Tuesday, August 17, 2010

SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD: FINALLY A MOVIE I HAVEN'T SEEN A DOZEN TIMES

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World tanked this week. And that's too bad because it was easily one of the best movies of the year. It was funny, inventive and most of all. new. Going into this picture though, I knew it would be great. Director Edgar Wright has been a tour de force in everything he touches from the BBC series Spaced (which I lived), to the zom rom com Shaun of the Dead to the gory spoof of buddy cop flicks, Hot Fuzz. I own all three on DVD and never get tired of watching them. The main reason being that there is so much going on in the these movies that you will indubitably miss things the first few times through. For example, in Shawn of the Dead, everything that happens is foreshadowed earlier in the movie. You'll never be able to catch that unless you've seen it a few times. Scott Pilgrim is no different. Michael Cera plays Michael Cera, I mean Scott Pilgrim, in his patented hound dog speech mannerisms. True the guy has no range but he does nail this persona perfectly. In the beginning he lives with his gay best friend Wallace (Keiran Culkin), suffers with an intensely platonic relationship with 17 year old high school student Knives Chou (Ellen Wong), and plays in a grunge garage band with two friends and an old girlfriend Kim (Allison Pill). Then he meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who he falls immediately in love with. However to win her over, he must do battle with her seven evil exs. And fight he must in spectacular fashion, where everyone seems to have super powers and no one blinks and eye. Fusing Anime, martial arts movies, video games and music videos in a mish mosh of kaleidoscope visions, the movie pops with life and humor. The supporting cast includes Anna Kandricks as Scott's very busy sister and evil exs, Brandon Routh, Chris Evans and Jason Schwartman, all of whom are hysterical.
The only place the film falters at all is with Ramona. Her character is so flat and lifeless that I was actually rooting for Scott to hook up with the much hotter, albeit much younger Knives Chou. But then again I do have a thing for Asian women. Knives just seemed like a much better fit for Scott but what do I know. The great thing about this film was that, at its heart, this is romantic comedy. The fights that take place in this film is something every man or woman can identify with. When you meet someone new, how much baggage do you have to deal with? How many exs are going to try to knock you off that pedestal so that they can get back with the person they lost? We've all been there. We just don't actually fight people for real, for the most part it's all in our head. Can you deal with the fact that your significant other has been with others before you? Were they better? If you like movies at all, this one is for everyone. Women will like the romantic ideals it possess, guys will like the kick butt action sequences. Based on a comic geared toward women I'm surprised it didn't do better. But then again, the MBAtards that produced this movie buried it opposite The Expendables, the same target audience. As the movie Highlander said, "there can be only one." Next time, put a film like this in the spring when competition is less. It would have been a big hit. Dumbasses.

4 and 1/2 stars out of 5

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