Hiccup’s small village has a unique set of pests – dragons. While all of his fellow Vikings train to kill the dragons and stop the ménage Hiccup is sidelined because he is viewed as incapable. After one attack Hiccup finds a young dragon stranded in the woods unable to fly away; slowly Hiccup trains the dragon and learns that everything his fellow Vikings know about dragons is wrong, but he is unsure how to show them without endangering his dragon and disappointing the entire village.
How to Train Your Dragon is what a good family film should be. It is a well written, directed and crafted film that aims not just to please the children in the audience but the entire family and delivers a positive message. Hiccup is a very identifiable character for a person of any age; he is a teenager who wants to be recognized for who he is but as he is different from those around him he is instead shunned and made fun of. Through the film Hiccup has to learn to become comfortable with himself and take ownership of who he is – a great message for teens and children.
Above and beyond the fantastic message How to Train Your Dragon holds, the film is simply a joy to watch. I could care less about 3D (though I did see it in 3D), this film is simply an adventure movie from start to finish and doesn’t sacrifice story to do this.
What did shock me a bit about How to Train Your Dragon was the end of the film. I’m not going to give anything away, and I would be interested in knowing if the book ended the same way, but some things happen that I don’t think would normally happen in a children’s film – but these events are also woven in through the bulk of the film. The adolescent characters are Vikings and they are thrown into dangerous and deadly situations for the length of the entire film & characters do get hurt.
The animation and 3D in How to train Your Dragon are stunning. I don’t agree with the ad campaign that boasts the “3D makes even AVATAR jealous”, but seeing this film on the big screen – in any format – would be an experience that cannot be replicated at home no matter how good your television is.
Directors: Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders
Writer: Dean DeBlois
Hiccup: Jay Baruchel
Stoick: Gerard Butler
Gobber: Craig Ferguson
Astrid: America Ferrera
Snotlout: Jonah Hill
Ruffnut: Kristen Wiig
Tuffnut: TJ Miller
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Showing posts with label jay baruchel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jay baruchel. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tropic Thunder
Tropic Thunder is still one of the funniest movies to have come out in the last decade no matter how many times I watch it; in fact the more I watch it the more I become impressed with the skills of director and actor Ben Stiller. I still do not quite understand how you direct a movie in which you also act in but Stiller does this in every film he directs and Tropic Thunder shows all the skill of a veteran director.
I enjoy watching Tropic Thunder with people that know very little about it because it seems like they never expect what is actually in the film. Sometimes it’s a cameo like Tom Cruise that surprises them and sometimes it’s merely the nuts and bolts of the film. As my younger brother expressed to me last night after watching it for the first time; Tropic Thunder makes no logical sense, yet somehow it’s all corralled in a way that makes the story make perfect sense and become utterly hilarious.
I truly cannot recommend this film enough and the more I watch it the more I become firmly aware that not only is the in my top five favorite films of 2008, but I think perhaps Robert Downey Jr. should have gotten the best supporting actor Oscar.
Kirk Lazarus: Being an actor's no different than being a rugby player or a construction worker, save for the fact that my tools are the mechanisms that trigger human emotion.
I enjoy watching Tropic Thunder with people that know very little about it because it seems like they never expect what is actually in the film. Sometimes it’s a cameo like Tom Cruise that surprises them and sometimes it’s merely the nuts and bolts of the film. As my younger brother expressed to me last night after watching it for the first time; Tropic Thunder makes no logical sense, yet somehow it’s all corralled in a way that makes the story make perfect sense and become utterly hilarious.
I truly cannot recommend this film enough and the more I watch it the more I become firmly aware that not only is the in my top five favorite films of 2008, but I think perhaps Robert Downey Jr. should have gotten the best supporting actor Oscar.
Kirk Lazarus: Being an actor's no different than being a rugby player or a construction worker, save for the fact that my tools are the mechanisms that trigger human emotion.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Tropic Thunder
I have been excited about the prospect of Tropic Thunder for months. I do have a special place in my heart for movies about making movies; add to that the prospect of Robert Downey Jr. and a huge amount of advanced buzz and I was pretty sure that there was no way I could dislike Tropic Thunder.
I adored Tropic Thunder.
Everything about the film was funny to me, but I do not think I have laughed harder in years at a movie. Every time Robert Downey Jr. opened his mouth to deliver a line about the inner workings of Holylwood or the craft of acting I could not stop laughing.
This film has gotten a lot of heat because it is “controversial” and “insensitive”. What drives me nuts is that with these kinds of films (the same with Dogma) people jump to conclusions without seeing them in the text of the film.
Are the jokes about Simple Jack the retard insensitive? Yes. But what they fail to see is that they are more insensitive towards why Tugg Speedman chose to play Jack than the mental condition of the character. The entire joke is based around the insensitivity of Hollywood towards the individual and the outsider, and that their main goal is to win awards and make money – period. This is actually the theme of the entire movie; somehow Ben Stiller and the writing team found a way to poke fun at the system while completely endorsing the system to get the movie made.
