Richard Roeper Blog

“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”

Roeper’s rating: B+

On the heels of “Juno” and “Superbad,” Michael Cera rolls out of bed and he’s ready to play a certain type — the slight, bright, tremulous and ultimately good-hearted young fella.

In “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” Cera’s that guy once again, all right — but he also has an inexplicable ability to attract an amazing array of young females, and oh yeah, he’s got mad superpower skills that would give Peter Parker a run for his money.

And when he goes to the bathroom, a visual “Pee Bar” gauges the progress from Tank Full to Tank Empty. I’m pretty sure that’s a cinematic first.

For the first few scenes, “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” plays like a well-crafted but far-too-familiar entry in the Sundance Film Festival Playbook: an indie-looking film with hipster music and clever little graphics and camera moves, starring an attractive young cast of slacker-wisecrackers who battle ennui as they sink into overstuffed furniture, commenting on each other’s lives.

Then all hell breaks loose.

Director Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz”) throws a whole lot of movie at us, adapting Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novels with a furious zeal that’s exhilarating, albeit occasionally exhausting. This is an attention deficit disorder production, aimed squarely at the hearts and minds of the under-25 crowd that regards “Mortal Kombat” with nostalgic warmth.

Cera’s Scott Pilgrim is a 22-year-old Torontonian who plays bass, lives with a sardonic gay roommate (Kieran Culkin, hilarious) and is catching major grief from his circle of friends and his sister (“Up in the Air’s” Anna Kendrick) because he’s dating preternaturally enthusiastic high school girl Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). I mean, this girl literally BOUNCES with adoration for Scott, who’s more than a little embarrassed by the whole thing but kinda digs hanging out with her and holding hands. Scott’s exes include Kim, who drums for his band while shooting daggers at Scott, and Envy Adams, who “kicked his heart’s ass” and has gone on to some level of stardom as a chick rocker.

But the girl of his dreams is literally the girl of his dreams.

She’s the deadpan, magenta-haired beauty Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and she’s been rollerblading through Scott’s nocturnal fantasies — but now she’s right there in the flesh in Toronto, and she just might be interested in a relationship with Scott, but there’s one big hitch.

Actually, seven hitches. In order to win Ramona’s heart, Scott has to defeat her seven evil exes in a series of video game-style death matches that grow increasingly louder and more ludicrous.

It’s “Ghost World” meets “Kill Bill,” with Scott literally flying through the air and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with enemies ranging from a skateboarder turned movie action hero (Chris Evans) to a muscled-up, white-haired bass player (Brandon Routh of “Superman Returns”) who gets his amazing superpowers from his veganism. We get split-screen visuals straight out of a comic book, guitars that shoot lightning bolts — and villains that literally turn into showers of coins when they’re defeated, with the handy graphic showing us how many points Scott has accumulated now that it’s “GAME OVER.”

One of the joys of “Scott Pilgrim” is that there’s no backstory explaining how Scott accrued his powers — no spider bite, no tragic accident in the lab. It’s just the way it is, and neither Scott nor his adversaries nor his friends spend much time analyzing it. By the fourth or fifth fight, I was growing a bit restless, but Wright never takes his foot off the accelerator, adding comic touches that include perfect uses of the “Seinfeld” scene-transition bass riff and the famous Universal Pictures theme song. And for a movie with so many action scenes, there’s an unusually deep bench of supporting players, including the aforementioned Kendrick as Scott’s sister, whose sole function seems to be commenting on Scott’s life; Mark Webber as the lead singer in Scott’s band; and Jason Schwartzman as the most evil of the seven evil exes.

Most superheroes, reluctant or otherwise, eventually have to use their powers to save the world. In “Scott Pilgrim,” it’s all about getting the girl.

And that’s pretty epic in and of itself.

It’s the “Megamind” cast! Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, a stand-up of Brad Pitt obscuring Jonah Hill at Comic-Con…

Photo: Alex Berliner

Is it social media marketing–or an attempt to keep critics away from a piece of junkola?

