The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies
The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies |
| Posted: 02 Jul 2011 06:17 PM PDT HERE are five films that define the slacker. Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982) Also known as the movie where the comic sub-plot about a stoner surfer Jeff Spicoli (played by then-newcomer Sean Penn) and his run-ins with teachers stole the show. Who remembers that the rest of it was a realistic coming-of-age drama complete with a teen abortion? Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) This early prototype of the genre had the key ingredients: Two individuals who were too cool for school and who possessed skills – loud guitar-wrangling – that were useless in the real world, but were crucial in an alternate universe. And most importantly, the leads were goofily charming. Dude, Where's My Car? (2000) This loose-limbed road comedy about two lunkheads on an Alice-In-Wonderland quest made a virtue of how stupid it was. It was predictably loathed by critics and failed to make a deep impression at the box office. But since its release on DVD, it has become a cult classic, thanks largely to the perfect casting of Kutcher and Scott as the room-temperature-IQ heroes trapped in a world where everything suddenly stopped making sense. The genes of Harold And Kumar and The Hangover can be traced back to this film. Knocked Up (2007) Written and directed by Judd Apatow, this is the most successful slacker-stoner comedy ever. It made more than US$200mil (RM600mil) in worldwide grosses, thanks in large part to male wish-fulfilment at work here: the average Joe played by Rogen charms his way into the bed of the successful hottie played by Heigl. Apatow has since defended the premise, saying that he was inspired by the number of attractive woman-ugly guy couples he had seen. The Big Lebowski (1998) Created by Joel and Ethan Coen, the kings of the darkly comic vision, the film portrays Lebowski (Bridges) as an older man whose principles have caused him to turn his back on society's material values, becoming a slacker-stoner. Lebowski's zen-like pronouncements on the nature of reality and the iniquities of the human race have become some of the most oft-quoted movie phrases. Also, he was The Dude, man. – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network Related Story: |
| Posted: 02 Jul 2011 06:17 PM PDT Unambitious men who make a virtue of their vices are the new movie heroes. COMEDY has a new king. He is between 20 and 40. He toils away at a menial job so he can afford rent and pizza. He lives for video games, beer (and perhaps something a little stronger) and his girlfriend, in that order. The chronically unambitious bloke desires nothing more out of life than a warm spot on the old sofa and a cold brew. But his peaceful domain is rocked by events – a zombie uprising, an unexpected pregnancy, a need to find a truly awesome hamburger or a car gone missing – forcing him to set off on a hero's quest. After a series of trials that will push his wits, encyclopaedic knowledge of pop culture and rock trivia (as well as his wheezing, flabby body) to their limits, our reluctant hero will save the day. And he will emerge from the experience having learnt nothing about the value of hard work, fresh air or personal hygiene. Your Highness is one more comedy that joins the ranks of films about underachievers who nonetheless achieve a lot by the film's conclusion. Your Highness, a raunchy re-imagining of the sweet cult favourite Princess Bride (1987), joins other movies this year that bank on parodic, overblown versions of the average schlub, for laughs. The badly behaved men of The Hangover Part II are an example, as are the British sci-fi geeks played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the recent sci-fi comedy Paul. Later this year will see the release of Bridesmaids, which has the novelty of an all-women ensemble in an R-rated work punctuated by gross-out gags. It did so well in the United States, grossing more than US$10mil (RM30mil) on an estimated US$32.5mil (RM97.5mil) budget. One producer of the project is Judd Apatow, the man chiefly responsible for the ascendency of the slacker movie in the last decade (and who is also responsible for helping to revive a key sub-category of the slacker genre, the stoner comedy, such as Pineapple Express, 2008). Other films thick with unambitious men who make a virtue of their vices: Our Idiot Brother (starring one of the crown princes of the genre, Paul Rudd) and A Very Harold And Kumar Christmas, the third film in the series now seen as a cornerstone of the slacker-stoner canon. The clueless buffoon is a comedy staple, but there was a time when the characters in a comedy were not 20-somethings doing their best to do nothing. Back then, the comedic leads were busy people, rooting out demons (Ghostbusters, 1984), reanimating the dead (Young Frankenstein, 1974), piloting jets (Airplane!, 1980) or striving for rock greatness (This Is Spinal Tap, 1984). While R-rated slacker-stoner films remain a niche audience play, targeted at males mainly, aged between 18 and early 30s (though now and then, one film will break out of the R-rating ghetto, as The Hangover did in the United States), the studios still bankroll them. They are relatively cheap to make, as they tend not to feature big-name, mass appeal comedians. Your Highness might have James Franco and Natalie Portman on board, but they are not the focus of the movie. That honour goes to much less-famous Danny McBride, a pudgy actor with a cult following. The other gods of the slacker pantheon – Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Jason Segel – are also in the same middle-tier league. Slacker comedies therefore cost less to make, typically well under US$50mil (RM150mil), compared with films starring more mainstream comedians such as Jim Carrey and Eddie Murphy. They also carry their own built-in marketing. The Apatow crew, which includes Rogen and Segel, possess credibility from his short-lived but much loved 1990s television show Freaks And Geeks. Audiences have also come to know what to expect. They are primed to expect the formula. An Apatow product, for example, will showcase a realistic, often downbeat tone, some loose, improvised joking, drug use and just a touch of gross-out humour to balance out the sweetness. If Michael Cera is in it, it will feature a coming-of-age theme. The Harold And Kumar franchise, on the other hand, will amplify the surrealism in keeping with the level of hallucinogens in the heroes' brains. It will also push the so-dumb-it's-almost-smart envelope much harder. Women are played as sex objects and men make funny noises from their rear ends. Meanwhile, the British inheritors of the slacker mantle, the writers and actors Frost and Pegg, are known now as makers of smart films about dumb men who love pop culture and beer. Their twist is to make films that are both parodies of, and homages to, other films that slackers worship. But unlike films from other purveyors of slacker product, theirs unabashedly embrace sweetness. The stoner-slacker genre might still be mainly a "guy thing", but it is a young field and things are changing. If the female-friendly Bridesmaids (written by Saturday Night Live cast member Kristen Wiig and fellow comedienne Annie Mumolo) is anything to go by, the genre is deepening and growing in sophistication. After all, monster movies were considered schlocky and low-brow. And then, in 1975, Steven Spielberg released Jaws. – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network Related Story: |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan