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The Showcase of Depravity

This is the long hard truth. It goes extra deep.

"Comedy's a dead art form. Now tragedy, that's funny." The Showcase of Depravity showcases... depravity. Wisdom and humor from the perspective of a few disgruntled (& sexy) video store professionals.

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Tuesday, April 11, 2006

DVDs of the Week (at last!)

This week's long awaited DVD's of the Week post (going on several months since the last one) is an example of quality over quantity. Call me lazy, but I just didn't find that many DVD's worth mocking this week.
Like most DVD's of the week, these are extremely unique and groundbreaking films that go to great lengths to break established stereotypes and break the mold of popular movies.
Our first film does as much to advance the Mexican culture as it does to advance the art of film.

Tortillas Again?( La Movie)
I can't tell you how many times I've said that. Seriously, and I'm not even a beaner.

You probably thought "Comedy" was a pretty straight forward genre, right? Wrong. These days there is an even better branch of that genre called "Ethnic Comedy". It's where you'd file Carlos Mencia if he were funny.
I swear, every DVD cover on my personal picks list has to have at least one character looking up at the wacky star, giving the ol' "oh no you didn't" or "you so crazy" look, with their arms folded, and this character should preferably be a stereotypical ethnic mother. (see: Chooch and Ganked in my previous DVDOTW Post)
Considering that neither IMDB.com or Amazon.com have any kind of plot or review listing, in fact IMDB.com doesn't even list the movie as existing at all, I'm going to link you to the high quality TRAILER which involves at least 1 naked, soaped up Mexican and includes the classic Mexicano line, "wake up and smell the hot sauce", and it makes a special point to distinguish it as "Tortillas Again? La Movie", not to be confused with "Tortillas Again?" La acclaimed television series and La forthcoming Broadway musical.

The little Chihuahua at the bottom of the DVD does not make an appearance in the trailer, but I'm sure he's hilarious, as all Chihuahuas are. You can't see it in this small image, but he seems to have a mouse trap on his ear... Tremendous.

The studios website says that part of their goal is "trying to change Latino Stereotypes in Films", and I say keep up the good work guys!

Whoever said "there is no Matt Damon/Ben Affleck writing team in the Latino community as of yet" obviously hasn't seen this film (I think Matt and Ben were actually the ones to say that, perhaps during a fight with J-Lo). The script was written by the director's scruffy-faced 22 year old son and his friend, who are considered to be "the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck of the Latino community" (by his father, the director of the movie they wrote).
Interesting side note, Drew and I are considered to be the Matt Dillon and the Casey Affleck of the bearded community.

I can only imagine the wackiness that ensues with the guy playing guitar on the rooftop, but I'll have to watch it to find out and last time I checked I have slightly better things to do with my time, like watch our next movie of the week...



SPYMATE
If you know anything about me, you know I have a certain place in my heart (and my blog- click & scroll down) for movies that put kooky animals in human environments, and/or in tuxedos (see: The Barefoot Executive), and especially when it's a monkey.
Spymate takes the American government's next step in spy technology & development after its unsuccessful experiments with pre-teen Special Agents (which, despite the moderately entertaining films that it inspired, actually left many young Agents severely injured or dead) and puts it on film in an uncompromising look at the fast-paced thrilling life of an international super spy/sex symbol.
If you've found yourself a little disappointed with the last few Bond movies, which are decidedly lacking in the primate department, this movie will be a refreshing change for you.

(My favorite part of the cover is his Agent ID - they really went all out and took the exact same shot of him standing there and just shrunk it and put it in his wallet. Brilliant)

I think now more than ever, in these post-9/11 times, the world needs a film like this to both warm our hearts and to advocate international security without the use of guns and bombs. As you can see from the DVD cover, the monkey uses a banana instead of a gun and he doesn't look any less intimidating or dangerous. It certainly makes for a lot more people slipping on bananas left on the floor for hilarious results. If anything, the banana method is even more frightening and effective against criminals, as is the strangle-by-feet tactic seen to the left.

This film comes to us from the brilliant director/producer of the Air Bud and MVP series (he seems to have found his nitch) which have proven to be the longest and best animal movie series, respectively, beating out Beethoven just for the fact that Beethoven never wore a soccer jersey or performed Xtreme winter sports. He didn't even play the piano for crying out loud! My version of Beethoven would have been to re-imagine the famous classic composer as the St. Bernard, putting a whole new spin on history and taking some of the fluff out of those 18th century frilly shirts! Mozart wouldn't know what hit him, and "roll over Beethoven" would take on an even more literal meaning than they so cleverly used in the movie.

There are so many things right with this that it is at the very least an equal to its predecessors. First of all, the name of the monkey is Minkey. Perfect name for a monkey - hey, it almost rhymes!
Secondly, the story revolves around a little girl who is so smart that at the age of 10 she somehow invents and develops a revolutionary laser (of course) that an evil scientist needs to complete his villainous plans to destroy the world (of course).
Not only does the monkey use some martial arts moves that rival The Matrix (Next movie: The Apetrix?), but it actually has Mr. Miyagi himself, Noriyuki "Pat" Morita, playing the stereotypical asian karate trainer role that he got famous for (luckily this was just shy of being his last movie, but I think his last one is a movie called "Coming Attractions", a parody movie in which Pat plays a parody of himself. Interesting. Sad, but interesting).

I can only imagine that the training scene in Spymate rivals the one in Kill Bill V.2, yet another movie that could have benefited from the inclusion of a monkey in the cast. (Note: ALL movies could benefit from a monkey in the cast, including Air Bud)
Thirdly, this monkey does everything. It's as if it is a culmination of all the other MVP movies and this monkey has all the skills it worked so hard to attain in those films. As you can see from the picture, this monkey does not shy away from a mission no matter what it requires or how his life is risked, even if it means snowboarding down a mountain being chased by a huge avalanche! Now, don't confuse this picture for the similarly AWESOME film MXP: Most Xtreme Primate, where he does just about the same thing.

But don't take my word for it, here's the AMAZING TRAILER! You thought the MI:3 trailer got you pumped, well hold on to your asses, folks!


Very astute readers will surely remember that the same kind of monkey-agent was attempted by the government and depicted in the film "Funky Monkey". My only explination for another agent of the exact same nature is due to 1 of 2 things: the amount of international terrorism in the world has escalated to become too great for just one ninja monkey-agent to handle; or, the original monkey-agent had too much power and turned rogue, meaning that eventually Funky Monkey and Spymate will have finally face each other in an battle of epic monkey proportions. I'd bet on the latter, especially because for some reason that very battle ends up as the subject of many a dream of mine...





-Jordan

For other inspiring films, check out these great posts:
-Film Classics of the Urban Variety (critics say, "Best post ever")
-Maybe my personal favorite (besides the gay ones): Bikinki Girls on Dinosaur Planet, Ganked, Chooch, and Nekromantik etc. Where the classic "Boughetto" term first appeared and started a pop culture phenomenon! (also, editors pick at blogcritics.org!)
-Samurai Boners, Teen Witch, Lou Ferrigno and Lifetime
-Gay Movies are So Gay V. 1 - Including The Hole and Slutty Summer
-Gay Movies are So Gay V. 2 - Including The Fluffer and No Skin Off My Ass
-The one that started it all: Stallone's real masterpiece: Over The Top, Funky Monkey/ Monkey Picks, Twin Sitters etc

1 Comments:

  • At 11:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    emma roberts, co-star of spymates, is julia robert's neice...damn hollywood nepotism!

     

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