The film is an early starring role for actress Kristen Stewart, who would go on to star in the Twilight films.

Fox’s Catch that Kid, a remake of the smash 2002 Danish film, Klatreøsen (Catch that Girl), is a kind low watt and low-tech version of Spy Kids (lacking the Spy Kids franchise’s imagination and fantastical aspects) and a juvenile version of Mission: Impossible, replete with car chases, computer hacking, and breaking and entering heavily secured structures.

Maddy (Kristen Stewart) is a budding climber, hoping to be like her father, Tom (Sam Robards), who climbed Mount Everest. Tom, however, sustained a severe injury while at Everest, that’s come back to haunt him. Without an expensive, experimental (but highly successful) surgery, he will likely remained mostly paralyzed. When a large multinational bank, for which her mother, Molly (Jennifer Beals, Flashdance), provides high tech security, refuses to loan her family the money, Maddy takes things into her own hands.

She convinces two boy friends to help her bypass the state of the art electronic security, and rob the bank of 250,000 dollars. A complication is that both boys are in love with Maddy and vie for her attention against each other. The computer whiz, Austin (Corbin Bleu), and the mechanically inclined, Gus (Max Thieriot), may, however, have just the talent that when combined with Maddy’s spunk and climbing skills could bring them success

The film is quite well directed by Bart Freundlich, a well-considered director of independent art films. Although the concept is farfetched, the action and jokes should sit well with most kids and even some teens, never mind the moral implications of robbing a bank to save your father’s life.

Catch that Kid is largely meant to be like “Kim Possible” or Totally Spies,” those animated shows where kids go on dangerous missions. Picture this as a high-octane action movie for kids, sans the pyrotechnics and violence. In that light, it’s entertaining (at times, even to more mature minds), and Freundlich keeps the level of suspense high. It may be difficult for adults to identify with kiddie action heroes, but these characters are doing the Tom Cruise or Bruce Willis things for the children.

5 of 10
B-

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Happy Birthday, Liz

Well, Elizabeth, I can't help that the Birthday Fairy has come around again.  But I can wish you a Happy Birthday... and many, many more.