You’ll probably go your whole life without hearing someone tell you with great urgency to “GET OUT OF THERE!!!!!!” but it happens in the movies.

All the time.

For entertainment reasons, if nothing else, you gotta be rooting for Scott Lee Cohen to gather the 25,000 signatures he’ll need by June 21 to gain a spot on the ballot in the race for governor of Illinois.

Cohen, disgraced into withdrawing as a lieutenant governor candidate, recently announced his intentions to run for governor at a “rally” attended by a crowd that was more like a gathering than a crowd. Perhaps he looked at the track records of recent Illinois governors and figured the bar was lower than it is for lieutenant guv.

After soliciting resumes for a running mate as if he were looking for someone to handle the night shift at a White Castle, Cohen says Baxter Swilley will be his lieutenant governor candidate.

Baxter Swilley! Fantastic name. Tell me that doesn’t sound like a character from one of those old screwball comedies where everyone swills martinis and talks in fast, clipped tones. “Dexter, when are you going to get over the fact that I was once engaged to Baxter Swilley? He doesn’t mean anything to me now, darling!”

I’m not saying Scott Lee Cohen deserves to be the next governor of Illinois, but at the very least he deserves his own reality show on cable access in Chicago.

You know you’d watch.

Hazing Arizona

Like millions of other American citizens who abhor the idea of racial profiling, I believe Arizona’s immigration law is a wrongheaded and simpleminded non-solution to an admittedly serious problem.

But you’ve got to raise an eyebrow at some of the more overwrought and ridiculous reactions to the new law as well.

Protesters with picket signs outside Wrigley Field when the Arizona Diamondbacks were in town? Calls for the White Sox to move their spring training facility out of Arizona? A movement to get the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star game moved from Phoenix? Good intentions, wrong targets.

Not to mention the Twitterers, Facebookers and bloggers who called for a boycott of Arizona Iced Tea — which is brewed in New York. In the immortal words of Otter from Delta House, “I think this situation absolutely requires a futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.” It’d be difficult to come up with something more futile and stupid than boycotting a New York-brewed iced tea because it has the name “Arizona” on the can.

Now comes word Highland Park’s girls basketball team isn’t going to a tournament in Arizona because the trip “would not be aligned with our beliefs and values,” according to a District 113 official quoted in a Tribune story.

Seems unfair to plunge the girls into the middle of this controversy after they’d spent months raising funds for the trip. It’s a slippery slope when school officials start injecting their political beliefs into extracurricular activities such as this. I wouldn’t go so far as to call I “stupid and futile,” but it seems misguided and unfair.

Meanwhile, I will be deleting the 1969 Mark Lindsay single “Arizona” from my iPod and throwing out my copy of the Coen brothers’ “Raising Arizona.”

It’s the least I can do. The very least.

Straight talk about gay actors

When I read Newsweek writer Ramin Setoodeh’s essay in which he asked why we accept straight actors in gay roles much more readily than gay actors in straight roles, I thought, uh-oh. It would have been an upset if Setoodeh hadn’t come under fire for his comments.

Actress Kristin Chenoweth and blogger Perez Hilton ripped into Setoodeh, and “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy called for a boycott of Newsweek until Setoodeh apologizes. (Again with the boycotts.)

In a follow-up piece, Setoodeh — who is openly gay — told of receiving nasty e-mails, anonymous phone calls and “a creepy letter” sent to his home. Nothing like combatting perceived bigotry with personal attacks and hatred.

Thing is, Setoodeh’s main point was valid — that audiences will buy the likes of Jake Gyllenhaall, Sean Penn, Robin Williams, et al., playing gay, but “if an actor the stature of George Clooney came out of the closet today, would we still accept him as a heterosexual leading man?”

Odds are at least one or two of the world’s most macho, hetero-appearing leading men are closeted gays. (We know that was the case with Rock Hudson, among others.) But any action star or romantic hero entertaining the notion of coming out would be met with a wall of opposition from agents, managers, handlers, etc., that would tell him he’s committing career suicide.

