Steve Carr
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Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Directed by John Hughes
influenced Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2016)
Themes
Channeling the spirit of John Hughes and playing like a tween version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life delivers an easily digestible and amusing portrait of youthful hijinks that should well please its target audience.
Movies such as “Better Off Dead” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” have done a great job of bringing the high school experience to surreal life, but “Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life” has left the junior high nightmare untapped.
This fantastic hybrid of High School Musical and Over the Edge is destined to become a cult classic for Generation Z in the same way that Heathers and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off were for Generation X.
That is, of course, except for Mr. Rooney in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
Gluck doesn’t have the easy, boundless charm that Matthew Broderick did in this film’s spiritual predecessor “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” but he has sweet, obviously affectionate relationships with his mother Jules (Lauren Graham, of "Max" ) and his younger sister Georgia (Alexa Nisenson).
Although its illustrative breakouts, sibling rivalry and endless pranks invites comparisons to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, it actually more closely evokes the works of John Hughes, especially Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Breakfast Club, with its emphasis on "stopping the fun being sucked out of childhood".
Destry Rides Again (1939)
Directed by George Marshall
influenced Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)
Characters
With a nod to the western classic, “Destry Rides Again,” he does it all without using a gun.
His mettle is tested, however, when thieves take over the centre and take hostages, Die Hard-style.
In particular, Die Hard .
The film finally springs to life as Blart does when criminal types take over the mall and hold various employees hostage in a blatantly Die Hard scenario; at last James has something to work with and room to take command.
The plot makes no sense, although it makes more sense than the last "Die Hard" movie.
The film turns into Die Hard-in-a-mall when computer whiz Veck Sims (Keir O'Donnell) and his team of—get this—young BMX, skateboard and parkour punks empty the place save for six hostages, then barricade themselves and go about gathering codes from credit-card machines.
A high-concept mash-up of "Die Hard" and "Kung Fu Panda," "Blart" gives sitcom star Kevin James a showcase for broad-comedy pratfalls, providing him 87 minutes to plop, flop and crash into things, highlights of which have been playing nonstop on Nickelodeon for the last two weeks.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010)
Directed by Thor Freudenthal
influenced Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2016)
Themes Plot
Others will find Middle School doesn't stand out from other quirky American high-school-based books that have become movies - Diary of a Wimpy Kid comes to mind.
Based on one in the series of kids’ books co-authored by James Patterson, who’s turned himself into a publishing juggernaut by parceling out the writing to a small army of collaborators and has also been trying to establish a foothold in the movie business with his own production company (and, unless I’m mistaken, has a brief cameo here as an angry restaurant owner), the picture is a pretty dismal retread of territory already covered in the three “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” movies, which were hardly great shakes but were nevertheless better than this.
The beginning has a strong “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” vibe.
Although its illustrative breakouts, sibling rivalry and endless pranks invites comparisons to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, it actually more closely evokes the works of John Hughes, especially Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Breakfast Club, with its emphasis on "stopping the fun being sucked out of childhood".
Co-produced by Adam Sandler, "Mall Cop" has an innate sweetness that's reminiscent of Sandler's 1998 romantic comedy "The Wedding Singer," although the laughs don't quite reach those levels.
As for adults, unless they are exceedingly easy to please?think the people who showed up in droves for 2009's " Paul Blart: Mall Cop "?they'll see right through a script that refuses to give them, and most of the characters onscreen, enough credit.
Best know from TV’s “King of Queens” and “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” Kevin James, aptly described as “a chaotic pile of a man,” is obviously a better match with Kate, a kindly co-worker, played by Rosario Dawson.
In Paul Blart: Mall Cop, a surprise hit in early 2009, James proved he could attract audiences on his own; and when he simply let his character endure indignity with a strangely Zen-like calm, he could be funny and endearing.
Zookeeper represents Kevin James' second foray into high-concept leading man territory, after 2009's Paul Blart: Mall Cop .
Well, it’s definitely as bad as “ Paul Blart: Mall Cop ,” but at least that movie was sort of fun to ridicule.
Playing the lonely-but-upbeat security guard Paul Blart, James seems to be going for the same sad-sack vibe that John Candy achieved two decades ago in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," but he ends up closer to Robin Williams' character in "One Hour Photo."
There are many comedy and film geeks who, at an impressionably young age, managed to see anthologies of lunacy like The Groove Tube, Kentucky Fried Movie, and Amazon Women on the Moon.
In England, it seems, this anthology of gross-out skits (sort of like some of the “Funny or Die” website parodies or the 1970s “Kentucky Fried Movie” and “The Groove Tube” flicks) has a different wraparound, or basis: A bunch of teenagers seek the elusive “Movie 43” and discover other movies along the way.
Farrelly was going for a 21st century version of "The Groove Tube" and "Kentucky Fried Movie," two very funny, very raunchy and very influential sketch-comedy flicks of the mid-1970s.
Occasional comedy successes have come with movies like “The Kentucky Fried Movie,” “The Groove Tube” and “Amazon Women on the Moon.”
