Late Summer Movie Reviews

We here at Double the Blog are glad to be back and apologize to our zero readers for the lack of posts lately (I seriously mean zero, because I think all of my five regular readers think I stopped updating this blog). As summer comes to a close (school starts on Monday) I bring you four movie review, Clerks II, Talladega Nights, Accepted and Snakes on a Plane. Can any of these four movies do anything to help the worst summer for movies in American history? Well read on and find out:

Clerks II-
A sequel twelve years in the making. The first one was not going to be topped; it was too original, too charming, too funny and too good for a sequel to top it. While the first was shot in black and white, only about 2 minutes of this one are shot in black and white. While the black and white scheme added to the charm of the first one, this film being in color doesn’t take anything away from the franchise (if you can call two films a franchise). We start off with the Quick Stop burned to the ground by, you guessed it, Randall. Dante and Randall proceed to find new jobs at Mooby’s, a fast food joint (you might remember it from prior Kevin Smith films). It is Dante’s last day before he moves to Florida with his fiancé and the movie chronicles that last day. Also appearing in the movie is Mooby’s boss and potential Dante love interest Becky, played by Rosairo Dawson. Also working at movies is teenager Elias, who adds some good comedy to the flick in a supporting role. Of course Jay and Silent Bob return, doing Jay and Silent Bob things. The movie, of course, is not as good as the first one but it is also not as funny as Kevin Smith movies of the past. It has its great parts though, like when Randall goes on a rant about the Lord of the Rings trilogy as it compares to the Star Wars trilogy. This is the movie’s highlight. The lowlight is a completely unnecessary beastiality scene at the movie’s climax. As for Dante and Randall, while nothing has changed with them except they are twelve years older. While they were charming, real life Clerks in the first movie they seem like losers is this one. I mean they are in their mid thirties and working at a fast food joint (that remarkably never, ever seems to get busy). It also doesn’t help that you know exactly how things are going to play out about 10 minutes into the movie. That is not that big of a deal if the movie is good enough, but like I said it disappoints. Overall it’s not all that bad; Jay and Silent Bob are their refreshingly normal selves. I just feel Kevin Smith kind of made this movie to make money and didn’t put his heart into as much as he could have. That’s just how I feels to me I guess. The movie does have rewatchability factor but it could really do without the gross “interspecies erotica” at the end.
Grade: C

Talladega Nights, the Ballad of Ricky Bobby
A Will Ferrell movie to save our summer of bad movies! Yeah! Oh wait its not that good, boo! Actually Talladega has gotten pretty solid reviews but I think the movie leaves a lot to be desired. It centers on a NASCAR driver, Ricky Bobby, who is the best in the business until he his challenged by Jean Girard, a French Formula One driver played by Sacha Baron Cohen. The main problem with the movie is that it is a NASCAR movie but a good portion of the movie takes place with Ricky Bobby is down and out on his luck. The movie gets exceedingly unfunny (by this I mean it starts out pretty funny and just tails off) and by the end you don’t really seem to care because you know exactly what is going to happen. John C. Riley, playing Ricky Bobby’s best friend Cal Naughton Jr, is great in this movie. He is funnier than Ferrell, but to be fair Ferrell was not up to his par performance in this movie.

Movie Highlight: Any scene that is improvised. No one can improvise better than Ferrell. The best scene is when he is praying to baby Jesus and improvising it the whole way, it is hilarious. All the improvised scenes are so funny because they are so natural, they blow the written scenes away. Another highlight would be Leslie Bibb who plays Ricky’s wife Carley Bobby, where have you been all my life?

Movie Lowlight: A movie about a sport that is all about advertising? You can bet the studio was licking their chops. There is actually a commercial in this movie. Yes, you are hearing me right. It is part of a comedy sketch, a crash scene is so long they break for commercial but still there is a commercial in this movie. We don’t need this! That was the lowlight.

What could have been better: More improvised scenes and less time away from NASCAR. Also they could have made the interchange between Jean Girard and Ricky Bobby a lot better than it was. Parts of it were funny, but it could have been done a lot better.

Overall: Exactly what I expected out of this movie. This summer has been so bad that I fear the worst of every movie and I expected this one to disappoint. So it didn’t disappoint me. How much in depth can you go with a NASCAR comedy? The character Ricky Bobby could have been great but it was just okay.
Grade: C

Accepted-
The story is actually pretty interesting because I have never seen anything like it before. Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) can’t get into any college in the country. He even gets rejected from Ohio State (which I didn’t know was possible, seriously I think they have to accept everyone. Maybe that’s just in Ohio). Exasperated he decides to create a college (because apparently community college doesn’t exist in this movie) the South Harmon Institute of Technology. He gets his friend Sherman Schrader (Jonah Hill) to create a website for the college. Sherman is genuinely funny in this movie and is the bulk of the laughs early on until the movie decides to not let him do ANYTHING funny the rest of the movie (this happens about forty minutes into the movie, basically after the scene he is dressed up like a hot dog). Along with some other friends who couldn’t get into college they decide to all pretend like they got accepted. What a crew it is, there is Maria Thayer who got turned down from Yale and apparently couldn’t get anything else. There is Bartleby’s football playing friend Hands who got a scholarship then got hurt and had it taken away. They also hire a dean, Uncle Ben (Lewis Black). Black spends the movie ranting a raving about society, culture, conformity and swearing (he even goes over the 1 f-bomb allowed per PG-13 movie). While designing the website Sherman misunderstands that “acceptance is one click away” is a slogan and when he actually makes it a reality everyone who got rejected by a college shows up and the fun begins.
It’s safe to say the movie had some plot holes, which is to be expected and could be made up if the movie is funny enough. It is a mad libs comedy. By that I mean they use the same plot structure as any other mediocre comedy and just change around the players and the setting. There are the high, the lows, the really high and the really lows. Not to mention the movie gets serious at the end, which always kills light hearted comedies. Not to mention an ending that would never, ever happen in real life. Also included in the movie is a passionate speech, a rivalry with the dean and head frat guy of another college and a love interest. Sadly I think the movie could have been a lot funnier and it seems to stop trying mid way through the movie. However I do like Justin Long, the only reason I think I went to see this movie.
Grade: C