items tagged with American Pie 2

AMERICAN REUNION

You know that feeling you get when you receive a Facebook friend request from someone you went to high school with, and you don’t quite recognize the name, and a smile slowly forms as you think, “Oh, ye-e-eah ... that guy!” That, in a nutshell, was my reaction to American Reunion, the third big-screen sequel to the beloved coming-of-age slapstick American Pie, and easily the most endearing of the lot. It took me a while to succumb to the movie’s charms, but in the end I not only liked it; I would’ve happily “liked” it.

WINGED M IGRATION

At the beginning of Jacques Perrin’s documentary Winged Migration, even before the title has appeared, we are informed that the film took more than four years to complete, that it required near-global group participation, and that “no special-effects shots were employed in the making of this film.” It seems like an overly grandiose introduction until you actually see the movie. For Winged Migration, currently playing at the Brew & View, is an absolutely astounding experience, a visually breathtaking work that is also more pure fun than just about anything in current release.

FROM HELL

You can be forgiven for assuming that From Hell, Allen and Albert Hughes’ re-telling of the Jack the Ripper saga (based on the immensely popular graphic novel), is a follow-up to Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, what with its previews focusing on a shadowy murderer, lots of fog and mist, Johnny Depp’s investigator speaking in a British accent (Cockney this time), and Heather Graham in the Christina Ricci role of the Corseted Love Interest.

THE OTHERS

Alejandro Amenabar’s ghostly The Others feels like the film version of some beautifully chilling short story by Lovecraft or Shirley Jackson, where “Boo!”-style thrills take a back seat to dread and psychological complexity; it’s a savvy, entertaining piece.

THE FAST & THE FURIOUS

In The Fast & The Furious, that stolid, basso profundo actor Vin Diesel is forced into a close friendship with the blond, pretty, incredibly bland Paul Walker, so you know immediately that you’re in make-believe territory once again.