If he or she is on the younger side, they will no doubt compare it to the skits that can now be found regularly online on sites like "Funny Or Die" while the older ones will no doubt use films like "Kentucky Fried Movie" or its semi-sequel "Amazon Women on the Moon" as their point of reference.
And as if the criminal dearth of even the lowest forms of wit weren't enough, Movie 43 has the cheek to evoke cult anthology comedy classics like Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) and Amazon Women On the Moon (1987).
I want it known that I do appreciate the comedy anthology form; I'm a Kentucky Fried Movie fan from way back, and I'm even fond of 1987's bonkers (and spiritually similar) Amazon Women on the Moon.
This collection of bad-taste sketches and movie parodies doesn't come within hailing distance of Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)--or even Amazon Women on the Moon (1987).
There are many comedy and film geeks who, at an impressionably young age, managed to see anthologies of lunacy like The Groove Tube, Kentucky Fried Movie, and Amazon Women on the Moon.
Occasional comedy successes have come with movies like “The Kentucky Fried Movie,” “The Groove Tube” and “Amazon Women on the Moon.”
Blart pompously mentors a rookie guard (Keir O'Donnell, channeling Heathers-era Christian Slater to good effect) and clumsily courts Amy (Jayma Mays), proprietress of the mall's "Unbeweaveable" wig kiosk.
The plan of the thieves is sensationally stupid, guaranteed to call attention to their scheme, easy to thwart, possibly inspired by watching " Dog Day Afternoon " while drunk.
Although sketch comedy has been done with great success over the years on television, it has rarely found much favor on the big screen--even a group of comedic minds as formidable as Monty Python struggled to overcome its limitations with their all-over-the-map 1983 swan song "The Meaning of Life."--and "Movie 43" does little to elevate the reputation of the format.
Next door is a posse of gun wielding low-riders -- who rip-off uproarious quips from "American Me" and "Scarface" -- their buxom sister and an irate bull terrier.
In response, the producer decides to green-light the project, saying that it’s intended to be the second coming of “Howard the Duck”—in order to sabotage his boss.
Even if you might think that sitting through "Movie 43" would be an adventure along the lines of experiencing " Showgirls " or "Howard the Duck," you'll be filled with regret five minutes into this atrocity.
Well, if you mashed-up the worst parts of the infamous “Howard the Duck,’’ “Gigli,’’ “Ishtar’’ and every other awful movie I’ve seen since I started reviewing professionally in 1981, it wouldn’t begin to approach the sheer soul-sucking badness of the cringe-inducing “Movie 43,’’ which has been dumped on an unsuspecting public without advance press screenings.
There's menstruation, incest, pubic hair jokes, superhero sex jokes (yes, someone actually repeats a line – unwittingly – from Kevin Smith's Mallrats), plastic surgery jokes, and a few racial epithets thrown in for good measure.
There's Something About Mary (1998)
Directed by Bobby Farrelly
influenced Movie 43 (2013), Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)
Themes
The film clearly intends this sequence to be water-cooler fodder à la Cameron Diaz’s infamous ejaculate-hair-gel gag in There’s Something About Mary ; it’s intended as an outrageous provocation made all the more daring by the prestige and recognition of the actors involved.
Movie 43 is the brainchild of Peter Farrelly, one half of the notorious Farrelly Brothers who were, if I must remind you, perhaps the central champions behind the gross-out comedy movement of the 1990s, exemplified by their films There's Something About Mary, Kingpin, and other films that wrung wretched laughs from various flying bodily fluids.
Peter Farrelly (who directed the actually funny raunchfest “There’s Something About Mary’’ with his brother Bobby) has recruited 11 other directors — including such bottom feeders as Brett Ratner — to join him in providing opportunities for some A-list stars (as well as B’s and C’s) to do the most humiliating work of their careers.
Not last but certainly among the least, "Super Hero Speed Dating," with a cast of many, is limply executed from start to finish, complete with recycled hair-gel bit from "There's Something About Mary."
In spirit, it’s a little There’s Something About Mary meets Die Hard , with Kevin James rather than a zany ensemble as the comic cornerstone on whose wide shoulders the movie’s sense of humor rests.
They are joined by the solid, emotionally available Adelaide Kane, making her major film debut as Zoey, and Max Burkholder (2003's " Daddy Day Care "), a tad too closed-off to closely identify with as Charlie.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Directed by Amy Heckerling
influenced Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)
Themes
All the mall in this movie does is make you think how much you would rather be watching "Dawn of the Dead" or "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
It’s so strikingly, soul-crushingly awful that it could cost Hugh Jackman as Oscar (we’ve seen it happen to Eddie Murphy with “Norbit”) and gifted actors like Winslet and Gere might not be allowed near anything remotely comedic ever again.
Where AVP has its lame comic-relief Scotsman (Trainspotting's Ewen Bremner), REA has lame comic-relief homey LJ (Next Friday's Mike Epps, betraying a serious lack of self-respect).