Review Roundup: Failure to Launch, The Hills Have Eyes, Shaggy Dog
Filed under: Comedy, Horror, Romance, New Releases, Remakes and Sequels, Review Roundup
Three big studio flicks go wide this week, and what do you know - all of them were screened for critics, even the horror remake! Someone, make a note of the date. Reviews of all three are all over the place, but in sum: Failure to Launch is either astonishingly sharp and well-acted or meh; The Hills Have Eyes is really, really violent; The Shaggy Dog is either cute or stupid (the latter if you're mature, or at least think you are). Details follow.
- Failure to
Launch: I can't possibly express to you how odd it is it to read a dozen or so reviews
of this movie, back to back.
You go from Robert's "at least it
doesn't suck," to Stephen Hunter's declaration that the film is "the only American comedy in
a long time that could be called Wilderan in its concept and execution"; from Roger Ebert, who hates the movie
so much that he resorts to a story of being bitten
by a Kubrick donkey, to your friend and mine, Mick LeSalle, who praises Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker for their rare willingness to "go out of their way to project
thought and emotion in concentrated doses." I mean, honestly. What's a girl to think? There are mixed
opinions all the time, but this is insane.
- The Hills Have Eyes: You might not have heard, but The Hills Have Eyes is violent. Like, really violent - as one critic put it, "There's a scene where one of the bad guys points a gun at a baby's head -- and it's maybe the 12th-most disturbing image in the movie." Despite their shock, however, a lot of reviewers - including our own James - appreciate the movie for what it is, a clever action-packed remake that sometimes surpasses the original.
- The Shaggy Dog: Critical reactions to this one seem to stem largely from the attitudes of the men and women writing the reviews. If they (like Robert) go in ready to laugh at something silly, the reviews are inevitably fairly positive, even as they acknowledge that there's nothing memorable about the movie. If, on the other hand, they go in determined to be Mature, Cynical Adults, the critics hate the film. Hello, it's a man turning into a dog! They could NEVER happen. (In a third category are the critics who work for the San Francisco Chronicle, who loved everything to distraction this week, content and quality notwithstanding. I'm thinking something was slipped into the staff room coffee.)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-11-2006 @ 4:05AM
Joe said...
"I'm thinking something was slipped into the staff room coffee."
What? Like a cheque?
Reply
3-11-2006 @ 10:12AM
BartCopFan said...
Are you going to make me have to go and read the actual reviews to see how critics compare Shaggy to the original (which was fun as hell when I was 6)? You are? Aww, man. Where'd I put my wading boots...
Reply
3-11-2006 @ 12:40PM
Martha Fischer said...
Hey Bart-
Go check out Robert's review (listed in the roundup w/his name and everything) - he's all about the Old School Disney. That should save you SOME pain...
Reply