Saturday, April 16, 2011

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Price of Admission reviews: Super

By: Paul Meekin

A lot of folks probably haven't heard of James Gunn's Indie film “Super”. “Super” follows Rainn Wilson's Frank, A well meaning but weird (and he knows it) fellah whose girlfriend, played by Liv Tyler, leaves him for a drug dealer played by Kevin Bacon.

If by some chance you have seen the trailer, you're probably thinking of it as a farce and a knock off of 2010's “Kick Ass”. It's not. In no way shape or form is this movie anything like Kick Ass, or Batman, or any “Superhero” film that has been released. Ever.

After a vision of God (and his friendly tentacle helpers) cut Frank's head open and touch his brain with apparently devout power, he decides to become a superhero, and we're off to the races.

Superhero Frank is a very binary character. Whether you've killed, or cut in line, or dealt drugs, you're getting the same punishment, a pipe wrench to the FREAKING skull. You're either in the wrong or you're not. There's no degrees, and as Frank says, “The rules were written a long time ago, they do not ever change”.

“Super” is profound in that it works on several levels as a dark comedy, character study, Indy film, and yes, superhero movie too. But perhaps the most surprising level is one of poignancy. Early in the film a young Frank is whipped by his dad for having naughty pictures of Heather Locklear under his bed, because it wasn't right in the eyes of God. This scene explains wonderfully how Frank could become a person mentally unbalanced enough to put on a red suit and hit people.

And because these characters are unbalanced, and the fact that this movie is, well, a movie and not a franchise, I found myself caring for the fates of these characters. In Batman you never felt Batman was in any real danger. Here, all bets are off. I loved this film, and I loved Rainn Wilson in it. This is an adult movie for adults. No tie-ins, no action figures, this isn't a franchise, it's a film, and a damn good one at that.

POA Reviews: Paul


By: Chelsea Hancock

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost unite again in Paul, a sci-fi comedy that follows two hard-core nerds from London quirky Graeme Willy and skeptical Clive Gollings that accidently meet vulgar and weed loving Paul voiced by Seth Rogan.

The journey continues when the gang meet Graeme’s love interest Ruth Buggs played by the adorably innocent Kristin Wiig. The movie is hilarious and jam-packed with some of my all time favorite comedic actors such as Jason Bateman, Bill Hadar, Kristin Wiig, Sigourney Weaver, Jane Lynch and the way under-rated but talented Joe Lo Truglio. They all work well together.

I felt like I was watching a movie where all of the actors were best friends both on and off the screen. The twist with the movie is that Paul is a rather crass alien that does the unexpected and should be thanked for creating much of our pop culture with regards to “the unexplained.”

Graeme, Clive and Ruth do everything they can to protect Paul from the secret agents that want to cut open Paul’s brain for experimentation. Soon the boring and calm characters that Clive, Graeme and Ruth once were suddenly become entangled in action, adventure and “firsts”. For example, in the movie Ruth Buggs was a bible-thumping girl that just starts to indulge in cursing for the first time and Wiig nails that role!

There were lots of inside jokes and references to sci-fi pop culture that some audience members didn’t get, but I did and it definitely added more depth to the characters and to the movie as a whole. If you like comedy, famous comedians, aliens and respect the sort of Comic Con/Sci-Fi universe than you’ll love this movie! It’s worth the price of admission and then some!


By: Emily McKinney

I love Seth Rogan, I love Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and I loved "Paul". It was pretty funny and very entertaining. It was realistic enough to have it make sense, but unrealistic enough to allow room for comedy. Paul was a believable, likable character, and Seth Rogan did a great job acting the part of an alien. This movie was different enough from every other Judd Apatow movie that the change was nice, yet it still kept the same kind of humor, making it Judd Apatow/Seth Rogan worthy. Kristen Wiig really brought the humor in this movie. She played her character perfectly. She didn't take away from the main plot and added the right amount of comedy. It was a cute, feel good movie, that also happened to be hilarious. I would say it was definitely worth the price of admission.

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