The Nerve Film Lounge

Reviewers Reviewed

For the weekend of 08/4:

Critic	Review	Quote	Analysis
Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times	Barnyard	"I understand that realism is not the main goal in an animated movie about anthropomorphized farm animals, but, seriously, what's with the male cows in Barnyard? Did the bovine gender confusion at the heart of the story give no one pause at Paramount or Nickelodeon? Did the drawbacks of featuring a female lead so outweigh the benefits of cow protagonism that a mass species sex-change was required in order for the project to go forward? ...[I]in writer-director Steve Oedekerk's bizarre computer-animated universe, 'female cows' are required to wear hair accessories in order to differentiate themselves from 'male cows,' with whom they unaccountably share secondary sex characteristics."	Greatest. Review. Ever. Between the subversive Communist politics of The Ant Bully and now, the transgender propaganda of Barnyard, it looks like Hollywood's totally losing it.
Armond White, New York Press	Miami Vice	"Miami Vice can hardly be discussed the same way real movies are talked about because everything in it goes against film culture. [Michael] Mann is, essentially, a TV director—a displaced, less serious, Stephen Bochco. He uses Crockett and Tubbs, a sun-belt Starsky and Hutch, to play out his pretentious version of noir—a low-stakes existentialism. In the '80s, this kind of thing made TV critics and film-starved teens drool. ("Holy Hollywood! It's got art direction—plus killing!"). Two decades later, it confirms that TV cliches have trumped film art."	Damn, Armond just accused Michael Mann of being less serious than the dude who created Cop Rock! Later on, he goes on to compare Miami Vice (unfavorably) to Superman Returns, and winds up using veteran genre Walter Hill (again) as a cudgel with which to beat his victims. Hey, at least he isn't ripping on Richard Linklater again this week.
A.O. Scott, New York Times	Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby	"[T]he brand that powers this ragged, intermittently uproarious fusion of sketch-comedy goofing and driving around in circles is Will Ferrell, who wrote the screenplay (with Adam McKay, the director) and served as an executive producer, in addition to running around on a race track in his underpants. ..It is also a rare movie-star display of solidarity with those American men who, whether out of laziness or principle, disdain sunlight, proper nutrition, body-hair maintenance and abdominal exercise. Part of Mr. Ferrell's appeal is surely that he is one of them. O.K., one of us."	Aw, Tony, you're just trying to flatter us. Seriously, if Ricky Bobby in the raw is supposed to express solidarity with the average red-blooded NASCAR fan, shouldn't he have been played by Brian Dennehy?
Stephen Rea The Philadelphia Inquirer	Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby	"Ferrell, tall, flabby and fiercely narrow-eyed (as if he's just been hit by a baseball bat), seems to do this stuff effortlessly. He inhabits Ricky Bobby. Perhaps not in the same way that Brando, say, inhabited Terry Malloy..."	This just in: Movie critics across the nation fascinated with Will Ferrell's physique. Also just in: Will Ferrell no Brando.
Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter	The Descent	"There may not be any dueling banjos on the soundtrack, but Neil Marshall's horrifically terrific "The Descent" cannily recasts 1972's "Deliverance" as a female-bonding thriller with some "Hills Have Eyes"-style mutant terror tossed in for truly harrowing effect. Definitely one of the year's most satisfying genre pieces, the British import should have jumpy audiences squealing like a pig..."	"There may not be any dueling banjos on the soundtrack, but Neil Marshall's horrifically terrific "The Descent" cannily recasts 1972's "Deliverance" as a female-bonding thriller with some "Hills Have Eyes"-style mutant terror tossed in for truly harrowing effect. Definitely one of the year's most satisfying genre pieces, the British import should have jumpy audiences squealing like a pig..."