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So bad they're hilariously good
Gone wrong because it's too serious
Reviews
Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows (1998)
Wrestling isn't a phony, it's an art
It's a must-see for wrestling fans, but it's not just with them in mind. It also addresses people who don't understand the art of sports entertainment itself. To call this a biography of Bret Hart's career would be an understatement.
To begin with, although it features mainly comments from Bret Hart himself, it's not actually biased towards "The Hit-man" - it features in fact takes on many of the wrestlers and Mr. McMahon himself. Most importantly, though, it's a deep journey into the unknown world of Wrestling behind the scenes: it doesn't hide the fact that most results are staged, but it also shows us why "Sports Entertainment" is enjoyed by so many people, why there are the good guys and the bad guys in the rivalries between the performers, and points out that the stigma of wrestling being fake is an overstatement. As Bret said, and I quote: "There is an art to wrestling, but people never come up to say 'You're a hell of an actor', they always come and say 'You're a phony!' Naturally, one big part of the documentary involves Bret's personal life and endeavors involving family members and fellow wrestlers, including the popular and shocking "Montreal Screwjob," and it does an excellent job at that. However, this is not just about "The Hit-man", it's about Wrestling Entertainment itself, its performers arduous tasks and lives outside the ring and how the fans define what they do. It's an awe-inspiring perspective that makes all sense and, without hiding anything, portrays the business as something even not only intriguing but also exciting and that has even once defined a rivalry between people from the U.S. and Canada.
Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes (2006)
A FUNNY superhero series done right
It doesn't seem to me that many comic book fans enjoy many superhero shows focused on humour itself, or maybe it's just me.
But quite frankly, this is not only by far the best animated series the FF were ever featured on, but also one of the most enjoyable superhero shows period. I say this not only due to the animation - which, fortunately, is mostly based on real drawings rather than 3D effects, mostly used for some background elements like cars -, but also due to the humour: everyone's expecting a high-tempered Thing and a prankster-like Human Torch, but my biggest surprise was the representation of the other 2, which really had no meaning to me until the release of this series. Reed Richards is a pure stereotype of "geekiness" which delves himself too deep into his own curiosity and ends up generally procrastinating; The Invisible Woman, on the other hand, is the "mother", most adult-behaving member of the group, and not afraid to take the spotlight when everyone else misbehaves - and I really end up believing that she is, in fact, the real leader of the group, rather than Reed Richards. Other than that, some of the ideas are well represented, Doom is a respectable villain - although a bit underpowered IMO -, and some special appearances of other Marvel superheroes are a breathe of fresh air.
To sum it all up, the show's funny and lighthearted, never taking itself TOO seriously, but isn't that one of the key elements in most of Marvel's Animation? - excluding maybe the X-men and Spider-Man animated series, which even themselves were sometimes able to add some laughs to the scene -. After all, isn't Marvel supposed to feature younger and more adolescent-like heroes we can identify with?
The Incredible Hulk (1996)
Great 1st season, lamentable 2nd one
The Incredible Hulk, albeit having IMO some seriously forgettable villains, it did feature a serious tone appropriate for the drama lived by the scientist Bruce Banner, in a way "cursed" to become the menacing Hulk, who is constantly pursued by the military due to his wave of (unintended) destruction. His relation with his lover and the friend Banner saved from the gamma rays (which ended up cursing him with the anger transformation process). However, the series is strongly toned down not only during the second season, but right after a specific event occurs.
________________________________POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT__________________ Well, this isn't actually a spoiler since it's mentioned in the title of the second season itself, but just in case, it's worth the warning: the occurrence of She-Hulk, some kind of comic-relief, doesn't suit the dramatic tone of the series at all, rather on the contrary. And basically, it's She-Hulk I have issues with, since she manages to become one of the main characters, and not only an occasional special guest. Also, the **********************************ANOTHER POSSIBLE SPOILER?************************************************** appearance of the Gray Hulk was kind of... forgettable?
Spider-Man (1967)
Hillariously Amazing... or the other way around!
OK, let's get things straight here: this might not be what you expect. This Spider-Man is ridiculous, the effects don't make any sense, it's completely bizarre to an unimaginable degree. Actually, other than the fact that it features many of our dear villains and beloved characters...
**********************************************POSSIBLE SPOILER?
...(but rarely Mary-Jane, which only appears on one episode, with no signs of Gwen Stacey from what I can remember)... ******************************************************END OF SPOILER
...and being accompanied by some AMAZING - no pun intended! - jazz soundtrack, this series is fun BECAUSE it's WACKY. Seriously, some of the effects are actually so bad they're extremely fun to watch. It might not be remembered for the "right reasons", but if something makes me laugh, it's a plus in my book!
Dark Shadows (2012)
Hard to describe, but it barely saves itself.
First of all, we might say this is a typical Tim Burton movie, and that might be just what saves it from mere mediocrity, because that seems to be about it.
This movie features a love story gone wrong because of betrayals and seems to be a bunch of 'clichés' all put together: a person betrays another, which just happens to be a witch and, for that reason, the female sorceress puts a curse on him... imortality. Now, the idea of "eternal suffering" (as a matter of fact, the main character tried to kill himself in the beginning along with his... AHEM... "lover") makes total sense, but it's been a little overused over the years - even by Twilight movies themselves -. Then Johnny Depp goes to a coffin, and that's about it for the background story.
As you would expect, some years later he returns and it's all about a bunch of fantasy creatures like vampires and stuff adapting themselves to the real world, which is also so unoriginal that I can't even remember which movies features such a plot line. One of the issues, in fact, is that they try to focus a lot on LOTS of characters, so some of them are left out and then come back all of a sudden (like "Vicky"), in desperate need of 'spotlighting'. Also, it's hard to say whether the movie's funny, what are the morale traits of characters or messages the movie seems to transmit - in which sometimes the main characters just kill people for some unexplained reason - and Depp's performance isn't all that amazing.
However, what saves this is the fact that... the movie is somehow hilarious some of the time... the McDonald's symbol was well thought, Depp's dialogues are, a few of them, surprisingly memorable, and his "formal and gentlemanly-said" insults are typical Burton-Depp humor. So it's not that forgettable, it's just not that good of the movie... and don't expect to learn anything from it or feel touched.
The Muppets (2011)
Could've been something else...
The muppet's charming looks (even with their legs extremely visible) and a few trademark acts make up for a regrettable and senseless plot and awkward human characters whose acting seems inappropriate for the movie itself: other than the ridiculously funny cameo of Jack Black, all the other celebrities seem out of place (Jason Segal) or wasted oportunities (like Selena Gomez or Neil-Patrick Harris). The movie's main character isn't all that bad, but kind of a cliché underdog who's a fan of a dying trend, the crisis involving the muppets and human characters are solved in ridiculous or senseless ways and some of the characters are even forgotten along the way. Music acts are necessary, but many of them, mostly the ones not involving the muppets themselves, are quite poor. Also, I can't really sympathize with the muppets when they simply reject a member of the group to begin with, either. The ending (but fortunately not the credits sequence) is quite disappointing, to.
On the other hand, however, Kermit is a well-done character and the movie DOES have some funny and heartbreaking moments, mostly during the second part of the movie, but I wish they'd focused more on the small acts that made The Muppets so special to begin with...