What You Should Have Seen #23

Cabin in the Woods

By the time this gets posted, this movie will either be already out of theaters or won’t have much time left. Sorry. I’m writing a lot of these early posts during my off time in order to have some material banked away so I’ll be able to post consistently.

I wanted to see this movie for one reason: Joss Whedon. I became a fan with Buffy and stayed around for Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse and Dr. Horrible. And Astonishing X-Men. And the new Buffy and Angel comic books. I will be there for everything he has a hand in. I mean, the Avengers? Seriously you guys, the Avengers! Gah, the freakin' AVENGERS!!!

On its surface, Cabin in the Woods is a generic kids-in-the-woods slasher flick. Joss, however, does a great job at letting us know right from the get-go that that isn’t the case. I don’t want to spoil anything in case you haven’t seen it yet, in case you’re just waiting for it to come out on DVD.

There was a feel to this movie. I really want to compare it to Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, but it would be a very narrow comparison, and I don’t know how fair it would be to compare the two. I mean, I really liked J&SB, but for a much different reason. It was juvenile and over the top. It was one big inside joke, and I was in on it. I got that inside joke vibe from Cabin in the Woods, but there is one big difference between these two movies. J&SB was an inside joke that was extremely overt and really excluded people who weren’t cool enough to get it. I can’t imagine that anybody who hadn’t seen the other View Askewniverse movies laughed as much as I did. Joss, though, was a bit more subtle. You don’t have to be a Whedonite to enjoy the movie. It helps on a few layers, but it’s not necessary. It’s accessible.

The movie felt like a conglomeration of past Joss works, but not as a weak rehashing. I got Buffy vibes (horror, monsters, a better version of The Initiative). I got Angel vibes (monsters, season five end-of-the-world, Wolfram & Hart senior partners). I got Dollhouse vibes (manipulation). I didn’t get any Firefly vibes, but I read that if you look close enough you’ll see a Reaver or two. The interplay between the main characters was spot-on Whedon. His scripting ability is one of the things I enjoy the most about his writing. It’s quick, it’s sharp, it’s witty, and more often than not it’s hilarious.

If you know anything about Joss, you know that he likes to reuse actors he’s worked with before. Here we get Amy Acker (Fred from Angel and Whiskey from Dollhouse), Fran Kranz (Topher from Dollhouse and the up-coming Much Ado About Nothing), Tom Lenk (Andrew from Buffy), and now Chris Hemsworth (Marvel’s The Avengers). This last one is kind of backwards. The movie was finished a few years ago, before Hemsworth was Thor. It’s just a coincidence that he was in CitW and now he’s in a franchise movie directed and co-written by Whedon (Have you seen the Avengers or read my write-up on it? You HAVEN'T?!?! What the hell is wrong with you? Go read my write-up then watch the movie. They're both worth the price of admission.).

The best surprise, at least to me, was the inclusion of Bradley Whitford. I love him. I loved him when Aaron Sorkin was putting words in his mouth, and he made the almost-unwatchable “The Good Guys,” well, watchable. Now I get to hear him say word that Joss is putting in his mouth? Awesome. And he didn’t disappoint.

I loved this movie. I loved everything about it, and I was glad to let NCG Cinemas swipe my debit card and remove money from my checking account. And you know what? I’m going spend even more money on this movie when it comes out on DVD. I will own it. It was that good. You know what else I might get? This. THAT’S how much I liked the movie.

So if you haven’t seen the movie yet and it’s still in theaters, go. Go now. If it’s already gone, write yourself a note and buy it (screw Redbox) when it comes out on DVD.

What You Should Have Watched #14

Cancelled Gems #2 – The Good Guys

Okay, so maybe some of these shows aren’t actually gems. Even after five episodes I still wasn’t really looking forward to watching an entire full season of the show.

From Wikipedia:

The Good Guys is an American action-comedy series about an old-school cop and a modern-day detective that premiered with a preview episode on Fox on May 19, 2010, and began airing regularly on June 7.[4] The series stars Bradley Whitford as Dan Stark, a mustachioed, former big-shot detective with the Dallas Police Department, and Colin Hanks as Jack Bailey, a young, ambitious, by-the-book detective who has been assigned as Dan's partner because of his snarky attitude. On December 15, 2010, The Good Guys was cancelled by Fox Television Studios.

I decided to watch this show for two reasons: a buddy at work caught a bunch of episodes when it was on and was amused by it, and I had recently finished all seven seasons of The West Wing and thought that Bradley Whitford could do no wrong. I thoroughly loved him in The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Billy Madison (those were all written by Aaron Sorkin, right?). While he is better than Colin Hanks and has the ability to make Dan Stark a memorable character, the writing is just so cheesy and uninspiring that he just comes across as a caricature. I realize that caricatures can be important additions to shows, especially sitcoms, but it just didn’t work here…at least in the beginning.

It took probably half of the lone season, but you know what? Whitford’s Stark started growing on me. I still think that the writing is cheesy and uninspiring, but Whitford starts to really make it his own. Hanks is still stiff and unlikable, though.

It took me about two months to watch the show. It never got good enough to really engage me, to make me look forward to watching it. I won’t say that it got better the longer I watched it, but I started to enjoy bits and pieces of it a little more. Those bits and pieces mainly centered around Whitford and Jenny Wade. Oh my goodness Ms. Wade. She makes any scene with Hanks in it watchable and downright enjoyable. Although, I've learned via Google's image search that she's got a bit of an off-putting smile. Kinda weird.

Now, I can’t in good conscience recommend you go out and buy the DVDs of this series. But, if you’ve got a Netflix Streaming subscription, well, then you don’t have to spend any extra to watch it. If you DO decide to watch it, don’t go into it with high expectations. Hell, it’s probably best not to go in with any expectations at all.

Also, in case you've forgotten: When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts, I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads. PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas bills here and an unsure/shaky work situation. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!