When a movie isn't getting good reviews (or is looking like it won't), studios will often look to YouTube comments or interview people coming out of the theater of screenings to look for praise. "See! Regular people like it even if stuffy critics don't!" seems to be what they're going for.
So the fact that STX is doing this for one of my most anticipated movies of the summer is a little troubling. They're basically the This Is Fine dog right now.
The latest trailer for The Happytime Murders is filled with comments to the trailer from Twitter, which is maybe not the best case for nuanced critiques of art (or anything, really), mostly of the "WTF, this looks crazy!" variety.
Hopefully the film really is as profanely funny as it has the potential to be. We'll find out when it opens Friday, August 24.
About Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about.
I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague.
Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work.
In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo.
I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.
