Week in Review: July 9 - 14

Movies - This week we've reviewed  The Amazing Spider-Man, People Like Us, and The Spiderwick Chronicles.  The best of the bunch was Spider-Man, while the worst was Spiderwick Chronicles, but I doubt anyone is really surprised by that.

Books - Book of the week was George R.R. Martin's novella "The Sworn Sword," the second in his Tales of Dunk and Egg series.

TV - TV show of the week was the first season of Grey's Anatomy, which I will eventually be following up with the rest of the series.

Recommendations - There isn't actually anything out in movies this week that I think I'm likely to see in theatres - the recommendations were either for movies that I'm a bit iffy about or else are only getting a limited release.  The DVD releases were, for the most part, DVDs I haven't heard of before but they've all caught my attention - that, and American Reunion, which I already know to have been good.

Next Week - Next week, I plan on reviewing Diana Gabaldon's Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, Magic Mike, and, in celebration of the new Batman movie, Batman Begins. I plan on re-watching the first two films in the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy before catching the midnight show of The Dark Knight Rises, so look forward to those reviews.

Requests - Anything out there that you'd like me to review?  A book? A movie? A TV show?  Let me know in the comments and I'll try to get to it.

Recommendations: July 13

Ice Age: Continental Drift - The fourth in the hugely successful Ice Age franchise, Continental Drift follows our favourite Paleolithic mammals after their continent is set adrift and they attempt to get back home.

Easy Money - A Swedish movie that's getting a limited release, Easy Money follows a man who becomes a drug runner in order to maintain a double life, causing things to go to shit after he meets a man on the run from the mafia and the mafia enforcer who is looking for him.  The thing that caught my attention about this was that they're already talking about doing a remake, which suggests that this movie is really good.

Red Lights - A paranormal horror and a cat-and-mouse thriller all in one, Red Lights stars Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro, which just sounds awesome.  I haven't seen anything about this movie and it's only getting a limited release, but based on the names I'm thinking it might be good.

Being Flynn - Another De Niro film, this one is about a young man who encounters his father while working in a Boston homeless shelter.  Directed by Paul Weitz, the same guy who did About A Boy and American Pie this movie could be really good, really bad, or a bit of both.

The Flowers of War - Staring Christian Bale, The Flowers of War brings him back to China during the Second Sino-Japanese War (a return from the 1987 film Empire of the Sun, his first major role).  This time the focus is on the 1937 Rape of Nanking and follows Bale's attempts to safe the women of Nanking by posing as a priest.

American Reunion - The fourth feature film in the American Pie series, American Reunion follows the old group as they embark upon their high school reunion and try to figure out just where their lives diverged from the path that they had once dreamed of.  I was pleasantly surprised by this movie, and suggest it for a night where you just want something easy and funny to watch.

Stonehenge - I recently re-read this Bernard Cornwell novel and it's definitely one of my favourite individual Cornwell novels - possibly even one of my favourite individual novels.  Stonehenge is a "how it could have happened" type novel and tells a story about how Stonehenge came into being. Cornwell takes what we know about the structure and the surrounding land and weaves it together with this wonderfully imaginative world that he creates.  In my opinion, Cornwell is at his best when he's writing his "how it could have happened" type stories, so you should totally read this book.

American Reunion (2012)

Stars: Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tara Reid, Seann William Scott, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Eugene Levy, Mena Suvari, Jennifer Coolidge
Director: Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg
Genre: Comedy
Rating: B-

American Pie was a coming of age film about a group of boys in their senior year of high school who make a pact to lose their virginity, while its first two sequels (American Pie 2 and American Wedding) follow the same group as they discover what happens to you after you finally come of age.  Now, thirteen years after the original film hit screens comes the latest and fourth feature film in the series; American Reunion.  This film provides the story of what happens when you realize that adult life isn’t all it’s cracked out to be.

Since the wedding of Jim (Biggs) and Michelle (Hannigan), each member of the group has apparently gone off into the world, leaving East Great Falls and rarely looking back.  Jim and Michelle have fallen into a rut in their marriage, Kevin (Nicholas) is happily married and a bit of a housewife, Oz (Klein) is a sportscaster living in LA with a supermodel girlfriend, Finch (Thomas), who has lost contact with his friends, is travelling the world, and Stifler (Scott) is becoming aware of the fact that he’s a loser.  Everyone is brought back to their hometown just in time for their 13-year high school reunion, where they’re each confronted with what they’ve given up in life; Jim and Michelle sex, Kevin Vicky (Reid), Oz Heather (Suvari), Finch his chance at one true love, and Stifler… well, actually, Stifler hasn’t given up anything and has insisted on remaining the same person that he was in high school.  Hilarity ensues as each tries to come to terms with their desires and the way life has turned out for them, and figure out how to reconcile what they have with what they once wanted.

American Reunion is no American Pie.  Had I not seen the original movie I highly doubt I would have enjoyed this one at all; it really offered nothing new or original as a movie and is incapable of standing on its own.  It does, however, pay a nice tribute to the series, and in many ways restores the dignity lost from the American Pie Presents straight to video films.  It has all of the classic elements of an American Pie film: Jim and his dad (Levy) share awkward conversations, Michelle tells band camp stories, Stifler interacts with bodily fluids and throws a party, and of course there’s Stifler’s mom (Coolidge).  The film may not have been exactly original, borrowing a lot from both the previous films and essentially every other reunion-esque film about 30-somethings, but it was funny.  In all reality, it was just about everything you can expect from an American Pie film.