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I thought I saw a post somewhere (DM?) about this, but I did a search and it didn't come up.
I'm not a big Michael Cera fan. He seems to be playing the same character over and over (although I think I enjoyed Youth in Revolt, but I can't remember and apparently I didn't think enough of it to post a review), but this was a fun movie. Another graphic novel to screen adaptation. I'm not familiar with the graphic novel, but I really liked how the movie was presented. Lots of tie-ins with video games which works really well. Battle of the bands, battle of the basses. Some martial arts combat in there (I know it was you DM that posted something about this...)
I'd give this a thumbs up. I laughed a bunch.
--tg
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Someone just told me that this was done by the same director as: "Spaced", "Shawn of the Dead", and "Hot Fuzz". Well, no wonder...
--tg
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Seen it. And now that I have, I can move on.
It was enjoyably odd, but I never felt really engaged by the picture. How's that for review speak? Like thatGuy, I've never been a Michael Cera fan and this film does nothing to change my opinion. How does he have a career.
After seeing the fight sequences, I felt the movie makers should have rung up KFM for a review, because there were a lot of Martial Arts moments including an overuse of wire work.
It comes down to this, Scott Pilgrim has to fight Ramona's seven evil ex-boyfriends so he can show his love and win the chance to date Ramona. Well, Ramona never seemed to be worth all that trouble.And anyone that would fall for Michael Cera/ Scott Pilgrim is damaged anyway.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit
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Brad Allen was the choreographer. He also did Kick-Ass. Allen was the first non-Asian to make Jackie Chan's stunt team, and had the dubious honor to fight Jackie in the final fight of Gorgeous. That was Jackie's send-up of Message in a Bottle, and Allen was the fighter because the villain wanted Jackie's character to get beat up by someone shorter than him. That being said, it was a good fight, although derivative of the emotional kung fu schtick in Fearless Hyena. Unfortunately, we didn't get invited to a screener for Pilgrim because it went through promoters that we didn't work with. No screener, no review. We got to get something out of the deal.
I still haven't seen this. Cera puts me off too.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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I just wanted to punch Cera in the nose all through the film. Way too much 'trying to be cool' with the filmmaking, which made me want to punch Cera even more.
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Free HBO strikes again. Cera is annoying, but I thought the movie clever and enjoyed the other actors, the fights, and the dialog.
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
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...or hit him in the head with a hammer...
Cera ->  mt021 <- dm
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DM should get a star for best use of emoticons.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit
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I finally caught this on BLU-RAY.
BLU-RAY.BLU-RAY.
BLU-RAY.
BLU-RAY.
BLU-RAY.BLU-RAY.
BLU-RAY.
Did I mention.............BLU-RAY.
Heh - My 'Rock Band' machine seems to be good for something besides Netflix streaming.
Michael Cera put his heart into it and was very good, but I would have loved to see an unknown in the lead. The love for video games, rock and roll and comics was obvious. Some of the dialog ALMOST stepped into 'Juno' annoying but the video editing was the baking soda to the acid.
The geeky white kid martial arts were fun for the comic book style, the story was 'meh' but filled in the music video cut-scenes when needed.
I wish less original music was used. If a movie ever needed a indie top-10 soundtrack this was it. Some Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene or Modest Mouse would have been catchy and welcome.
All in all I enjoyed it and will probably watch again.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) by Edgar Wright
I dreaded sitting down to watch this one. Sure, it’s on the 366weirdmovies list; but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s my cup of tea (recent misfires were Barton Fink and A Serious Man). Then there's all the negative sentiment here on DOOM towards Michael Cera. In fact, I’m not a big fan of his either. Finally, basing a movie on a video game doesn’t exactly give me goosebumps.
But I'll step out in front of the firing squad and say it; Michael Cera was born to play this part, and it’s a great part. As for the movie itself, it’s intensely inventive, the dialog is very witty (I laughed out loud a few times, was smiling at the cleverness through much of it), and the characters work surprisingly well.
That being said, the movie did get long in the tooth. Scott Pilgrim must battle the seven ex-lovers of his new girlfriend, and this leads to action sequences that, despite their inventiveness, begin to feel repetitive. The early fight sequences are top quality, making this film worthy of a Kungfumagazine.com review (discussed in earlier posts). Michael Cera appears to be doing all his own fighting, though clearly some topnotch stuntman was doing it, with Cera’s face (and perhaps body?) superimposed in post. Still, very impressive. As for the later battles, those were so CGI-tainted as to lose all drama.
What is with this affliction? Why do directors or producers -- Asian and Hollywood alike -- think that CGI is the way to scale up the later fights? It just takes all the life out of the characters. Grrr.
The film has a short Bollywood number, and there’s a gay roommate who steals a number of scenes in what I felt was a funny, non-cliched and positive-role-model sort of way. The DVD extras include an alternate ending that I slightly preferred, though the scriptwriter really needed to think things through, kick around the possibilities, and come up with something even better.
In summary, a very energetic and inventive film full of interesting characters, with lots of laughs, but loses considerable steam in the later CGI-infected stages.
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Actually, it was based on a comic book not a video game.
Still need to punch Cera.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit
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Video games also get long in the tooth and repatitive in the same way. It may not have been intentional, but it's sort of meta...
--tg
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I liked it, but i agree that Cera needs a thorough punching.
In the Tudor Period, Fencing Masters were classified in the Vagrancy Laws along with Actors, Gypsys, Vagabonds, Sturdy Rogues, and the owners of performing bears.
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Watched this again for the Den. I’ve seen it many times because Tara was a fan, but I couldn’t remember it clearly. I blame my disdain for Cera blocking it from my memory. It’s still enjoyable despite him, which annoys me about him even more. I do respect the inventiveness of this in how it catches the period and the kinetic graphics of comics.
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Should this be in Netflix trailers?
Or is it a moon gathering?
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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