A Thousand Words
This movie has been almost completely forgotten by anyone who went to see it, and I can see why that is. ‘A Thousand Words’ has been on the shelf for about three years, and it was just released about three weeks ago with an incredibly bad 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie is about a fast talking businessman named Jack who gets into the wrong deal with an Indian guru. As punishment, a tree magically grows in his backyard and creates a spiritual bond with Jack. For every word Jack says, a leaf falls off the tree. Once all of the leaves fall off the tree, Jack will die. My younger sister wanted to see it, so I went along thinking I was going to hate the living crap out of it. Surprisingly enough, I did not hate the movie at all! Why does this film have a 0% while other crappy films like anything Adam Sandler has recently brought us has over that? (Not including ‘Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star’) Eddie Murphy was decent for not being able to speak for about half of the film. The supporting cast, including Kerry Washington and Allison Janney is decent enough to not be annoying. Cliff Curtis is clearly the funniest guy in this movie playing the wimpy assistant to Murphy’s Jack McCall. The script is unoriginal, but it did keep me entertained.
Surprisingly enough to top all of this, this movie actually became a serious drama about life towards the second half; and for some reason it touched me in a way I did not expect to be touched. Brian Robbins, who directed this movie along with a couple of other panned Murphy movies, has proved to be my ultimate guilty pleasure director. His movies aren’t great, but I am entertained by them. I feel more people should have given this movie a chance, but I can clearly see why they didn’t. Because the film was shot in 2008, some of the jokes were pretty dated. That didn’t stop me from surprisingly enjoying this movie a little. It’s not worth going to a theater to see, but a DVD rental is the perfect time to check it out if you and your loved one get bored one night. Eddie Murphy is decent, the script is dismal but acceptable, and there’s no harm to be had at all from this PG-13 spiritual dramedy. Odds are I will watch this movie again and probably hate it to death because that’s the kind of guy I am, but for now I’m going to accept the fact that I didn’t hate this movie at all. ‘A Thousand Words’ seems destined to become my guilty pleasure of 2012, and I am still baffled at my feelings towards this film.
2.5/4
21 Jump Street
As Nick Offerman says as he’s transferring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum’s characters to 21 Jump Street in the adaptation of the classic 80s TV show, there’s no originality left in the business and people just keep rehashing old material. ’21 Jump Street’ stars skinny Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as two polar opposites who become friends while in police academy. After graduation, they are benchmarked as park cops and have no feeling of being important. After a failed attempt at arresting a group of drug dealers due to not knowing what the Miranda Rights are, they are soon transferred to the 21 Jump Street division, where they go undercover as high school students in order to find the dealers and suppliers of a drug that’s spreading around the school. I was one of the few people that was actually looking forward to this movie, with my thoughts of it looking like a decent R rated comedy that would be like ‘The Other Guys.’ I, however did not expect the movie to be flat out hilarious. I could be saying that just because I’m an immature 15 year old with barely any experience in R-rated raunchy comedies. However judging from the 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, I think it’s safe to say that this is a really funny movie.
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum spark pure electricity in their chemistry on screen. The two of them together make one hell of a funny combo. Brie Larson and Ice Cube are among the many fantastic supporting players in this movie, making the portrayal of modern high school as accurate as possible. Yes, that does include the bucket load of sex jokes and f-bombs. It’s funny that the directors of this movie directed the fantastic ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs‘ and made the exact opposite type of film, yet it was still entertaining. It’s been out in theaters for nearly three weeks, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from going to see this movie. If you are of age to see this, then check out ’21 Jump Street’ as soon as you can. Even the surprise cameo will have you laughing your ass off. It reminded me a lot of the special cameo in ‘Zombieland’ which I still won’t spoil after three years. I promise you that you will be howling in your seats by the time the film ends with a door open for an upcoming sequel.
4/4