Tropic Thunder is filled to the brim with cameos, inside jokes and memorable characters that completely endorse the Hollywood stereotype that people believe in. While I adored all of the stars and cemeos in this film I do have to say that two people stood out for me as my favorites – Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise.
Tom Cruise is Les Grossman, the head of the studio that is making the movie within Tropic Thunder - Tropic Thunder. This is the tent pole movie of the decade for the studio and Les is personally involved, even getting people to assault the films director as he is on teleconference thousands of miles away and cannot do it himself. This role is the Tom Cruise I know, love and have missed ever since his couch jumping incident; this is the Tom Cruise that is in the business because he loves it, and is the biggest star in the world without trying to be anyone but himself – the Tom Cruise that does things because he knows his fans will enjoy it.
This truly is the summer of Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man was brilliant, and I think Tropic Thunder was made by his portrayal of Kirk Lazarus – Australian method actor, multi-award winner, who is so committed to the role that he has undergone a procedure to dye his skin black so he can portray the platoons sergeant. This role is one of the funniest I have seen since my personal favorite comedy Blazing Saddles where I fell in love with Gene Wilder’s Jim.
I highly recommend Tropic Thunder to all. It is a highly enjoyable movie that will entertain adults to no end. Just remember to go in knowing that this movie is not PG-13, and that the jokes are meant to be taken within the context of the film – a knowledge of film history helps as well.
Director: Ben Stiller
Writers: Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux, Ethan Cohen
Kirk Lazarus: Robert Downey Jr.
Jeff Portnoy: Jack Black
Tugg Speedman: Ben Stiller
Kevin Sandusky: Jay Baruchel
Alpa Chino: Brandon T. Jackson
Damien Cockburn: Steve Coogan
Cody: Danny McBride
Four Leaf: Nick Nolte
Rick Peck: Matthew McConaughey
Les Grossman: Tom Cruise
Kirk Lazarus: I don't read the script. The script reads me.
I adored Tropic Thunder.
Everything about the film was funny to me, but I do not think I have laughed harder in years at a movie. Every time Robert Downey Jr. opened his mouth to deliver a line about the inner workings of Holylwood or the craft of acting I could not stop laughing.
This film has gotten a lot of heat because it is “controversial” and “insensitive”. What drives me nuts is that with these kinds of films (the same with Dogma) people jump to conclusions without seeing them in the text of the film.
Are the jokes about Simple Jack the retard insensitive? Yes. But what they fail to see is that they are more insensitive towards why Tugg Speedman chose to play Jack than the mental condition of the character. The entire joke is based around the insensitivity of Hollywood towards the individual and the outsider, and that their main goal is to win awards and make money – period. This is actually the theme of the entire movie; somehow Ben Stiller and the writing team found a way to poke fun at the system while completely endorsing the system to get the movie made.
Tropic Thunder is filled to the brim with cameos, inside jokes and memorable characters that completely endorse the Hollywood stereotype that people believe in. While I adored all of the stars and cemeos in this film I do have to say that two people stood out for me as my favorites – Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise.
Tom Cruise is Les Grossman, the head of the studio that is making the movie within Tropic Thunder - Tropic Thunder. This is the tent pole movie of the decade for the studio and Les is personally involved, even getting people to assault the films director as he is on teleconference thousands of miles away and cannot do it himself. This role is the Tom Cruise I know, love and have missed ever since his couch jumping incident; this is the Tom Cruise that is in the business because he loves it, and is the biggest star in the world without trying to be anyone but himself – the Tom Cruise that does things because he knows his fans will enjoy it.
This truly is the summer of Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man was brilliant, and I think Tropic Thunder was made by his portrayal of Kirk Lazarus – Australian method actor, multi-award winner, who is so committed to the role that he has undergone a procedure to dye his skin black so he can portray the platoons sergeant. This role is one of the funniest I have seen since my personal favorite comedy Blazing Saddles where I fell in love with Gene Wilder’s Jim.
I highly recommend Tropic Thunder to all. It is a highly enjoyable movie that will entertain adults to no end. Just remember to go in knowing that this movie is not PG-13, and that the jokes are meant to be taken within the context of the film – a knowledge of film history helps as well.
Director: Ben Stiller
Writers: Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux, Ethan Cohen
Kirk Lazarus: Robert Downey Jr.
Jeff Portnoy: Jack Black
Tugg Speedman: Ben Stiller
Kevin Sandusky: Jay Baruchel
Alpa Chino: Brandon T. Jackson
Damien Cockburn: Steve Coogan
Cody: Danny McBride
Four Leaf: Nick Nolte
Rick Peck: Matthew McConaughey
Les Grossman: Tom Cruise
Kirk Lazarus: I don't read the script. The script reads me.
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