Hell Baby (2013)

I'm a big fan of the guys from The State and most of their subsequent projects, like Reno 911 and Stella, so I was eagerly looking forward to Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant's Hell Baby.  It also didn't hurt to hear Riki Lindhome talk about her nude scene on various podcasts like Doug Loves Movies.

Maybe I had set my expectations too high, but I can't tell you how disappointed I was after watching Hell Baby.  I just don't get it when a movie involving so many talented and funny people at every level can make a movie that I found devoid of anything funny.  I'm not kidding either; in the entire 98 minutes I had a slight chuckle once.  It's an example of trying so hard to parody everything about a haunted house film that it ends up failing miserably.

Vanessa (Leslie Bibb) and Jack (Rob Corddry) move into a run down home in New Orleans while they await the birth of twins.  They quickly learn from their neighbor, F'Resnel (Keegan Michael Key), that the house has a host of nicknames involving death, as well as several murders that occurred there.  I guess the disclosure laws are pretty lax in Louisiana, but whatever.  Seemingly within moments after moving in, Vanessa already begins to exhibit unusual behavior, and the typical trope of boxes stacking themselves happens. Vanessa begins to smoke and drink heavily, 'cause fetal alcohol syndrome is funny.  The story doesn't have much of a setup, let alone any mythology or end goal like a normal horror film.  I can forgive that if I'm laughing so hard that I forget to care.

A pair of priests (Lennon and Garant) and dispatched to help, even though Vanessa and Jack haven't asked for it yet.  When told about the case, they are informed they are already 'playing catch up'.  This would only make sense if this scene happens later on in the film, but this is within the first ten minutes.  Was this a massive mistake in editing?  After arriving in New Orleans, the priests seems to be more interested in eating, checking out the French Quarter and looking at boobs than getting on the case.  They also smoke, work out a lot and dress like the Men in Black meet The Blues Brothers.  I hate to get nitpicky about plot details, but this is all I have at this point.

Much of the humor in Hell Baby consists of repeated gags and silly scenes that drag on and on.  There's one gag where Jack gets shocked by an old lamp he's working on, but I'm trying to figure out why he's continues to work on a lamp that's plugged in.  There are multiple scenes of people orgasmically eating po'boys, complete with burps and farts; I'm not sure what was supposed to be funny about that.  There's an old, naked lady (which was really just someone wearing an awful looking naked suit) that shows up throughout the film.  A pair of boneheaded cops (Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer) question Jack on multiple occasions and call him names like 'Einstein' or 'Mozart' for no reason.  F'Resnel lets himself in through a window on a whim and always accidentally scares Jack.  Then, there's a chain vomiting part that goes on forever.  This all culminates with a scene where a room full of adults freak out and play hot potato with a devil baby.  I kept waiting for any of these scenes to go somewhere or have some kind of payoff.

Even Lindhome's nude scene goes on for way too long, and has no point other than to have more nudity.  Apparently her character isn't ashamed of her body, but Jack is uncomfortable around her naked sister-in-law.  Go figure.  I never thought I'd see the day where I'd complain about a pretty girl getting nude, but I don't know why Lindhome agreed to do this.  She has a great body though.

I get it, comedy is hard.  Not everything is going to work, and I'll admit that maybe I'm not the right audience for this or wasn't in the right mood to watch it.  I don't mind silly or lowbrow humor, but this didn't work for me at all.  Hell Baby feels like something that was shot over the course of a few days without much of a script.  They weren't sure what direction they wanted to take it, so they just let all the actors wing it.  This is one of the reasons why I'm so hard on recent Adam Sandler films.  With this much comedic talent, you'd think they could knock it out of the park with ease.  At least everyone felt committed to the material.  I'm sure they were laughing their heads off while filming.

It occurred to me afterwards that Hell Baby is something I would've really loved when I was 15 or 16.  Back then, this would have killed me, and the nudity would have excited me more.  I like these guys, so I don't want to beat them up too bad.  It's not like they've lost a fan.  I'm hoping their next work will slay me.

Hell Baby is a disappointing, uninspired film from comedy pros that I was expecting a lot more from.  Meant to be a parody of haunted house/possession films, it's a silly farce with repeated gags that run on and on and on.  I'm not even sure if large amounts of alcohol or drugs could help it.  I really wish I could recommend it, but I can't.  This is one to take a pass on.

0.5 out of 5 Death Stars

Much Ado About Nothing (2013)

If I had been introduced to Shakespeare like this, I might have actually paid attention in High School.

That's pretty much what I tweeted right after seeing Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing, a modern take on William Shakespeare's play.  I've never read Much Ado About Nothing, or any of Shakespeare's other comedies.  I've only read a few of his tragedies (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Julius Caesar), and those were required reading in High School, so not exactly something I was terribly invested or interested in.  I don't think I've even seen that many movies based on the works of Shakespeare.

I mainly saw this because I'm an admitted Whedon fanboy.  I've heard various members of the cast talk about this on various podcasts over the past year, so I was curious to see a modern take from a writer/director that could give it that spin that might hold my interest.  I also found it fascinating Whedon filmed this over a 12 day period in his own home (nice house, by the way), relying on actors whom you'll mainly recognize from other Whedon projects.  I affectionately call them the "Whedon Players".

I'm not even going to attempt to give a plot synopsis.  You can read about it here.

Much Ado... took me a bit to get into.  Since it's been a while since I've read Shakespeare, it was a little jarring to hear the Shakespearean style of speaking.  They also spoke really fast at times, and despite that it's English, I still had to do a translation in my head.  I could have used some subtitles.  Even then, there were times where I had no idea what they were saying, but I could at least catch the meaning from the tone.  I had to really pay attention to keep up.  I'm not saying it was work to watch Much Ado About Nothing though.  I kind of equate it to how you have to get used to reading subtitles in a foreign film, and then after 20 minutes or so, you just kind of absorb them.  Lastly, I was seeing this at my favorite theater, Vine Cinema in Livermore (www.vinecinema.com), so that means beer was in the mix while watching.

I found the story engaging and funny.  It's actually very funny in parts, particularly when Nathan Fillion shows up.  I wasn't sure what to expect going in, but it's really a story of love and sexual politics that has all kinds of subtleties and nuance about it.

I was impressed with many of the performances.  Aside from Nathan Fillion humorous performance, I got a real kick out of Alexis Denisof as Benedick.  He seemed a little effeminate at times, but I guess it's hard to look super masculine reciting Shakespearean lines.  Clark Gregg was great as well.  He's a rock, and I can't wait to see him in the upcoming Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Fran Kranz surprised me the most as Claudio.  I always see him playing nerdy types or stoners, but he really helped carry the film in one of the main romantic roles.  Lastly, I also really loved Amy Acker as Beatrice.  She's mainly stuck to TV, but I've never understood why she hasn't been bigger in film.  She's such a cutie pie.  Maybe with recent roles in this and Cabin in the Woods we might get to see a little more of her on the big screen.  She seems like a good fit for a rom-com.

What can I say about Joss Whedon at this point?  He has such a knack for telling a story in a way that hits all the right notes and is entertaining.  Is there any genre or style he can't do?  Another nice touch was his choice of filming this in black and white.  It helped keep things simple and focused on the characters and dialog.  It's the second movie I've seen this month that was filmed in black and white (the other being Frances Ha, which I'm still trying to write my review for), and it worked for both of them.

Much Ado About Nothing is a modern take on a classic Shakespeare comedy that really was a blast to watch.  It's lively, fun, and you don't need to be a big Shakespeare buff to get something out of it.  This is one the best movies I've seen all year and look forward to watching it again soon.

4.5 (out of 5) Death Stars