Weekly Cinemeh

While we didn't have a dedicated theme this week, all of the movies were worth watching. I swear, one day we will work out that theme thing.

1: Poona The Fuckdog And Other Plays For Children
This was an odd one. It was a stage play that had been filmed and put onto amazon. We watched this out of curiosity due to the name and frankly this movie made me love it the instant the phrase "fairy god-phallus" was uttered. It was funny, if a little preachy at times. This is a problem with most stage shows that try to get some form of political point across. They beat you over the head with it to make sure that the message is received. Its a fun play that pokes fun at a lot of topics and ends in an amazing way. If you have 2 hours to kill I would suggest giving it a look.

Eshi: This one kinda came out of nowhere. We saw it on amazon and curiosity prevailed. Poona was cute and fun, very classical college theatre.

2: Megamind
This movie (as well as How To Train Your Dragon) is easily one of my favorite animated films in the somewhat recent boom of them since Toy Story. It pokes fun at the classic hero-villain dichotomy and does so in an interesting way. The voice acting is well done, and the jokes are great. If you are ok with it being a little childish at times, its a great watch.

Eshi: I have a soft spot for a certain flavor of kids movie and Megamind plays well to that. It is well cast and cleanly voiced, I always love it when Will Farrel actually enjoys a role.

3: It Happened One Night
One of the first romantic comedies of the silver screen, it was something that I heard about on the youtube channel Blamesocietyfilms on their bi-weekly show "Welcome to the Basement"as a movie that Spaceballs rips its romantic subplot from (spoiler: it totally is). Curious, I watched it and enjoyed it immensely. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert have amazing chemistry and it was easy to see where other romantic comedies pulled inspiration from it. This movie blows all of the romantic comedies I have seen out of the water. I suggest watching it, even if you don't like all that mushy romance shtick, because it is genuine in its comedy and doesn't bog itself down with a lot of modern romantic comedy tropes.

Eshi: I hate Romcoms. The tropes, the character stereotypes, the implicit lessons, all of it is trashy and distasteful. It Happened One Night breaks my heart with how good it was. Modern romantic comedies fail the bar this movie set by leagues. Clark Gable is, as usual, charismatic as fuck and Claudette Colbert is a delightful.

4: John Wick
This movie was a surprise. It starts out like the movie version of the "sad Keanu" meme and turned into a violent joyride that was a great action movie. I love this movie because it knows what it is: an action movie. Not a lot of information is put into the plot that you don't need. Keanu angry at Alfie. Keanu Smash! I might be exaggerating a little, but not that much. Its got very well choreographed fight scenes and Keanu is in top form. A great movie for anyone who is a fan of well done action movies and/or violence. Also, I love the idea behind the hotel in the movie. I would watch the hell out of a series where the hotel staff had to deal with all sorts of wacky hit man situations. Like a fucked up dark comedy version of Fawlty Towers.

Eshi: I think I've mentioned before my weird love of Keanu Reeves. I have wondrous dreams of him walking up to Joaquin Phoenix and whispering "wrong kid died" al la Walk Hard. Keanu is fantastic in this movie. There are no pretexts of subtlety or moralizing, just good clean violence. A Great Sunday afternoon movie.

Honorable mention: Blamesocietyfilms.
I have been watching their stuff since I found out about Chad Vader in the middle of season 1 and have been a fan ever since. Chad Vader is great, beer and boardgames is wildly funny at times, and Welcome to the Basement made me want to talk about movies (I am still kinda shitty at it, but I will get better~) Not to mention some of their other stuff. Take some time to watch and laugh when you get the chance.

Eshi: I came a bit late to the Blamesociety bandwagon, but I am gladly on board. These folks are a fucking inspiration. Watch them and know their greatness.