Movie #195 - Fanboys

Fanboys
2008 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 30 min
Director: Kyle Newman
Starring: Dan Fogler, Sam Huntington, Jay Baruchel, Kristen Bell, Seth Rogen, Danny Trejo, William Shatner, Carrie Fisher

Star Wars fans will take special delight in this geeked-out adventure movie.  Despite it's slap-stick Road Trip kind of comedy, the overall story is one I really enjoy.  Four childhood friends band together to storm Skywalker Ranch to see Episode One before it comes out, because one of them is dying from cancer.  The way I just explained it sounded lame, but it's not melodramatic or anything.  It's just a nice story about friends - with some hillarity thrown in for good measure.

Seth Rogen is arguably one of the better parts of this movie, and he only plays two small parts.  Fighting himself (one role versus the other) is possibly the highlight, but his Star Trek nerd taking down Dan Fogler is classic.  The laundry list of cameos doesn't hurt this movie either.

It's just fun, but not ridiculous beyond reason.  And don't we all want to break into Skywalker Ranch, either to save George Lucas's movies from himself or... no, that's why we all want to break in.  But before Episodes One, Two and Three came out, some of us probably wanted to watch those too.

Movie #85 - Blues Brothers

Blues Brothers
Universal Pictures
1980 - Rated R - 2 hr 13 min
Director: John Landis
Starring: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Cab Calloway, Carrie Fisher, lots of famous musicians...

I'm going to come right out and say it.  This is a movie from another era, one that can be held on a certain pedastal and withstand the test of time.  It's a classic movie with a loyal band of followers and, to them, it's awesomeness will never waiver.  Like Caddyshack.

But to me, it's not as impressive.  I fully admit that I don't admire it the way that most do, and I know that probably makes me wrong in some way.  The premise is kinda weak, with most of it just an elaborate excuse to string together seemingly unrelated "music videos."  It is funny how seriously the Brothers (and the actors who play them) take themselves.  As a comedy, I can certainly appreciate it's integral part in our society's evolution toward really funny comedies... But a lot of it gets lost on me. Ray Charles shooting at customers in his music shop, however, that's just funny stuff.

I did learn a few things, however, by watching this film.  The first is that my husband learned to dance by copying Elwood Blues.  The second is that Aretha Frankin can NOT dance any better than either of them.  And the third is that there's a lot of musicians I'm expected to know on sight that I just don't know. 

If you're reading this and you love this movie the way it's meant to be loved, I apologize to you.  These classics are supposed to be treasured. I get that. But to me, it just doesn't hold my interest.