True enough. Certainly, Blazing Saddles is the better film. But Team America is also hilarious, with some surprisingly trenchant satire. All I'm really saying is, a movie isn't automatically stupid and juvenile just because it features stupid, juvenile jokes.

Sure, the jokes are dumb, but they're executed in a very smart way. Team America is cut from the same cloth as Blazing Saddles: really stupid, juvenile, and offensive on its face, but with a clear idea of what it wants to satirize and how to go about satirizing it. I've always liked Mel Brooks's quote about how such…

By now the RE universe has gotten so convoluted and ridiculous (I know, I know, as if it wasn't before) that you could tell me Jovovich's character was now part sasquatch and I wouldn't be able to tell if you were kidding. Hell, that could actually qualify as one of the LESS ridiculous plot developments in the series.

Not that I disagree with the gist of it, but that second paragraph reads almost like a parody of stereotypical purple critic-speak. Leave that ridiculousness to Pitchfork.

I've never even SEEN a Zune, but I sure do like the sound of an application that doesn't gobble up my system's resources like fucking iTunes does.

Don't forget "Snail Shell." There's a bitter sneer imprinted on every single word in that song.

Whatever happened to that Creepy Zulu Doll gimmick poster? 'Cause he could take care of that "pop out at you when you least expect it" thing.

You're both right, but the film's still so good at portraying the emotions involved—regardless of what they were based on—that it still deserves a spot in this AVQ&A.

It's a shame that 500 Days was so cutesy in parts, because it really is a great portrayal of a romance that slowly dissolves for no particularly good reason. If it hadn't been for that damned advice-dispensing kid, the movie could have been something really special.

Oh come on, if you can't be the front, the next best place to be is the very back, obviously. At least then you're only attached to one person.

Meh. It would have been good if not for the romantic subplots. I couldn't care less about Dexter's crazy AA girlfriend, and the relationship between Deb and the FBI guy was so chemistry-less it came across as really skeevy.

Ugh.

The modern setting was actually kind of neat in Richard III, but the whole thing was sunk with some terrible casting (though obviously not McKellen himself). Who knew that Annette Bening would be so inept with Shakespearean dialogue?

Hop on Pop

Friday night I finally got to see Contagion, which was awesome as expected. I especially liked how it wasn't afraid to kill off main characters just because they were played by famous people. If it weren't for the mostly extraneous Marion Cotillard subplot, which didn't do much other than mess up the pacing, it would…

The ending didn't bother me from a logical standpoint, but it did piss me off because the hero is basically a selfish asshole for the entire movie, takes advantage of everyone he can (including that innocent woman who gets murdered and then conveniently forgotten about), and he's rewarded for it. No comeuppance, no…

Agreed. So far it's still in my top 5 of the year. Best action movie I've seen in a long time.

Wow, DBag, you could at least put a little effort into your trolling. To paraphrase God in Futurama, if you do things right, nobody will be sure you've been trolling at all.

Oh, I wouldn't dream of insinuating such an outrageous sentiment as America standing tall among economic equals. But China is kicking our asses so hard now that the Japanese hysteria of yesteryear seems quaint by comparison.

Ah, the 80s and early 90s, when Japan was the feared economic aggressor. How times change.