CE16: Scott Pilgrim vs The World
I don’t think this is officially out in the UK yet, but when it is on the 25th of August, GO AND SEE IT! (And while you’re there, go and see Toy Story 3 and Inception as well, of course, but this is definitely a worthy rival to the other two.)
- Director: Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shawn of the Dead)
- Cast: Michael Cera, Anna Kendrick, Jason Schwartzman
- Runtime: 112 minutes
- Rating: 12A
The story is that Scott Pilgrim (Cera) has a massive crush on a girl, Ramona Flowers, who comes with a whole load of baggage in the form of a league of 7 evil ex’s who all try and kill him. Fortunately, albeit somewhat inexplicably, he is well equipped to deal with them, turning ex after ex into nought but some coins on the floor and +1000 points.
Sometimes films with as much style as this end up with no substance (I’m thinking of, for example, Up In The Air), but Scott Pilgrim vs The World was just all-round fantastic. I mean, Michael Cera practically acts! The movie does still follow the “how to make a Michael Cera movie” diagram*, but even so you can almost see another side to him. And even his co-stars aren’t the normal host of awkwardly indie characters.
As you may have noticed from the above reference to points, references to geek - and specifically gaming - subcultures infuse the movie, in a way which I suppose makes it similar to Kick-Ass at basic plot level, although Pilgrim is definitely a far superior film. There’s animation and randomly inexplicable objects and people appearing and disappearing, and Scott’s initial attempt at a pick-up line with Ramona involves the word-history of “Pac-Man”.
All in all, the film was utterly enjoyable. It also contained some very quotable quotations, my favourite of which was probably:
“Todd Ingram: Talk to the cleaning lady on Monday. Because you’ll be dust by Monday. Because you’ll be pulverized in two seconds. The cleaning lady? She cleans up… dust. She dusts. And she has weekends off, so… Monday, right?”
Verdict: 10/10. I can’t think of anything I’d have changed about it.
* If you haven’t seen it:
About
I no longer post here, really, except sporadically, so come say hello at Baking and Life
I post what I like and I like what I post. I am a law student, which kills my spare time, but I somehow manage to find time to bake and to knit and to see people. Occasionally. I could pencil you in in about 4 months, perhaps? FYI, I dislike closing paragraphs in html tags. For more about me, try the About Me page
"Random Irrelevancies"... funny, geeky, and think-making reblogs in conjunction with more original musings. Amusez-vous! :)
specially selected old Posts, having matured over the past months, are now ready for your consumption :)
Psychology, Free Will, Religion, and Christianity
Stuff Christians Like: Bumper Stickers
following
this week's top 5 most-viewed pages
(This'll be updated sporadically when I feel like it as I can't work out something to do it automatically)
