REVIEW: Super, Hop, Source Code
Super
The heroic figures that dance around children’s heads and in the wonderful comic books of our youth tend to come back in real life movies that make us wish there really were superheroes out there to save us like the everyday Batman. Not with Crimson Bolt, the super hero who creates more havoc and mayhem then the alleged criminals he destroys.
Dwight Schrute meets “Nacho Libre” in the movie “Super,” when a normal, everyday guy loses his wife to a drug dealer and decides to become a superhero named Crimson Bolt. Although he has the best intentions, his actions are far more violent and lacking in heroism then he intends them to be.
Crimson Bolt runs around town in a suit that looks as though it’s been ripped straight from the DC comic character Flash, and uses a wrench for a weapon. No cool gadgets or machinery accompany this super hero. He’s lamer then a popsicle without the stick.
This movie reminds me of the same sort of humor that was exercised in movies such as “Nacho Libre,” “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Hot Rod” only with perhaps a bit more vulgarity. With the stupidity of the character, and the lameness of the plot, I would have to be in just the right mood to watch a stupid movie, and then I could pop this one in and say that I pre-emptively like this movie.
– jessica.black@aggiemail.usu.edu
Hop
“Hop” starts out by misrepresenting Easter Island – a touchy point for any history fanatic – and steadily increases the absurdity with the slightly disturbing notion that the teenage Easter bunny, in his annual visit to your house, personally poops you your mound of jelly beans. By the time the trailer finally ended, it was almost unsurprising that the main plot seems to consist of fanatical chickens plotting to take over the world via Easter by locking up all of the other rabbits who live on Easter Island. Add to that the “pink beret” action-figure rabbits who have gone to recover the runaway “E.B.” (Easter Bunny), whose angst has gotten the best of him and prompted him to go on the lam.
With this record, it seems that this movie will be hilarious one one or another. Either we will all laugh at the hitherto unsuspected good jokes, or at the sheer stupidity of the entire premise. Personally I am a little tired of the whole misunderstood teenager character. Aren’t there any people who want to do their job and get good grades? Does every protagonist in popular lore need to end up being the “unique” teen who finds a heart and a cause and a significant other in the course of the movie?
On a positive note, the cute, computer-animated, voiced-by-Russell Brand bunny who plays rock n’ roll on his drum set and hugs the human female lead might redeem the plot holes. To be fair, some of my favorite movies had misleading trailers. But barring hitherto unsuspected originality, I am pre-emptivly finding this movie ridiculous.
– genevieve.draper@aggiemail.usu.edu
Source Code
If you enjoyed “Groundhog Day,” “Minority Report” and “Inception,” the new release “Source Code” will be your cinematic dream come true; it is a mix of all of them. It works as a pulse-pounding thriller, a Rubik’s cube of the mind and a (possibly forced) romance.
Decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens, played by the attractive Jake Gyllenhaal, wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. He learns he’s part of a government experiment called the Source Code, a program that enables him to cross over into another man’s identity in the last eight minutes of his life. With a second, much larger target threatening to kill millions in downtown Chicago, Colter re-lives the incident over and over again, gathering clues each time, until he can solve the mystery of who is behind the bombs and prevent the next attack.
Like “Inception,” it is clear that “Source Code” will be filled with mind-boggling twists, and technology that has not yet been invented. For more analytical people, it will probably raise questions about science and spirituality, but it seems to also be accessible to the public. On its surface, I pre-emptively think it will be a high-energy, intelligent thriller about righting wrongs and atoning for the past. The film might have deeper subtext that could be unpacked with additional viewings, but I suspect there’s an equal chance that the whole thing would fall apart under scrutiny. If you love movies that you must see twice in order to understand, I recommend this one.
– kmarshall222@gmail.com