Young Frankenstein Movie Review

I enjoy funny movies a great deal. However, I don’t like most “comedies” very much. Comedy movies tend to have incredibly juvenile, crude, and often vulgar jokes though out. This results in movies that are flat out stupid rather than humorous. I pretty much boycott any of these so called comedies that star actors like Jack Black, Will Ferrell, or Adam Sandler. The only good funny movies tend to have the term “Family Film” used to describe its genre. There are a few comedy gems that stand above the rest as good comedies; one of them is Young Frankenstein (1974).

Determined to live down his family’s reputation, Dr. Fredrick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) insists on pronouncing his name “Fronckensteen” and denies interest in replicating his grandfather’s experiments. After inheriting the castle of his deceased grandfather, he takes the train from New York to Transylvania where he meets his new lab assistants, Inga (Teri Garr) and the wall-eyed Igor (Marty Feldman). Dr. Frankenstein is lured into his grandfather’s private study by the castle’s strange matron, Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman), where he finds a tantalizingly titled journal “How I Did It.” Unable to resist, the three set out to replicate Frankenstein’s grandfather’s experiment. This involves a little grave-robbing and a trip to the conveniently local Brain Depository.  Igor accidentally picked up the wrong brain and the resulting monster (Peter Boyle) tears off into the countryside, terrorizing a little girl and a blind hermit (Gene Hackman). The villagers are still reeling from the last five times this has happened, so Dr. Frankenstein, Igor, and Inga try increasingly silly plans to recapture the monster before the villagers discover what they have created.

The infamous comedy director Mel Brooks wrote and directed this hysterical masterpiece with comedy actor Gene Wilder as a co-screenwriter. Between the two of them, they’ve formulated a truly funny movie. It is full of slapstick and physical comedy, running gags, puns, and quirky, silly characters.  There’s even a funny scene where Dr. Frankenstein and The Monster do a soft-shoe number in black tie and tails. Brooks once said that, “My movies rise below vulgarity.” Having seen some of his other movies, I’m a bit skeptical. However, there is less crude humor and sexual innuendos than in most of his other films.

Young Frankenstein is better crafted than some of Brook’s other films. His other movies are great, but they seem frantic and desperate to get you to laugh at something. That could be because of the movies Young Frankenstein is spoofing. It’s satirizing Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), some of the most influential films of their genre and some of the best of the 1930’s Hollywood horror films. Brooks uses some carefully controlled black-and-white photography and camera techniques as well as old-fashioned visuals and special effects to captivate the feel of the classic horror films. He even used the original Frankenstein laboratory set in this film, complete with zaps of electricity and elevating platform. It’s almost like a respectfully satirical salute to the old 1930’s horror films.

Young Frankenstein is such a comedy classic that Brooks adapted it into a Broadway Musical by the same name. It’s won several awards including the Toronto Film Festival Award for Best Comedic Film. The comical “walk this way” gag even inspired lyrics for Aerosmith’s hit song “Walk This Way.” It’s also #13 on American Film Institute’s list of the 100 funniest American Movies. It’s really created a lasting and well deserved legacy for itself.

I highly recommend seeing Young Frankenstein. It’s funny, it was really well written and directed, and was phenomenally well acted. I’d say this is probably alright for kids age 10 and up; most of the crude humor will probably go over their heads. It’s a great Halloween movie, especially if you aren’t into slasher-type Halloween movies; it’s a funny comedy that I’m sure most anyone could enjoy. It’s probably worth owning, but I’d only watch it once a blue moon. If you’ve seen it too many times to have memorized all the jokes and comedic timing, it will lose some of its charm.

What is your favorite comedy movie? Why do you like it so much? Comment below and tell me all about it!

District 9 Movie Review

I studied social sciences in college. I majored in psychology, but also studied sociology and anthropology. There are very few movies I’ve come across that made me as giddy and excited over its social commentary as District 9 (2009) did. You could almost call District 9 “Sociology: The Movie.” And even outside the social commentary, it’s a great sci-fi film!

