"A Christmas Carol" and "I Love You, Beth Cooper"

Posted by pmitchell at 4:34 pm, Thursday, November 5th, 2009
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IN THEATERS

Out this week, starts the holiday movie season with “A Christmas Carol.” It was only a matter of time before Hollywood decided to remake the classic tale about the grouchy Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey) who hates Christmas and generally life itself. Now it’s Christmas Eve and Scrooge is alone at his house when he’s visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future who alert him about his negative ways. And so begins an eveing that he won’t soon forget as he gets to take a look back at his life and also a preview of where it’s headed if he doesn’t undergo a massive personality change.

This remake has a couple of interesting twists on it. While the story itself stays in place, the movie has taken on the process of being produced through performance capture, where live actors are used while filming but then transferred into a digital character. Past movies that did this were “The Polar Express” and most recently, “Beowulf.” The other interesting take — which is growing in popularity — is that it was made to be seen in 3-D. So expect lots of gimmicky scenes where snowflakes are falling into your lap and Scrooge’s nose is right in your face.

Being such a big Hollywood venture and the star appeal of Jim Carrey, along with the 3-D aspect and the first holiday movie of the season, this one should do well at the box office. Early reviews are more positive than negative, though some critics warn that the movie might not appeal to younger children who might be scared by the ghostly images. Otherwise, this one could very well shape up to be a big money maker for the holiday season.

ON DVD

Out this week on DVD is the comedy, “I Love You, Beth Cooper.” This goofy comedy tells the story about a nerdy senior Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) on the brink of high school graduation. He is the valedictorian for his class and uses his voice to his advantage by professing his love for the school’s most popular cheerleader, Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere.) While he gets his moment to shine and finally let the girl of his dreams know the secret he’s been sitting on for years, he also has just dug his own grave. Beth’s boyfriend, Shawn, is a hot-headed meat head who isn’t pleased at his comments and has his own plans for revenge. And so starts an evening Denis won’t forget as his graduation party brings Beth into his life along with many other adventures that she has in store for him and his friends.

When the movie was released in theaters back in July, it wasn’t met with critical praise, most not believing it was anything special or even original. It was hands-down goofy though. That’s for sure. Over the top, silly and ridiculous, but still entertaining. You can’t help rooting for the underdog and hope that nerdy guys like Denis can get the hot girl in the end.

The teens’ evening is beyond wild, and Beth’s wildchild ways take them to gas stations, the high school, even the woods where angry raccoons await. All in all not bad for a movie that took no pride in trying to create a more realistic type of high school movie. But then again, how many of them are nowadays? It’s Panettiere’s first major role in a movie and whether or not she ended up pleased with it is yet to be seen. I guess it depends on how much she was aware of the goofy comedy she was making and how much she didn’t think it would come off that way.

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