Tonight I watched a movie that I would have regretted never seeing in my life. On nights where I just feel like doing absolutely nothing, I depend on my number one companion: my Comcast ondemand menu. It’s like having a video store in your own home! So, with stuff gloomy weather going on outside, I decided tonight was one of those nights to just relax and watch a movie I’d never seen. It’s hard to pick one when there’s so many choices, many of them being worthless titles I’ve never heard of, but thankfully I landed on the one I was meant to watch: Woody Allen’s Alice.

Woody Allen is notorious for his nerdy looks and his brilliant comedic writing. His films are always expected to be smart and extremely witty. I’d only seen several of his films, but nothing stood out to me as much as his Oscar winning film Annie Hall. I thought it was one of the funniest movies I’d ever seen and I knew, at the young age I watched it, that the material was very was portrayed. I expected nothing less from the film Alice. This film, starring Woody Allen’s ex-wife Mia Farrow, follows Alice Tate, a shy woman married to a wealthy man with two young children. Alice one day begins to start imagining herself with another man that she had seen at her childrens’ daycare. Her impulsions lead her to a Chinese doctor who uses special herbs that have magical effects.

What’s great about this film is the fact that it takes the cliched story of a woman who falls for a guy other than her husband, and instead adds a fantasy element in order to make it more interesting. And it succeeds. With the Chinese doctors herbal medicines, Alice experiences a total personality change, the ability to be invisible, and even the sixth sense in order to see her ol’ dead boyfriend played by Bill Pulman. The material is both hysterical and endearing. We really have to like and empathize for the neglected housewife, and root for her in getting anything she wants, with or without the magic.

Ok. So I’ve avoided the film Norbit starring Eddie Murphy in multiple roles for as long as I could, considering some of the worst reviews of 2007 and a couple of Razzie Awards to its name. You say you don’t know what a Razzie Award is? Well I’ll tell you. It’s pretty much an award given to the worst films of any given year. In 2007 this film and Lindsey Lohan’s I Know Who Killed Me pulled through with the most nominations and wins of the year. Well, I finally gave into the urge of watching a terrible movie just for the sheer joy of knowing what I am watching is pure shit. And what I found is…….I kinda liked it.

The film, as I said before, stars Eddie Murphy in three roles: one of the extremely nerdy main actor Norbit, another as his loud and obese wife Rasputia, and the last as an Oriental man Mr. Wong who both runs a restaurant and raised Norbit in his orphanage. Growing up, Norbit’s best friend in the orphanage is a girl named Kate Thomas. They like each other so much that they even put on a fake marriage by exchanging ring pops to signify their love. But it all comes to an end when Kate is adopted and taken away never to be seen by Norbit again. As time passes, Norbit is alone most of the time until the large Rasputia claims him for herself, and then eventually get married. Things go fine until one day Kate comes back to town.

Besides just wanting to see how bad a movie can actually be, I had some hope for the film because I was a huge fan of Eddie Murphy’s Nutty Professor movies when I was growing up. After seeing Norbit, I guess I can understand why it may be offensive to some people, every scene pretty much has a fat joke of some kind, but I feel like I’ve seen worse movies than it in 2007. No matter how crude and stupid it was, I was fairly entertained. Maybe that makes me a simpleminded person who gets his kicks from seeing people made fun of…but I don’t think so. The film received criticism for the one dimensional characters and the blatant stereotypes placed on all of them. But I say, forget all of the morals you really have and just enjoy a really stupid movie and know that you’re much more classy than the material you’re witnessing (hopefully…). I’m not ashamed to say I enjoyed one of the worst films of last year. Well…maybe a little ashamed.

So my summer has taken a bit of a detour recently. After having had a job ripped out from under my feet in Champaign (they told me I had the job!!!), I went on a mad goose chase for some employment to support my spending needs. Seems that no one wants to hire a fairly hardworking male U of I student (I may be exaggerating that word “hardworking”). In my need for money I found myself packing up and heading back home to a place I could at least live more cheaply. I’m still having a tough time getting a job here too, but at least I’m getting some free home-cooked grub. So to go along with my somewhat slacker lifestyle, I rented the new straight-to-dvd film Super High Me.

The film stars the one and only Doug Benson….you know…one of those guys that does the commentaries on Best Week Ever and a contestant on one of the Last Comic Standing seasons. Doug Benson was also voted by High Times as “Stoner of the Year” in 2006. This fact being the most relevant since the whole plot of the movie revolves around Doug going thirty days without smoking marijuana, taking multiple physical and mental tests, and then blazing for thirty days straight and to see how he does on those same tests. What ensues is pretty hilarious and yet educational (sort of).

Doug Benson is able to purchase weed legally in the movie because he lives and California and has a medical license that allows him to buy from an assortment of different strands from a vast number of medical marijuana shops. The film shows that the marijuana actually has little affect on Doug’s both mental and physical performance, and he would actually prefer to be on it constantly. But since Doug Benson himself is known for being a pretty big pothead before the filming of this movie, the statistical research he conducts can’t really be taken for face value. It have to be someone who’s never tried a drug in their life (does someone like that really exist out there) and see the affects it takes on them. Well, my main goal really wasn’t to try and learn much, even though I did learn about national enforcement on state laws and how it is actually a quite confusing dilemma.

The film as a whole wasn’t the funniest things I’ve ever seen, I mean you can’t really beat Half Baked or Cheech and Chong films in pot-comedy, but Doug’s a really funny guy even though he uses weed as the source of much of his comedic material. I say light up and enjoy the film (if you’re into that sort of thing I mean).

Sorry for the long delay, but watching movies takes time.
Fortunately, I’ve gotten a lot of good movie watching under my belt
the past week. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the money to actually go
to many shows, thus having to resort to renting movies for very cheap.
I’m going for the “new to you” films that are actually really great
and are definitely must sees. Most recently on my list of found films
was the goofy comedy called Hot Rod starring Andy Sandberg from
Saturday Night Live.

The movie Hot Rod is comparable to one of my favorites Napoleon
Dynamite for its sheer zaniness. Most people didn’t go see this movie
because it was going up against the smash hit Superbad the weekend it
came out. It didn’t stay in theaters for too long, but I’m thankful
that I got a chance to see it with my friend Sam in an empty theater.
The story follows the antics of Rod Kimble and his dream to be a
professional stuntman, and his team that helps him with his stunts.
When Rod finds out that his bully of a stepfather is dying and needs
$50,000 for a heart transplants, Rod takes it upon himself to set up a
big jump in order to raise the money. The only reason Rod wants to
keep his stepfather alive is in order to finally get a chance to kick
his ass. Performances from Bill Hader, most recently in Forgetting
Sarah Marshall, Danny Mcbride, and Isla Fischer keep the story alive
with ongoing laughs. Though the gags are very stupid and the plot is
meant to be ridiculous, the film just gives you the chance to laugh at
just plain silliness. I hope this movie will rise in cult status as
years go on, because it definitely kept me laughing after my second
viewing this past week. Cool beans.