Today’s trailer review is Smile. It stars Mika Boorem, and will probably fulfill your “feel better—or worse, depending on how you look at it” movie quota for the year. Check it out here.
I was directed by this movie’s title to smile, but upon clicking the trailer was accosted with all sorts of depressing motifs and imagery. However, this was not an entirely bad thing; the story seemed touching and I was actually tearing up toward the end of the trailer…
What?
You don’t believe me?
I was!
Ok I wasn’t, but the story did seem nice. However, just when I was thinking this might be a decent film, the name “Cheri Oteri” skittered across my eardrums, much like the skittering sound death makes as he glides down the hallway outside the door of a deathbed room.
I’m not sure if anyone has bothered to pass this bit of information around, but in case not, I’m just going to go ahead and do it right now—just for the benefit of you me, and humankind in general:
Having a former SNL cast member in a film which is clearly classified as a drama will not improve your ticket sales, raise your social standing, or lower your entrance fee into the pearly gates of Heaven.
Adam Sandler is the only former SNL character who has accomplished a semi-successful transition into dramatic acting, and we had to endure years of horrifically bad test films to arrive at that point. It was like that scene in Aliens 4 with all the failed cloning experiments, each knockoff movie more horrific than the last, until finally, against all odds, an actual working prototype was produced, albeit with a few more fart jokes than usually seen in a dramatic movie.
Personally, I have no desire to go through that again, especially with someone like Will Ferrell. Lord knows I can only stand so many more vaguely veiled jokes about his sexuality before I snap, drive to New York, and storm through the NBC studios searching for anyone who looks as though they may have been tenuously associated with SNL at some point in time so I can strangle them with my bare hands.
So, go see this movie if you’d like to see a touching tale of kindness and personal growth. Just try to shield your eyes and plug your ears whenever you see an SNL cast member for fear they’ll break down—unable to contain themselves any longer—and start regurgitating script from one of the countless dead horses disguised as skits the SNL writers have been beating for the past five years. Also, make sure you drink lots of soda. That way you’ll have to go to the bathroom a lot and can hopefully miss all the SNL appearances.
- If you want to see a heartwarming tale of…whatever: 3
- If you want to see another SNL cast member attempt to cross over into serious cinema: You’re an idiot.
