We Moved!! bmf-films.com

Go to bmf-films.com and bookmark!

All the new stuff will reside there.

Thanks for visiting.

Fast and Furious

Review by Loc

Since when did it become obvious that a fourth installment of the street racing series was not only needed, but wanted by “fans” of the originals? Seriously, the last flick, The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift made half as much as the second film, checking in at a paltry $62 million dollars. Really, this is what warrants quad-quels nowadays? Ah, it has been long enough since the original film debuted in 2001 and all the subsequent iterations watered down that crisp, clean, original formula. So maybe it was time to get the band back together! Quick hit: no, it wasn’t!

Fast and Furious brings the original players back to the street with Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster comprising our starring couple of couples. This film actually is a mid-three-quel or a sequel-in-a-half, as far as timelines go. Strangely enough, this franchise feels continuity is important and thusly, creates a space five years after the original film for this one to take place. As a result, this is the 4th installment, but it takes place between the 2nd and 3rd films. But who really cares, all that matters is that the band is back together!

No, it doesn’t! For the first time in any of these movies, including the original, Fast and Furious tries to present a real plot. Why!? Every other film was simply a street racing, semi-action, low on IQ romp dressed up as something else. Like in the original, we were supposed to be following an undercover Paul Walker who was infiltrating the street racing scene, but really it was street rocket scenes glued together by bad acting. Now, in Fast and Furious, you have a sorta redemption, crime-thriller, revenge flick masquerading as a brainless street racer flick. And unfortunately for this franchise equation, these converses are not equivalent. I apologize for referencing a mathematical formula, but my brain rebelled after getting dumb from watching the flick.

So, with this “plot” driving the movie, we get collateral damage as well, in the form of pensive Vin Diesel and matured Paul Walker. Look, the original film is no masterpiece no matter how hard it tried to recreate the Point Break feel. But at least you had a goofy-ass Paul Walker, who while oblivious to his DBag status, was at least called out on it by those around him. And you had Vin Diesel, in arguably his star-making role, embodying the justifiably confident badass that owns everyone.

Now you have a “real fed” in Paul Walker, forcing him to cleave what little charisma he already possesses, and a saddy sad but maddy mad Vin Diesel out on a revenge mission. He’s like a robot, and you might expect that out of his acting already, but he’s like that only cranked to “11” on the dial. If you’re gonna bring the band back together, at least let them play their old songs.

Overall, this is a flat film. This is the first time I’ve ever said this, but the choice to focus on an actual plot cut the legs out from this film. If you can’t have Vin being Vin and cool street races, then this isn’t the Fast and Furious that I know! There was one magnificent line, when Vin states the obvious after beating Paul in an early race, but an entire movie isn’t worth that one chuckle. Out of the 1500 horses under the hood of the Chevy, Fast and Furious sputters along with 650 horse power. This movie needed to be a fun adrenaline ride, not a “everyone’s a downer” flick of brooding.

Adventureland

Review by Loc

It’s a little bit sad realizing how old you’re getting. It didn’t seem so long ago that fun, nostalgic flicks focused on times too distant for me to truly relate to. The 60s, the 70s, free love, bad hair, whatever the case, looked fun even if I couldn’t directly understand the eras. Nowadays, Hollywood is churning out 80s based nostalgia, and that’s scary. This isn’t The Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles, comedies in contemporary settings. Nope, this is stuff looking back, making light-hearted fun of the fashion, the music, the hair, everything that made the Regan-era. The scary thing is that I know all about it because I actually lived through it. Quick hit: the latest nostalgia, indie dramedy isn’t quite rad, but it’s decent.

Adventureland focuses on a cast of characters slight older than you might expect, but who look younger than any Michael Cera-starring comedy that you’ve seen. Centered on James, played by Jessie Eisenberg, Adventureland follows his “coming of age” story during his pre-grad school summer. Instead of going on the clichéd backpacking trip through Europe, James is forced to find a summer job after his parents inform him of financial difficulties. After searching for any type of employment, James is only able to land a job at the local amusement park. And not even a cool job like manning the rides, nope James only gets to handle various gaming booths.

What follows is the supposedly deep, vaguely insightful trials of James and the misfits of the park. He makes connections with a couple of the fellows, he falls for Bella from Twightlight, and lusts after some other chick doing her best Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam impression. Then you get some funny moments with Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as the park managers. And lastly, you get some darkly adult moments starring Ryan Reynolds, the prerequisite “cool older guy” of the flick.

