Mission accomplished

Monday May 30th 2011

A few words on It’s a Boy/Girl Thing

Monday May 30th 2011

I’m not ashamed to admit that, as of this weekend, I’ve seen the little-known teen comedy It’s A Boy/Girl Thing twice. Chances are you haven’t seen it (I probably account for about 50% of its total audience now) but you may well remember the veritable avalanche of advertising that accompanied the film when it limped into UK cinemas on Boxing Day 2006. Its wacky bench-based poster was plastered all over bus stops, billboards and tube platforms at the time, complete with a completely indecipherable quote from Sugar promising that the film was ‘body-swapping brilliant!’

I suspect I wasn’t alone in assuming that the film’s unfamiliar stars Kevin Zegers and Samaire Armstrong were actually quite a big deal in the States, maybe as Nickelodeon alumni or something similar. In which case, why were they trying so hard to make it work in the UK? Surely we weren’t the ideal target for something so innately American?

Little did I know that It’s A Boy/Girl Thing is actually a British film, which went straight to DVD in the States and most other parts of the world. Even its seemingly all-American stars aren’t quite as authentic as they seem, with Zegers hailing from Canada and Armstrong from Japan. The film itself is filled with little Brit-pandering touches too, from an inexplicable starring role for SHARON BLOODY OSBOURNE as Zegers’ character’s mum to unlikely prom scenes set to Girls Aloud (their version of I Think We’re Alone Now was recorded specifically for the film).

But cultural incongruences aside, It’s a Boy/Girl Thing is a body-swap comedy as predictable as it is blatantly enjoyable. Every single trope and cliché of the genre is present and correct, from the obligatory genital-inspection scene that immediately follows the body swap to the prank montage that dutifully arrives in the second act. It’d probably make for quite a fun drinking game if you’ve got time to put together a proper set of rules. Otherwise, feel free to use mine:

Nonetheless, the film is more than able to throw a few surprises your way when it feels like it. Its treatment of gender issues is remarkably complex at times, most spectacularly in a jaw-dropping scene where bookish loner Nell, trapped inside the body of handsome jock Woody, gets an erection while looking at herself, i.e. Nell’s body, with Woody’s brain. The questions this raises about the nature of identity, gender and sexuality are, unsurprisingly, too big to fully address in a 90-minute teen comedy, but you’ve got to hand it to them for trying.

I happened to mention on Twitter that I was watching the film, and as it turns out I’m not alone in my admiration for it. Scores of people were eager to add their own praise for the sharp script, likeable characters and brilliant perversity of the whole thing. It was almost as big as the response I got after mentioning William’s Wish Wellingtons earlier in the week.

So in the interest of spreading happiness, I thought I’d mention It’s a Boy/Girl Thing on here and recommend that you watch it for free on iPlayer any time before Thursday. You won’t regret it.

Saying that, if I’m honest I did have an ulterior motive for writing this review:

The film has a 57% score on Rotten Tomatoes, from just seven reviews. As a registered RT critic, I can submit this piece and singlehandedly push It’s a Boy/Girl Thing from ‘Rotten’ to ‘Fresh’ by upping the rating to 63%. And how fucking cool would that be? DEMOCRACY IN ACTION!

Fucking hell this looks boss

Sunday May 29th 2011

So good I didn’t even wait for the official upload.

WIN THIS SHIT: Ride, Rise, Roar on DVD or Blu

Friday May 27th 2011

Even if the rumours are true and he’s a bit of a plank, I can’t help but love David Byrne. I love his silly hair, I love the way he’s still doing that odd jig on stage even though he looks like he might keel over nowadays and I love the way he does things like Ride, Rise, Roar.

Documenting his 2008/09 tour with Brian Eno, the film is a fairly straightforward concert movie (nowhere near as high-concept as Stop Making Sense) juxtaposing live performances with backstage interviews and rehearsal footage. If it doesn’t sound particularly revolutionary that’s because it isn’t, but there’s a brilliant honesty about the whole thing, from the looks on the dancers’ faces as they arrive on stage for the first time to the sweet confusion of Byrne as he tries to explain the precise way he plugs his microphone into his computer, that makes it impossible to dislike. Handily, it also looks stunning.

