Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I’m in the middle of traveling to Comic-Con, but I needed to catch up on a couple of reviews for two diametrically opposite flicks. On one hand I have Werner Herzog’s Vietnam POW film RESCUE DAWN and in the other I have the completely balls-out random comedy HOT ROD from the guys behind Lonely Island. RESCUE DAWN So, I’m probably the last person in this country to see this film. It has screened at so many festivals and is at the tail end of a platform release before going wide this weekend. Christian Bale is fucking insane. He bulks up for BATMAN, then does this Werner Herzog movie where he has to Tom Hanks it and go back to his near MACHINIST emaciation… then he goes back to Batman and fucking bulks up again. His body has to hate his guts. The film starts out a bit awkwardly. Bale kind of slips on his AMERICAN PSYCHO persona… not to an extreme, of course, but he’s not a really likable guy at the beginning. A little arrogant, a bit of a douche, actually. Of course, that’s his arc. He doesn’t take the war seriously, just happy to be flying. When he’s shot down and ends up a POW, you see the experience humble him. Sure, it kind of drives him batshit nuts, too, but he finds the best of himself comes to the top. Unlike his fellow POWs Jeremy Davies and Steve Zahn. Boy, did they run down those two guys. Davies looks like a holocaust survivor he’s so thin. Zahn is always on the edge, a cracked china cup an inch away from crashing to the ground. His performance here is actually incredible. It’s the kind of 180 degree turn that the awards givers love. The movie is intense and avoids most of the clichés of a POW film… until the last 10 minutes. I honestly wish the five minutes preceding the credits were just chopped out. It’s so over the top and forced, capping a movie that was completely fresh. On the whole, it’s a strong recommend. Just be warned of a weak epilogue. HOT ROD The word on this one had been mixed. I thought the trailer was okay, but I wasn’t exactly fired up to see the movie. At this time I hadn’t watched AWESOMETOWN, the popular unproduced pilot from a couple years back, so I only vaguely knew Andy Samberg and the Lonely Island team from SNL’s digital shorts. Those were consistently funny, so I was happy to catch this flick a couple weeks back when it had a word of mouth screening here in Austin. I guffawed. There were some chuckles, too, and a few laughs, but guffawing is what I did through most of the movie. Not all the jokes work and not all the jokes that worked for me worked for the entire audience. There were times where either myself or my friends were the only people laughing at a joke. But I’m a big fan of random humor. Big, big fan of random humor. God, I love it. And this movie is chock full of that kinda shit. It seems now that if you have any movie that is quirky with off beat characters it’s going to get compared to NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. I’ve heard this one compared to ND, but I never really got that feeling while watching it. I think it’s aided by an incredible supporting cast. Ian McShane is so fucking funny as the mean old bastard stepfather to Samberg’s character. McShane won’t consider Samberg a man until Samberg can beat him in a fight, so that becomes his goal. When McShane’s bad heart catches up to him, Samberg has to raise money for a life-saving operation. How can he kick his stepdad’s ass if he dies before Samberg gets strong enough to do so? Yeah, the main group of characters are pretty pathetic. But they’re also populated with some really funny cats. Danny McBride (THE FOOT FIST WAY) is the king scene-stealer within a group of scene-stealers. He’s a little hillbilly-ish, but loyal and absolutely hilarious. None of his jokes fall flat. Jorma Taccone is Rod’s half-brother. His character is pretty meek, but he’s still got some really good moments, as do Bill Hader (there’s a great sequence involving acid and a workshop mishap) and the lovely Isla Fisher. I swear to God that Isla Fisher is getting more beautiful. She’s absolutely radiant in this movie as the long-time love interest. Random humor can turn people off. Comedy is already a divisive genre, but this sort of random humor is especially so. This one worked for me. It’s been quoted with friends and I’ve often thought back on certain sequences (Cool beans to be specific) since I’ve watched it. Another recommend! Okay, got a few more things to wrap up before I dive head-first into Comic-Con. Look for my first interview and preview night coverage to hit tomorrow evening! -Quint quint@aintitcool.com
