Anna Faris

  • May (2002)

    May (2002)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, August 2020) While I can’t say that I loved May, I can recognize in it an attempt to deliver something like a slasher horror movie without necessarily wallowing in the same clichés as most movies of the genre. The base story will be familiar to horror fans, as a lonely young woman snaps after heartbreak and starts killing out of a lack of affection. But under writer-director Lucky McKee, the execution is somewhat different. For one thing, it does take a long time for May to fall into horror. Despite a bloody opening shot and several portentous moments, much of the film’s first half focuses on its lead character and her crippling loneliness – it’s an affective character study in that it creates sympathy for the (eventually) mass-murdering heroine that lasts long after she has settled for violence. Angela Bettis can be cute as the lead character, and there’s Anna Faris in a small role for those who enjoy seeing actors in pre-stardom roles. There’s some affection for the protagonist throughout, and a final shot that actually brings some comfort to her… and to the audience that still somehow cheers for her. May is not revolutionary or transcendent, but it’s different enough to be worth a look for those jaded, disaffected horror fans.

  • The Hot Chick (2002)

    The Hot Chick (2002)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, March 2017) Body-swapping comedies are a weird enough subgenre, but gender-swapping comedies featuring Rob Schneider are all the way out there between “gross” and “really?” Still, there are a few surprises in this fifteen-year-old film—most notably seeing Rachel MacAdams (two years before her Mean Girls/Notebook breakthrough) slumming it up in the lead role as a popular high school girl who unwillingly swaps bodies with an older male petty criminal. McAdams is good, and so is Anna Faris in a supporting role … even though the rest of the film is almost unbearably dumb. I say almost because, for all of its sins, The Hot Chick can’t help but explore a bit of the gender-bending queerness (in the best sense of the word) that its premise would suggest. Those fleeting moments almost make The Hot Chick interesting on its own terms. Still, much of the movie clearly shows its Happy Madison lineage—at the time, Schneider was perhaps at the height of his fame as a comedian, and he didn’t get there by being clever or refined. Unbearable at times, almost interesting at others, The Hot Chick is perhaps best seen today as an early film for people who then did better … or faded away like Schneider.

  • What’s Your Number? (2011)

    What’s Your Number? (2011)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, October 2016) Slightly raunchier than the usual romantic comedy, What’s Your Number? works best as a showcase for the comic charm of Anna Faris and Chris Evans rather than anything worth pondering too deeply. Once again straddling the conflicted attitudes toward sex in mainstream American comedy, the titular number refers to the total number of sexual partners for any given person. Our protagonist tortures herself in implausible plot twists in an effort not to shamefully exceed a total of twenty—meanwhile, the male romantic lead is never questioned for whatever exponentially higher number he has. But delving under the hood of romantic comedies never works in their favour, so the point here is rather to see Faris and Evans develop an easy chemistry, waiting for the lies to catch up to the protagonists and seeing the amusing episodes in which the lead character reconnects (or doesn’t) with her ex-boyfriends. It ends pretty much as expected fifteen minutes in, which isn’t necessarily a compliment (even for someone with a high tolerance for romantic-comedy conventions) given the unbelievable contortions the third act has to undergo in order to prevent it from happening too quickly. The rest of What’s Your Number? is mildly amusing if you’re in the mood for such things. And if that sounds like faint praise, well…

  • The House Bunny (2008)

