NY Times Movie Reviews

2009_funny_people_wallpaper_001 aathe-hurt-locker Sometimes, the NY Times does a fantastic job of writing incisive, inspiring film reviews (Hurt Locker — amazing flick), and other times, they just seem to be on crack (Funny People — extremely well-written screenplay).

Hurt Locker is amazing (bland praise, sorry). It’s so stressful and in the center is a dude who actually loves his job — detonating bombs. Funny People, I dug as well. None of the jokes were funny, but the story and relationship were interesting. There’s all this chatter about Judd Apatow depicting sexist female characters, which I don’t see (and the Times does). I just really admire his writing. But I think the Times loses their judgment whenever there are a lot of penis jokes, like they think it’s a movie like Van Wilder and there’s no craft involved.

They missed some essential character points, for example, the movie star’s happiness. They commented how Judd Apatow is too smug and self-satisfied now, b/c the movie star was enjoying the perks of his success too much, whereas I saw a dude who was loaded but leading an utterly meaningless, empty life due to the fact that he had no relationships. HE HAD NO FRIENDS! He has to hire someone to help him through an illness. How is that self-satisfied and like an endorsement of the fabulous life? Uh doy.

Anyway, I’ll settle down now. This is like when I pick on someone’s grammar, no one wants to observe that. I will say it was an interesting picture, but its serious parts are the most compelling. The penis jokes are dead boring. Thank you.

P.S. What is the Hurt Locker anyway?

2 Replies to “NY Times Movie Reviews”

  1. I would disagree that the NYT loses judgment if penis jokes are involved. The reviews were glowing for 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, I think. And both films were much raunchier (and better). While not sexist per se, I think Judd Apatow’s point of view is very “boys only club.” And if you are female, entry into his club is: you are related/married to Apatow or you are going to play a hottie and/or freak. I liked Funny People for the insider’s world of stand-up comedy, but was tired of seeing his usual cast; they are funny, but it’s getting old.

  2. i will check out the Times review of those other penis joke movies. i’m thinking of the one where they slammed paul rudd who kept doing the “see ya later jobin” and “slappin’ the base” joke, which they thought was later, and i was like, THAT’S SO HARD!

    you know apatow is all about the boys, but i don’t feel that his female characters are flat. the character in this one are so immature they can’t go beyond the boys and connect to a girl, they can barely handle friendships, never mind romantic relationships. in a certain way, i see stuff gender/race-neutral unless it’s appallingly offensive. i don’t know. becca said to me recently she doesn’t think stories are universal, and i don’t know that i agree with that. i mean, if this is a boy story, i could still relate to the characters. what the hell do i know

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