Beauty and the Beast (a movie review post)

What I want to do here is to talk about Disney's scheme of remaking their animated hits as live action movies, because, other than Maleficent, it seems rather pointless. However, when the goal is to make money, they are quite nicely fulfilling their point. Beauty and the Beast has already made over $200 million, and it hasn't, at the time of this writing, even been out a week. However, that discussion has nothing to do with the actual movie and should probably be saved for some other time. Or not had at all. Well, I'm sure plenty of other people are having it, so, probably, I will skip it other than to say that I liked the idea of re-telling the stories, as in Maleficent, from some other point of view.

Of course, the problem with talking about this movie, at least for me, is that it's very difficult to do as a thing all on its own without any kind of comparison or consideration of the 1991 animated feature. Probably, that's impossible. Disney's original Beauty was a landmark film and, really, changed animation forever. It was the first animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy awards and was the cause of the best animated feature category being created. This movie, the remake, despite beautiful animation, can't be said to be anything more than conventional. In fact, my daughter's response to it (and she's the one who wanted to see it) was, "It was all right."

I think I liked it more than she did. But she hasn't seen the original in so long she barely remembers it, and it was never anything to her more than another movie on video. In post-Pixar days, it's difficult for earlier animated movies to hold up. Maybe that's why they need to be remade...

But part of what I liked about it had to do with nostalgia more than any inherent quality in the movie itself. Which is not to say that it's not a good movie. It is. It's a good movie, possibly very good, with some great performances and great music, which goes without saying since much of the music is from the original.

Also, as you could expect from a Disney movie, the cast is great. Emma Watson is charming. Kevin Kline is... well, he's Kevin Kline, so he was great. Dan Stevens looks princely, which, especially for Disney, is appropriate. Luke Evans is incredible and came close to stealing the whole movie. Not quite but close. Ewan McGregor and Ian McKellen are an amazing voice pair. They, also, came close to stealing the show.

Really, though, what it comes down to is this:
If you're a fan of the original because you remember seeing it in the theater when it was first released, you will probably get a big shot of nostalgia from this movie and love it. I'm going to guess that children will really enjoy it, too, but I don't know if it is the kind of movie that will actually compete with animated movies for their attention. For people in between, well, it's probably not going to be anything special. It's good, but it's not going to blow you away or change your life. It's probably worth seeing on the big screen, though.

This Is The End

Okay, so it's not really the end, although, I suppose, it could be. I mean, we never know what's going to happen, so it's possible this is the end... the last post I will ever write...

But that's not the plan.

At any rate, my wife and I went to see This Is The End, and you can just shut up right now, because it was funny. In all of its crudity, it was just funny.

Not that I'm recommending it for everyone, because I know a lot of people are offended by this type of humor, and This Is The End takes it to Kevin Smith levels of crude and, probably, even beyond. Really, you have to see it to know what I'm talking to about, because I can't talk about it without spoilers.

First thing, you really need to have seen Pineapple Express to get some of the jokes in This Is The End. In a lot of ways, TITE is the real life sequel of Pineapple. So, if you've seen Pineapple and liked it, you'll probably like TITE. If you didn't like Pineapple, you definitely shouldn't bother with TITE.

The idea is that the end of the world is happening and a group of friends are hiding out together. Let me say that again: a group of "friends" are hiding out together to escape the end of the world. Except one of the guys (Jay Baruchel) really doesn't like any of the other people, and none of them really like one of the guys (Danny McBride), especially since he (McBride) wastes half of their food on the first day. It's one of those "what would happen if you were locked up with your best friends" kind of scenarios. How long would you maintain?

And it all starts with a party where no one notices that the end of the world is happening, which is a joke in-and-of itself and pretty priceless, if you ask me. The Emma Watson bit (which is shown in the trailer), because she's at the party, too, is hilarious. As is Michael Cera.

The thing about a movie like this is that the cast, who all play themselves, really has to be able to make fun of themselves. Parody themselves. Make all the things we think about them larger than life whether those things are true or not. And who knows how much of any of it is true other than those guys, but they were brilliant at it in this film. Especially James Franco. I don't care what people say about him, I'm convinced the man is one of the smartest actors in Hollywood. Hmm... that may not be saying much, so let me say he's just pretty freaking smart.

The best part, though, is the writing. What you expect is just some pretty straightforward crude humor, and it's full of that. I mean, the f*c& count is pretty high. [Did you know that wikipedia has an entry for the movies with the highest uses of that word? I do, now.] However, there's some pretty complex and subtle writing going on, too, which is pretty awesome if you can see it under all of the depravity of the movie. But, again, I can't talk about it without giving it away.

So, here at the end, let me just say that if you like this kind of humor, even if it's a guilty pleasure kind of thing, then you should go see this movie. Or, at the very least, plan to rent it. You know, as long as the End doesn't come beforehand...