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In 2005, after the release of Judd Apatow-produced movie Knocked Up, Katherine Heigl gave an interview in which she called the movie ‘a little sexist’, saying that it painted the women as ‘shrews, as humourless and uptight’ and painted the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys. Since then, there have been many accusations from reviewers that comedies produced by Judd Apatow (such as Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Superbad) are sexist due to their portrayal of women and endorsement of characters who are complete jerks.
I think it’s safe to say that yeah, they are a little sexist. Most of the women in the 40 Year Old Virgin are portrayed as drunk skanky nut-cases whereas the men (some of whom are clearly arseholes) are the heroes of the story. And then there’s Superbad, where one of the main characters has got to be the biggest arsehole on the planet and the women are mostly portrayed as drunk skanks (with the exception of one, who still appears to be stupid enough to go for one of the jerks).
This whole “Unnatractive loser gets with hot girl” scenario has been there in almost all of Apatow’s films. It’s all about wish-fulfillment. Female-based romantic comedies always have some sort of crazy wild romantic moment towards the end which would never happen in real life, but women wish they would. Same with Apatow movies. In real life, girls like Emma Stone would never go for guys like Jonah Hill. In real life guys would never get away with the crazy jerk stuff they do in these films.
In fact, here’s a parody song about it from CollegeHumor.com:
Really Long Link
Here’s the thing though – even though the movies are a little sexist, it doesn’t actually bother me. Why? Because a lot of female-based romantic comedies do the same thing. Not the good ones, mind you, but it’s been done. Think of the monstrosity that was Bride Wars. The men were practically treated like crap throughout the whole thing, and portrayed as useless and annoying. When the wedding planner asked the two main characters if they’d like to consult their fiancés about the dates, they immediately said “no” without hesitation, which of course was supposed to get a laugh from the audience. It’s sexist when the men do it, but if women do it, nobody complains.
Apatow movies also seem to have started another trend – making movies about jerks that we laugh with, not laugh at. Remember Stiffler in American Pie? The guy was a jerk – but we laughed AT him and how pathetic he was, not WITH him. Apatow movies try and make us sympathise with the jerks, like Seth from Superbad and Jay from The 40 Year Old Virgin. We should be laughing at them but instead they’ve made us laugh with them. Is that really a good thing? To be honest I’m not sure. Apatow movies have paved the way for other jerk-based comedies, like The Hangover, which we women laugh at but then feel immense guilt afterwards.
Don’t get me wrong – I love Apatow movies. The 40 Year Old Virgin and Superbad are both hilarious, and I did also enjoy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Sometimes when I see something really sexist in these movies I cringe, but then I just remember that we can be just as bad with our movies at times.
-That Aussie Girl
When Star Trek came out in cinemas I was indifferent to the idea of going to go see it. After all I didn’t know anything about Star Trek. Then the reviews started pouring in on rottentomatoes.com, my friends went and saw it, and said it was fantastic. I figured I should probably go see it – and I’m really glad I did.
I may know little to nothing about Star Trek, but I do know that this movie is awesome as a movie in its own right. Almost everything about it was done impeccably. It had a great script, excellent casting, top-notch special effects... in fact, just think of the movie as a list of qualities that need to be checked off.
Script – Check.
Casting – Check.
Acting – Check.
Special Effects – Check.
Score – Check.
Production Design – Check.
Practically everything has done right here. The casting is fantastic. Chris Pine kicks arse as Kirk, and Zachary Quinto is surprisingly good as Spock, who ended up becoming one of my favourite characters. I mean dude, he’s half human half Vulcan – a race which wipes away all their emotions. He feels more emotion than most Vulcans but still doesn’t show it much. So as an actor, Quinto has to convey emotion without conveying emotion. That’s pretty damn hard, and he pulled it off very well. I also loved Simon Pegg as Scotty, who was pretty lovable and funny. And even though I haven’t seen any of the original Star Trek movies, I can definitely appreciate the awesomeness that is Leonard Nimoy as Old Spock. I mean it’d kinda be like William Shatner walking in and randomly waving, only more awesome. Nimoy goes well beyond a cameo, and we love the movie for it.