In 1982, a massive starship bearing a bedraggled alien population appeared over Johannesburg, South Africa. The alien species were nicknamed “Prawns.” Twenty-eight years later, the initial welcome by the human population has faded. The refugee camp where the aliens were located has deteriorated into a militarized ghetto called District 9, where they are confined and exploited in squalor. In 2010, the munitions corporation, Multi-National United (MNU), is contracted to forcibly evict the Prawn population. Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), a timid, pencil-pushing bureaucrat is put in charge of the operation. While trying to force Prawns to sign eviction notices, Wikus is exposed to some alien biotechnology which causes his DNA to mutate. Since the alien weapons and technology only react to the Prawns themselves, Wikus becomes the key to unlocking the technology for human use. He becomes the most wanted man on the planet. Ostracized and isolated, Wikus has to rely on the oppressed and bitter Prawns for help.

I can’t speak highly enough about District 9. The acting is fantastic and believable. The special effects and visuals are amazing and eye-catching. And above all, the story is intricate, well-written, and compelling. It presents themes such as humanity, xenophobia, and social segregation. The story and setting are quite elaborate; I could go on for pages from a literary standpoint. Yet it is still presented in a very understandable and straightforward way.

While District 9 is without a doubt science fiction, it’s still verisimilar. It parallels some racial segregation that occurred in Cape Town, South Africa. In District 9 there are actions being taken to move the Prawns out of the city and to a remote location. If you’re familiar with the events of 1966 you may recall Cape Town declaring its District 6 to be a “whites only” region, resulting in all housing being demolished and over 60,000 non-whites were forcibly removed. Another point worth mentioning is how the Prawns speak in their alien language which is made up of clicking sounds. The alien language is not unlike Bantu, the language spoken by some black African populations, which to the untrained ear sounds like clicking.

There is a very strong theme of xenophobia, racism, and prejudices in District 9. The film starts out like a documentary, cutting away to sociologists for commentary or to people on the streets giving their opinion. This was a brilliant story-telling device that made the movie seem more realistic and fact-based. These nameless characters state that they don’t care where the aliens go, they just can’t stay here. Others comment on calling the aliens Prawns, saying they are ugly like the crustaceans, and they are clearly bottom-feeders. “Prawn” is indeed meant to be a derogatory term for the aliens in this movie. And really, if you simply substitute terms like “black,” “Asian,” “Mexican,” “Jew,” or any number of labels that are used derogatorily in place of the word “Prawn,” the subtext of racial prejudice becomes even more blatantly evident. District 9 is essentially an action film about xenophobia, where all races of humans are united in their dislike and mistrust of an alien species.

District 9 was a fairly low budget film that employed some very busy CGI artists. The computer animation and motion capture was remarkable. No two Prawns looked exactly alike, and even the important Prawn characters moved a bit differently. Even though the Prawn characters were computer animated, they still portrayed a sense of humanity and emotion despite having several sets of antennae and maxillipeds sticking out of their face. The explosions and alien weaponry were really fun to see as well. We aren’t really told what the full extent of the weapons are, we just see a few of them do some pretty neat things like create a lightning-strewn black cloud in the wake of an explosion or catch incoming bullets.

I really could go on about this movie, but suffice it to say I really liked District 9 a whole lot. Even the characters are convincing; it’s so interesting to see Wikus become more humane as he physically becomes less human. I highly recommend seeing this movie, but be warned, there is a lot of profanity and gratuitous violence in it. Even after several viewings I still find myself cringing. It’s so well implemented that it is not a fault, but it would probably deter some viewers. It’s certainly not a movie for young kids to see. I’ve got a copy of this on Blu-Ray sitting on my shelf along with other favorites of mine.

What is your favorite movie alien? Comment below and tell me why!

