Comedy

AWFUL NICE (2013)

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This indie comedy film forces two estranged brothers to spend some time together after their father dies and leaves them a lake house.

James Pumphrey and Alex Rennie (who is also the screenwriter with director Todd Sklar) play the brothers and have a great chemistry, arguing, fighting, and lying like they have real history. Christopher Meloni (Keller from Oz) amusingly plays their father’s ex business partner and lets rip with a very silly voice and hair-style. Brett Gelman also has a great time playing a Russian heavy.

The escalation into brotherly scuffling comes quick and natural and is initially quite funny but after a while it gets a little tired.
This film has a lot of potential and a lot of the credit should go to the two actors who riff off each other with ease. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to its expectations.
What could have been a classic was merely a film that was probably made 10 years too late.
Tonally, it shares sensibilities with Napoleon Dynamite and Swingers but fails to reach their comedy heights. What a shame.
Still there’s some comedy in there and is entertaining enough.
Was it “Explosively funny”? Not really, but there were a few laughs in there.
Hats off to them for making this on such a low budget, anyone who can get a film off the ground and finish it deserves, at the very least, some credit, fair play.

2.8/5

BUY IT ON DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE

DESPICABLE ME (2010)

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This average cartoon comedy has a few upsides to it but ultimately is not going to change your life.

I ended up watching this as many, many people had told me it was worth a look. I disagree.
Even if you are a child and will probably be entertained by this it isn’t doing anything new or innovative, it’s not even really telling an old story well.

There were very few laughs in it and that’s an indicator of something amiss in a cartoon film ostensibly aimed at kids but the marketing department clearly aimed to grab a piece of the Pixar market. The reason Pixar has done so well for so long is mainly their scripts, filled with humanity, whip-smart humour, pathos and character. Here, not so much.

Everybody does their jobs well in the voice dept and the animation is a-iight but average it is and average it will stay as long as the script isn’t up to the job in hand.
When you compare it to Wreck-It-Ralph as far as jokes/character/story etc it is way behind in quality.

I love a well told story, I don’t care what genre it is, as genre is only really there for the marketing departments and has little to do with one’s actual enjoyment of the film, so cartoon, horror, romance, war, blah, blah, blah.
It means little to me.
So I will see at a lot of different types of film from all over the world like a cinema archaeologist rummaging around in the emporium of film to hopefully discover the next exciting story. I’m not a hater. If something is not up to scratch, I will say something.

There I’ve said it; Despicable Me is really not that good. Sorry.

2.5/5

BUY IT ON BLU-RAY DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE