In 2003, a movie released called “Elf”. This movie told the story of a human boy whose mother gave him to an orphanage, and who’s father never knew he existed. He was just a baby when he crawled into Santa’s (Ed Asner) bag as he delivered toys to the orphanage. Who was this boy? His name was Buddy (Will Ferrell). After Santa got back to the North Pole that night, he noticed a baby crawl out of his bag. Santa and Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) decided to adopt the baby boy and he became an Elf.
Buddy actually went his entire life thinking he was an elf, despite his many difficulties. While other elves pushed out hundreds or thousands of toys a day in the production room, Buddy could only do dozens. He didn’t fit in the beds, showers, or desks, and he was much taller than all of the other elves. When Buddy finds out from Papa Elf who he really is, he goes to New York City to find his real father (James Caan).
When Buddy goes to see his dad, who works in the Empire State Building, he is thought to be a nut at first. His father’s security team kicks Buddy out several times. Once his father Walter Hobbs finally gets a DNA test and accepts that Buddy is his son, he takes the elf-man to stay with him and his wife Emily (Mary Steenburgen) and his son Michael (Daniel Tay). Buddy also gets a job at Gimbel’s because he was mistook for an employee. He manages to bring his coworker Jovie (Zooey Deschanel) lots of Christmas cheer. Throughout the movie, Jovie and Buddy fall in love.
Who knew that the Coen Brothers would be involved with a film as filthy as Bad Santa? Known for creating such elegant pieces of drama and such witty pieces of comedy, their name on a raunch fest like Bad Santa seemed unimaginable at first. Then, the movie was released to critical and commercial acclaim, and our light bulb moment had been reached.
Bad Santa, starring Billy Bob Thornton as Willie, an alcoholic shoplifting Santa Clause, is every bit as raunchy and crude as you might think it’d be. Though with that raunchiness comes just as much heart and moral decency as any other Christmas movie. For those of you who don’t know, the plot revolves around two cons named Willie and Marcus (Tony Cox) pose as Santa Clause and his elf at a local mall to rob all of the stores on Christmas Eve. Everything goes smoothly until the security manager Gin (Bernie Mac) discovers their plan. While this shit is hitting the fan, Willie befriends a young boy known only as, The Kid (Brett Kelly).
Willie then gets involved romantically with The Kid’s mother Sue (Lauren Graham), more shit hits the fan, but it’s all really funny in that miserable kind of way.
Bad Santa works mostly because of how unlikable all the characters are besides The Kid. His roley-poley little body mixed with his innocent facial expressions are the ying to Billy Bob’s beer swigging yang. The two gel in an unlikely way that will warm your heart and possibly creep you out all at the same time.
Out of everybody involved though, it’s Tony Cox’s evil but wise Marcus that steals the show. With some smaller roles in films like Friday and Me, Myself, and Irene, his comedic timing is almost perfect, and he represents how evil Willie could be, but somehow has the heart not to be.
I’ll admit, I watched Bad Santa at far too young of an age (8 to be exact), but now, it’s a Christmas tradition for my friends and me. I mean, what other Christmas movie will make teenagers come over to your house?
Everyone loves racist jokes. Everyone loves pot jokes. Everyone loves racist pot jokes (it’s true don’t deny it). These three facts may be an explanation behind the strangely successful Harold & Kumar franchise, which is now on its third film. The other strange thing about the franchise is that it’s one of the only, if not the only successful franchise led without a Caucasian character in a lead role. I’m sure there are others that I’m forgetting, but that’s really not important.
In A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, six years have passed since the previous sequel, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantonomo Bay. On an unrelated note, considering that both Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle and Escape From Guantanomo Bay take place during the same week, and the first Harold & Kumar came out in 2004, the whole 6 years passing thing is extremely close to being accurate as far as the time-lapse. Not very important, but I felt like sharing, now back to the review.
Harold (John Cho) has since married his dream girl Maria (Paula Garcés – Below), who now wants to have a child. Kumar (Kal Penn), who was dumped by his girlfriend Vanessa (Danneel Ackles), now lives alone spending his days getting high and talking to his annoying neighbor, Adrian (Amir Blumenfeld, in what should be his breakout role).
Christmas Eve rolls around, and this is where the fun begins. Harold’s very scary and very Mexican in-laws are in town for the weekend, led by their patriarch, Mr. Perez (Danny Trejo), bringing with him an extremely important and cherished tree that he’s been growing for eight years for this specific Christmas. Harold just wants to show to him that he’s a responsible husband and won’t ruin Christmas.