The writing is great. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the cinemas and seen a good solid plot that hooked me in from the moment I started watching. It doesn’t treat its audience like they’re idiots, but also works well for the uninitiated (like me). It’s well-structured, interesting and has some pretty funny dialogue to boot. (Are you out of your Vulcan mind?)
Some people said they didn’t like the score, but personally I loved it. To me it sounded like the awesomeness of Indiana Jones and Star Wars combined, especially in the opening where we first see the title of the movie. Although to be fair I know little to nothing about music. If you want to correct me, feel free.
Overall, this movie kicked arse. If you’re into Sci-Fi and Adventure movies, go see it. If you suck, don’t go see it.
Four and a half stars.
No Reservations is an unsuccessful Romantic Comedy starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Abigail Breslin and Aaron Eckhart. The story focuses on Kate (played by Zeta-Jones) an uptight and anti-social gourmet chef who becomes a guardian to her niece Zoe (Breslin) after her sister dies in a car-crash. On top of her struggles to be an adequate parental figure, her work-life changes dramatically when a Sous Chef named Nick (Eckhart) is hired, who is just as loose and bubbly as she is wound-up and cold. Can this charismatic Sous Chef melt Kate’s heart? You bet your poor screenplays he can.
This might be a movie where you’d think it’s alright the first time, but then when you watch it again you realize how terrible it is. The script is awful, the directing is sloppy and there are way too many musical sequences attempting to pad out the storyline. There are parts where you can tell the director told them to ad lib their dialogue while they play some random song over it. It's like the directer thinks no one minds if the characters are saying things like "Yeah sure uh huh right oh really yep uh huh" during crucial character-developing moments as long as there's pleasant music playing over it. Some of the montage sequences are painful, particularly the ones involving the three main characters riding three-person bikes and playing in photo-booths.
Catherine Zeta-Jones does a good job as Kate, and Aaron Eckhart is also well-cast as the male lead. The problem is that characters like Aaron Eckhart's Nick don't actually exist in real life. So instead of watching the movie thinking “Aaw, he’s so dreamy..” we’re thinking “Pfft, yeah right!”. If guys like Nick existed, they wouldn't be single, and they'd never fall for uptight bitches like Kate. He's basically the Gary-Stu creation of a lonely writer. He's good in the kitchen, he's funny, he's insanely good looking, he likes romantic music, he's loyal, and he's good with kids.
And here's another thing that really annoys me about this film - Kate is always leaving her niece alone with random guys. Why would a character who has massive trust issues let their date pick up their niece, take them to bed alone and tuck them in? Why would a character who has massive trust issues tell their single mid-thirties neighbour to come inside their house several times a night to check on their niece and make sure she's still tucked in? Who wouldn't freak the hell out when they open the door to their own house and find this guy in there? Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Oprah would know that's where the warning bells start going off. Sure it's an extremely unfair stereotype. Not all guys over the age of thirty who play with children that aren't their own are paedofiles. Some people are just NICE. But seriously, leaving your kids alone with strangers in general is a really bad idea. Bad writers! Shame on you.
In a nutshell, this movie is not worst movie I’ve ever seen, but I'm not recommending it to anyone any time soon. The cast try their best to make it a worthwhile movie, but in the end it never comes up to scratch. It's not the worst, but it’s still pretty terrible.
Two stars.
This is That Aussie Girl, signing off.
A friend from uni once told me that he reckoned the greatest movie ever would be one where a bunch of people were stuck in a labyrinth filled with loads of zombies and monsters, and they all had to blow the shit out of each other - and the whys and hows would never be acknowledged. With that in mind, I think he'd absolutely LOVE Planet Terror. The movie is basically about a bunch of extremely hot people grabbing a bunch of weapons and blowing the shit out of a bunch of zombies. Normally I'd be saying this as if it were a bad thing - but for some reason... I...LIKED it
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