Sunday, July 19, 2015

Train Wreck

It's totally worth blogging about the movie Trainwreck, so I could put up a .gif of John Cena's O-face - right?

The movie itself might be worth it to see John Cena's nekkid ass and his (probably prosthetic) extended 'towel holder'.

Now, I really like Amy Schumer. Her stand-up is great. Her TV show, Inside Amy Schumer, can be great. When she's good, she's excellent. When she's not, the sketches tank. There is little in between. The same can be said for Trainwreck.

FYI - there are probably minor-spoilers here. 

I'd say the movie had a lot of funny moments, but I won't go on record saying it was a funny or great movie, and I was really looking forward to it, though I feared the previews were all the funny moments. And they kind of were and weren't. First off - I'd say one-third of the trailer jokes aren't even in the actual film. Sometimes variations of them are, sometimes they were cut altogether ("sometimes they were cut!").

The premise was good enough - the execution not as much. Yes, it's a rom-com, which almost means it has to have a happy ending. I disliked the movie the Break-Up (with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston), but I will give it this: it didn't really end up with a happy ending. Props for that.

Bill Hader is great on SNL or as a bit part in other Apatow movies, but as a lead? I wasn't buying it and seeing that mug so close up on a big screen was at times a bit too much. Schumer brings in a lot of her tv show folks: Colin Quinn, Dave Atell, the always brilliant Jeremy Jamm Jon Glaser, Bridget Everett all make appearances. The only one missing was Paul Giamatti.  And I really liked the woman who played Amy's sister. I thought she did a great job.

SNL's Vanessa Bayer was nice but completely wasted in her role. Tilda Swinton was unexpected casting and arguably has the best performance (and best line) in the movie. LeBron James, whom I'm still on the fence about his coming back to Cleveland, did a more than admirable job. And I loved how Schumer / Apatow made the multi-millionaire (several times over) a cheapskate - needing his parking validated and to split a $32.00 lunch check.

Then there were the cameos - lots of them. Some were just way too forced - like in an intervention for Hader's character. The one main character who didn't need the intervention, but I suppose that was Schumer's (the writer's) point. I get the sports cameos, as the lead male was a sports doc, but I mean - Matthew Broderick? Really?  Who the fuck did he have to blow to get in this movie - or A movie? Any movie.

I would say there were 3-4 times during the film when there was a reference to which 710, myself and our friend David & James were the only ones laughing in the theater - and one was at a War Games reference / dig at Broderick.  And one being a Manhattan / Soon-Yi jab.

And then there was the too ever present Billy Joel music {shudder}. Suffice to say - Amy awkwardly "dancing" to "Uptown Girl" was still less tin man-esque than Christie Brinkley's attempt. (Yes, reading that should garner an "ouch" from you people!)

There were some good lines. Great even. But not enough of them. I blame Apatow, who at least on Fresh Air says he screens the hell out of his movies - which means (to me) that they kowtowed to the 'average' audience.

Schumer doesn't cater to the average audience, but the studio and their CFO's do. So while Trainwreck is a rom-com, and it had all the ammunition to annihilate the genre in its own way, it does to a degree.....and then........well, it doesn't. And you're left with a half-in / half-out take on the movie style.

Actually Schumer's character was supposed to use ammunition to annihilate her interview subject - which is almost never touched on again, until she writes a nice, but very unexciting piece for the magazine for which she works. That part of the storyline is a metaphor for the movie itself.

I was disappointed that Schumer actually lifts - almost word for word - parts out of her stand-up, that is years old now, and played to death on HBO / Comedy Central - and drops them into the movie. It seems lazy and it wasn't done nearly as well as in her act.

While admittedly, much of the movie is based on Schumer's life, I'd wonder if she has another story to tell. The bigger problem is they had some great lines that she built a story around instead of the other way.

The movie was fine - but not much more, though it had so much more potential.  But at least it had naked John Cena.


As for a few other things - not of the film itself, but the experience. David suggested a theater none of us has been too, but one in which had recliners and reserved seating only.



On paper, it sounded upscale. And the actual theater was ok. The lobby and bathrooms needed to be imploded - they. were. disgusting.

But the reserved seating meant you did not have to show up early, and I would say 70% of the sold-out theater showed up at the end of the previews (and there were 2-3 really good previews! new ones, of which I had not seen or heard of). So I got to kick back with a beer and watch a movie in a recliner - which I'm sure they clean between each showing - right?


I find it hard to believe we are ahead of our goal and still so many movies we want to see that are still out, and a number still left to be released. If this keeps up, I might have to up the goal for 2016.

And in what world do we see a movie opening weekend, let alone three this year so far? We're not join-the-big-crowd kind of guys. Yet here we were on Friday night, waiting* to see Amy Schumer in her film.


*'waiting' = reserved seating. we wait for nothing.




2015 Movie Count / Goal:  8 of 12



Song by: Sarah McLachlan

1 comment:

Jonny said...

I think the last movie I sawr in the thee-ate-her was the final season of Harry Potter. The next time I go will be to see Star Wars VII.