Movies Opening This Week: What's Wrong With Canada? Edition

In TV and the movies, a lot of people are not exactly fond of being deported. I can understand if their country has the image of a hellhole, but is Canada really worth leaving when it seems to have such a pretty nice and clean reputation? And how about that free health care?

The Proposal

Obviously, a rom-com will be the last place you'd expect anybody to discuss the weird irrationality of the wrongness of Canada... or Alaska for that matter.

Set in a premise that probably any Canadian immigrant would relate to (yes, there might've been a hint of sarcasm), The Proposal stars the Sandra Bullock as the witch boss Margaret and Ryan Reynolds as Margaret's employee Andrew. Margaret apparently is a Canadian, and she has to be deported for some reason. Her solution? Marry the next guy who opens the door, who by the way in real life is pretty much Canadian. What an ironic turn of fact and fiction.

Predictable, this will be. Charming? Well, Betty White is.

Why don't we go back to simpler times? Why do people have to care about immigration and nationality and citizenship anyway? Why can't we go back to...

Year One

OK, maybe that's going a bit too far. But if Jack Black and Michael Cera were our ancestors... uhh... we'd probably all get along and be funny all the time. Maybe some will even go as far as becoming a funny criminal mastermind. That's why we have the Joker right?

Lame joking aside, Year One is actually kinda funny. It's basically about two people who go on a "road trip" through different periods of time. They meet some rather familiar characters and go through some rather familiar key situations in history that kinda shaped humanity forever. Basically, this is Jack Black's take on history. And I don't know how far they'll actually go with this, but I don't think there's any remote sign of aging.

I have to admit, the trailer made a laugh a bit, but I'm not sure if it exactly warrants a trip to the theater. Still, with the king of awkward Michael Cera and the king of loud Jack Black together, the pairing may likely cause much hilarity. You know what, I'm gonna wait for the reviews because I kinda like what I see in the trailer.

REVIEW: Tropic Thunder

What would you do if you were a huge fat balding Hollywood producer with a film that's outrageously expensive, behind schedule AND has one of the concerned film's actors kidnapped for ransom?

You call insurance, tell the terorrists to go f**k themselves and proceed to dance to the beat of Flo Rida's 'Low'.

Yup, just a sampling of Tropic Thunder's biting satire on Hollywood. Ironically, this fake-real-war-story-that-became-a-blockbuster-in-the-story-of-this-blockbuster-that-talks-about-Hollywood-in-real-life-to-audiences-in-real-life is also made and conceived by Hollywood star Ben Stiller (with Justin Thoreaux), and to be honest, it's actually funny even if it's extremely crass and crude.

Now, this movie is set in Vietnam where actors- Alpa Chino, failing action star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), Academy-award winner Australian Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) who delves so much into his own character that he underwent skin recoloration surgery to play an African-American, and lowbrow comedian Jeff (Jack Black) who's also addicted to heroin- are dropped into a real war zone after the director of the very late, very expensive war movie got tired of handling the prima donnas. The actors don't know about it, so they're in deep shit.

First of all, I'd like to give abundant praise to Robert Downey Jr. in his unforgettable role as "a dude playing a dude who's disguised as another dude". He's got the stereotype down pat for both African-American and Australian which results in him matching his character extremely well and being very funny in the process. In short, his acting is just top-notch.

Don't get me wrong, the other actors play their roles well, but Downey is just, damn. You seriously gotta see one of his latter scenes where he's so damn cool.

Well, anyway, this action-packed guerilla movie doesn't skimp on the explosive action either because the thing's full of it. Of course, much of it is used for comedic effect. So are the awkward silences of which there are many. I just can't resist chuckling every time there seems to be some kind of awkward silence because these people are pretty much hard to take seriously, especially Downey and his accent.

Direction is also nice. I mean, this thing could've ended up as crap anytime were the wrong men employed, but with Ben Stiller helming the film himself, it's hard to find fault, really. He squeezes some excellent performances from the cast, and he manages to put this comedy beyond stupid summer fare.

Still, some jokes in the movie fall flat. One part where Jack Black's character is tied to a tree and talks about explicitly graphic sexual content, there's just that feeling of disgust- much like in movies like Meet the Spartans.

The experience is humorous but not for everyone. If you don't like toilet humor, there's a chance that you'll hate this. But if you just want to see Tom Cruise dance and Robert Downey Jr. deliver the goods, you'll be left more than satisfied- with a few laughs as a bonus.

RATING: 8/10

Posted with LifeCast