The current cinema, 420 edition

I endeavor to wear my knowledge of substance abuse lightly in my review of A Very Harold And Kumar 3D Christmas, a film that made me laugh and laugh and laugh and as such enhanced my true appreciation of my understanding that my true appreciation of art begins in pleasure. I got less pleasure—but still some, still some!—from Tower Heist, which, as I endeavor to explain in my review, also for MSN Movies, is a game but ultimately failed stab at creating a TNT Classic. 

Comments

[David Ehrenstein]

Sorry I missed the "All-Media" of this one, but I'm up to my ears in Roman Polanski.

As for "Tower Heist" I wouldn't see it if you paid me.

Well I would if you paid me a LOT, but that's it.

[ZS]

I can't wait to see Harold and Kumar tomorrow!

[colinr]

That reminds me to ask what you think of Gregg Araki's Smiley Face - the stoner comedy starring Anna Faris in which John Cho also appears?

[Glenn Kenny]

BIG "Smiley Face" fan. One of the biggest, perhaps.

[Bettencourt]

I remember being pretty disappointed in Smiley Face (okay, it was a Gregg Araki film that didn't have Joseph Gordon-Levitt, so my expectations weren't TOO high). I thought Faris was terrific, fearless as ever, but it seemed weird to base a farce on a stoner who gets more stoned than usual one day. This is already a character who's at the bong before noon. Sort of like a fish-in-slightly-saltier-water story.

Also, am I the only one who thinks that most Araki films (including Kaboom) feel like they were filmed in a rehearsal room at a community college? I don't know what it is - the ambient sound, the art direction...

Still, I'm greatly looking forward to H&K 3D, to an almost embarrassing degree. That "who are you looking at?" joke in the trailer especially cracks me up.

[Bettencourt]

Actually, the line might actually be "who are you talking to?"

[colinr]

Glad to hear that about Smiley Face - I still have some catching up to do with Araki's back catalogue (the experience of The Doom Generation left me a little too traumatised!)

"I got less pleasure—but still some, still some!—from Tower Heist"

It actually sounds surprisingly tolerable, which at least is a step up! Mark Kermode, the BBC's film critic just got through reviewing the film on their news channel with the same ambilavence, ending his review with the presumably technically correct comment "It's Brett Ratner's best film!" Talk about backhanded compliments though!

[colinr]

*ambivalence* - I can usually spell correctly, honets!

[That Fuzzy Bastard]

I still can't decide if the funniest bit in Smiley Face is the Garfield speech or the Jane Lynch scene. But the former is definitely the most accurate depiction of stonedness ever on film.

[Shawn Stone]

Tower Heist: Yes, the business with the car is, um, labored. It's like Ratner can't resist milking something that would been better cut down to just the shot with the maid vacuuming in the foreground.

Then there was the added fun of Eddie Murphy breaking into the old Golf + Western building. You can't go home again.