    The House Bunny (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, October 2016) As a film, The House Bunny may work best as a showcase for Anna Faris’s comedic charm than anything else. Taking on campus sorority comedy via a disgraced playboy bunny forced to find a way for herself, this is a film that doesn’t aim too high and seems content with executing its own goals modestly. As it confronts beauty with authenticity, the script laboriously moves through synthesis, antithesis and synthesis is a measured fashion, most plot points perceptible long in advance. Despite the all-inclusive ending, there’s still something uncomfortable in the film’s first half, as playboy-centric beauty seems to be promoted as the ultimate goal. Fortunately, Faris is likable enough as the ditzy heroine to keep the film enjoyable no matter how far away it gets into its short-lived promotion of superficiality. The characters making up the underdog sorority rescued by the protagonist are fun (with particular props to Emma Stone in a pre-stardom role and Dana Goodman for boldly throwing herself in a hilarious character). The moral lessons of the film are deeply muddled (one suspects that giving a supporting role to Hugh Hefner himself is enough to blur whatever good intentions The House Bunny may have about an empowerment message) but the various laughs that the film gets, often through sheer mugging, are good enough to forgive many other transgressions. The House Bunny may be confused, but it is good-natured and, like its animal namesake, is cuddly enough to like despite its flaws.

  • Keanu (2016)

    Keanu (2016)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on Demand, August 2016) Noted comedy duo Key & Peele (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) make their big-screen debut in Keanu, an action comedy revolving around a cute kitten sought by two criminal groups and our pair of nebbish protagonists. Defying stereotypes, Key & Peele take on personas closely associated with white actors (a stoner, a square family man) and sends them in the middle of a gang war. Blending comedy with suspense requires a deft touch, and one of Keanu’s most distinctive traits is that it’s shot like a thriller (with shadows, depth-of-field, slow-motion action sequences) by director Peter Atencio despite a succession of visual gags and rapid-fire dialogue. The mix is not perfect: There are times, such as the end of the Anna Faris scene, where the film errs too much in one direction. But while the joke density is on the low side, Keanu delivers what it intended, and the result is a fair bit of entertainment. The cute kitten, obviously helps make everything better and funnier.

  • Just Friends (2005)

    Just Friends (2005)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, September 2015) I wasn’t expecting much from this romantic comedy, but got a little bit more than I thought.  Much of the film’s laughs come straight from Ryan Reynolds, who plays a bit of a double role here as an awkward overweight teenager and then a womanizing music executive.  Stuck in his hometown while caring for a deliriously neurotic pop-star singer, Just Friends blends friend-zone dynamics with holiday scenery for a going-home story that sparkles once in a while.  Reynolds has impeccable comic timing (although the film loves him just a bit too much in gawky overweight makeup), and Anna Faris also has decent material to play with as the unstable diva.  (Meanwhile, Amy Smart is dull as the romantic lead… but she doesn’t have much to do.)  There’s something curiously sentimental in how the protagonist rediscovers his estranged hometown, picking up past relationships along the way.  Just Friends strings along its comic set-pieces, hitting the usual rom-com expectations along the way, but falters with its perfunctory ending, which basically mouths the words we’d been waiting for.  Still, this is not a film to see for the plot – it’s best appreciated as a collection of comic moments, set-pieces and character traits… and if you squint slightly, you’ll recognize that the movie was shot in a real Canadian winter and mentally adjust the script accordingly.

  • Frequently Asked Questions about Time Travel (2009)

    Frequently Asked Questions about Time Travel (2009)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2014) In theory, science-fiction doesn’t always require a big budget: you can set a pretty good science-fiction story in a mundane present-day location, just by evoking the impossible. Frequently Asked Questions about Time Travel takes up the gauntlet of delivering a low-budget, high-concept SF comedy by trapping its characters in a localized time-loop centered on their neighborhood pub. Add a sympathetic lead character (played with modest charm by Chris O’Dowd), a fetching spatiotemporal agent (Anna Faris, in a role that asks for interesting scene transitions), impending apocalypse, self-aware genre commentary from a screenwriter who’s obviously up to his classic SF references and the film becomes a bit of a hidden gem. Not everything works: the opening takes a bit of time to rev up, some of the hidden temporal surprises can be seen coming well in advance and the means at the film’s disposal aren’t quite up to the task of portraying the latter-movie revelations. Still, for an obviously limited budget, Frequently Asked Questions about Time Travel has a welcome charm to it, and does good things with what it has at its disposal. Don’t expect a classic, but do expect a decent time.

