Weekly Cinemeh

Hello, and welcome back to Weekly Cinemeh. This wee we decided to watch sports movies. The clinch is though, neither of us really like sports all that much, so they are all parodies. It was a fun week: to the list!

1: Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
I enjoyed Dodgeball, even though it is kind of a dumb comedy. This movie is about a bunch of average guys, who go to Average Joe's Gym needing to make a bunch of money to keep the gym. A rival gym, who wants to buy their gym to turn into a parking structure tries to stop them. The medium for the conflict? A dodgeball tournament where the prize for 1st place is the exact amount of money they need to keep the gym. Its a classic premise of old sports movies. The difference here is that the movie doesn't take itself seriously at all. The average guys are all misfits of some variety, for instance the wonderful Alan Tudyk thinks he is a pirate, and the bad guys are cartoonishly evil. Vince Vaughn is far more subdued in the movie, which is odd considering the characters he usually plays. He is not quite a straight man, he just uses sarcasm as his main source of humor. Its not a bad film, and has quite a few good jokes and some very funny people in it (Rip Torn is great). Don't go in expecting too much and its a fun time.

Eshi: I have weird feelings about Ben Stiller. On one hand, Zoolander and Dodgeball are both fucking joyful. On the other hand, a startling amount of his catalog leaves me feeling like poor Gerry's semen had curdled before little Ben was conceived. Regardless, Dodgeball is grand. Its very well cast, well written, and weirdly optimistic. About my only complaint is that they kinda waste Alan Tudyk, but then I'd watch him just stare confusedly into a camera for an hour or two. A great movie to get toasty and enjoy.

2: Balls of Fury
Balls of Fury is a take on kung fu movies that uses ping pong instead of martial arts. Basically an ex-world champion level ping pong player is hired by the FBI to help track down and investigate a Chinese gangster. Its a fun movie, though a little to0 often the jokes fall flat. I love that Christopher Walken is in this movie as the big boss baddie. He gets to act over the top and crazy, which is something Walken is very good at. Its another movie that shouldn't be taken seriously. Watch with some friends and some booze and you should have a good time.

Eshi: I had forgotten how much I love 80's butt rock. The Dan Fogler tries a little too hard for most of the movie but its Immediately made up for by the rest of the cast. Brian mentioned Christopher Walken, and he more than carries his weight, but Aisha Tyler features prominently, as does the legendary James Hong, Maggie Q, and Thomas Lennon, who I don't feel gets enough work. Hell, even George Lopez manages to not be completely off-putting. Balls of Fury is goddamn ridiculous, and it revels completely in that.

3: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
I skipped this movie in the past because I don't really get the whole Nascar thing, but it doesn't focus a lot on that. Its mostly a movie about an asshole being redeemed after being humbled by a superior foe. Nascar is just a framing device, and the movie doesn't explain shit about the sport. I actually liked the bad guy. He wasn't a villain, he was just brought in to make the main racing team perform better. The main conflict happens because Ricky Bobby feels as though he absolutely needs to be the best. Its good to see a movie where the main characters greatest enemy is himself. It's also very funny, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are great together, and Jane Lynch is fun to watch (as always, really). I had fun, despite being a little heavy on the product placement. I get that it was supposed to be a parody of the rampant capitalism of Nascar, but there comes a point at which the parody is just the movie doing the thing its making fun of. If they did this with fake commercials, I would have found it a lot funnier. Instead they actually through a fucking Applebee's commercial in it.

Eshi:  I loathe redneck culture, mostly because it was a barely dodged bullet for me. So this one always plays a little close to the line. I've known people who could have inspired this movie if they hadn't decided to take up a lucrative career in meth consumption. That said, Talladega Nights is fun as hell. Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly have fucking amazing chemistry, and it play a substantial role here. Michael Clark Duncan is a little blown here, but mostly because his role doesn't fully counter how much I wish he was still kicking around. In all Will Ferrell puts out exactly what you would expect, and its just as fun as that would entail. Whatever that happens to mean to you. Give it a shot.