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Reviews
American Boyfriends (1989)
Ho-hum... a decent effort
American Boyfriends is a film that is easily forgotten, which is a sad but true aspect of a lot of films that viewers entail. The problem here is that there is just nothing to keep the viewer into the film, and make them stay completely raptured.
The story consists of a young Canadian girl named Sandy (Margaret Langrick) from Penticton who moves to the Coast to pursue her studies at Simon Fraser University. She soon meets her new "best friend" Lizzie (Delia Breit), and the two hit it off quite quickly. Soon enough, Sandy's friends from home come to visit, also making stops to search for wedding dresses for one of the girls. Before you know it, all four of the girls are off to Portland to visit Sandy's cousin Butch's wedding. The rest is just pure spontaneity, and seems a bit far fetched of what two fresh university students would do, but the preposterousness was probably intended by the director.
Don't get me wrong: American Boyfriends is not a bad film, it's just not great. The acting is decent, the storyline is a bit lacking, but in general, it's just one of those films you probably won't remember you watched until you begin to watch it again.
Finding Nemo (2003)
The least of the Pixars
Out of all of Disney's co-attempts at modern cartoonism with their Pixar partnership, Finding Nemo was the least appealing, and least captivating. The story describes a father and son clown fish who are separated when the boy is kidnapped from their coral housing, and the father so bluntly [as the title projects] searches for "finding Nemo," and that is your entire movie plot. [Now, spoilers]
The search is endless and takes the fun out of Disney and Pixar. Whereas Toy Story was also based on the "eternal search quest" type of story model, at least the characters were beloved, and captivating. Yes, Nemo is a cute fish who the audience love due to his strong nature, and messed up fins, but he can hardly carry the film on his own. Disney even hired Ellen DeGeneres in to voice Marlin's [Nemo's father, Albert Brooks] trip companion, Dory. But it's hard to not look at the fish and think of Ellen. Personally, I know that when I watch a cartoon, I want to be taken away in the art and not refer back to real life and the pop culture surrounding it.
The rest of the cast is mostly ho-hum, and the story just drags on until [literally] the fish comes home. It was certainly a good attempt, but by the nature of the too-cool surfer turtles that Nemo meets along his way, it's clear that these movies' goodness has abruptly started to head down that dreary road where the creators are trying to appeal to everyone, and just starting to scare half the audience into other interests.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
The epitome of glam
In the world of film, it is possible for a director, writer, and lead actor to be on a very close wavelength, but when those three roles are performed by the same person, the gap is closed shut, and the magic of one's dream is brought to screen in full power.
Such is the case with John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a delightful journey into the world of a glam-rock showstopper who has suffered his share of confusion. Hedwig was written, directed, and portrayed all by John Cameron Mitchell, an easy answer to the reason who such an off-scale film can be pulled off so well.
This is where spoilers begin.
Hedwig Robinson, born as a boy named Hansel in East Berlin, and flees to the United States to be with his beloved American GI boyfriend, Sgt. Luther Robinson (Maurice Dean Wint). To go through with the flee, Hansel becomes Hedwig in a botched sex change leaving him with the latter part of the film title, an "angry inch", which he is quick to point out during a performance with his rock band of the same name.
Hedwig's band is started to rival new Alterna-rock megastar Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt), Hedwig's past love interest [after the Luther-marriage fell through, of course]. Gnosis was Hedwig's protege of sorts: an awkward young boy with no real appeal. The self-proclaimed "slip of a girly boy" turns Tommy Gnosis into a powerful rock-star, and of course sets himself up for abandonment.
The two units tour "together", as Hedwig and his delightful backup band follow Gnosis around, playing in venues near Tommy's, and telling Hedwig's intriguing story all the way home. Eventually, Hedwig ends up in Tommy Gnosis's limousine by chance, and the two share a moment of friendship before everything falls apart again.
The film is a sheer entertainment pleasure, filled with plenty of colour and wit, and never a moment of fake hinges. Hedwig shines throughout, but the rest of the cast isn't far behind, always vamping up the screen, and thrilling the audience with mega-catchy musical numbers ["I put on some make-up / and turn up the eight-track / I'm pulling the wig down from the shelf"]. The costumes, wigs, and sets for this film are all brilliantly elaborate, proving that sometimes "less is more" is not true, especially when an "over the top" scenario backs up the plot line as well as the characters. Though the subject matter may be a little risque for prudish minds, the film always seems to redeem itself in some sense, and send everyone home on a high note... both literally, and figuratively.