The Pirates! Band of Misfits Movie Review

Stop-motion animation seems to be a dying art. It used to be featured much more frequently; not all of them were targeted towards young audiences. Now we get family friendly films once a blue moon, but even then it seems like the medium is perpetuated primarily by Tim Burton. Nevertheless, we still received a great stop-motion animated film with The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012).

After years of humiliation and failed attempts to win the coveted Pirate of the Year Award, Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) and his oddball crew take on the most renowned pirates in the world in a race to pillage the most booty. In their efforts, they cross paths with the lovelorn scientist Charles Darwin (The Doctor David Tennant), who persuades the Captain that the crew’s prized “parrot,” Polly, could be the answer to the untold riches they are searching for. Their adventure takes them to Victorian London where they meet the notorious pirate-hating Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton). It soon unfolds that Darwin’s motives for helping the crew are not what they seem, and that the Queen has an evil hidden agenda of her own. The Pirate Captain must choose between basking in the glory of being crowned Pirate of the Year, or staying faithful to his trusted crew.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits has an all-star cast. In addition to the names mentioned above, there is also Martin Freeman, Anton Yelchin, Jeremy Pivin, Salma Hayek, Brian Blessed, and Brendan Gleeson. You couldn’t ask for a more diverse array of comical UK actors for this slapstick zany adventure.

The Pirates! was animated by the same stop-motion animation crew that did Chicken Run (2000) and the Wallace and Gromit movie The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). The animation is phenomenal to say the least. The movement is smooth, seamless, and full of intricate subtleties and detail. Similar to Gromit in the Were-Rabbit film, there is also a character with no actual dialogue. Darwin’s “Man-Panzee” is so expressive that you can still tell what is going through the character’s mind without having the character verbalizing it. That just goes to show how well this movie was animated.

Something I thought was annoying in both Chicken Run and Were-Rabbit was the blatant vegetarian and animal rights themes in them. Vegetarianism and animal rights aren’t bad, but those films got rather preachy and beat you over the head with the concepts. The Pirates did not do that, thank goodness. In fact, the pirate crew regularly had “ham night” for dinner. It was not bashing vegetarianism, I’m just glad I wasn’t having a bunch of animal-rights-thumping pirates trying to convince me to eat tofu. That would have been incredibly stupid.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits is full of zany and joyfully silly gags. There are times it feels like an old Loony Tunes cartoon with some distinctive British wit. People are hit with frying pans, causing the frying pan to take on the shape of the person’s face. The face on a painting becomes goofy and distorted after being hit by a cannonball. Skidding tire sounds are made when the pirate ship makes sharp turns. There’s also more trap door gags than you can shake a stick at. I’d hazard a guess that adults who grew up with Loony Tunes will get a bigger kick out of this movie than kids will.

The story is pretty simple and doesn’t stand out as a stellar piece of writing. It feels pretty childish, but I think that’s what makes it so fun. It’s got a Saturday morning cartoon quality to it, but it has lots of gags that will fly over kids’ head and keep adults laughing. It also has simple enough plot for young viewers to understand and enough slapstick to keep them involved. This movie might appeal most to adult viewers who are fans of Monty Python or The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Just take it as it is; a silly, slapstick comedy that the whole family will enjoy.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits was certainly a fun movie. I enjoyed it and it kept me laughing throughout. This is a perfect movie for a family movie night. Kids will love it and adults will enjoy it, too. The number of animated characters moving about on the screen at one time was impressive enough; that is very complicated and difficult to achieve in stop-motion animation. But the detail beyond that is incredible to watch. I didn’t quite love it enough to want to buy a copy of it, but I imagine most families with young kids will want a copy of their own.

What is your favorite stop-motion animated film? Comment below and tell me why!

Fright Night

After feeling betrayed by Hollywood with their recent array of rubbish vampire movies, I wasn’t excited to see Fright Night (2011), a remake of a 1985 vampire horror movie by the same name. That is until I heard The Doctor David Tennant was in it. It instantly became a much higher priority. I don’t typically care for horror movies, but this one was actually really good!

