Community (2009)

Community is about a group of people going to Greendale Community College.

Jeff (Joel McHale) a recently disbarred lawyer accidentally starts a spanish study group when he hits on Britta (Gillian Jacobs) and ends up inviting her to join his study group… which doesn’t exist.

Britta tells everyone about the study group and soon
Pierce (Chevy Chase) and his political incorrectness rock up, feelings are not on the radar for this 7 times divorced millionaire. Shirley (Yvette Brown) is a single mum who goes to Greendale to learn about how to start her brownie business. She’s a christian and she adds to the general sweetness of the group.

Abed (Danny Pudi) is socially awkward and obsessed with pop culture, he brings the pop culture references like nobodys business. Annie was an A grade student who took a nose dive when she became addicted to prescription drugs. Her long time crush
Troy (Donald Glover) is a high school star quarterback whose shortlived fame ended when he suffered an injury. He still hasn’t noticed Annie.

Ben (Ken Jeong) brings the ‘piss’ to the funny as the asian spanish teacher, will anyone ever find out he’s not really qualified?

Webisodic Coolness

Featured on the front page of the Greendale Community College website on the AV Department page. Learn about the daily life of Dean Pelton, see what happens during study breaks, as well as enjoying productions from Abed Films.

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

This film is based loosely on the book by Philip K.Dick ‘Adjustment Team’, you remember him he’s also responsible for Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next and Screamers. Being a fan I had bigger expectations.

I was expecting a wicked Sci Fi because thats what Dicks films usually become. Sadly I missed the warning that it was a romantic thriller and I gotta warn you its really more romance than thrilling. The Adjustment Bureau are a behind the scenes group that occasionally interfere with our world. David (Mat Damon) is running for Senate but he is losing, a chance encounter with Elise (Emily Blunt) in the mens bathroom changes his whole life. They fall in love and find themselves up against The Adjustment Bureau who according to the ‘chairpersons’ plan aren’t meant to be together.

The Adjustment Bureau are colourless, very much like ‘The Observers’ in Fringe and ‘The Strangers’ in Dark City. The film was fun to watch the characters are good but its definitely not what I thought it would be. The vague hint that the chairperson could be God or some spiritual being didn’t really phase or interest me. It just seemed a bit empty, they didn’t really fill out the concept.

The CG etc was brilliant as you’d expect but I was disappointed at the story which just wasn’t strong enough.

Revenge of the Bridesmaids (2010)

Abigail (Raven-Symone) and Parker (Joanna Garcia) are besties living in New York. They return home for Parkers parents anniversary. They get there and find that their frenemy Caitlin (Virginia Williams) has stolen the man of their other friend Rachel (Chryssie Whitehead). They decide to go undercover as bridesmaids to break up the wedding. This movie is as boring as it sounds. The first 30 seconds was interesting but its a steep downhill slide from there. Its probably ok for your mum.

Priest (2011)

Based on a Korean comic Priest is entertaining. So picture this a post apocalyptic world run by… dom dom dom the church but not just any church the roman catholic church! Yikes. After centuries of Vampire vs Humans action, the Humans quarantined the Vamps. The people live in cities ruled/protected by the church or on their own terms out in the wastelands.

Paul Bettany is a Priest a Warrior trained as part of an elite team to eradicate the Vampires… or stupidly enough put them in detention centres. Now he’s stuck being a human relic of a war that once was, forgotton, unappreciated and lost. When his family are attacked by Vampires in the wasteland he declares war.

I was so happy squeely to see Maggie Q as a Warrior Priestess. She is awesome, my Friend Ryzu says Maggie Q is more Jedi in this than any female Jedi he’s seen in a Star Wars movie. The casting of Bettany in a sci fi as a warrior would have been a stretch, he’s scrawny at best. But the guy has a lot of soul, he brings so much depth and believability to the role.

And of course there is a mountain of room for a sequel.

The CG is great, the vampires are super ugly looking more like mutants than the pretty boys we all know so well. The special effects and fight scenes are fun. The bottom line, its a lot of fun, its entertaining. There were the rants about derivative this, cliche that. Is it cliched and derivative yes but will the average b-grade action movie fan care – hells no!

Note: Originally Gerard Butler was picked Bettany’s for the role I’m glad that didn’t work out!

Paul (2011)

Another joint effort film written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, with them acting as… nerds, I mean themselves.

Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost) are comic book nerds who’ve travelled from England to America for Comic-Con and a road trip to all the significant extraterrestrial sites. Its the trip they’ve dreamed of since they were kids and everything is going according to plan until they meet Paul.

Paul (Seth Rogan) is an alien whose outlived his usefulness. With the government on his trail, will a surprisingly reluctant Graeme and Clive help him get home?

Its obvious that Pegg and Frost have never been more comfortable in their roles. They are in their element and this is what makes the movie so entertaining. Rogan tries his best to be funny but is basically owned in this by Frost who was hilarious all the way through.

Teen Wolf (2011)

So funny if you remember the orginal teen wolf which was funny, cheesy, light and wholesome. The ‘wolf’ a hairy Michael J Fox complete with big 80′s hair, a beard and hairy arms but you know loveable, cheesy and wholesome.

Well this version has been grunged up to appeal to the youth audience of now, following the example of Supernatural, Vampire Diaries etc. Though less angsty than The Vampire Diaries. Thank God!

Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) and his best friend Stiles (Dylan O’Brien) decide to go into the woods, to search for a body… or technically half a body. While the police have found one half – these two crack unit SAS types (cough cough) decide to investigate themselves. Armed with a cheap torch and an iphone for light, its little wonder when it all goes wrong.

Inevitably Scott gets left in the woods to get scratched by a werewolf. But at least he’s good at La Crosse now. The other players Crystal Reed is Allison (the love interest), Tyler Hoechlin is Derek (the broody yet brotherly shadow type). The main downsides to being a werewolf as in ‘Being Human’ are the problems associated with ‘that time of the month’, and of course girl troubles. Not to mention Allisons dad not only believes in Warewolves… He hunts them.

Lets hope it stays less angsty and moochy than Vampire Diaries or i’m out.

Splice (2010)

Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) and his girlfriend Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) are genetic engineers. They’re not the wimpy nerdy, geeky scientists we’re used to seeing, these guys are rock star scientists, they play by their own rules, wear cool clothes and listen to cool music. No dorkiness in sight.

The movie starts out with a lot of potential as the main characters are interesting and you know we all thought they’d splice a cool creature that would reak havoc or do something else cool…

Instead they splice a creature, and it descends into a ‘Mummy Dearest’ style flick with Elsa being the crazed loon mum and the creature being the mistreated child. Super disapointing. Its also described as a ‘Canadian/American/French film’ which is obvious from the style, its a badly melded mush, weird enough to be French but not nearly interesting enough and too out there for an American or Canadian film.