films in brief

Once again, some short reviews of things I saw recently.

Super High Me - 2007 - on DVD now

Doug Benson once made a joke that he should stop smoking weed, then smoke nonstop for 30 days and make a documentary out of it like Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me. Well, a couple weed-loving producers decided why not do it? And so ever-stoner Benson quits smoking, sees the results, and then goes all out and compares. In between, he does stand up, chats with pals like Paul Tompkins, Patton Oswalt, all the UCB guys, and the like, and also gives a brief history of medical marijuana and how easy it is to get in California (uhh... reallllly easy.... why didn't anyone tell me this?). This is a funny take on personal docs, but it also has more information than I expected about the fine line between legal weed and not (which has been a controversial topic out here). If you can put up with a million stoner jokes, it's a great doc/expose, funny and interesting.

Sex and Death 101 - 2007 - on DVD now

Speaking of the great Mr. Oswalt, his appearance in this film prompted us to look it up, along with an interesting premise. A man (Simon Baker) finds a list that has every woman he's ever slept with on it, but then it also has many more names, so it appears it can predict the name of every woman he will ever sleep with too. This causes him to freak out and end his engagement, while questioning fate. Meanwhile, Winona Ryder stars as a black widow woman who puts lothario men in comas... and may factor into his life.

For such an interesting premise, this doesn't live up to it, going in many weird directions. I like indie movies that take chances, but this goes way off track too often, trying to mix in romantic satire with R-rated slapstick, serious questions about fate and love, goofy sci-fi, and a host of other things that just don't quite work together.

Iron Man - in theaters now

So much has been said, so I can't add anything. For all the people who doubted Robert Downey Jr. as the lead, he's by far the best (maybe only) reason to watch it. It's a solid comic action movie, with good humor, and one of the best to come out recently.

But I overlooked some of those, like...

Hellboy - 2004

I never paid attention to it when it came out, but my new obsession with Guillermo Del Toro led me to watch this in full. He's the real master of comic books now, mixing in great visuals with fun and humor and not getting full of himself. Now I'm excited for part 2, which is right around the corner.

Gerry - 2002

As part of Gus Van Sant's avant-garde movement this decade, he has been making some minimalist films with non-actors or few actors, very long takes, minimal dialogue, long shots, and open endings. This was the first entry in that strand, but it at least has real name people in it (Matt Damon and Casey Affleck). Basically, two guys named Gerry get lost in the desert. Why did they go? What is the point? Why does one... That's up to you to decide.

Return to Me - 2000

Bonnie Hunt's directorial debut is a romantic comedy without a ton of comedy, but a lot of feeling. David Duchovny stars as a man who loses his wife, and after a long grieving period, meets sparky waitress Minnie Driver, happy to be living with a heart transplant. What they don't know is that her heart came from his wife. Sounds cheesy? It's light and heartfelt, and serious at times, and it works. Hunt puts herself and some other random people to work surrounding these two and pushing them towards each other. One of the better chick flicks, even if it sounds like a too-Hollywood premise.