High School senior Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) finally has it all; he’s running with the popular crowd and dating the hottest girl in school, Amy (Imogen Poots). He’s become so cool he’s begun avoiding his old friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Trouble arrives when an intriguing character named Jerry (Collin Farrell) moves in next door to Charlie. Jerry seems like a great guy at first, but there’s something not quite right about him, and only Ed and Charlie seem to notice. After witnessing some very strange activity, Charlie comes to an unmistakable conclusion: Jerry is a vampire preying on the neighborhood. Unable to convince anyone of the truth, Charlie has to find a way to get rid of the monster himself, even if that means enlisting the aid of a truly bizarre Las Vegas occult magician Peter Vincent (David Tennant).

One of the early scenes in Fright Night had a very paranoid Ed trying to convince Charlie that Jerry is a vampire. Charlie accuses Ed of reading too much Twilight. Reasonably so, Ed is offended by this, and argues that Twilight vampires are make-believe and really stupid. Not only was this hilarious, but it was communicating to the audience that the vampire in this film is not going to be the pansy, sparkly variety who knows what you’re feeling and wants to take you to the prom. THIS vampire is the way vampires are supposed to be: undead, demonic monsters from hell, bent of draining the life force of the innocent to sustain their existence as one of the damned. With all the romanticized and sexualized vampire movies, TV shows, and literature that has emerged in recent years, having a truly frightening monster out for blood was oddly quite refreshing! Besides, anything that makes fun of Twilight is good in my book.

I also have to give credit to a film that causes me to withdraw previous statements. I’ve said that horror and comedy are thematically at odds with each other and don’t fit well in the same movie together. Fright Night was a comedy horror movie, and it was a hoot! They argue that “Jerry” is a terrible name for a vampire, they complain about the quality of vampire hunting gear won on eBay, and Charlie’s mother (Toni Collette) makes references to the 1960’s TV show Dark Shadows.

Fight Night does horror really well, too. Since movies like Saw came out, the horror genre has degenerated from stories that induce feelings of horror and terror to stories that simply gross out the audience. There’s a big difference; getting a buzz saw blade lodged in your face is gross, holding your breath to try and remain undetected by a monster in its own lair is scary. There are scenes in Fright Night that filled me with dread while other scenes had me laughing.

Teens are the target audience for this movie. Most teen horror flicks feature characters that are intent on having sex, partying, experimenting with drugs, and underage drinking and the like. Fright Night was curiously much more conservative. The story focuses more on Charley’s changing relationship with Ed, rather than on Charley’s sexual interest in his girlfriend. On top of that, Charlie is trying to protect his single mother from making bad choices with bad boy next door. Charlie even becomes less interested in sex the more time he spends hunting down Jerry. The movie isn’t about sexual conquests of the adolescent male; it’s about Charlie making conscious choices to protect the women in his life from the “bad boys” out there. I don’t see this kind of thing in movies aimed at teens very often, it was a pleasant change of pace.

Fright Night is fairly clean for a horror movie. Since it’s a vampire movie, we get to see an abundance of blood splatter, but we don’t see much disembowelment and such. There’s some immodesty, but no full on nudity. There’s quite a bit of profanity, though, especially after the comically bitter and sarcastic Peter Vincent shows up. I didn’t care for that, but it fit into the character well, so I can’t really fault the movie for it.

Fright Night was a really fun comedy-horror movie, and the best contemporary vampire movie I’ve seen in years. It was fun, it had some good writing and directing, excellent actors, it was funny and scary, and had some great special effects and cinematography. Best of all, there are actual vampires in this vampire movie; it shows us, in a fresh and interesting way, the traditional vampires that people with any taste will know and love. Fright Night is worth seeing. I don’t even like horror movies that much and I enjoyed it enough to want a copy on Blu-Ray. Some content (such as the profanity) won’t settle well with some viewers, so be conscientious of that before seeing it.

What is your favorite Comedy-Horror movie? Why did you like it so much? Comment below and tell me all about it!