Not finding much to your liking at the movie theater this weekend? Might I recommend an unexpected comedy delight?
My friend Char and I took Criminal on face value. Big name cast. Thriller premise. Should be okay at the very least, right?
In hindsight, I’m glad we didn’t read the lackluster reviews, or we might have missed the comedy event of the season! Criminal is such an over-the-top ridiculous movie, with scenes of action and violence that build and morph into such grandiose gore, you can’t help but laugh aloud.
I mean, I kept a bored, straight face for the first 45 minutes. But once I allowed myself to laugh at the craziness on screen, the movie got better and better. And the rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it more, too.
If the producers had marketed the movie as a comedy, I think the reviews would have been better, too. And it might have explained why Kevin Costner’s character growled like an ape the entire film.
We’re talking whackadoodle, my friends.
Fun rerun
I thought the ‘Groundhog Day meets Aliens’ premise sounded interesting — and goodness knows its reviews on RottenTomatoes.com were very fresh — but I just never saw it.
(Based on its box office numbers, several people had the same attack of inertia.)
But now it’s OnDemand, so I finally watched it today. And it’s good.
The Groundhog Day conceit is handled with a lot of humor, and it doesn’t feel repetitious. Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt also do a bit of role reversal in this film, with Emily occupying the skilled warrior role and Tom the clueless PR mouthpiece.
It’s nice that Tom can make fun of this action hero self.
Not that he isn’t a pretty fast learner…
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Posted in Celebrities, Commentary, Entertainment, Humor, Life, Movies
Tagged action hero, aliens, box office, celebrities, certified fresh, commentary, Edge of Tomorrow, Emily Blunt, entertainment, fast learner, Groundhog Day, Humor, life, movie reviews, Movies, OnDemand, PR mouthpiece, premise, role reversal, rottentomatoes.com, Tom Cruise, warrior