Synopsis: The Reel Guys are hardy Canadians, but with the sub-zero weather we’ve been having lately even the most robust Canuck deserves a snow day. With that in mind, the Reel Guys have put away their long underwear, ear muffs and dignity and decided to stay home. At the risk of earning ridicule from our friends in Saskatchewan and other places where it regularly gets frigid, here are our ideas for movies to take your mind off the deep freeze. Close the drapes, turn up the heat and enjoy…
Richard: Spring Breakers was shot in St. Petersburg, Florida, so expect lots of beach shots, beautiful sunsets and a young cast — featuring Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine—stripped down to clothing that would cause instant frost bite for those us of living in the Great White North these days. The story of the illegal way they try to make money for spring break plays more like a wild music video than traditional film, but there’s no denying the heat that comes off the screen.
MB: Summer camp? I’m with you on the Canadian classic Meatballs, with the great Bill Murray. But there’s another counter-intuitive way to go here, Richard. And that is to watch movies that depict a world so hot, you’ll be wishing for some refreshing snowflakes. Just put on the great Lawrence of Arabia. You’ll want to make a snowman by the second hour. Or Gus Van Sant’s Gerry or Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point, both of which take place in literal and existential deserts. Dune would probably work too, although I’ve never met anyone who could watch it all the way through.
RC: Talk about flipping from one extreme to the other. I’ll stick with a more moderate climate for my last pick. Under the Tuscan Sun is a hot love story starring Diane Lane set in moderate, but enjoyable temperatures.
MB: A lovely movie. But let’s not forget the old standby: The Yule Log, burning brightly on DVD. Not much of a cast, the acting is wooden, but the dialogue crackles!
Bandslam is three-quarters of an entertaining movie. It’s too long and has three too many dead spots, but given the low expectations I had going in to see a rock and roll high school fable headlined by two Disney stars, I was pleasantly surprised. It’s not a complete waste of time and the Bowie songs on the soundtrack rock.
At the beginning of the film Will Burton (Gaelan Connell) is a loner with a David Bowie fixation. His high school career has been spent either being bullied or ignored by his classmates and his long e-mails to Bowie’s fan site are the only thing that keeps him on an even keel. When he moves to a new school in a new state it looks like it will be same old until he meets Charlotte Banks (Aly Michalka) and romantic interest Sa5m (Vanessa Hudgens), two classmates who recognize that he has something to offer. Charlotte asks him to manage the band she wants to enter in Bandslam, the annual battle of the bands. How popular is the event? “It’s like Texas High School Football big,” says one character. Charlotte is determined to beat her ex-boyfriend’s band and Will is the kind of Phil Spector musical wiz kid that might be able to give her the edge.
Bandslam is part Disney show, part Monkees, part music video and part Mickey and Judy. There’s a lot going on here, and not all of it is good, but the stuff that is good is worth a peek.
First the bad. Bandslam is half-an-hour too long. Some montage chopping would have worked wonders to bring down the occasionally bordering-on-torturous hour and fifty minute running time. The end could have been tightened up considerably. The battle of the bands sequence drags on and on and not only does it feel extended, the bands look far too old and far too slick to be high school students.
Next is the music. Early on the soundtrack rocks; nicely selected cuts by Bowie, The Velvet Underground and Nick Drake are unexpected and ear friendly, and even one of the fictional band’s tunes called Amphetamine tunes it up to eleven, but as time wears on the music begins to sound a bit too Tin Pan Alley for a rock flick.
There is also a tone problem and I don’t mean as in pitch. The movie can’t seem to decide whether it wants to be a Disney movie or a teen indie flick with a good soundtrack. It often has the attitude and look of an indie but careens into Disney land when it over sentimentalizes the kiddie romance. The mushy stuff is a little too Mickey Mouse, not enough Bowie.
Having said all that I have to point out that most times when the movie begins to slip into cliché and cheese it rights itself with a snappy line or an unexpected plot twist.
Add to that a very appealing performance by newcomer Gaelan Connell as outcast Will and you have a movie that I was determined to hate but couldn’t. Bandslam is a surprisingly fun little music movie that is just a couple of notes away from being completely in tune.
“Beauty and the Beast” has been adapted many times. There‘s the famous Disney animated account, a Viking version and even a werewolf retelling but the new Vanessa Hudgens film, “Beastly,” places the story of not judging a book by its cover where it belongs, in the most judgmental place on earth—high school.
Based on Alex Flinn’s 2007 teen romance novel of the same name, “Beastly” stars Brit heartthrob Alex Pettyfer as Kyle Kingson, a wealthy high school senior with a nasty streak. When he disses a teen witch (billionaire fashionista Mary Kate Olsen) at a school function she casts a spell on him that makes him “as aggressively unattractive on the outside as he is on the inside.” Transformed into a half-human, half-“Enemy Mine” looking creature with Mike Tyson-esque facial tattoos, beastly Kyle is given one year to find his beauty, a true love, or he will look that way forever. Enter Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens), a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who might be able to help him break the spell.
The early 2000s may go down as the heyday of the human – supernatural teen romance movie. Vampires, werewolves, aliens and, well, whatever Kyle is, as the otherworldly Casanovas in movies like “Twilight,” “I Am Number Four,” and now “Beastly,” are perfect analogies for the way that many disaffected teens feel in high school, but honestly, what happened to girls who fell for the school’s quarterback? Catching a ball isn’t angsty enough anymore I guess.
“Beastly,” however, has a corner on the teen angst that makes up much of young adult entertainment these days. In one scene Kyle deactivates a social networking site with the words, “I am no more.” It isn’t until he takes guidance from a flamboyant tutor (Neil Patrick Harris) who leaves the readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmatic to the eggheads and focuses on teaching his student about being a decent human being that Kyle begins to understand that life “isn’t about how others see you, it’s about how you see yourself.”
Good messages in an uneven movie that has some very effective moments early on but gets more ridiculous as the credits approach.
Hudgens is a likeable leading lady and Neil Patrick Harris tries to insert some spark into the proceedings, but the Beast’s new tribal make-up is rather silly and his transformation from Alex Pettyfer to Alex Prettyfer isn’t a big enough payoff to have any real emotional impact.
By Richard Crouse & Mark Breslin Reel Guys – Metro Canada