  • Scary Movie 4 (2006)

    Scary Movie 4 (2006)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, April 2006) Roughly similar in tone to the previous Scary Movie 3, this one is a comedy grab-bag that chiefly goes after (in decreasing order of importance) War Of The Worlds, The Grudge and The Village, with other assorted pokes and tweaks at other films (Saw, Million Dollar Baby and Brokeback Mountain) and pop-culture icons. Scary Movie 4‘s biggest problem is that it’s quite happy to pastiche other films, but seldom goes for the jugular: Movie critics had funnier jabs at War Of The Worlds during the summer of 2005 than the parody ever manages to put together. (The constantly-screaming little girl shtick isn’t even mocked.) Scary Movie 4, alas, is almost completely bloodless in its parodies: it recreates the original with some goofiness but seldom more. (This being said, the production values are often impressive, especially considering the short shooting schedule) Even the rare political gags only make us wish for much more. It’s no surprise, then, if some of the film’s cleverest moments stand completely apart from previous films. As for the actors, well Anna Faris is still cute in an increasingly irritating clueless shtick, while Craig Bierko does well with the thankless task of parodying Tom Cruise. Still, it’s Regina Hall who steals the show as the insatiable Brenda: her arrival in the movie kicks it up another notch (plus, doesn’t she look unbelievably gorgeous in founder’s-era clothing?) Yes, Scary Movie 4 will make you laugh. Dumb, cheap, easy laughs but still; consider it your reward for slogging through endless mainstream horror films.

    (Second Viewing, On Cable TV, October 2021) One of the side-benefits of my Scary Movie series marathon is a renewed appreciation of how the series is broken down into three distinct phases, and how closely related are the films of those phases. Phase one is the Wayans Brothers phase—closely following genre protocols, often very funny but just as frequently too gross or too dumb for any laughs. Phase Two, the Zucker phase, is more controlled in tone but deliberately chaotic in plot, with fewer gross-out gags but far more comic violence that quickly gets old. Scary Movie 4 is very much of a piece with its predecessor, blending together the plots of very different films in order to create a clothesline on which to hang smaller film-specific parodies. There’s an effort to go beyond simple re-creation to create a more comic tone, and the number of known names in the cast is proof enough of the budget that went into the thing. Anna Faris makes a final appearance in the series (Phase Three of the series is the Faris-less one, which doesn’t help anything) and once again bears the brunt of much of the gags, but Regina Hall sharply improves the film once she joins in mid-plot. (She does look real nice playing a nymphomaniac in 18th century garb.)  Craig Bierko does well in a role asking him to spoof Tom Cruise, while various smaller roles are held by Leslie Nielsen, Bill Pullman, a pre-stardom Kevin Hart and many others —alas, Chris Elliot is once again a laugh-inhibitor whenever he shows up on-screen. In the end, Scary Movie 4 is not a great spoof comedy, but it’s better than many others (including Scary Movie 2) and works reasonably well when the filmmakers can keep their worst tendencies in check (their fondness for hitting women and children aside, at least they don’t include an excruciatingly long door unlocking/opening sequence). It’s more or less the end of the series, though—Scary Movie 5 is a different, almost unrelated beast, and another other sharp turn lower for a series that doesn’t have a lot of room to spare before hitting the bottom of the barrel.

  • Scary Movie 3 (2003)

    Scary Movie 3 (2003)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, October 2003) The good news are that most of the the overly gross moments of the first two films of the series have been removed; what remains may not be too tasteful (decapitations, paedophilia and dismemberment are featured here and there) but at least it’s more palatable than before. Veteran spoof director David Zucker overuses slapstick over more amusing silliness (witness the “seven days” exchange), but Scary Movie 3 still feels a lot more respectable for it. Alas, the bad news are that the comedic highlights of the first two films have also been filed off, with an overall result that is a lot more tepid than it should be. The film floats from one grin to another, with few belly-laughs in between. The visual and cinematographic re-creation of the parodies (Signs, The Ring, 8 Mile, etc) is irreproachable, but the film often does next to nothing with the material it’s given. Leslie Nielsen, continues to be obnoxious with his usual shtick, though I wonder how many will get the joke of his last appearance in the film. All in all, a rather mixed effort that feels somewhat lazy. Not the bottom of the barrel (and certainly a step up from the past five year’s worth of spoof comedies), but still far away from the genre’s best efforts. Catch it on TV late at night.

