-
Now on DVD and Blu-ray-Promised Land -
Disney, Hitchcock, and Marilyn Flying Hi ... -
Reacher Coming to DVD and Blu-ray -
Coming to Blu-ray and DVD-Django Unchain ... -
John Ford's Favorite Film
Coming to Blu-ray and DVD-The Impossible
Now on DVD and Blu-ray-Hyde Park on Huds ...
MAKING FILM SCHOLARSHIP FUN
Now on DVD/Blu-ray—This Is 40
Playing Nationwide: On the Road
HOORAY FOR 1933—EIGHTY YEARS LATERfilm review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
If the medium is the message, then Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a masterpiece. Director Edgar Wright has tried to incorporate the look and feel of videogames in his adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novels. The result is a film that grabs you right away with its lively, irreverent approach to storytelling…although the timing and attitude aren’t very different from Wright’s British TV series like Spaced, which starred Simon Pegg.
The movie not only appropriates videogame imagery but implies that its hero’s life is a giant three-dimensional game where points are scored at important junctures. There is even the occasional opportunity to “continue” or engage in a—
—do-over. All of this is fun to watch, but the razzle-dazzle can’t camouflage the fact that the story is routine. By the time the movie reaches the home stretch its thinness is all too apparent.
What saves it drowning in its own cleverness is the cast. Michael Cera is perfectly cast as the title character, an ordinary guy who plays in a garage band and seems to have trouble maintaining a healthy relationship with a woman. When he meets the girl of his dreams (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and learns that she comes with baggage—seven deadly exes, to be exact—he will not be deterred.
Cera, Winstead, and such talented costars as Kieran Culkin, Alison Pill, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Johnny Simmons, Mark Webber, and Ellen Wong add life to the proceedings, and adopt a uniformly deadpan approach to the script that pays off with some good laughs. Their lively, colorful performances add the one ingredient that can make or break any film, no matter how ingenious: the human element.
Email Updates
Latest Tweets
-
RT @leonardmaltin: Premature Burial for 35mm Film http://t.co/jW6m5psn4k @kodak #MovieCrazy #LongLiveFilm #35mm
Posted 59 minutes ago -
@ReelzChannel @leonardmaltin he doesn't like TAXI DRIVER
Posted 3 hours ago -
RT @ReelzChannel: It's rare that @leonardmaltin can't find something nice to say about a movie. Hangover 3 is one of those times. http://t.co/3vVxY7QiUa
Posted 4 hours ago -
RT @ReelzChannel: It's rare that @leonardmaltin can't find something nice to say about a movie. Hangover 3 is one of those times. http://t.co/3vVxY7QiUa
Posted 4 hours ago
Monthly Archives
Most "Liked"
-
In Search Of ‘The Searchers’like0 -
The Hangover Part IIIlike0 -
Before Midnightlike0 -
Fast & Furious 6like0
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|  |
 |  |
2 Comments
Matthew | November 28, 2010 1:39 AM
Just watched this and your review is spot on, although some of the situations the characters find themselves in, regardless of the storytelling device, are uniquely amusing. After Kieran Culkin's character first gets introduced, I couldn't help myself from laughing as soon as it appeared in successive scenes.
Jason | August 13, 2010 6:45 AM
I actually felt the same way about the comic. It was at it's best when dealing with he human element and the pop-culture, video-game charm was engaging at first but felt more like a detraction in the end. Still, can't wait to see this film!