Wednesday, September 04, 2002

The Movie I Watched Last Night XXXV
Sunday: My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Sort of a Moonstruck for the 2K's, this well-scripted, well-cast, and, well, hilarious movie tells the tale of a formerly frumpy Greek waitress who -- once she decides to date a non-Greek -- blossoms in, oh, so many ways. The movie focuses on the development of her relationship with a romantic foil played by John Corbett, and while it's somewhat difficult to get past Corbett's previous role of Chris on Northern Exposure, the couple's energy is there. The movie also considers the impact the relationship has on the family, the role education can play with one's self-esteem, and the importance of family. Now that I think of it, if you combine Moonstruck with East Is East, you might very well get this movie. Loads of laughs.

Tuesday: Heavy Metal
Ivan Reitman's flawed but inspired animated take on the European genre comics stories of Heavy Metal magazine isn't all it's cracked up to be. Despite the self-congratulatory tone and sex-drugs-rock 'n' roll posturing of the crew members featured in the additional "Imagining Heavy Metal" documentary, the cinematic adaptation of stories by Heavy Metal regulars such as Richard Corben and Bernie Wrightson is sloppy and slightly disorganized. The loosely knit nature of the film isn't the result of the lame framing device Daniel Goldberg and the other writers developed to add continuity to the feature segments -- instead, the adaptations themselves are weak, and the movie does little to capture the spirit and substance of the magazine itself, especially in the late '70s. The DVD does include some highlights, however. The Captain Sternn segment is perhaps the best of the lot, and it's fun to see Wrightson's big-headed character come to life. Voiceover work by John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Harold Ramis brightens the often-plodding script. And the Kevin Eastman sequences in the "Imagining Heavy Metal" documentary communicates the mistakes that can be made when the wrong people come into a lot of money. Worth watching for all of that, as well as to snicker at the "groundbreaking" rotoscope animation. On the whole, however: Feh.

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