    (Second Viewing, On Cable TV, October 2021) No one in their right mind will call Scary Movie 3 a good movie, or even a particularly fine example of a spoof: It’s loose, frequently witless and overly fond of a specific repetitive form of physical violence comedy. But at least it’s a step up from the second film: funnier, cleverer and far more even as well. Much of this can probably be attributed to a change in writers and directors, going from the inconsistent Wayan Brothers to spoof comedy veteran David Zucker (of ZAZ fame). The pacing is slightly better, the jokes aren’t as milked dry, and the film’s comic instincts aren’t as dumbfounding as previous films in the series. On the other hand, the occasional grossness, frequent vulgarity and constant physical violence used a punchline quickly get tiresome. Still, the main plotline, lifting equally from Signs and The Ring (among other movies added for flavour), is more chaotic and interesting. Anna Faris is back in blonde, with some surprisingly big names in cameos from Charlie Sheen to Leslie Nielsen. Regina Hall disappears from the film too soon, but there are so many brief roles from various familiar faces (including an early role for Kevin Hart) that there is a lot to see anyway. Scary Movie 3 is not a great spoof, but it is watchable and doesn’t have the lengthy laugh-free, slightly repulsive moments of its predecessor. As I continue my Scary Movie five-night marathon, I’m reassured that the fourth film is (if I recall correctly) more or less of equal quality than the third one.

  • Scary Movie 2 (2001)

    Scary Movie 2 (2001)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, October 2002) The first Scary Movie film was a genuinely amusing satire marred by gratuitous gross-out gags. This one is a poor attempt at a comedy marred by even more gratuitous gross-out gags. It’s not that you’re not grinning (to be fair, the sequences referring to The Exorcist, Mission: Impossible 2 and Charlie’s Angels are worth a discount rental alone if you’re a fan of the original films), it’s that you feel quite guilty for doing so. And whereas the prequel’s gross-out gags had some amusing value, the ones in here are simply mystifying: did someone truly believe, at any moment during the production, that these would be funny? Particularly annoying is Chris Elliot’s character, whose antics are simply perplexing. The rest of the cast is so-so, with Anna Faris doing her best to be as bland as possible and Tim Curry shamelessly collecting a pay-check. (James Woods, however, is as good as usual in his quasi-cameo.) Big fans of satiric comedies might enjoy (“Let’s fight Mad Cow style! Moo! Mutherf…”), but I’d recommend Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday The 13th… well before this one. The DVD contains some forty-odd minutes of deleted and alternate scenes, and it’s telling that they are roughly of the same quality than the rest of the film.

