#2,193: The Wrecking Crew

Trainwreck - ★★½☆☆
his movie is long, but even more than that, it's confident. It assumes it's completely killing, all the time. As far as this movie knows, audiences are rolling in the aisles while it shouts twenty alternate punchlines.

Hector and the Search for Happiness - ★★☆☆☆

House - ★½☆☆☆
What a chore.

The Wrecking Crew - ★★★☆☆
An interesting story less expertly told than 20 Feet from Stardom. There's something so appealing to me about the idea that there's really only like half a dozen bands out there, and record companies are just selling consumers on a carefully constructed ruse.

The closeness the director has to the material both gives him the obsession a documentarian needs to see a film through to completion and the lack of perspective that makes the movie feel like half a story.

Busy busy

It's the busiest week of the year, I think, so instead of movie reviews, please enjoy this animated gif. I made it with my own two hands, and I like looking at it. 

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Bat Night!

Never a dull moment at the Gangbusters! Comedy Enjoyment Program.  This week: comedy in the dark!

#2,189: Straight Outta Compton

The Gift - ★★★☆☆
The important thing to remember about a 96% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes is that it indicates that 96% of critics gave this movie at least a 51%.

Hitman: Agent 47 - ★★½☆☆
I was a little embarrassed to tell the friendly concessions clerk what I was at the theater to see. I guess I was expecting something in the vein of Equilibrium or Ultraviolet - a dumb movie with interesting fights and gobs of workmanlike animation . And then, it mostly was! This wasn't, you know, *good*, but I didn't leave the theater with the regrets I was expecting! If I didn't have moviepass, this would have been a perfectly acceptable loud explodey thing to watch on Netflix some afternoon.

I will say though, by the criteria of the games this is based on, Agent 47 is a terrible hitman.

American Ultra - ★★☆☆☆
I guess this is the best Kristen Stewart movie I've ever seen.

Like Agent 47, this belongs deeply, firmly in B-Movie territory. The movie looks cheap, the acting is good enough for government work, and the script is kind of a bummer.

It was interesting for a minute when Phoebe murders a guy and knows what their weapons are called, but that turn is just about the moment that I went from feeling surprisingly interested and engaged with the movie to feeling like I was waiting around for the movie to end. Their coupledom was so much more interesting and cool when it was based on feeling.

Also, I disagree with the premise of the closing credits cartoon.

Straight Outta Compton - ★★★☆☆
Previously, my knowledge of NWA was limited to the sentence 'Eazy-E is a hard mutha,' which I discovered on the wall of my church.

This movie mixes cool and interesting scenes about kids navigating their sudden success with scenes that offer up hokey mini-origin stories of their lyrics. Occasionally, the movie lobs in a speed bump of a scene that polishes up the halos on members of the group that happen to be producers on the movie - no way these were in the original script.

I choose to believe this movie is a direct sequel to Love & Mercy, and that Paul Giamatti is playing the same guy. Much like that movie, I bet this would have meant more to me if I knew the source material, but I think this time I'm glad I got to go into it fresh. Made me want to go watch a documentary about (but not by) NWA.

Cup of Jokes

This Thursday, check it out!