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'Hop' Review: The Easter Bunny Lays an Egg

By Eric D. Snider (Subscribe to Eric D. Snider's posts), Posted Apr 1st 2011 9:20AM
Filed under: Reviews, New Releases, Cinematical


While the world's desperate cries for more sequels to 'The Santa Clause' go unanswered, Universal Pictures brings us the next best thing: the same basic concept, changed to the Easter Bunny, mixed with 'Alvin and the Chipmunks,' and executed without distinction. This is 'Hop,' a forgettable family comedy -- live-action save for the animated talking animals -- that will be tossed out in a few weeks with the plastic Easter-basket grass.

Since there isn't nearly as much lore built up around the Easter Bunny as there is Santa Claus, 'Hop' is free to invent some. (By which I mean 'Hop' uses the Santa Claus mythology as a starting point and alters the details. They've got the Easter Bunny riding around on an "egg sleigh," for crying out loud.) The current Easter Bunny, voiced by Hugh Laurie, is about to retire (or die? It is not clear), and has appointed his son to be his successor. This son, conveniently named E.B., is voiced by Russell Brand, and is carefree and irresponsible. He does not want to be the Easter Bunny. He wants to be a drummer for a rock band. To that end, he runs off to Los Angeles to seek his fortune.
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'Rango' Review: Must Be Something in the Water

By Eric D. Snider (Subscribe to Eric D. Snider's posts), Posted Mar 4th 2011 9:35AM
Filed under: Reviews, New Releases, Cinematical
Rango review


With 'Rango,' the only thing more astonishing than its subversive sense of humor and general anarchy is the fact that a studio is putting it in wide release. It's a cartoon about talking animals, but I don't know if kids will like it. I'm not even sure it's intended for them. Some of the jokes are surprisingly grown-up. The story has direct references to 'Chinatown,' 'Blazing Saddles,' 'Star Wars,' 'Apocalypse Now,' and spaghetti Westerns. The humor is slapstick one minute, hallucinatory the next. The characters are deliberately un-cute in appearance, with great attention paid to the grimy details of their matted fur, unsightly scales, and physical imperfections. The whole thing feels like the Coen brothers made a Tex Avery cartoon set in the Old West, ran it through a Pixar filter, and then dipped it in LSD.

Rango, voiced by Johnny Depp, is a pet chameleon suffering from an existential crisis. A natural-born actor, he amuses himself by carrying out playlets with the props in his terrarium (headless Barbie doll, wind-up fish toy), until one day fate delivers him out into the world -- the Mojave Desert, specifically. Advised by a wise, elderly armadillo (Alfred Molina), our lizard friend goes on a spiritual quest that takes him to the tiny town of Dirt, a saloon-and-mercantile outpost populated by desert animals.
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Oscars Live Blog: Blogging the Academy Awards in Real Time

By Eric D. Snider (Subscribe to Eric D. Snider's posts), Posted Feb 27th 2011 8:25PM
Filed under: Hot Topic, Oscar News, Cinematical


We're live-blogging the 2011 Academy Awards with Cinematical's William Goss, David Ehrlich and Eric D. Snider. Keep refreshing this page for the latest piece of snark-filled wisdom from our team of professional awards show live-bloggers, and check out the links below for a list of nominees, as well as winners and red carpet photos updated in real time. Enjoy the show!

2011 Oscar Winners (updated in real time)
Check Out Your Favorite Stars on the Oscars Red Carpet
Complete Oscars 2011 Coverage

11:41 PM: Fine. We grant you that the kids were cute, and we didn't have to endure anyone asking them who they were wearing. And seeing Melissa "F-bomb" Leo sing along with the end of the song melted our cold, black hearts slightly.

11:39 PM: Oh, man, really? It's not over? Surprise musical number, BAM, out of nowhere! Kids from a public school in Staten Island are singing "Somewhere over the Rainbow," soon joined by all of tonight's winners.

11:38 PM: The producer say some lovely things, the usual business, all very nice. Standing behind him, Helena Bonham Carter looks like she has better places to be, which very well may be true.

11:35 PM: In a shocking upset, Best Picture goes to the movie everyone has been saying was going to win ever since Labor Day, 'The King's Speech'!

11:31 PM: Steven Spielberg introduces the Best Picture montage, which has the guy from 'The King's Speech' reciting a monologue from 'The King's Speech' while images 'The King's Speech' play (accompanied by a few shots of some of the other nine nominees)

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'Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son' Review: Even Worse Than You Imagined

By Eric D. Snider (Subscribe to Eric D. Snider's posts), Posted Feb 18th 2011 11:15AM
Filed under: Reviews, New Releases, Cinematical


For many years, scientists believed that the sight of an ordinary man dressed as a fat woman was literally the funniest thing in the world. Millions of films were produced based on this premise, each more side-splitting than the last, each delighting viewers with its surefire mixture of giant latex bosoms and farts. Euphoria stretched through all the land as mankind celebrated its arrival at the pinnacle of comedy.

