So I sat down last night and watched this movie finally. I had thought about seeing it in theaters and decided against. I find myself in the realm of good decisions waiting for this one for DVD. Alright, so to sum up this movie. Scott has an Asian girlfriend, Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) and then meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and must defeat her seven evil exes (a reoccurring joke that doesn’t seem funny). The whole movie is shot in a music infused video game style with stylized violence throughout. At first as I watched, I felt, okay, this movie could go PG. Nope. turned PG-13 pretty quickly. A sensual scene here, a swear there, and it turned in to what was a feeble attempt at a PG-13 movie. Edgar Wright did a fantastic job directing and worked well with the style he decided to pursue. Almost all the comedy comes from the visual effects and looks fantastic (one movie I would see in theaters in 3D).
Apart from this, I was greatly distressed by the level of acting in this movie. To start things off, Michael Cera was awful. He came of as a gangly, falsetto pedophile who didn’t belong in the movie. I must say I like Michael Cera, but more Youth in Revolt level acting. He lent his quips and awkward charm to the movie, but to no avail. Mary Elizabeth Winstead was fine, I think she’s beautiful and brought a solid B+ performance to the movie. I loved her in Black Xmas, but that’s for another time. (Horror movies are on a whole other level for me.) Allison Pill came off as extremely annoying, albeit she was Scott’s ex-girlfriend. Mark Webber brought the humor as the band’s erratic and easily frightened front man, although I haven’t seen Mark since Snow Day back in 2000 (that really dates my movie experiences…). Kieran Culkin was fantastic as Scott’s homosexual roommate, Wallace. If I had to compare him to any actor, I would consider him a more refined version of Tobey Maguire.
Some high points of the movie stand out to me which I wasn’t expecting at all. Jason Schwartzman’s small role towards the end was fantastic as Ramona’s strongest evil ex. Although not the typical A-list shizz that he normally does, I enjoyed his part. Let me also just say that Tom Jane’s guest appearance in the movie was badass. I won’t tell you now but, if anything, this movie is worth watching for his cameo. Mae Whitman was fantastic as Ramona’s lesbian phase. I see it as a tribute that they would include Michael Cera’s former ex-girlfriend from Arrested Development, Ann, into the mix. Bravo. To round it off, Chris Evans part was great as the cheesy action film star and all around tool. I’ve liked him in comedies ever since Not Another Teen Movie and he’s always great at it.
All in all, the movie was quite good, but mostly lacking in overall acting and delivery. To have a movie’s visual effects overtake the acting and comedy of the situations of those actors is poor, although this movie wasn’t at all about the acting really. And for that, I give it a 6.6 out of 10.
Shot from the movie.
reviewsfromtheabyss 