MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (2012)

A brilliant film by Joss Whedon (director), reimagining Shakespeare's play, Much Ado About Nothing.

Similarly to the adaptation of Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio, the dialogue remains unchanged, while the surroundings are modern.  Though it can hardly be compared to this:

(Yes, that is a real scene from Romeo and Juliet)

A black and white, low budget film, and surprisingly the actors do not attempt any fake, or even sincere British accents.  Somehow, this makes the dialogue much more graspable.  The interaction with the outdated dialogue is far from awkward, and feels very natural.  Whedon brings his general humor to the film, with scene choices, as well as actor and character choices.  While all the dialogue remains unchanged, the delivery is far from so.

The plot doesn't matter entirely all that much (in terms of whether or not to watch the movie), but if you haven't seen or read the play, it's about matchmaking, and betrayal, and rivalry, and more betrayal, and lots and lots of alcohol.

Fun facts:

-The entire film was shot in 12 days while Whedon was directing the Avengers simultaneously

-To cut costs, it was filmed at Whedon's house

-The party scene filmed was an actual party that Whedon had, where many of the guests were just that. Guests. And were provided with real alcohol.

Fun facts courtesy of IMDB

Really, if you enjoy Whedon's films or shows, you will enjoy this one.  If you enjoy Shakespeare, you will enjoy this one.  If you like obscure movies, which somehow piece together something wonderful on a low budget (like I do), then you will really like this one.

Check out the trailer and see if you're still not interested.

Having just seen the movie now, for the first time, I highly recommend checking it out.*

ME: 8/10
Tomato Meter: 84%
IMDB: 7.3/10

This one had some bad reviews from people (despite the scores above), so I expect someone out there to probably not agree with my views on the film, and I would like to hear your opinions on this.  Really.

*Small after-note:  I did watch with subtitles, and I think that was helpful, though I don't know it was completely necessary.

Enjoy!

DUCK SOUP (1933)

(imdb)

So having been gone for awhile, we’ll pretend I went back in time to bring you this.  

This is my absolute favorite b/w film.  Staring the Marx Brothers (no, not Karl and Carlo), and their classic antics.  Duck Soup currently stands as number 60 on AFI’s list of top 100 movies of all time.  This is not very far up the list, but keep in mind how many movies are out there.  Well over one hundred.  It follows the path of Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) and his dictatorship-esc leadership of the country of Freedonia.  With classic one-liners like:

Mrs. Teasdale: Notables from every country are gathered here in your honor. This is a gala day for you.

Rufus T. Firefly: Well, a gal a day is enough for me. I don't think I could handle any more.

And song lyrics, like:

Rufus T. Firefly:  The last guy nearly ruined this place, he didn't know what to do with it.  If you think this country's bad off now, just wait 'till I get through with it.

If you like sarcasm, and terrible jokes even a fraction of how much I do, I highly recommend this film.   It also has one of the greatest, and committedly quiet jokes I have ever seen in a talking film.  I strongly suggest you take the 3 minutes to watch this, even if you’ve seen it before.  I’m laughing right now as I watch it. 

The Marx Brothers are one of the main contributions to my love of older movies, and terrible jokes.  My mother is probably very disappointed in the latter.  I grew up on these movies, and they’ve helped shape me, for better or worse.  Here is a link to this film and if you haven’t seen it, I suggest you brush up.  

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v172497429BYa7aeQ

Hope you enjoy this, and hopefully I'll be back more often.

10/10