A Fist Full of Blog

Since my last post, I went to both (500) Days of Summer and Extract, and they were both awesome. A lot of people are looking at (500) Days of Summer, and are probably thinking it looks like a romantic comedy, and I have to say they are dead wrong. If anything, this movie is the anti-thesis of a romantic comedy. It follows the typical formula; boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy loses girl, but with one blaring omission. The boy does not win the girl back, and the audience doesn't want him to win her back. Joseph Gordon Levitt is better in this movie than any other movie I have seen him in, and that is saying a lot. He nails every emotion, and steals every scene. Zooey Deschanel does something I never thought I would see her do, she makes me hate a character that she plays. The character of Summer treats our hero so badly, she emotionally drags him through the dirt, there is no way a viewer could like her. Director Marc Webb does some interesting things with the source material, a highlight being a dance number set to "You Make My Dreams Come True" by Hall & Oates. Bascially, everything in this movie works perfectly, and I suggest this movie to anyone.
I also saw Mike Judge's new film, Extract, and I was thoroughly entertained. While it wasn't as controversial as Idiocracy or as surreal as Office Space, it was pretty funny and had a compelling storyline. I found myself laughing through most of the movie, and I enjoyed the performances of the entire cast. Jason Bateman proves that he is a leading man, and I hope his performance here leads to more staring roles for him. Ben Affleck was fairly funny and entertaining as well, something I never thought I would see outside of a Kevin Smith movie. And Kristen Wiig even plays her role fairly well, managing to still be funny even though she mostly plays her role straight. I think that Mike Judge has made the right choice by spreading his feature film works apart, since every film he has made has been top notch.