I found Dinner For Schmucks at the library when I went to pick up another movie. Steve Carell and Paul Rudd star in a movie directed by Jay Roach. He's the director of the Austin Powers movies and Meet The Parents. In DFS Paul is an account manager at a finanical firm. He'd like to move up but hasn't caught the notice of the top man. A situation puts him in the spotlight and he gets an invitation to a special dinner. The idea is everyone from the firm has to being the biggest idiot they can find. Paul isn't sure he should do it but he wants to please. His girlfriend is against it and that causes friction in their relationship. When Paul runs Steve over with his car the two become connected and it all works out for them in the end. The journey is pretty entertaining and there's a lot of goofy gags that made me laugh out loud. There's a lot of physical comedy and some of it is pretty good. There's a nice sentamentality and the nice people come out on top. Steve plays a guy who makes little scenes with dead mice he finds. It's not creepy but beautiful. The little dioramas were created by The Chido Brothers. A movie I'll keep an eye out for a copy, I'll want to see it again and I can wait to find it cheap.
Films Of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Movie is based on the Ric Meyers book Films Of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Book. Ric wrote the screenplay with the directors Andrew Corvey and Andrew W Robinson. It's recent, 2011, and it's a nice overview of the history of the Kung Fu movie. The framing story is animated. A monk, picked on, goes to seek help from a master. Following the billboards he winds up in a video store and gets schooled on the genre. The cartoon style is ok for the most part and it's intentionally riddled with the cliches of the genre. The rest of the movie is filled with clips and narration that introduce the men who influenced or changed the martial arts film industry. I wasn't too surprised to see that I had seen alot of the movies they talked about and knew who the creators and actors were. I had read a bunch of stuff in the 1990's and still keep up with some of the industry output. I haven't seen as many of the early films from the 60's and 70's as I have films from the 80's on. I should check NetFlix and the library to see if they have have some of the Shaw Brothers films in their collections. I was surprised to see Films Of Fury listed in the library listing when looking for something else. I shouldn't, if any place should have documentaries, it's the library. A good intro for the novice and a good reminder to go watch some of these great old movies again.
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