Mini Review Roundup: Machete, Anvil, Half Baked.

Somehow amongst all of the fun, I have also been watching films that don’t star Keanu Reeves (crazy, right?). The aforementioned films, Anvil, Half Baked and Machete were all, in my opinion, excellent (Bill and Ted voice optional). 

Machete premièred at Southampton Uni’s Union Films last week to an audience who seemed to thoroughly enjoy it, if not find it quite as entertaining as me and Pete. It’s pretty much everything you could hope for (except Lindsay Lohan actually being naked), with gore, awfully hammy dialogue (“Machete don’t text”) and Danny Trejo shagging everything ever all the time. As an avid Trejo fan I can honestly say that I was not disappointed, and Cheech Marin was a welcome (if under used) addition to the cast. Overall it was, as Sheldon would say, ‘a hoot and a half’ and Steve Seagal is amazingly sillyly terrible. Not a film for the squeamish, but definitely mucho fun.

Next on our romp through things I’ve seen recently, Anvil, for which I have similarly glowing praise. A documentary about some nice men who can’t let go of their dream of heavy metal stardom, Anvil is funny and at times really really stressful. The boys go on tour across Europe to varying degrees of success, and their eager faces and bravado at the possibility that no one might show up is heartbreaking. The lovey-ish interviews with Slash, Scott Ian and Lars Ulrich are mildly nauseating (although Lars’ suggestion that maybe Avil didn’t make it big because they’re Canadian was entertaining), but mostly they serve to remind how nice these men seem to be and how much I’d rather be in Anvil working two jobs and doing music I love, than in Metallica being all coked up and making angst-fest documentaries like Some Kind of Monster. A glance at Anvil‘s wikipedia page lists the nominations and awards the film received and, whilst the camera work as a bit hit and miss,  I feel like it deserved all that praise. Also the fact that the film led to the band doing a sell out headline tour is adorable, and I’d like to wish them the best. Definitely worth a watch.

Finally, we’ve had a Cheech Marin movie, now one with Tommy Chong. Half Baked is a Dave Chappelle adventure about some stoners whose friend gets locked up, so to spring him from jail they have to deal weed…with hilarious consequences. As stoner films go, this isn’t a bad one, with just enough silly weed jokes and alllmost enough plot to make a movie. Infintely better than Bong Water, Smiley Face or the dreaded parody remake or Reefer Madness (which is like a billion hours long and just…don’t). Part of the joy of Half Baked is the cameos, with Snoop Dogg, Tommy Chong, John Stewart and Willie Nelson all popping up for a few minutes. Other fun comes from bongs with names that are puns (Billy Bong Thornton) and the idiosyncratic (if very ’90s) touches, like voice over and captions. Overall, not a bad way to spend the early hours of a Sunday morning, just don’t expect drama, tension or any kind of revelatory art.

E

~ by ilikepiesbetterthanilikeyourfilm on February 27, 2011.