Having been appalled by the non-humour in Step Brothers, I was happy to see John C. Reilly starring in a much funnier and more likeable role in The Promotion. The movie itself was enjoyable enough, but not great.
It was a limitation in the “American Dream”-based system that forced the characters into conflict. Each of the two men worked hard, and should have hypothetically been able to achieve their respective goals. However, this was not possible; the system pitted them against each other so that only one would be able to accomplish his dream. I was happy to see this develop as a plot point; it is a valuable social criticism that two equally talented men are not both able to achieve their goals in the current system. To succeed, a person must triumph over others and thereby stop them from achieving their goals. While it may sound like a tautology that one can’t get ahead without putting others behind, it is clear that this is not a good basis for a society; each hard-working member of society should be able to afford housing and keep their families happy.
Unfortunately, the film didn’t pursue this line of thought. The conflict was resolved when the characters decided to stop sabotaging one another. Being on an equal playing field, the bosses at the company then rejected one applicant because they found he had smoked marijuana.
The fact that a failed drug test was the deciding factor in the interview effectively eliminated one character from contention, so that the only conflict in the film was the personal conflict between the two characters. This is effectively saying that human nature is at fault: if only we weren’t mean to each other, no one’s feelings would be hurt. It’s a simpering and illogical message when compared to the social criticism that the film should have made.
A more suitable conclusion to the story would be if the two men (each an expert grocer in his own right) started their own grocery store and co-managed it, or each could start his own grocery.
American Teen had some questionable elements for a documentary film.
The swearing was bleeped out. The movie is about giving teens more credit than they traditionally get in society. Conversely, the bowdlerization would have been done so that teens would be able to watch the movie in theatre. This would have been done to appease the raters at the MPAA, but it goes against the theme of giving teens credit.
The movie had too many formative elements for a documentary film. For each of the four main characters there was an animated sequence which was meant to show what was happening with the character emotionally. This is out of place in a documentary film.
There’s nothing exceptional about Happy Accidents. It’s a thoroughly okay movie.
Each time travel movie seems to have its own take on the logistics of time travel, so it is interesting to see that this movie took its time travel rules from Doctor Who.
We’re all bastards. If you go back a few hundred years, one of your ancestors was conceived outside of the confines of marriage. Humans predate marriage by millions of years. If you go far enough back, we’re all descended from bastards.
In olden times, one would have “Fitz” prepended to his or her last name in the case of bastardry, rather than the more typical suffixation of “-son.” There was social baggage with being conceived in this way back then, and this would be handed down through generations. Anyone living in a society with an ample number of anglo-saxons could have noticed that there are a lot of Fitz-whatevers running around.
“Bastard” officially means “one who was conceived whilst the parents weren’t married.” Marriage is an outdated institution, the continued use of “bastard” in this context is an anachronistic. Many people opt not to marry in modern times; regardless of any consequences of this decision, society should not distinguish these children because of this.
As a society, we should move on to more modern uses of “bastard” and leave religion and marriage out of it. Bastard can be a jovial greeting, or a bitter insult. It is unimportant how the word is used, let’s just leave the prejudicial meanings in the past.
Rescue Dawn is a nice movie. Christian Bale delivers a typically wooden performance. Luckily, he always picks roles where this makes sense, be that expressed via murderous sociopath, medicated policeman, P.O.W. or caped crusader, buddy. Hypothetically, if he ever takes a role that doesn’t require such a character (which doesn’t look likely), it is possible that he has more than one acting style. He is generally pretty good, so let’s hope so.
As long as either Owen Wilson or Chris Tucker isn’t co-starring, martial arts comedies are usually pretty good. Enter The Fat Dragon was an entertaining film. It is notable for having an asian man in blackface.
stard” officially means “one who was conceived whilst the parents weren’t married.” Marriage is an outdated institution, the continued use of “bastard” in this context is an anachronistic. Many people opt not to marry in modern times; regardless of any consequences of this decision, society should not distinguish these children because of this.