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
2 Lame 2 Predictable
I walked into this film with an open mind, knowing t hat I had disliked the original, but doing my best to try to receive this film with some sort of praise, or at least a neutral attitude.
That was all hard to do, once the film opened to the dumbing visuals of screeching tires, and hoochie girls. I think that's what bothered me so much about this film: the fact that my mind not only wasn't being challenged, but that I was watching a cheap showcase of "hot bods" and pretty cars, all played over the backdrop of nice scenery, all the while trying to distract the viewer that there is no plot!
I must admit that the step up from the original was that there wasn't so much blatant product placement, which was certainly a sigh of relief. But the fact that a movie is less corporate than another film is hardly enough to call it good, or even tolerable.
It's hard to count how many times I let out a cringe or a sigh of idiocy during my time with 2 Fast 2 Furious. I think the whole scenario can be summed up with Tyrese's brilliant line, "that's some artistic sh*t!" Well, said, for a man who rips off his shirt to show his rippling biceps, and punches a window out of a car, before testing the door handle.
For old time's sake: ugh.
Bruce Almighty (2003)
Booooooooo!
i spoil this horrible movie:
A Jim Carrey movie seems to follow the same plot, in four cases out of five [much like an Adam Sandler film.] However, I thought I would give Mr. Carrey a chance in Bruce Almighty, and see if the situation had changed at all.
No. This film is just as redundant and drought-out as many Carrey films before it. Clearly, his best work is in The Cable Guy or The Mask, and anything beyond those are just a number in the mass volume collection of which is the Jim Carrey Nightmare Series.
The plot basically consists of something I could have dreamed up for a grade two work of fiction. Bruce Nolan [Carrey] is having a rough time with life, and starts cursing God over and over, until he receives a magical invitation from the big man himself, to attend a visit. When Nolan goes to meet God [played by Morgan Freeman, and probably the only tolerable part of the film], he is given all the Heavenly and magical powers and told to do a "better job" than God himself.
As for the rest of the movie, it's a no brainer. From Carrey's un-charismatic relationship with his wife [Jennifer Aniston] to adventures with his work environment, the entire plot just follows cue to Carrey's other movies. The only difference is that this time he is playing God, opposed to a pet detective or a constant liar. But the staple of this [and all other Carrey movies] seems to be the never-ending quota of corny gags, boring jokes, and childlike funny faces, all of which had me begging the real god for that hour and a half of my life back.
Down with Love (2003)
Cute and campy.
spoiler-iffic:
Down With Love, the title of Barbara Novak's non-fiction how-to guide for women, is where this film gains it's name. Novak [Renée Zellweger], is a woman scorned, and this is why she feels the desire to write a literary milestone for women.
The film is set in 1963, the height of outrageous furniture, clothing, and campy films. Down With Love [the film] explores Novak's story, using a cute, campy atmosphere, and slightly creating a satire on the 60's culture. Novak struts through New York City as a bubbly miss, ready to teach the women of the world why they need to fight their own fight, and leave the men to the dogs.
Of course, there's only a matter of time before some contrast is created. Enter Catcher Block [Ewan McGregor], editor of KNOW Magazine. Block is set to do a feature on Novak and Down With Love, but the meetings start to go awry. Through a 60's-spoof-fashion and a quasi-typical plot, everything falls into place, as Block woos Novak under the guise of an astronaut, and the entire film becomes an over-the-top spectacle.
Yet, somehow it works. The acting on either case [as well as the rest of the cast] is superb, as are the sets and costuming. Perhaps these features distracted me from the cheese factor of the film, but the absolute mockery of 60's films tied everything into a beautiful little package, and I found myself busting a gut with laughter.
Phone Booth (2002)
Phone died halfway through
[insert spoilers here:]
Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth is a film that is best watched alone, or with an intimate group of people.
In the tradition of Liberty Stands Still, Phone Booth basically mimics the screenplay of that film, but on a slightly less of a standard. Colin Farrell plays Stu Shepard, a froo-froo NYC businessman who is having an affair with a significantly younger woman. The girl, Pamela (Katie Holmes), is a struggling newcomer actor to the city, in hopes of Shepard's attempts to make her a household name. Radha Mitchell stars as Shepard's wife, Kelly.
