Movie Tuesday - City Mice in the Country

This week I watched the movies Hot Fuzz and Elizabethtown. Both movies feature an urban character trapped unwillingly in a rural setting that they have to adapt to. The movies are also alike in that they are only sort of good.


Hot Fuzz - 3 stars

There are certain movies that you can't review with out the using the word "Follow-up", as in "Peter Jackson's much-anticipated Follow-up to his enormously successful "Lord of the Rings" trilogy". Well, Hot Fuzz is the "much anticipated follow-up" to Simon Pegg's first American hit, Shaun of the Dead, and it attempts to do for "Buddy-Cop" movies what Shaun did for zombie films. If it hadn't been on the heels of Shaun of the Dead, I probably wouldn't have felt so let down. Then again, If it hadn't been on the heels of Shaun of the Dead, I probably wouldn't have watched it in the first place. It was funny, but only in spurts.

Elizabethtown - 3 stars

The Much Anticipated Follow up to Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous, Elizabethtown is a weird romantic comedy. Terrific performances by just about everybody mark this very original, even oddball, piece of cinematic experimentation. The Beginning, Middle, and End of this movie feel almost like three episodes of a series, each with a different director. The beginning is weirdly humorous, the middle is brilliantly acted madness, and the end is a loooong boring mixtape; a slideshow that your friends make you sit through after returning from their Kansas Vacation. If they could have tidied up the end, they might have had a four, or even five star rating, which is saying a lot for a romantic comedy.

If you really enjoyed Almost Famous you will probably like this movie. They share a lot of themes, and a certain sense of style.

That's all the Frankster Has Time for today - but be sure to tune in tomorrow to see what good stuff I got cooked up for you.