Saturday, July 25, 2009

The Hangover, Push, and Representation

The very popular The Hangover came out a few weeks ago and I was lucky enough to see it in theaters. Most of my colleagues and peers agree that its aunique and hilarious perspective of the day after parties. Many have had to piece together the previous day after a long, expensive binge, of sorts. Regardless, I believe this is the funniest movie of the year although I had higher expectations of it. The characters are ridiculous but very enjoyable to watch in the various situations thrown at them throughout the film. This movie does show some stereotyping in my opinion, although somewhat mild and not offensive. The only African American male in the film that I can remember is a drug dealer and the only Chinese male is involved in a mob and has a ridiculous accent. The representation of the main three characters are diverse, with one being a quiet nerdy-type guy, one being overweight and stupid, and one being good-looking and successful.

Push recently came to DVD and was a big disappointment to me. Dakota Fanning was ok as the lead actress, and Chris Evans was pretty good as the lead male actor. The movie had great music but lacked character development and plot continuance. The several different 'special' people were interesting at times but confusingly unexplained. The movie should have been twenty minutes longer with more details as to the Bleeders, Pushers, and over ten different types of mutants that had a very large role in the movie. The bounty hunters weren't scary enough or involved in the movie anywhere near enough. The movie didn't have stereotyping in my opinion but had a burden of representation. The separate groups of characters each had their own vibe and mood to them, representing a certain feel to their characters and the inpact of them in each scene.

2 comments:

  1. I myself have not seen Push and never was really interested to, but as for The Hangover, I have not found a person to say they didn't enjoy that movie. It was a great comedy and had laughs all movie long. Even the storyline of trying to find their friend kept me on the edge of my seat throughout, and that's rare for a comedy to do. Your points about the stereotyping were quite interesting, though. I never really thought about it until you had brought it up and it does seem stereotypical, but a lot of the times comedy movies are. In this case, I don't think it was that big of a deal though.

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  2. I also thought the Hangover was hilarious... I can't wait for it to come out on DVD so that I can see it again at home! Although there was some stereotyping like you said.. I think sometimes that adds to the humor, because it is what we expect.. Its tough not to stereotype, but sometimes are assumptions are proven wrong when we stereotype watching a movie.

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