Can a gay man have a career as a romantic lead? Sure. As long as we don’t know the truth about him.

Richard Roeper will be signing copies of his book Bet the House at the Hammond Horseshoe at 9 tonight and at the Barnes and Noble at 1441 W. Webster Place at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Hey Rich,

Really like your stuff, but come on man, what’s with all the days off? I picked up the paper today and it said you were on vacation again. Weren’t you just on vacation a month or two ago? I’m not saying it’s easy to write a column every day, but couldn’t you stockpile a few before you go on vacation, or maybe have the Sun-Times run “The Best of Richard Roeper”?

Looking forward to your return. I do hope you’re enjoying your time off.

Virtually every time the Sun-Times runs that bug saying, “Richard Roeper is on vacation,” or, “Richard Roeper is taking the day off,” I get emails like the one above, gently chiding me for taking so many days off.

If only.

A word (OK, a few hundred words) about those supposed days on the beach: over the last four years, fewer than 10 percent of them have actually been full vacation days.

For example, today and tomorrow I’ll be off from the Sun-Times–but I’m not getting paid for the time off. As part of the agreement the union struck to keep the paper alive last year, we all agreed to a certain amount of “furlough days.” Love that term, “furlough.” What it means is, you take the day off–but you ya don’t get paid. My next bi-weekly paycheck will be reduced by 20 percent because I took a couple of mandatory furlough days. I have to take several more before the year is out.

Now then. I’m tremendously lucky–unlike most folks who have to take furlough days, whether they’re in the newspaper game or some other business that’s fighting hard to stay afloat, I have a number of other gigs that pay me quite handsomely for doing work that I love. As some of you know, I recently added a daily four-hour radio show to my menu. Along with Roe Conn, I’m on WLS (890-AM, also available on the Internet at WLS-AM), and I’m happy to report the early ratings have been extremely encouraging.

Not that I’m doing THAT job today or  today or tomorrow either, LOL. Before I could commit to a multi-year deal with WLS, I had to ensure that I would be able to honor prior commitments to review movies for Starz and richardroeper.com, and do my weekly segments for the Reelz Channel.

Roeper counts down gambling movies on Reelz

The studios for ReelzChannel, which is now available in 50 million homes on basic cable and is growing rapidly, are located in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico. (They moved from Los Angeles a few years ago. ReelzChannel is on the same site where the TV show “Breaking Bad” and scenes for a number of recent movies have been shot–including “Terminator: Salvation,” “The Book of Eli,” “No Country for Old Men” and “3:10 to Yuma.”)

Although I occasionally contribute reports to various ReelzChannel shows via satellite from Chicago, I have to be on set for the vast majority of my duties. As I type this, I’m on a United flight from O’Hare to Albuquerque. Once I land, I’m heading straight to ReelzChannel to record an hour-long Summer Movie Preview Special, five or six segments on new home video releases and a few other bits. At some point I’ll return to my hotel, order a Stella Artois and an Albuquerque Turkey sammich, do a few radio interviews to promote my book, catch up on emails, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and call it a night.

On Wednesday, I’ll write a column for Thursday’s Sun-Times, head back to the ReelzChannel studios for a few hours’ of taping and then head to the airport. If my flight is on time, I’ll have just enough of a window to drive from O’Hare to an evening  screening of “Letters to Juliet.” And then, around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, I’ll record my reviews of “Letters” and a couple of other movies. That usually takes an hour or so, as we have to do lighting and sound tests, and then a few takes of recording the actual review. (I’m not reading my reviews from a TelePrompTer. I make a few notes and then ad-lib them). After that, we digitally send the reviews to the crack editors at Starz (they’re located in Denver), so they add the music, graphics and clips the following day.

So as you can see, my two days off from the Sun-Times and from the radio show won’t be filled with naps and mimosas. (Naps & Mimosas, weren’t they a one-hit wonder duo in the 1980s?)