The film starts with Stu parading around downtown NYC, and talking to Pamela in the "possibly last remaining solo standing phone booth" in the area. The reason Stu calls Pamela from the phone booth opposed to his cell phone, is that his wife Kelly may get suspicious about countless calls to a mysterious girl who she may believe Stu is seducing. The trouble is that he is trying to get into Pamela's pants, and he's not the only one who knows about it.
On this fateful afternoon, Stu Shepard receives a call in this phone booth, shortly after hanging up with Pamela. He answers, and soon realizes that his life has done a complete 180. In an 80-minute interval, Stu's entire scandal is played out as a man who knows all his secrets keeps him on the line, threatening him with a gun which could take him out without a single person noticing. The thought is frightful, but it's been done before.
The film Liberty Stands Still is basically Phone Booth with the booth switched for a hot dog cart. Since Liberty was, indeed, made first, I believe that Phone Booth, though semi-entertaining, was a blatant ripoff.
Shepard and his mysterious phone pal treat the audience to a series of mostly predictable sequences, before the entire film wraps up in ultimate cliche fashion. I wouldn't say I was let down after this film, but I wasn't blown away either. Halfway through, I felt the film was a bit dragging; this could possibly because it was.
Gia (1998)
Compelling and concerning.
The film Gia is a revisitation of Gia Marie Carangi (Angelina Jolie), the "world's first supermodel." Throughout the movie, the woman who we come to know simply as Gia flies through a series of events, before collapsing at the age of twenty-six from AIDS. This traumatic journey is troublesome right from the get-go, as Gia's mother flees and leaves her to be raised by her father. Later, Gia is gallivanting the streets with a random boy and spotted by a talent agent for a modeling agency. Gia soon becomes a world-famous fashion model, but at such a young age, she finds herself dipping into the most villainous of drugs, and an up-and-down lesbian relationship. It doesn't take too long for Gia's antics and mistakes to catch up to her, and her corpse literally rots before the doctors can transport the body.
The entire film is told with footage of the other characters talking about who Gia was, while her life is still being played out on screen. It isn't until the bitter end, when her mother describes the painful final beautification of Gia's lifeless body when the viewer understands the entire deal.
Gia was a very difficult film to watch, simply because the pain of the character was so deep and burdensome that it was hard to carry on. It's great that the producers didn't sugarcoat or spruce up Gia's life for the screen, though. The way her life was told was a fair and accurate portrayal of a life that couldn't have made any more possible wrong turns.
The Matrix (1999)
Killer soundtrack.
The Matrix is another one of those big name movies that caused a stir in the social scene, and it's only with good reason.
I'm not sure that I fully understand what went on in The Matrix, but I will do my best to decipher my thoughts on this insanely complicated film. Keanu Reeves plays Neo, a middle-aged man living a "double life" of an office worker, and a secret agent, or... something.
Eventually, Reeves goes through a brief inititation and joins a team of many who work on "The Matrix," which is an interesting sort of sub-world where the human mind plays and lives on a variety of thought-generated backgrounds.
The actual concept of the movie was far more interesting than the characters or the scenarios presented. It was lucky that the movie had such a great soundtrack, though, which I feel saved the film.
Jingle All the Way (1996)
Fun-tastic Holiday Hoopla!
Arnold Schwarzenegger's Jingle All the Way is a pure, solid chance to explore the raw stupidity of a cheesy Holiday picture. Arnold plays Howie Langston, but it doesn't really matter anyway because he's just "Arnold," like all of his other films. In either case, he plays the father of Jamie (Jake Lloyd), a young boy who feels disconnected with his dad. To further complicate things, neighbour Ted (the fabulous Phil Hartman) is pushing his way in to get cozy with the wife, Liz (Rita Wilson.) With things amock at home, Arnold does his best to master his son's needs in the best way possible: buying him a materialistic possession! Of course, the tricky part is that it's Christmas Eve, and Arnold is yet to pick up the Turbo Man action figure that Liz advised him to do weeks ago.
So off he goes, into the wonderful world of last-minute Christmas shopping, and predictably finds himself in store for a series of crazy gags, laughs, and scenarios. All the while, Liz is at home being swooned by Ted, who, recently-divorced has bought his son the Turbo Man on time, of course.
Insert villian here: Everyone's second-favourite [next to Carrot Top] semi-washed up 90's comedian, Sinbad! Sinbad plays the role of a disgruntled, confused postman who also wants to snag himself one of these sought after toys to buy his own son's love. Sinbad goes back and forth with befriending/helping Arnold, and then turning his back on him when an opportunity faulty opportunity] to snag a Turbo Man comes along.
The ending is predictable [like the rest of the movie], but for some reason, through all the horrible aspects of this movie, it was undoubtedly enjoyable. I laughed the whole way through, and I couldn't even decide if I was laughing with the characters, or at them. Either way, I would definately watch this film again, due to its pure insane humour and unstoppable comic perks.
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Just Another Teen Movie
Ten Things I Hate About You tracks down a very simplistic storyline and blends it with semi-cheap humour on the quest for, what all teen movies search for, love and lust. In an effort to date the girl of his dreams, a young school boy has to make a plan in which to be able to date her. First he begins learning French and starts tutoring her in a subject he's hardly great at himself.
The girl's older sister, an angst-ridden, femme-rock loving, bitter girl hasn't dated for years. The two girls' father tells the youngest that when her sister dates, she can begin doing it herself. Next thing you know, the almighty head-over-heels boy starts a scheme in which to hook the older sister up so that he can make his move.
The movie is entirely predictable and cliche, and, other than an appeareance at the high school prom by Save Ferris, is highly worth missing. So much of this movie is just filler, and it's just another reason why teen films are mocked in today's movie world.
Lovely & Amazing (2001)
Lives up to [half of] its name.
Warning: lots of spoilers here.
Originally, I picked up the film in hopes of momentarily curbing my craving for a Jake Gyllenhaal film, but it did far more than the mentioned. Lovely and Amazing documents a few days in the life of a mother and her three daughters. The mother, Jane (Brenda Blethyn), is in the midst of a mid-life crisis and decides to service herself through a liposuction treatment. As she is going through with the procedure, she asks her daughter Michelle (Catherine Keener) to take care of her younger, adopted sister Annie (Raven Goodwin). Michelle is a house-wife/artist who becomes so enthralled in her work of home-made miniature chairs that she asks ridiculous prices for them before storming out of stores at their disapproval.
Meanwhile, the third sister, Elizabeth (Emily Mortimer), is rescuing homeless dogs in between visits to her agent. Having just completed her roll in a Hollywood film, Elizabeth does her best to stay a humanitarian en route to what she wants to be success. Eventually, all four women's problems are projected in full effect. Jane's plastic surgery goes wrong and she has to stay in the hospital extra days on her own dollar. Between painful sleep-induced states, she lusts over her doctor until cursing when she discovers he is wed. Annie has trouble coming to grips with being the younger, adopted, black sister, feeling rather distant from her siblings. She ends up faking several drowning incidents in swimming class, lying in order to get her frizzy hair straightened, and scares off her swimming teacher/Big Sister from the Big Brother/Sister Program. Michelle ends up frustrated by her husband, and does as he says. After several failed art sale attempts of homemade wallpaper, she is taken in at a one-hour photo shop, where Jordan (Gyllenhaal) takes her in, eyeing down the older woman.
Eventually, Elizabeth flunks an audition for not being "sexy enough," but then goes on to sleep with the co-star whose movie she was cast away from. She takes both of her sisters to her movie premiere, and leaves early with Annie, both leaving Michelle at the after-party alone, and later on getting attacked by a dog she tries to rescue. Michelle has a brief fling with 17-year-old Jordan, but it ends fast when his mother calls the police, arresting Michelle for statutory rape. On her way home from prison, she stops at a McDonald's to find Annie over-indulging in fast food treats after straying from Elizabeth's care.
The end of the film wraps up quite nicely, as Elizabeth recovers healthily, and minus ten pounds of fat. The three daughters go together to pick their mother up, and the credits roll to a close.
Lovely and Amazing turned out not to be a Jake Gyllenhaal-ogle fest, but a great chance to see some new faces and view a plotline worth thinking about. The struggle of four female characters was easily defined, with each being so diverse but not too eerie to be tangled in one another. The film was moderately easy to follow, but not so much that I felt bored. A lot of creative force was used, and this film truly shone. It really was a beautiful and Lovely piece to watch, but the Amazing may be going a tad far. It's not too often, however, that you get a chance to view a man picking apart his lover's body as she stands modeling it at her own discretion.
Goodbye Lover (1998)
Twisted and corrupt: overdone.
Goodbye Lover is another run of the mill film about lust and betrayal. A man (Don Johnson) sleeps with his brother's wife (Patricia Arquette), and soon the brother (Dermot Mulroney) finds out about it. Soon enough, people are being murdered "accidentally" left right and centre. A detective (Ellen DeGeneres) finds herself enthralled in the case, and soon enough the whole movie falls apart after a could-be intriguing intro.
The movie is intensely artificial and beaten to a pulp. Just when you think the movie might end, another lame plot twist is thrown at you, but it's always something which has been done before.
I didn't despise this movie. The acting was decent, thought at times a bit corny and fraudulent. As for a fresh and innovative script, you'll have to search for somewhere else.
The Daytrippers (1996)
Threw me for a loop.
The early to mid 1990s produced countless films in relation to the romantic spectrum, and I was expecting The Daytrippers to be another one of them. Whereas I found the "comedy" portion of the movie to be misleading, I still found it to be a worthwhile and decent film. Not all movies need to be entirely deep or philisophical, and this one was a nice change to a lot of what I've seen lately.
Eliza Eliza D'Amico (Hope Davis) is walking through her bedroom one morning when she stumbles on a curious love note scribed to her husband. Wanting to get to the bottom of it, she brings the note to the attention of her parents, sister, and the sister's boyfriend Carl.
Collectively, they travel to New York for the day to investigate.
Along the way, Carl (Liev Schreiber) tells the family all about his "Dr. Seuss for adults" novel he's writing, and the mother (Anne Meara) eats her heart out as his intellectual merryment. Eventually, of course, all havoc breaks loose, as everyone's nerves are wrought by each other, and the trip turns into an explosive dramatic result.
The Daytrippers is an actually interesting movie in that it isn't 100% predictable, and leaves a little bit to the audience's guessing with the hanger ending. The weakest faults of the movie are that some of the scenes are entirely pointless, and the film is so short that it seems they tried to fill it with a bit of crap to lengthen it. Otherwise, the film has a lot of interesting little plotlines which could easily produce better spin-offs.
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Dripping with art
Kubrick's Clockwork Orange is a film that if you haven't seen, you've likely heard of in passing. It's a feat worthy of recognition, as Clockwork Orange is a true work of art in completion, and the process by which it has been made. Though the film is uncannily dark and sadistic, playing humour on the farces and violent assaults caused by a group of teen boys, Kubrick is able to show such situational acts and not come off as a pretentious, violent creep. The film's protagonist, Alex De Large (Malcolm McDowell) is a very simple creature, but comes off in a complex manner. He enjoys raping random women with his crew of cronies, but covers it up by listening to some Beethoven when arriving at his parents' home at the end of the day. The words "ultra violent" keep arising throughout the film, laying out Alex's pleasures to speech, showing he not only knows his actions are legally and morally wrong, but that he gets off on that fact. The film concentrates more on Alex than his other friends, and takes him on the route of a misguided spiritual journey, and back again. But all along, it's hard to wonder what his intentions and mindset. I didn't feel attached to him as a character, but felt more intrigued by the freak-gallery instinct taken on as a viewer, and voyeur. The entire film, though dark and suspicious, is pitted with the backdrop of intensely curious music, both classical and off-beat neo-synth. The soundtrack may be the ultimate strength of the film, highlighting Alex's traumas and dramas with a very emotional sensation which backs up a moderately well-made film.
Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Theatrical applause.
Spoilers herein.
It's a pretty interesting world, indeed, when a man is able to walk into a bank, open an account, and walk out with a free gun as a gift for joining. Situations like these may seem foreign to many of us, and Michael Moore is able to bring them to life in his breathtaking and ground breaking film Bowling for Columbine. Moore received high acclaim for the documentary, and it is rightfully deserved. Never have I sat through a film only to have the audience finish giving the absent director a hearty round of applause. A well deserved reaction indeed, for Moore's film is able to take us on a journey which is painstakingly real, and makes us all realize just how scary the world outside, and inside, our homes truly is. Moore's plethora of footage spans decades of interestingly related events on the use of violence in society, and the ghastly ignorance portrayed in those who use it. In between takes or Moore-shot footage and archive materials, the film captivatingly shows the intense battle of America's embrace with violence, guns, and fighting. Many interesting statistics, historical facts, and tidbits are given, but Moore is able to arrange them in a fashion which doesn't shove anti-gun tolerance down the viewer's throat. The most intriguing part of the film is that Moore states his opinion visibly without actually stating so. It's easily clear that he knows the hazards and hell of firearms in American schools and streets, but he cleverly presents the information to the audience and lets them decide their reaction on their own. He balances his views with counteracting points of gun-lovers, including NRA heartthrob Charlton Heston, and shows the fright of how they can coldly deny the problematic side of guns and, instead, sleep soundly with a loaded firearm under their pillow at night.
Moore gives shocking footage here of the Columbine School Shooting, and takes two permanent wound victims to a K-Mart hot-shot and lets the bodily bullet holes do the talking. After the fact, the Kmart representative holds a brief press conference announcing the chain's discontinuation of firearm ammunition. Perhaps the fact that K-Mart won't sell ammo anymore will not stop shootings, or violence in general. But the movie as a whole, however, may make many people sit back and realize the true danger that could unknowingly occur within any of us. Moore tackles each little detail he can, on the never-ending search for truth on the subject of violence and why it exists. Not only does he interview an ex-producer of Cops, and suggests the importance of a could-be hit "Corporate Cops", but he goes so far as to interview shock rocker Marilyn Manson, the man blamed for much of the Columbine disaster. Moore asks Manson what he would have said to the murderers in hopes of deterring them from their actions. "Nothing," Manson stated. "I would have listened to them." I couldn't have said it better myself.
Igby Goes Down (2002)
Mild and grey: but that may have been the point.
yes, there are spoilers.
Of all the mellow-drama flicks relating a child's misery and detailing the events of their life, Igby Goes Down does not surpass or fail. It sits right in the middle of the giant stack of movie just like it, but that may have been the point of it all. I'm not saying that a director would aim for a B-grade movie, but he certainly didn't go out of his way to make a captivating appeal.
Kieran Culkin stars as Igby Slocumb, an "almost eighteen-year-old" with major issues. It's true that more and more in real life, childhood trauma and depression is apparent, but Igby wasn't explored enough as a character to get into the viewer's eyes, heart, or soul. Some of the actions and situations were mildly humourous or intriguing, but even after the two-hour film rolled to a close, I didn't feel I had acquainted myself with Igby on any level at all.
That may be the point of the movie, though, I gather. It isn't truly the tale of teenage desperation and fear: that is only the vehicle used to portray the real message. The utter lesson here may be the insecurity and constant doubt in all of us. We may not all have a love-hate relationship with an over-dramatic mother, or a consistancy to break a way from Military School; however, the point is that at the end of the day, we always question ourselves and our surroundings, sometimes to the point where we don't know who we are anymore.
Igby searches everywhere for self-sanctuary, but they always turn out to be the wrong places. His brother (Ryan Phillippe), the educational all-star, loves Igby but can't bring himself to show it. Igby even finds himself a love interest (Claire Danes) but she runs into the arms of his brother at the drop of a hat. He has sex with other women, smokes cigarettes, and remains homeless before a whole summer until finally trying to put the past behind him. But even then, it's clear that Poor Igby is done for.
Last Wedding (2001)
Intense and witty, a sheer punch.
If the British Columbia film industry has any doubts, I'd say that Last Wedding is a good reason to realize we're moving in the right direction. Director Bruce Sweeney brings his own script to life with a cast of fairly unknown actors [something I find refreshing from the blockbuster Hollywood-isms of today's movie scene.] The story details not only the lives of Noah and Zipporah, a new couple to be wed, but also gives the accounts of two related couples, and the suffering and activities which take them through the course of the film.
The actual depth explored isn't uncannily dynamic, but the topic matter, though tired and constantly overdone, is not forced here. The lives and events in Last Wedding are realistic, and not over-dramatized, but sometimes come off as a little awry. The main point, though, is that they are humourous, and that is all which seems to matter in this film.
Last Wedding ends rather abruptly, but it didn't really bother me. I had seen all I needed to, and if the film went on, it may have turned a little cliche. I think the BC Industry gets props here, and certainly proves point that you don't need big names for an interesting and fun film.