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Film Friday: In A Box
Recently, Torontoist went canoeing in Algonquin Park (we got 34 mosquito bites). However, arguably the most amusing thing to happen during our entire trip was passing a billboard on our way into the park advertising a “Dock in a Box.” We instantly became distracted by a lengthy fantasy that the company knew exactly what it was doing and included a YouTube video on its website about how it created the Dock in a Box (you know—”One, we cut a hole in the box; two, we put our tech in the box!”), but were recently disappointed to find that there’s nothing funny at all on the company website.
And according to Torontoist’s David Topping, there’s nothing that funny in Andy Samberg’s first cinematic vehicle, Hod Rod, either. Here’s what he has to say:
“Hot Rod isn’t so much unfunny as it is really, really funny once. The film’s gags throughout aren’t based as much on wit as on randomness and physical comedy, and they pile them on so fast that there’s little time to enjoy the joke—or, occasionally, register it—before there’s another one. Samberg himself is fantastic, as is most of the rest of the cast with the notable exception of Jorma Taccone as Samberg’s half-brother and sidekick, who just is never really particularly funny for some reason. Hot Rod is a film that’s worth watching once in a theatre, and once as a rental to see what you’ve missed, but falls short of being a comedy that can be forever enjoyed and treasured. Not hot, then, but tepid.”
Oh well. We were intrigued by the review from Barrett Hooper at NOW, where he manages to pair the sentences, “[Andy Samberg’s] Lazy Sunday rap video … was responsible for an 80 percent increase in traffic to the site, making him YouTube’s first superstar,” and “[Andy Samberg is] easily the least-known SNL cast member to star in a movie.”
Eh? We can only surmise that he doesn’t know who Chris Kattan is (like most other people).
Also on release this week: The Bourne Ultimatum: the Paul Greengrass-directed closing act of the Bourne Trilogy; Becoming Jane: a rank-sounding piece of “speculative biography” about Jane Austin; An Arctic Tale; Bratz and Underdog.
This week the Royal is showing Your Mommy Kills Animals: a documentary taking a look at the different sects in the animal rights movement. Eye’s Jason Anderson calls it a “smart, comprehensive doc.”
Finally, the Toronto International Film Festival has added some more films to their lineup this week, including a Gala presentation of Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream, new Real To Reel titles including Darfur Now and Werner Herzog’s Encounters At The End Of The World, and the Midnight Madness programme scores a massive coup with Takashi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django. We can’t wait!