The strangest thing about this flick, the thing that leaves this a little off-kilter, is the mismatched setting: college graduates experiencing high school issues. Why? There’s no apparent reason for this, other than the subplot involving Ryan Reynolds, and maybe that was the supposed hook of the film. However, everyone else is going through first date, first kiss, sneaking out, and secret house party hijinks that you would expect to wrapped around American Pie/Superbad settings. In the end, it doesn’t make the film bad, but it creates a weird experience when ideas clash and crash the mood.

Yet, the flick is decent for what it is. There are tender moments and funny moments, but most of these are wrapped around long periods of nothingness. And that’s not an existential comment, that’s a statement of fact. You’ll have times where James is sitting at the park, trying to make it through the mundane boredom, and you’ll be bored right alongside with him. Maybe he’s a really good actor! Probably not.

Overall, Adventureland is a movie that sits there. Highly touted when it first arrived at the theaters, Adventureland doesn’t quite live up to its critical acclaim. Then again, it was placed in that rare realm of Juno-Waittress-indie-flick-greatness, and those flicks weren’t really that great. So maybe Adventureland lives exactly where it should be, in the company of those overrated-but-still-decent movies. Out of a roll of 100 quarters, Adventure wins the smallest stuffed animal with 60 quarters.

17 Again

Review by Loc

Zac Efron mania! The birth of a heartthrob happened a couple summers ago when High School Musical surprised the non-Disney Channel public with a smash hit. Efron went on to steal the show in Hairspray, further cementing his status as prettiest pretty boy in town. Then something called Twilight came along, and pale, broody Robert Pattison stole Efron’s show. So sad, but truth be told, RPats owns all females at this moment, and Zac is just a backup. Why do I feel like I’m a writer for Tiger Beat? Why am I even continuing to write about this? Quick hit: the reverse Big squarely designed to be Zac’s star-making vehicle is actually decent enough to cause major disbelief and head scratching from any non-teenage-girl viewer.

Strange, I know, that a Zac Efron/teen comedy isn’t immediately hurl-inducing for anyone over the age of 15. Yet, it seems the producers and directors knew this would be the sentiment from the start and worked extra hard to remove the saccharine overload. Instead, we’re served with a mostly mediocre, cookie-cutter age transformation flick, but that’s a win in its own right. It’s like one of those horrible sports clichés: this is a good defeat, or this is a strong loss, or whatever stupid oxymoron you want to assign it.

Starting with Matthew Perry as a life-long defeated Debbie-downer, 17 Again paints by the numbers to set up the plot. Perry is a flailing pharmaceutical rep, a distant husband, and an absentee dad. Imagine Al Bundy mixed with Chandler from Friends, and you get the basic character. Once his fed-up wife demands a divorce and his kids do everything possible to maintain an icy, vacant relationship, Perry stumbles upon a high school visit and a brief encounter with the mysteriously old, no-named janitor. Cue reminiscing and life full of regrets, cut to weird night time storm and river, lead into Zac Efron now dressed in Matthew Perry’s suit the next morning. Ta-da, you got your age shift, you got your problems-that-need-solving, you got your high school temptations of making better choices, blah blah blah. Like you expected, paint-by-numbers simplicity.

However, 17 Again exhibits just enough self-awareness that it plays off these clichés quite nimbly. First, you have Efron’s best friend, Ned Gold played by one of the cops from Reno 911, acting as the geeky know-it-all guide. Only, he’s really middle-aged, he’s 40 Year Old Virgin loserish, but he’s rich because he’s so geeky. Then you have things like Efron breaking into dance and cheer before the basketball game, only to wake up from his dream. Perhaps the best in-joke of the entire film revolves around one of Zac’s high school pursuers and their reasoning as to why he wants to reject them, that single joke might have made this entire flick worth watching.

And speaking of Efron, kudos to his actual acting talents. No kudus to his basketball talents, because he looks like one of those guys who can sorta play ball, but really tries hard only to be barely average. The fact that they make him a basketball stud just makes you kinda chuckle. But back to his acting skills, there are numerous times where he channels Matthew Perry to a tee, which is fun to notice. Stories were that Perry would recite Zac’s lines, and Zac would use that to model his own performance. Whatever the case, Efron does a very good job of being de-aged Perry throughout the flick.

Overall, 17 Again is mostly reverse-Big starring Zac instead of Tom Hanks. The flick is decent at throwing some adult-targeted jokes into the mix, and the story wasn’t anything horrible. That probably doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement, but coming from the point of view that this would be a complete brain-deadening two hours, that’s seems pretty good. You’ll find the exact level of humor and enjoyment out of this movie as you would expect, nothing more and nothing less. Out of the 12 years of school, 17 Again avoids detention by reaching 7th grade.