Earth Girls are Easy(1988)
- 6/10
Completely unhinged late 80s nonsense. Mostly absurd comedy, part musical, part action, part sci fi, part romance kind of? But also none of these things really. Jeff Goldblum, Damon Wayans, and Jim Carey play aliens on a space voyage who intercept a transmission from Earth that happens to be full of babes in bikinis. In their lustful horniness they end up crash landing in our female lead(Geena Davis) Val's swimming pool. Val has problems of her own, her fiance Dr Douchebag has been stepping out on her and she's just found out.
Val works as a nail tech so after some initial shock at the 3 hairy aliens in her backyard she decides she should take them to her place of work for a makeover where her friend Candy(pictured right) gives them the full humanization treatment. Many hijinks ensue. There's a semblance of a plot at least but mostly it's our male leads having what I assume is a coked up good time. Sometimes don't have the patience for stuff like this but it didn't take itself seriously whatsoever and I can appreciate that. It was the GF's pick and we both had fun, lots of throwaway laughs and bits. Forgot how much of a mega hunk young Goldblum was, some strange animal on-screen magnetism with this guy. Was a little surprised I hadn't heard of it, have a certain fondness for comedies of that era.
Tucker and Dale vs Evil(2010)
- 7/10
Another very dumb movie, guess I've been in that certain mood. More in the horror-comedy genre. Two country boys head up the highway to a cabin Tucker(Alan Tudyk) had recently purchased to do some fishing and some home repair for the weekend. On a stop at a gas station to get supplies they run into a SUV full of college kids that are planning on doing some camping in the area. After some gentle chiding of his friend, Dale approaches the girls in the parking lot to strike up a conversation. He does poorly and Dale feels embarrassed at his lack of luck with the ladies. The groups head their separate ways.
Our two hillbillies reach the cabin and after some initial inspection of the work that needs to be done they decide to drink beer and go fishing. The college kids who are camping nearby decide to do some skinny dipping at the same time. Later on the lake on their boat our bumpkins see a particularly fit young women undressing and Dale calls out to try to let her know of their presence. This startles her and she slips and knocks herself unconscious resulting in her floating helplessly in the lake. The two men fish her body out of the lake but are spotted doing so by the rest of the college group, who assume they've kidnapped her to do unspeakable redneck things.
Events unfold unfortunately for just about everyone from there as the youths attempt to save their friend from these assumed forest dwelling rapists. Lots of gory comedic mishaps. There's a backstory where something similar happened 20 years ago to the day which ties in to our main popped collar frat boy antagonist Chad. Pretty ridiculous but a fun premise that the film pulls off fairly well. Had some heart and although the general message of don't judge a book by its cover has been done plenty of times this movie managed to package it up well enough to feel new and genuine.
12 Angry Men(1957)
- 9/10
This movie is a masterpiece. Incredible that the director and the script do so much with so little. Won't bother with much of a synopsis other than basically it's one man amongst twelve jurors arguing for them to consider a young man's innocence in a murder trial where the death penalty is required. Other than the final scene the entire film takes place in a small conference room. Each man has his own reasons for their verdict and in turn each are forced to carefully inspect those reasons.
The performances, while at times of-the-era melodramatic, I have to say were all terrific. Only outshone in my opinion by how well the film is shot. For something that should drag at points and become tedious it really never does, the tension is built slowly and with specific purpose. I had seen it once before quite a long time ago and while I remember it as being quite good, I don't think I had the capacity to appreciate the craftsmanship put in here. A true classic in every sense.
