Get Him To The Greek and Karate Kid reviews (reposted)

REPOST OF REVIEWS FROM 7/24/10

"Get Him to the Greek" movie review

Russell Brand portrays rock legend Aldous Snow who is in “the greatest hits moment of (his) life” and is scheduled to do a come-back concert in Los Angeles at the Greek Theater in 72 hours. It is intern/record executive Aaron Green’s (Jonah Hill) mission to get this out-of-control British rock star from London to Los Angeles in time while stopping off in New York for a guest spot on the Today show. Aldous is one of “the last remaining rock stars” who lives the rock star lifestyle and, by nature, is not going to make it easy on Aaron. Besides Aldous’ constant desire to live the rock life there are several other obstacles in Aaron’s way like: Aaron trying to be true and faithful to his fiancee Daphne (Mad Men’s Elizabeth Moss), Aldous’ on-again-off-again relationship with supermodel/pop-star girlfriend Jackie Q (Damages’ Rose Byrne), a reunion with Aldous’ father (Colm Meaney) and countless other unforeseen twists and turns. The film is full of celebrity cameos: Pink, Lars Ulrich, Mario Lopez, Christina Aguilera, Rick Shroder, Meredith Vieira...portraying themselves which adds seeming legitimacy to the story and the character of Aldous Snow.

One of the things that Sugar Momma said about the film was that she “liked the clever way the movie made fun of all the current, stupid double-entendre songs of today.” Her favorite was a song by Jackie Q entitled “Ring ‘Round.” (If you want to see the music video of this song send me a message on my Facebook or email and I can give you a link but it is very raunchy and adult so I will only give it to people I know as adults. The link I will give you will also provide several other videos from the film - it may pay to be a MattintheMiddler after all huh?). Sugar Momma went on to say that the “film is pretty raunchy and it is not for those with delicate sensibilities.” I may actually download some of the songs onto Roz from i-Tunes (ca-ching). I’d say one of my favorite aspects of the movie also was all of the pop culture references and pop culture bashing; it showed how ridiculous we really are.

Since I have seen so many films in my lifetime I have a tendency to compare films I see with films I have seen before. This movie reminds me a lot of Planes, Trains and Automobiles which I absolutely love. Of course, it is very different in the characters (one has a shower ring salesman and an advertisement executive and the other has a British rock star and a recording executive) but it is a film that throws two completely opposite types of people together. It forces them to see that they have similarities and we all get in ruts and need a change once in awhile to reach our goals even though, they too, may be different.

Sean, P.Diddy, Puff Daddy, Sean John, Combs was hilarious as Aaron’s recording company big-wig boss. Other than the two main characters he was my favorite. When he was pushing Aaron to get Aldous to the Greek he said, “I have six kids. Do you know how many Air Jordan’s six black kids wear?” It was a bit distracting for me at first when Aldous Snow was the same character Brand played in Forgetting Sarah Marshall but Jonah Hill, who was also in Sarah Marshall, played a different character. I quickly got past that as the action and jokes come so fast that I got drawn into the film and never thought about it again. They sort of made fun of it themselves in the film with a good Sarah Marshall reference.

Sugar Momma and I were both laughing out loud throughout most of the film. The rest of the theater must have either been too high-brow, thought it was a sad rockumentary or the jokes went over their heads because we were easily laughing more than most of the other patrons in the theater (take that for what it’s worth). We were also the only people who stayed for the after-credit nugget which is funny. Don’t people appreciate the hard work that all of these other people do? I do but I also know that all of the movies are putting extras at the end of the credits now...How do these people not know this; do they live on Uranis? Watch the credits inter-planetary friends!

It’s tough reviewing different kinds of movies and trying to use the same rating system for love stories, action adventures and silly comedies. I have a new respect for film critics but, now that I think of it, it’s just an opinion and mine is just as valid as Leonard Maltin’s and Roger Ebert’s. In fact it’s probably more valid because I am simply looking at entertainment value and that’s what movies are right? If you like films life 40-Year-Old Virgin, Super Bad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Juno and Knocked Up you will enjoy this film. So, based on that diatribe, I give Get Him to the Greek four out of five groupies (stars). If you need a mate to see it wif’ ring me on the telly. I’d give it a vid again. Afterwards we can stop off for a pint and some absinthe from the 1900’s.

"The Karate Kid" movie review (by "Sparky")
(Guest movie review by a 13-year-old MIDDLE-schooler from MIDDLE America - code name Sparky)

A kid from Detroit (Jaden Smith) moves to China because his mom (Taraji P. Henson) worked at a car place and she got like transferred to a car place in China. Then the kid gets beat up right when he moves there for no reason. Then he finds out those kids go to his school and then he gets beat up again. Then the maintenance man at his school (Jackie Chan) comes and beats up like 15 guys who were beating him up. Then he (Jackie Chan) brings him to a Kung Fu studio but then one of the kids who beat him up is there and they wouldn't let him in the class. Then Jackie Chan teaches him Kung Fu and they have a tournament and they break the kid's (Jaden Smith) leg. They he does a back-flip and kicks the bad kid in the chin and wins. Sparky gives the film 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

When I pressed to find out how it made him "feel" he said I should go see it and then I'd know. Thirteen-year-old boys have a switch that automatically shuts everything down when "feelings" are mentioned but at least I did get a review and a rating for you!

(I should start making my movie reviews this short)