Movie Review The Disaster Artist

The Disaster Artist (2017) 

Directed by James Franco

Written by Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber 

Starring James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Alison Brie, Ari Graynor, Josh Hutcherson 

Release Date December 1st, 2017 

Pathos—a quality that evokes pity or sadness.

Pathos seemed to be the defining characteristic of Tommy Wiseau’s abysmal debut feature The Room. The film evoked pathos because it was quite pitiably terrible in every fashion. The film was/is complete and utter nonsense from beginning to end with the witless Wiseau creating a star vehicle for himself despite his complete lack of talent and then directing the whole mess despite his complete lack experience and talent.

Something strange has happened over the years with The Room. No, it hasn’t somehow miraculously improved with time. Rather, it remains terrible, but not pitiable. The film has become a genuine and quite unexpected hit. Fans, yes, real fans, have emerged not to defend the quality of the film but to defend the remarkable experience they’ve had in discovering the film. People quite unabashedly love The Room and by extension its bizarre creator.

Enter The Disaster Artist, a new comic take on the creation of this once pathos-laden effort. The Disaster Artist does not seek to mock the pathos of The Room and Tommy Wiseau but rather, to get to the heart of the genuine side of the appreciation of this once pitiable effort. The Disaster Artist succeeds by reveling in the genuine success enjoyed by the film since it was so poorly crafted and somehow slunk into our collective pop culture in 2002.

The Disaster Artist stars James Franco as Tommy Wiseau. Franco’s Wiseau is a fearless weirdo, probably because he doesn’t’ realize other people find him weird. He has what looks to be a stiff wig of long black hair, an inexplicable accent that he refuses to acknowledge and is deeply paranoid of anyone asking about his life and especially his age. He goes so far as to warn his new friend, Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) to never speak of him in public, never talk about where his money comes from and never acknowledge the enigma that is Tommy Wiseau.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal 

Movie Review Lego Ninjago

Lego Ninjago (2017) 

Directed by Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher, Bob Logan 

Written by Bob Logan, Paul Fisher, William Wheeler, Tom Wheeler, Jared Stern, John Whittington

Starring Dave Franco, Michael Pena, Kumail Nanjiani, Abbi Jacobson, Zach Woods, Fred Armisen, Jackie Chan

Release Date September 22nd, 2017

Published September 22nd, 2017

Lego Ninjago has not one single laugh. It has amusing moments but not a single instance of induced laughter. And I am not just speaking for myself here. The audience I watched Lego Ninjago with was really ready to laugh and you could hear some forced attempts at trying to laugh but as the movie went on even those that kept smiling and trying to find what was happening in Lego Ninjago funny weren’t laughing. It was strange; there was no outward disdain for Lego Ninjago but there weren’t any laughs.

Lloyd (Dave Franco) is a teenager who is constantly picked on because his father happens to be an evil ninja who keeps trying to take over his home town of Ninjago. What the people making fun of Lloyd don’t know is that he’s the legendary Green Ninja who, along with his fellow ninjas, have kept Garmadon (Justin Leroux) from actually destroying Ninjago. Naturally, regularly fighting his dad while flying around on a mechanized ninja dragon has led to more than a few daddy issues for Lloyd.

Thankfully, Lloyd has his uncle, Master Wu (Jackie Chan), who has taught him and his friends everything about being Ninjas and making giant mechanized animals that they use to battle Garmadon’s evil Crab army. Well, he has people dressed as crabs and dressed as sharks and dolphins and they make up his evil army; though at one point he does shoot sharks at people from a giant mechanical arm but that part isn’t very clear. I could follow the action well enough but some of the chaos got a little confusing.

All of that description sounds funny, right? Especially when you consider the recent history of the Lego franchise, The Lego Movie and Lego Batman. Those movies were laugh a minute spectacle that created an anticipation for future Lego movies. Like Lego Ninjago, those casts were overflowing with some of the funniest voices on the planet and Ninjago has a fair share of very funny people like Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson, Kumail Nanjiani, all of whom are remarkably funny.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal.