Will Ferrell • Anna Friel • Danny McBride • Jorma Taccone • Matt Lauer
Universal presents a film directed by Brad Silberling. Written by Chris Henchy and Dennis McNicholas. Running time: 93 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for crude and sexual content, and for language including a drug reference).
As I have said before, I am here to make a review that reflects a Christian viewpoint, and there are plenty of other reviews to go to where you can get the play by play on this movie, so I basically won’t be doing that here. I thought a lot about what I wanted to say on this movie, it’s place in our national schema and the thought processes that guide some of the continuing themes presented here. It wasn’t easy not to simply come off as some maladjusted prude, or perhaps an insincere posturer who’s looking for points rather than giving any real thought to the overall effects of this kind of movie on just about anyone who sees it. Does it deserve a deep dissertation? Heck no. It’s fluff in a fluff bag, and that’s really all it’s meant to be. Case closed.
A scientist and his group travel to the outskirts of time travel where everything comes together at some point both past and future, and the script and actors have fun with it. Good enough as it is for that, I suppose. Really it’s just a CD rental movie, don’t put out too much cash on it. But what bothered me I think was the choices made in having that fun that Universal put out millions on producing. It’s easy to concentrate on the inane drivel of a movie that has a giant crab come walking up in the middle of the desert and then suddenly find a sink hole which he falls into, that surprisingly has a hot boiling water pit underneath, which allows the heroes to have a seafood supper of giant bland proportions. No one mentioned how crab meat is somewhat tasteless without seasoning. But I digress. That’s the fun side of it, but there is something else I just have to go on about.
In this movie there is a small ape boy, or missing link or some such thing which the principals run into and befriend. He has a foreign language that incomprehensibly is understood by the female scientist and later in the film is fully understood by everyone for no good reason. Now, he is a savage to say the least, and has a rather innocent way of grabbing female scientist Holly in otherwise offensive ways. Well, he’s a "manimal" so groping the females is probably natural where he comes from, and if this movie were to have been a National Geographic special, then I wouldn’t have much to say about it. But it’s not. In fact there is a bit of larcenous thinking behind the whole "comic bit" as far as I can see. Holly is very patient with him in his attempts to grab her female parts in much the same way a Jane Goodall would have been, but the bit doesn’t cease. They do this as a running gag despite the ground that is already covered on the subject and it begins to take on the prescience of sniggering high school sophomores. I admit this is no intellectual exercise of a movie, but what they are having fun with is not only demeaning to women but takes on a kind of dark comedy as she struggles again and again to stop the unwanted fondling. What are we supposed to be doing here in response? Is it supposed to be funny that she remains the innocent while we enjoy a joke at her expense? Is that FUN? Personally, I believe it lends itself to misogyny and sends the wrong idea to boys as to what they should be enjoying when they think about women. It sends the wrong idea to girls too about how their relationships with boys should be considered. Where are the NOW member protests when women are treated like an Andrew Dice Clay plaything?
I saw an awards show not too long ago that had one speaker announce how Hollywood had a vision for the future and the society and it was their impetus to see it moved forward. Really??? Is this movie part of the game plan? What happened to keeping the things between a man and a woman in the bedroom... IN the bedroom? In one scene in this movie two characters are feeling a vibrating crystal wall and one turns to Holly and says, "Hey, Holly, you should come sit on this!" What happened to our sense of class as a society? Is Hollywood looking out for our children and our women? Did anyone say in the board meetings, "Oh, no we can’t have vibrator and masturbation jokes in this movie because there will be too many of our nations youth in the theaters." What IS Hollywood’s vision for the future? Are they only wearing green colored glasses? I know, stupid question.
2/5 stars
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