Not for a second am I complaining about any of this. For one thing, it’s my choice to juggle all these responsibilities. If I wanted to scale back my life and “just” do the column and the radio show–or become a full-time radio host and call it a day for the columns, the books, the movie reviews, etc.–I’d still be making a very healthy living during very tough economic times, continuing my streak of insanely good professional fortune. I can’t stress that enough. Nearly every day I talk to a friends and colleagues who used to be on TV, on the radio or writing for one of the Chicago dailies–talent-rich people who are freelancing or have taken drastic salary cuts or have moved on to other things because they gave up on finding work in the business. In the last seven months, I’ve landed three fantastic jobs, and I’m working a couple of other projects that may yet come to fruition.

When I walked away from “Ebert & Roeper” nearly two years ago in the summer of 2008, I knew it was a huge risk. I never would have done it if “Ebert & Roeper” had actually been EBERT & Roeper, or…well, there’s no need to rehash what happened. I decided a long time ago that the healthiest thing would be to keep some of those details to myself and to move forward. Here’s a funny twist for you: every day when it’s time for my radio show, I enter the same ABC-TV building where “Ebert & Roeper” taped for years and where “At the Movies” will continue to tape with Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott until it goes off the air in a few months. Had to get my keycard re-activated

Once when I got on the elevator, I pushed “11″ by habit, as that’s where the “E&R” offices are located. Once I got to the 11th floor, I sheepishly pushed “9,” for the WLS-AM studios.

I thought it would feel weird to return to the building, but I didn’t feel much of anything on my first day at WLS-AM. For one thing, I liked Michael and Tony personally and I have enormous respect for them professionally. I also remain good friends with some key staffers from the “E&R” days who remained with the show and did everything they could to keep it going after Roger and I exited. I see Michael and Tony at screenings in Chicago. (In fact, Michael and I had hoped to do something together at Ebertfest this year, but our schedules didn’t coordinate.) So it wouldn’t be weird to run into them in the lobby at ABC-7. Maybe it’s because I’m doing something completely different, maybe it’s because two years have passed and I don’t hold any animosity toward anyone at Disney, maybe it’s because I’m so busy that there are days when I forget to eat and I barely remember to sleep. Whatever the case may be, when I walk through those revolving doors now, I’m psyched to do the best four hours of radio I can possibly do, and that’s where my focus lies. A building’s just a building.

That I’ve been able to return to reviewing movies on-camera in a multi-media platform that allows me to do so many other things–I’m over the moon about it. Career-wise, I’m not sure anything will ever match the life-changing experience of reviewing movies on TV with Roger for six years (and the two subsequent years I spent on the show, mixing it up with celebrity critics and guest reviewers), and I’ll always be grateful to Roger for giving me that amazing platform and sharing his wisdom, humor and insights with me. I’m not gonna pretend I don’t wish we were still doing the show now

But I sure have been blessed over the last half-year.

Before I joined “Ebert & Roeper,” I was writing my column, magazine articles and books. I did radio shows and worked in Chicago television. The column continues. More books on the way. I’m back on the radio. And I’m doing things that couldn’t have been possible in the 1990s, whether it’s posting reviews on Hulu.com that attract tens of thousands of views, or talking about summer movies on home video releases for a cable channel that didn’t exist until a few years ago. Life is good. Work is good. Before 2010 plays out, I might even take my first real vacation–that means I’d be off from ALL of my jobs–in four years.

End of longwinded explanation. I’m going to close out this entry and spend the rest of this flight watching a  couple of episodes of “30 Rock.”

After all, I’m on vacation, right?

Cheers,

RR

From today’s Chicago Sun-Times:

Last Thursday night I was at a screening of “Kick-Ass,” a movie generating a considerable amount of controversy, with Roger Ebert calling it “morally reprehensible” and Leonard Maltin jokingly telling the Trib the movie signals “the destruction of civilization as we know it.”

