Monday, September 17, 2007

Journal Numero Uno


The critique that i read was by Mick LaSalle, who writes for the San Francisco Chronicle. He recently wrote about the new comedy for this summer titled, Superbad directed by Greg Mottola, starring Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. I had previously seen this movie(in fact saw it twice)and decided to see what LaSalle had to say about it.

I went to Metacritic to find the best critique and the first one that i saw was his, for which he gave it 100% in the ratings. His title was rather bland, because all he did was underline the plot of the story, not that anything is wrong with that, i just think that normally titles have cliche names and quotes, but "Teens on a mission to buy booze in 'Superbad'" is all he could come up with. I also felt that all he did throughout the integrity of the review was summarize what happened. He includes details that you do not hear in the commercials, including...

"They're bemoaning their lot in life, and then an opportunity comes their way. They're invited to a party. The only hitch is that they're entrusted with buying all the liquor for the party, and neither of them has a fake ID. Most of "Superbad" tells the story of their efforts to buy the liquor and get to the party. Sounds simple enough. It isn't."

I did however think LaSalle did use good descriptions when he was talking about the characters, especially when he said...

"the mind of an adult and the judgment of a house plant"

Which i think did a good job of explaining the story without giving any details. If i had never seen the movie and read that post i would have thought these kids are nerds and have to do something stupid to be cool. ( basically whats going on in the film). But once again he starts to give away the plot and in my mind too much information. This would have been a good review if he didn't tell the story, so if I'm watching it for the first time i would know everything that's funny and going to happen.

"Rogen and Bill Hader show up as a pair of small-town cops who are no more mature than the high school boys, and they take Fogell under their wing as their best buddy. They have some of the funniest scenes." ..."Soon Seth and Evan will be going off to different colleges, and they know their friendship will never be this exclusive or intense again."

I mean what the hell is that? Maybe i haven't read enough reviews but you don't give the whole story, because then there is no reason to get off your butt and go see it in the theater.

This review only said some brief words about the acting/actors in general. Usually critics give paragraphs on the acting and the ability to capture the scene, but LaSalle only seems to mention that they were funny and other movies that they were in. This was more focused on the movie itself not the ingredients.
"Michael Cera, who at 19 already has unique comic timing and a masterful, dry delivery."

Overall i would say that this was very informative and insightful on the movie (specifically the plot the most) and if you like to know what you are seeing, before you see it, then this was good to read. On the other hand if you don't appreciate the whole movie being told to you then pick someone else.

2 comments:

Towey said...

Nice writeup dude, i know what you mean when you you mention how it sucks when a critic gives away too much, almost makes you not want to rent it when you know the whole story.

Sounds like a solid review though, good job capturing the critic's voice as well.





....Halo 3, 4 days........

Mr. K said...

Beau: Nice job overall. I used to share your outrage over too much information being revealed in reviews -- when I read enough of them to realize pretty much all critics do this, I started to avoid them until after I'd seen the movie. You did a good job mixing your ideas with the critic's, and I liked the inclusion of the houseplant line. The first excerpt was more plot summary, and probably didn't need to be quoted here. Overall, though, very nice first effort.