Welcome once again to our Weekend Movie Alert, where we let you know what’s opening in theaters for you to go see or avoid. First up, we’ve got “Dragonball Evolution”, a live-action remake of the super popular anime “Dragonball Z“.
I am either the perfect audience for this movie or the worst, depending on your perspective. The best because I’m not familiar with the Dragonball series, so I’m not going to be sitting in the theater looking for the places where the movie fails to live up to my expectations. On the other hand, I’m the worst because of my lack of knowledge. Why should I care about this movie? The trailer gives me no compelling reason to go see it. Aside from Chow Yun-Fat, none of the other actors are favorites of mine, the story doesn’t jump out at me, and the names — to my American ears — are ridiculous. Goku? Bulma? Piccolo?
And I notice there’s not a single non-combatant person in the trailer. Are there any other humans on the planet? What are tehy up to? It’s this confined, “this only matters to the cast members” kind of storytelling that fails to inspire interest. Where’s the rest of the world? It’s their planet too! If I had been put in charge of the PR for this thing, this would’ve been the tagline: “Dragonball Evolution: it’s a movie.”
Next up we have the latest Seth Rogen vehicle, “Observe and Report”. At this stage of things, if you’ve seen Seth Rogen in anything, then you pretty much know what to expect from one of his films. And I don’t necessarily mean that with disrespect. He’s one of those actors that manages to pull off ridiculous dialogue and situations with an off-the-cuff, non-rehearsed style. I really enjoyed “Pineapple Express”, which was the first thing I saw Rogen in, so I imagine that if I were to see “Observe and Report”, I’ll enjoy him in that as well.
My only problem with this movie is that it’s yet another example of Hollywood’s inability to let an idea go with only one iteration. As soon as a movie comes out with a particular theme or hook, you just know there’s going to be at least two more on their way. “Paul Blart, Mall Cop”, anyone?
So, whatever. If “Observe and Report” looks funny to you, go ahead and see it. Just don’t complain that it was predictable, because that’s by design.
Comments
Joshua
April 10th, 2009 - 1:35:34 PM
i would have to imagine this movie was already in the making by the time Paul Blart came into the picture. Most likely just coincidence, like when The Prestige and The Illusionist came out at the same time.
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Dragonball Z Episodes
April 10th, 2009 - 4:54:49 PM
Dragonball Evolution isnt going so well I heard, Too many bad rreviews
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Harry
April 13th, 2009 - 10:08:41 AM
anyone here anything about 'observe and report'? i'm thinking of catching that one over the week.
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Ned Hepburn
April 13th, 2009 - 11:52:31 AM
Paul Blart and Observe & Report were being made at the same time by two rival studios. Observe actually finished beforehand, but the studio held off a couple of months after the other studio went full steam with Paul Blart having it come out in February (it was originally intended for a summer release). the similar plot lines are sheer coincidence; it takes a feature roughly 3 to 4 years to make, and the coincidence of two 'mall cop' movies is just another one of those things. the predictability you mention and highlight often is kind of moot: 90% of the reviews are saying that the movie is in fact so crude that they (the reviewers) were taken aback by it.
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