Movie Review: Spring Breakers

Spring Breakers is director Harmony Korine's declaration of war on the senses. It's ninety minutes of stimulation overload. The film offers relentless visual and sonic bombardment meant to replicate, and ridicule the gilded ADHD elements of modern American youth culture. This is not your conventional bikini clad exploitation film by any means.

The film centers around a quartet of young college girls aching to escape the monotony of their everyday lives (drinking, smoking, partying). After robbing a diner to fund their expedition, the girls head down to Florida, the one place where they can let their hair down and enjoy the freedoms of Spring Break (where they can drink, smoke and party, naturally). The girls, played by Vanessa Hudgens, Ashely Benson, Selena Gomez and the director's wife, Rachel Korine, end up in trouble with the law after they arrive at their beach front party destination. Luckily for them, a charismatic drug dealer/rapper/ all around hustler named Alien comes to their rescue...only to drag them further down the path of debauchery and mayhem. James Franco's performance as Alien is the absolute highlight of the film. In a movie rife with gratuitous amounts of T&A (including Hudgens and Benson in a partially underwater threesome), that's saying something. His take on Alien is both equal parts endearing and repulsive at the same time.

Spring Break Forever...

 I think Franco shines so well in this film because he's in on the joke. He and director Harmony Korine appear to exist on the same wave length. A pair of anti-establishment rabble rousers who enjoy biting the corporate hand that feeds them. Stunt cast the hottest Disney teen idols in roles that will surely shock/alienate their fan base. Craft a film that embraces the tenets of the vapid youth culture it seeks to lampoon. On the surface, Spring Breakers is a flawed film. It's character's are one dimensional and the plot is ridiculous. But that's the point.

Korine's Disney Princess bikini flick is really an experimental art house film. Through the pummeling use of repetition, recycling the same bits of audio and visual segments onscreen the way a DJ might loop a beat, Korine's Spring Breakers is more akin to an electronic dance song than a traditional film.  Hence all the Britney Spears love. This is why Spring Breakers is an astonishing success. The movies plays out like a MDNA fever dream, something this generation of American youths, who've been raised on Twitter, YouTube and Grand Theft Auto, are, for better or worse, all too familiar with.





BONUS VIDEOS:
Director Harmony Korine explains the sick, sad and visually astounding world of Spring Breakers. Warning: NSFW
Part 1-
Part 2-

American Military Museum aka: TANK LAND

Before my immune system crashed and burned on me Sunday night (leaving me a mucus filled recluse), I was actually having a pretty rad weekend.

One of the highlights was definitely my trip to The American Society of Military History's museum. The place is down the road from my house and I've passed by it a million times but had never actually visited before. As a history geek and former G.I. Joe enthusiast, getting to look at real life tanks and gigantic military vehicles/weapons was kind of awesome. Also, my grandpa is a WWII Navy veteran and seeing some of the equipment from his days in the service made the old stories and pictures he's shared with me over the years seem all the more vivid. 

Here are some photos from the museum:

forgive the douche in front blocking the tank

Glad I finally checked this place out. If you're in Southern California and want to get your Saving Private Ryan on, stop by the American Military Museum sometime.

Hit By a Bus

Ladies and gents, I give you a supercut of people getting annihilated by fast moving vehicles. It's stupid but awesome and wildly entertaining. Enjoy your weekend...and look both ways when crossing the street.

Movie Review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

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The only thing incredible about this movie was that it ever got made. The script is flat. I'm talking phoned in plot and godawful dialogue. The direction is boring. It's a film about Vegas magicians, you'd think some dazzling camera work might complement the theatrical/hokey subject matter...but we get none of that. The film boasts an all-star cast whose talents are largely wasted and by the end the movie feels about a half hour longer than it really was. The film's only saving grace is Jim Carrey. Oh Jim. Welcome back. Earth needs you.

Jim Carrey plays a Criss Angel/David Blaine type street magician who swoops into Las Vegas and steals Steve Carell's thunder. Carrey steals every scene he's in and literally carries (get it? get it?) the entire film. If The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is remembered for anything, I hope it's for Jim Carrey's triumphant return to slapstick comedy. Even at 51 years old, nobody does it better. Carrey has spent the past fifteen years doing kid films, lighthearted comedies (re: Bruce Almighty ripoffs) and stretching his wings as a serious actor (The Truman Show, Man on the Moon, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I Love You Phillip Morris). His performance as wacked out street magician Steve Grey, is his first over the top, laugh out loud funny role in years. Watching Carrey contort and mutilate himself onscreen was reminiscent of his Ace Ventura and Fire Marshall Bill days.

Too bad he's not the star though. I like Steve Carell but his one dimensional character is thoroughly unlikeable. Even when he undergoes the standard change of heart in the third act, he's still a boring douche. Steve Buscemi and Alan Arkin are great in their supporting roles as well, even with such a sorry script. Their characters bring the heart, Jim Carrey brings the laughs, but it's still not enough to salvage The Incredible Burt Wonderstone from being a mediocre film. 

Warning: Almost every funny bit from the movie is in this trailer.

GAZA broke up.

R.I.P. GAZA

I'm crushed. I've fawned over this band numerous times here at Jim's Fear and never thought I'd be writing this but alas, Salt Lake City grind/sludge/hardcore heroes Gaza have disbanded after nearly ten years together. Here's the band's official statement on the matter, taken from their facebook page:

Gaza is no longer a band. A big thank you to anyone that has supported us. Some of us will continue to make music together.

Sucks. Gaza was one of the most exciting and inspirational bands in the underground metal scene. I really hoped they would continue to soldier on after the false rape allegations from this past winter had been discredited, and if 2012's No Absolutes In Human Suffering was any indication, they still had several great albums left in them. I don't know the details behind the split, but 3/4's of the band are currently members of a side project called Bird Eater. I guess some Gaza is better than none at all?

I'm so glad I got to see them one last time before all this went down. In today's fucked up world, Gaza's angry, yet socially conscious music will be sorely missed, but will always remain relevant.