Anyway, you can probably guess whether or not this is going to be your sort of thing, and if it is then why not enter this competition to win 1 of 3 copies of the film on your choice of format. To be in with that ALL-IMPORTANT CHANCE OF WINNING, just tell me one nice thing about yourself.

Nicest three win.

UK entrants only please.

Hangover 2 is shit, and if you like it so are you

Thursday May 26th 2011

The Odeon Leicester Square seats 1683 people, more than any other cinema in the UK. Given that this far exceeds the number of people usually invited to press screenings, it is clearly an unnecessarily large (and expensive) venue for such an event. As such, few movies are press screened there, and when they are it’s usually for one of a few specific reasons.

In the case of Hangover 2 (sorry, that’s The Hangover: Part II - I forgot this was Quality Filmmaking for a second), the reason is simple: more people equals more laughs equals more reviewers convinced they had a good time. It’s mathematical, you get me?

There was even free beer at the screening (never happens at the Odeon Leicester Square) and as if that weren’t enough to get people ready for The Comedy Experience of 2011™, the film was preceded by a message from Gok bloody Wan.

He assured us that he’d been asked personally (by who? the stars? the director? God?) to introduce the film, and said that he hoped we all enjoyed it. Because, you know, this screening means a lot to everyone involved, okay? and you better like it, please like it, please.

Cut a long story short: I didn’t like it. To be honest, I wasn’t much of a fan of the first one either – it was a little too try-hard and mean-spirited for my liking. But seeing the cast and crew reunited two years on in a desperate attempt to replicate their past success, I felt a strange tinge of nostalgia for the first entry in what will inevitably become a trilogy. At least it had an original concept, consistent laughs and some surprising plot turns, whereas its sequel brings a whole new level of meaning to the phrase ‘phoned in’.

In continuing the story of Phil, Stu and Alan, director Todd Phillips and co have made the strange decision to essentially remake the first movie – and not remake in the ‘oh, Transformers 2 is just a remake of Transformers‘ sense, but in the actual ‘scene-for-scene remake’ sense. Every aspect of the movie is so intricately similar to its predecessor that you start to wonder whether this is all some kind of elaborate art statement. Even when the similarities are signposted by the characters themselves (the line ‘it happened again’ gets several airings) it’s hard to shake the feeling that you know exactly what’s going to happen at every moment.

Perhaps sensing that his movie’s at risk of ending up a bit Gus-Van-Sant’s-Psycho, Phillips does what any self-respecting comedy filmmaker would do these days and UPS THE FUCKING ANTE. Did I say FUCKING ANTE? I obviously meant CUNTING ANTE.

Yes, ‘cunt’ shows up about twenty minutes into the proceedings and we’re all supposed to fall about ourselves in hysterics at how daring and edgy the film is for having the temerity to utter such a syllable. Comedy writers should think themselves very lucky that we still live in a society where a non-discriminatory swear word has such power. Of course, it’s impact can only go so far, at which point you have to bring in the heavy artillery: genitalia.

In case you’ve been wondering, this is what the male and female genitalia look like:

There, I just ruined most of the biggest jokes in The Hangover: Part II.

Of course, the plot isn’t exactly the same as last time. ‘The Wolfpack’ have relocated to Thailand, which gives the writers a chance to add ‘xeno’ to their already extensive list of phobias. To their credit, they never actually use a Bangkok pun, but it isn’t much of a consolation when entire scenes are being played out purely for the purpose of laughing at someone with an accent. Gays get a pretty bad rap too, and it goes without saying that women are of no value in the Hangover universe.

So, basically, The Hangover: Part II is tasteless, pointless, tactless and pretty much anything else you care to stick the ‘-less’ suffix on. It’s nice to see that Ed Helms, Zack Galianakis and Bradley Cooper have retained their on-screen chemistry after going their separate Hollywood ways, but this shit is far below them and they seem to know it.

Still, how often do you get a chance to borrow images from the ‘Human penis’ Wikipedia entry for a movie review? Not very often, I can tell you.