    (Second Viewing, On Cable TV, October 2021) Of all the Scary Movie entries in my pre-Halloween series marathon, Scary Movie 2 was the one I was least looking forward to—I recalled it as a dumb, unfunny, laborious watch. The film’s rushed production history explains a lot: Spurred by the surprise success of the first film, Miramax set up its sequel to be in theatres exactly one year after the debut of its predecessor. In other words, the entire thing has to be written, produced, shot and post-produced in a matter of months—a risky pace even for skilled professionals, and a downright hopeless one for a spoof comedy with extensive writing and post-production work. The result, though, is not as bad as I feared—tasteless and humourless in spots, sure, but with more effective jokes than I remembered as well. It certainly helps to go in with low aspirations and a few alarm signals: Whenever I saw Chris Elliot’s character walk on screen, for instance, I knew that the next moments would be unbearable. I still like the premise of the story, but, of course, I’m a gigantic fan of any “people spend the night in a haunted house” plot. Perhaps the best comic moments occur whenever the film stops with the gross-outs, remembers that there’s more to a spoof than re-creation, and goes for the unexpected. The film’s biggest chuckles (calling them laughs would go too far) take place when the characters get the best out of their supernatural aggressors. It somewhat compensates for the ludicrous amount of physical violence directed at Anna Faris throughout the film. She’s game for everything, but I still prefer Regina Hall’s comic timing. (Perhaps the most timeless pieces of comedy in the first two Scary Movies come from the Wayan Brothers going for acerbic racial commentary which, regrettably, hasn’t dated all that much.)  Still, trying to find nice things to say about better-than-remembered Scary Movie 2 is tough: It doesn’t waste James Woods, but it mishandles Tim Curry, suffers from some terribly unfunny sequences, doesn’t manage to get any charm out of substandard special effects, and constantly demonstrates how it was rushed from conception to delivery. The result is better than expected, but still rather dismal—Ironically, the film would be much better if it was shorter: Get rid of Elliot, most of David Cross’ character, much of the overlong joke-milking (especially when it’s not funny to begin with) and you’d end up with a relatively funnier film, albeit one that wouldn’t qualify for feature-length status. Still, that could be interesting. At least new next few Scary Movie entries in my marathon represent, if I recall correctly, a step up.

  • Scary Movie (2000)

    Scary Movie (2000)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, July 2000) If ever there was a genre which deserved its satiric roasting, it’s the late-nineties “teen slasher horror” craze, which -for all its hip self-awareness- wasn’t all that much better than its early-eighties predecessors. Scary Movie takes up the task with gusto, and despite an annoying intrusion of gross-out comedy, the film is oodles better than most satiric comedies have been in years. The script is filled with genuinely funny material, and most parodies are on-target. I’d have cut about five minutes of unnecessary vulgar material (which gets old real quickly, and ends up annoying rather than amusing), but the rest works well. Wait for the TV network version.

    (Second Viewing, October 2021) After the past few years’ Friday the 13th and Halloween end-of-October horror marathons, I thought I’d do something lighter and have a second look at the five Scary Movie comedies back-to-back. Revisiting them twenty years later is bound to be strange—as parodies, they reference pieces of pop culture that are no longer particularly current—I may remember them, but ever-so-faintly. Blending Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer (the first one is still a reference, the second one not so much), the script goes in full spoof mode with re-creations going into jokes, background gags (alas, not enough of them) and references that don’t always make sense. The lack of fluidity of the result is more apparent, as is the way some material is jammed in the film without grace. Written and directed by the Wayan Brothers, Scary Movie does not play in subtlety—while it occasionally remains funny, it lacks trust in the audience’s ability to grasp the jokes quickly. If you belong to the school of thought that comedy is surprise, nothing kills a gag faster than having it being so drawn out that you can see it coming. And while it may be strange to complain about the violence and sexual content in an R-rated spoof on R-rated horror films, there are definitely a few instances where the film is more gross than funny, the dial having been set just a bit too high for comfort. While never tasteful, some of the material (about gay or trans characters, in particular) now feels even more dubious. Still, compared to many later spoof comedies (and in particular the repellent Freidman/Seitzer “spoofs” of the 2000s, their credits here as writers heralding the worst) Scary Movie is actually not too bad—it has low but sufficient production values, a script that tells a story, and jokes that don’t stop at being mere recreations. I smiled a few times, maybe even chuckled more often than I expected going in. It’s interesting to see, twenty years later, what happened to the cast: Anna Faris (as a brunette?!?) did well for herself as a comedian, while Regina Hall achieved some dramatic respectability later on. Lochlyn Munroe never quite had the career anticipated for him, although he’s working steadily on lower-budget productions—which is more that can be said for much of the cast. While I had my doubts about the value of revisiting the Scary Movie series, I’m now set straight: It’s not a wise project, but will have its moments. Although I dread that Scary Movie 2 is up next—I recall it as being the worst of the bunch.