Monday, November 18, 2013

EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX* BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK (1972)

Another pre-ANNIE HALL Allen that suffers badly from dated humor.  This time around it's seven short sequences answering different questions like "What Is Sodomy?" where Dr. Gene Wilder falls in love with a female sheep...I'm not exactly sure how that answers the question or is even funny, but that's what happens.  Another: "What Happens During Ejaculation?" has Tony Randall and Burt Reynolds as operators inside a mission control center (a human brain) controlling a dude's body during a date and sex.  Hardy-har-har.

Seeing as how this was a box office success back in 1972, I guess, this kind of humor was cutting edge or somehow funny, but nowadays it's extremely dated.  EYAWTKASBWATA is interesting as an historic artifact, but I can't even imagine how a younger audience would enjoy this film today.  Hell, I love Woody Allen and even I had a hard time getting through the whole thing.  Skip it.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS (2013)

Entertaining time-waster about how the two young children from the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale grow up (after killing the witch in the candy house) to become professional witch hunters.  Hansel is diabetic thanks to all the candy that he was forced to eat and Gretel is extremely hot thanks to being extremely hot.  They've created quite a reputation for themselves and get called in to solve the case of children missing in a remote village.  After some initial fighting and witch killing they discover that there's actually something much bigger afoot.

Visually H&GWH looks fine, the story is darker than I expected but ultimately forgettable, Gemma Arterton is easy on the eyes, at times Pihla Viitala looks like a young Catherine Deneuve, non-annoying CGI and 3D effects, witches that look like Mortiis, Peter Stormare in a small role.  Worth a watch if it came on TV but I would never buy it.

If you need me, I'll be in my room playing The Witcher 3.