Filmed in a frenetic style, “Kick-Ass” features an 11-year-old called “Hit Girl” who slices and dices and kicks and shoots the bad guys to pieces, all the while using language that would make Quentin Tarantino blush. (Or perhaps gush.)

I’ve seen more than a thousand movies in the last decade. Until “Kick-Ass,” I had not seen an 11-year-old use the c-word.

Late in the movie, there’s a scene in which Hit Girl and the title character are driving the car owned by Red Mist, who’s played by the kid who was McLovin’ in “Superbad,” and yes, I realize half of these names sound more like energy drinks or colognes than movie characters.

Anyway. The character of “Kick-Ass” has been bloodied, so he’s recovering in the passenger seat while Hit Girl is driving and they’re plotting their next move.

And that’s when the woman behind me at the screening said, “She’s driving! She’s way too young to be driving.”

So you didn’t say a word while Hit Girl was saying “m———–,” you didn’t utter a peep while Hit Girl was stabbing and crippling and killing one thug after another — but now that she’s driving you’re worried?

The headline on Mark Caro’s story in the Tribune read, “Is ‘Kick-Ass’ star a lil’ menace to society?”

“There was a kind of firewall between kids and violence, and that firewall is completely gone now,” film critic and author Neal Gabler tells Caro. “Kids sit around and kill people on video games.”

The Trib’s Michael Phillips “started hating this movie around the midpoint,” not so much for the language employed by Hit Girl as for “how stupidly relentless the gore is, from beginning to end.”

Gory, yes — but I found “Hit Girl” to be consistently entertaining, from the “real-world” set-up in which a high school kid with no superpowers whatsoever decides to try to become a superhero to the introduction of the Hit Girl character in a wickedly funny scene with her father (played by Nicolas Cage), through all the slam-bang action sequences.

Yes, “Kick-Ass” is relentlessly violent, but it’s framed and shot as a cinematic graphic novel, true to the style of the comic books that were created in tandem with the movie. (In fact, the back story of Hit Girl and her father is revealed as a character reads a comic book.) It feels hyperrealistic.

Many of the kills are executed, so to speak, in cartoonishly over-the-top fashion. The sequences in which Hit Girl whirls about, offing one mobster after another, are in quotes; they’re as stylized as the scene in “Kill Bill” where Uma Thurman’s Bride wipes out dozens of henchmen.

(Overall, “Kick-Ass” was actually received well by the critics, with a 78 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Box office was fairly soft: about $19.75 mil.)

Was I jolted by the sight of an 11-year-old girl using that language? Yes. Do I think most 11-year-old girls have heard those words, but know better than to actually say them? Yes again.

Chloe Grace Moretz, the actress who plays Hit Girl, is now 13. I met her in the WLS-AM studios last Friday as she was on a promotional tour for the movie. She seems like a nice kid. More self-possessed and confident than a lot of people twice her age — but that could be said of a lot of 13-year-olds these days.

“I would never in a million years say those words, because I was raised to believe cussing makes you sound like an unintelligent individual and I don’t want to sound like that,” said Moretz.

Note to self.

If the real issue here is the age of Hit Girl — well, this certainly isn’t the first time a child has been in a controversial, R-rated movie. Linda Blair in “The Exorcist,” Jodie Foster as a hooker in “Taxi Driver,” young Natalie Portman learning the ways of the hit man in “The Professional,” Dakota Fanning as a rape victim in “Hounddog.” All of those films were set in much more realistic worlds than “Kick-Ass.” (And in the fantasy genre, remember Kirsten Dunst as a child bloodsucker in the R-rated “Interview with a Vampire”?)

As for how these movies affect the child actors: Jodie Foster starred in “Taxi Driver.” Lindsay Lohan starred in “The Parent Trap.” Natalie Portman starred in “The Professional.” Danny Bonaduce was in “The Patridge Family.” I rest my case.

Of course there are dozens of factors that contribute to a child actor’s maturation process, but the type of material one performs as an adolescent doesn’t seem to hold much influence.