But then, one day, a crazy, disheveled man burst into a scientists' conference, ranting that he had found something EVEN FUNNIER. The scientists dismissed him as a harmless lunatic, of course, before realizing it was Martin Lawrence. Then they dismissed him as a dangerous lunatic. Still, they listened.

"I've found it!" the frothing maniac shouted. "I've found something funnier than an ordinary man dressed as a fat woman: TWO men dressed as TWO fat women!"
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'I Melt With You' Sundance Review: The Year's Dullest Debauchery

By Eric D. Snider (Subscribe to Eric D. Snider's posts), Posted Feb 1st 2011 7:45PM
Filed under: Reviews, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical, Festivals


In 'I Melt with You,' a quartet of 44-year-old men who were friends in college reunite for their annual weekend of debauchery and hedonism. Sounds fun, right? Not this time! This time, one of the four is being a real Debbie Downer, reminding everyone of how they've failed to live up to any of their youthful ideals, and how they're all terrible human beings. They start to wonder if life is even worth living. Having sat the ludicrous tedium of 'I Melt with You,' I know how they feel.

Seldom has a film that longed to be so insightful wound up being so superficial. Directed by Mark Pellington ('The Mothman Prophecies,' 'Henry Poole Is Here') and written by Glenn Porter from a story the two conceived together, 'I Melt with You' attempts to turn a 'Big Chill' scenario into a dark, thrilling character study, yet fails on almost every level. It seems to think it's the first movie ever made in which middle-aged characters reflect on how they've changed since college, as if this is some awe-inspiring revelation. Then, when the story telegraphs what's eventually going to happen, we're stuck waiting for it to get around to it.

Unhelpful is the fact that all four central characters are loathsome bastards. Jonathan (Rob Lowe) is a skeevy doctor who sells prescriptions to recreational users. Ron (Jeremy Piven) is a thieving financier. Richard (Thomas Jane) is a teacher who's resentful at not being a successful novelist. Tim (Christian McKay) is Señor Buzzkill, mourning a tragic loss from five years ago and forcing the others to remember the things they swore they'd do when they were 19.
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'Cedar Rapids' Sundance Review: Ed Helms Gets a Starring Role

By Eric D. Snider (Subscribe to Eric D. Snider's posts), Posted Jan 29th 2011 6:00PM
Filed under: Cinematical, Festivals


If there is justice in the world, Ed Helms will soon be a comedy star whose name above the title sells a movie all by itself. A veteran of 'The Daily Show,' 'The Office,' and 'The Hangover' (plus its impending sequel), Helms is a master of lovable, slightly square awkwardness, and there's room for him at the top. 'Cedar Rapids' probably is not the film that will do it for him, but it's a step in the right direction, a reasonably successful attempt to capitalize on Helms' skills.

He plays Tim Lippe, an insurance agent in a small Wisconsin town who must attend a convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where a prestigious award will be bestowed upon a deserving member of the American Society of Mutual Insurers. The central joke of the film is that to Tim Lippe -- a rube who wears Dockers and sweater vests and has never been on an airplane or even stayed in a hotel -- Cedar Rapids is the BIG CITY.
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'Hobo with a Shotgun' Sundance Review: A Bindle of Laughs

By Eric D. Snider (Subscribe to Eric D. Snider's posts), Posted Jan 29th 2011 12:00PM
Filed under: Reviews, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical, Festivals


'Hobo with a Shotgun' is everything you'd want a film called 'Hobo with a Shotgun' to be, except that ideally you'd be watching it on a crusty VHS tape that you found in the back of an independent video store run by a weird guy with a ponytail.

In an era of too much campy self-awareness, too many grindhouse homages, and too much blood-for-blood's-sake, 'HWAS' is a breath of fresh, sleazy air. First-time director Jason Eisener, expanding on the fake trailer that he and writer John Davies made in 2007 as part of a contest, takes exactly the right tone, straddling the line between imitation and parody. 'HWAS' both makes fun of Troma-style exploitation movies and is one itself.

The key is to play it with a straight face. Luckily, Eisener has Rutger Hauer, the iconic veteran actor who seems like he ought to have been in a movie called 'Hobo with a Shotgun' already. Hauer shows in his performance that he knows what the joke is, but also that he knows not to let it show. He doesn't wink at the audience, but he isn't a clueless old man, either. He gets it.
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