Welcome to the very first edition of Gary’s Every-Once-in-a-While-ey Movies That are Better Than Their Crappy Covers Make Them Look Column or Whatever the Blog Equivalent to a Column is Thing. This is going to be a feature where I review movies that are better than their crappy covers make them look, which I will do every once in a while in the format of a column or whatever the blog equivalent to a column is.
The first flick I will review is available in our New DVDs section, and frankly, I can’t understand why it hasn’t been snatched already. Actually, I guess it’s because the cover is crappy.
I mean, look at that piece of crap. Truly awful. But what is, is that… is who is… is that a beautiful… who’s that stud front and center? What? Paul Rudd, you say? Paul Rudd? Automatic qualification for watching a movie (unless it’s Over Her Dead Body, which I refuse to ever see).
However, much like Over Her Dead Body, this film covers the always-intriguing topic of death. Paul Rudd plays Paul Miller (big stretch, Rudd), an actor (once again, Rudd) who has struggled in Hollywood for years (resorting to making crappy movies like Over Her Dead Body, perhaps?) and is tired of living. Therefore, he decides to kill himself, but not without documenting his last 2 days of existence. So he hires some friends to film him as he goes about saying goodbye to his loved ones, who, understandably, think he’s a bit crazy.
So does Paul give in? Does he die? Does the camera crew stop filming? Does he meet a strapping young woman and fall in love? Does he shoot himself in the mouth to destroy his alter-ego who has been setting up chaos organizations throughout the country? Watch this movie and you’ll soon see!
In all honesty, this movie, despite it’s crappy cover, works because of Rudd’s charisma and ability to hold an audience’s interest throughout. I would even argue that Rudd does some of his best work in a few parts, with a certain monologue scene in particular that might force you to develop a man-crush (which you should already have if you’ve ever seen Wet Hot American Summer). So yeah, buy this movie. It’s well worth the watch and we have a shiny new copy all ready to go for you!
As our good friend Geoff wrote a review on Michael Showalter’s The Baxter, I had to fight the urge to not write about another Showalter movie, Wet Hot American Summer. Then I said, “urge, you need to take a hike.” And I felt really lame for using such a cliché idiomatic expression. But then I remembered that the expression… nevermind, I’m not really going anywhere with this.
Wet Hot American Summer is one of the best movies in the world. I mean it. In my opinion. You can’t say anything to refute it, because it’s my opinion. Booom!
This film is chock-full of good stuff. It was directed by David Wain, who has hit more mainstream success as of recent with his film Role Models (which features Wet Hot alums Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks). Back to Wain, I like to think of him as 1/11 of the classic MTV comedy troupe The State or 1/3 of the non-MTV comedy group (I’m not sure what constitutes a troupe compared to a group) Stella, which is also known as 3/11 of the classic MTV comedy troupe The State.
Moreover, Wet Hot features sketch-comedy pros Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black, also from Stella and the State. If that didn’t grab your attention, which it very well may not have, this film also has Paul Rudd in what I believe is his best role ever, the angsty camp counselor Andy. It must be seen to be believed.
What is this film about? The easy answer is to say it’s about the last day at a children’s summer camp in 1981, but the actuality of the plot is much more ridiculous. Rudd, Showalter, and Black, along with Elizabeth Banks, Molly Shannon, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper (in his first film role), and more play camp counselors who aren’t very good at their job. Also notable are Janeane Garofalo as Camp Owner Beth, David Hyde Pierce as her love interest Henry, and most importantly, Law and Order SVU’s Christopher Meloni, in the best thing he’s ever done. I won’t even tell you who he plays, except it’s a cook. And I will also mention that H. Jon Benjamin plays the voice of a can of beans. I met Benjamin at Sasquatch Music Festival and he gave me a bottle of non-alcoholic wine.
This movie will be hated by people who take their comedy seriously. Which, to me, is weird in-and-of itself. When I’ve recommended it to people at my old rental store job, I received a lot of dirty looks. But come on guys, it’s the 21st century. Paul Rudd is an A-list celebrity now. And if you love the 80s (Michael Ian Black, I’m looking at you), you very well might want to check out this 2001 parody of the 80s summer camp scene, back when kids spent time outside rather than writing on blogs (Gary Wilson, I’m looking at you). Unfortunately, you probably won’t be able to peep Wet Hot American Summer from Moviecycle because we can’t keep the DVD in stock for more than a day or two. Proof to how amazing it is.