On Kumar’s side of things, with nothing to do, he decides to go out with Adrian, but hours before doing so, Vanessa drops by to give Kumar a little news; she’s pregnant. On top of all that (yes, there’s more), a package arrives for Harold who hasn’t lived in that apartment for almost five years. With all this on his mind, Kumar and Adrian head to Harold’s house to drop off the package and get out of their as soon as they can, but of course, we know the formula by know, that’s not going to happen.
Basically, to shorten the sequence, Kumar leaves the package on the front stoop and tries to get out clean, he ends up slipping on ice, Harold hears it, comes out, greets him, and invites him in for coffee. Kumar reluctantly agrees only to see that Harold’s new house is, and I quote, “not s**ty.” Harold and Kumar, after their awkward introductions, finally get around to opening the mysterious package, only to find a ridiculously large joint with the words “I killed Bob Marley” written on the side of it (I’m only kidding about that last part). Kumar immediately begins smoking the joint, and Harold forces him to throw it out. The joint, accompanied by some slick movie magic, is thrown out of the window, to only boomerang back into another open window, placing itself neatly on the cherished tree, thus lighting it on fire. Here’s where the adventure begins.
I won’t explain all the things that happen next, but I can say one thing; it’s funny as hell. The Harold & Kumar films, as mindless and raunchy as they may seem, are for the most part expertly plotted, smartly written, and extremely funny films, this being no exception.
The only thing that I thought was more or less distracting was the overall change in style. I can’t quite put my finger on everything that was different, but it’s like watching a sequel or a remake to your favorite movie. It’s probably good, but it just isn’t the same. Another distracting element was the almost constant use of slow-motion and 3D. Unfortunately, I was forced to see the film in 2D, as well as sober, so I probably only got about 1/10th of the effects that every stoner with a pair of 3D glasses did.
But for all the stylistic changes, the addition of new and hilarious characters, including Thomas Lennon as Todd, a naïve father who inadvertently involves him and his even funnier baby girl Ava in Harold and Kumar’s misadventures, as well as the return of all the old characters, notably NPH (whose cameo may be his best yet) and Rosenberg and Goldstein (whose cameo scene will have fans of the original in stitches), make this 3rd outing better than it has any right to be. Additionally, the use of meta-filmmaking makes for some even better laughs than almost any joke in the film. The real genius of this 3rdHarold & Kumar film, is that, it will most likely please fans of the original, but it also makes room for millions of new fans who have not yet been introduced to the antics of this lovable stoner duo.
The War of the Green Lanterns rages on this week in Emerald Warriors #8, featuring the ‘love him or hate him’ Green Lantern Guy Gardner. I personally used to hate him, and nothing was better than the time Batman decked him in the face.
Now I see Guy Gardner as the one who balances out the personalities of his fellow Earth Green Lanterns. He is the one who will get down and dirty if things need to get done when the stoic John Stewart, good-hearted Kyle Rayner and noble Hal Jordan can’t.
In 2003, a movie released called “Elf”. This movie told the story of a human boy whose mother gave him to an orphanage, and who’s father never knew he existed. He was just a baby when he crawled into Santa’s (Ed Asner) bag as he delivered toys to the orphanage. Who was this boy? His name was Buddy (Will Ferrell). After Santa got back to the North Pole that night, he noticed a baby crawl out of his bag. Santa and Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) decided to adopt the baby boy and he became an Elf.
Buddy actually went his entire life thinking he was an elf, despite his many difficulties. While other elves pushed out hundreds or thousands of toys a day in the production room, Buddy could only do dozens. He didn’t fit in the beds, showers, or desks, and he was much taller than all of the other elves. When Buddy finds out from Papa Elf who he really is, he goes to New York City to find his real father (James Caan).
When Buddy goes to see his dad, who works in the Empire State Building, he is thought to be a nut at first. His father’s security team kicks Buddy out several times. Once his father Walter Hobbs finally gets a DNA test and accepts that Buddy is his son, he takes the elf-man to stay with him and his wife Emily (Mary Steenburgen) and his son Michael (Daniel Tay). Buddy also gets a job at Gimbel’s because he was mistook for an employee. He manages to bring his coworker Jovie (Zooey Deschanel) lots of Christmas cheer. Throughout the movie, Jovie and Buddy fall in love.
Grizzly Bomb 