Screen Rush is the blog of film critic and journalist Eric Kohn, whose work regularly appears in indieWIRE, New York Press, Filmmaker, Moviemaker, Heeb Magazine and a half dozen other outlets. A true twenty-first century movie buff, his writing centers around the impact of new media on the moving image, the changing face of film criticism, and the tempestuous relationship between pop culture and independent artistry. This site includes links to his recently published work and allows for additional thoughts on cinema's modern state. E-mail Eric at erichkohn(at)gmail(dot)com.
Sometimes it seems like that seemingly innocuous gang from North Carolina School of the Arts have quietly conquered American movies—but, judging by the major releases of the next two weeks, it appears to be more like an overt invasion. David Gordon Green makes his studio debut today with Pineapple Express, which co-stars a hilariously bumbling Danny McBride…who brings his vulgar verbal talents to Tropic Thunder next week. McBride, it turns out, helped DGG land the Pineapple gig. And while I don’t have the frame of reference that others possess when it comes to evaluating this nascent success story, I did get the chance to interview Danny in midtown Manhattan earlier this week, and the results of our conversation are now available at Premiere. Check it!
So The Incredible Hulk is a halfway decent blockbuster. I find the creature—and the history of his various permutations over the years—far more interesting than the giant-sized spectacle opening at a theater near you this Friday, but the movie clearly has enough one-sided excitement to function as the flat hunk of entertainment that it is. I’ve elaborated on this point here, in a conventional review. Check it out for more hulkish thoughts.
But let’s get back to that Tony Stark cameo I discussed earlier. As the last scene of the film, it basically reads like a commercial for a franchise that Universal hopes to god it can pull off. If it does, the results will be huge…for a little while. An Avengers movie might bring the positive marriage of good actors and energizing spectacles we haven’t seen since X-Men and X2, but I can’t help thinking that decades from now, when audiences catch The Incredible Hulk at superhero movie retrospective at some revival house, this ending will make us all look pretty damn stupid. “Boy,” one future viewer will say to his pal, “people really bought anything back then, huh?” Yep, pretty much.
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you yet, because there’s a hefty review embargo on The Happening. So let me just say this: Shyamalan loves to pit unwitting characters against anonymous foe, but the frequency with which he applies that anonymity is starting to feel more like a shrug than any sort of bold maneuver. By refusing to define—or at least flesh out—the enemy, he sidesteps the need for cold logic that usually gives us the feeling, at least in the thriller genre that Shyamalan loves so dearly, that something is really, uh, happening.
Believe or not, the words on this chalkboard spoil the movie for you. Or maybe not! Spooky, huh?
I wish.Catching Hawks’ delightfully aimless Hatari! at Anthology Film Archives last night, a virtually plotless John Wayne vehicle that I’ve started to look at as MASH in East Africa, I couldn’t help thinking that…
Adam Sandler is one of those mainstream performers whose career is usually perceived as a single body, rather a series of different projects that wildly vary in terms of quality and content. I’ve always been perplexed and fascinated by his roles, whether or not they’re actually any good, simply because he remains one of the more distinctive American comedians still pumping out work on a regular basis, and has been for well over a decade. I decided to take a radical approach to evaluating Sandler’s performances on the eve of You Don’t Mess with the Zohan‘s theatrical release, trying to figure out if it’s possible to glean certain conservative messages from his movies.
Bear with me here. Or don’t.
Sandler’s a Republican. That’s fine; I don’t know him and I can’t take issue with his opinions since I’m not directly acquainted with the details of them. However, I think the prospect of reevaluating supposedly superficial entertainment for its underlying conceits has a certain value whether or not those conceits are actually there at all. Is there a relationship between Sandler’s politics and his films? Maybe, maybe not. But I think there’s merit to looking for it, if only because it provides a reminder that even the most transparent aspects of popular culture can become vessels of social consequence.
As for Zohan: It made me laugh, but it’s definitely lesser Sandler. The character gets grating after awhile, and the plot gives way to vignettes a little too fast. He doesn’t make you accept the absurdity of it all, as he does so brilliantly in Billy Madison (or Punch-Drunk Love, but that’s more like PTA’s show).
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