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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 2010)
movies BY MOLLY TEMPLETON ! ART Air conditioned CINEMAS 492 East 13th 686-2458 schedule for 8/20-26 bijou-cinemas.com *Adults—$7 * Students w/ID—$6 * Seniors—$5 * Matinees—$5* the highly anticipated second installment of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy BLOW LEVEL UP! Mostly in lesbians with Scott Pilgrim SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD : Directed by Edgar Wright. Written by Wright and Michael Bacall, based on the comics by Bryan Lee O’Malley. Cinematography, Bill Pope. Editors, Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss. Music, Nigel Godrich. Starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Alison Pill, Ellen Wong, Mark Webber, Kieran Culkin and Jason Schwartzman. Universal Pictures, 2010. PG-13. 112 minutes. 44441 S cott Pilgrim vs. the World begins with the Universal logo depicted as if it were the start screen for a 1980s video game. The quest begins! The theme music: The Legend of Zelda. The companions: the roommate, the sister, the band (the perfectly named Sex Bob-Omb). The setting: Toronto. The goal: fi ght seven evil exes for the heart of Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), an Amazon.ca delivery rollerblader. Our hero: Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), slacker bass player and generally self-absorbed dude. It’s part of the odd charm of Scott Pilgrim — Bryan Lee O’Malley’s six- book comic series and the fi lm — that Scott’s kind of a dick and kind of an idiot. He adores Ramona because he dreamt about her; he’s mentally whittled all his former relationships down to tiny pieces of the past with varying accuracy. Scott’s character growth is just enough to get him to the next level (and maybe, eventually, snap out of it a little). Scott Pilgrim is the best video-game movie yet, and it’s not based on a video game. Elements of The Legend of Zelda, Street Fighter and Dance Dance Revolution spike the plot, which envisions emotionally dealing with your love interest’s past as a series of actual battles with her exes. Enemies explode into coins! You earn more powers! Sometimes you have to trick the bad guys into drinking half and half instead of soy milk! And then there are girls. Which, somewhat naturally, is where Pilgrim glitches a bit. Ramona Flowers has cute hair, a dry way with words and not a lot of personality, and the fi lm doesn’t exactly know what to do with her, especially in the fi nal battle. It fares better with Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), who at the start is Scott’s fake high school girlfriend. They hang out and talk about yearbook club and The Clash at Demonhead, Knives’ favorite band, which just happens to be fronted by Scott’s own evil ex, Envy Adams (Brie Larson). Scott’s got, to borrow a line from Buffy, the emotional maturity of a blueberry scone; Knives is actually too good for him. Scott Pilgrim is, among other things, the process of both of them fi guring that out. Wong is a delight as the endlessly enthusiastic and hysterically heartbroken Knives, and she gets the best musical cue in a movie full of them: Broken Social Scene’s “Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl” has never sounded better, or more bittersweet. As in every video game I’ve gotten around to beating, the scene that comes after the fi nal battle — y’know, once Link and Zelda fi nally get to hang out — is far less interesting than the process of getting there. It’s a manic, candy- colored, giddy, wry, funny journey; the destination matters not. Scott’s the fi gure Wright is steering through the fi lm, exploring the levels (a series of clubs), the enemies (which include Chris Evans as skateboarder-turned-actor Lucas Lee and a scenery-gnawing Brandon Routh as evil vegan Todd Ingram) and the other characters, who have more notable but still shorthand personalities. Cera’s perfectly well cast for this, though I miss the manic side of book-Scott. Pilgrim speaks a language that isn’t decipherable to everyone, and it’s unabashed in its specifi city. This is precisely what makes it work: It’s not trying to be universally appealing. Scott isn’t a comics archetype or a superhero icon; he’s a lazy 22-year-old who plays bass and mooches off his cool roommate, Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin), in between going to crappy parties (“At least it’ll give us something to complain about,” says Sex Bob-Omb drummer Kim Pine on the way to one). Everything either rules or sucks, and the only notable parts of life are band practice, moping, parties and dates. What Scott Pilgrim effectively, inventively and wholeheartedly conjures up is the way a brain steeped in decades of videogame culture, indie bands and John Hughes movies relates to the world, piecing it together in a shorthand of sound effects, snappy comebacks (and failures to come up with snappy comebacks), dream sequences, sitcom references and, maybe, a wish that certain levels could be overcome with a fl aming sword and an unexpected ally. Pilgrim sweetly knits together the elements of a generation’s peculiar digital mythology, fi nding — and fi lming — a fantastically worthy quest in scraps of Nintendo cartridges, ringer tees and stumbling uncertainty. Everybody ew wins. WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM LOTTERY TICKET PG13 12:15, 2:40, 5:05, 7:30, 9:55 PIRANHA 3D R SPECIAL EVENT PRICING: $2.00 UPCHARGE ALL TICKETS 12:55, 3:15, 5:35, 7:55, 10:15 NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS PG 11:20, 1:55, 4:30, 7:05, 9:40 THE SWITCH PG13 12:15, 2:45, 5:15, 7:45, 10:15 VAMPIRES SUCK PG13 11:30, 1:35, 3:40, 5:45, 7:50, 9:55 THE EXPENDABLES R 11:40, 2:20, 5:00, 7:40, 10:20 EAT, PRAY, LOVE PG13 12:50, 3:55, 7:00, 10:05 SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD PG13 11:25, 2:00, 4:35, 7:10, 9:45 TAKERS PG13 ONLY ON THURS 8/26 AT 12:01 AM THE LAST EXORCISM PG13 ONLY ON THURS 8/26 AT 12:03 AM THE OTHER GUYS PG13 11:55, 1:15, 2:35, 3:55, 5:15, 6:35, 7:55, 9:15, 10:30 SALT PG13 11:50, 2:20, 4:50, 7:20, 9:50 INCEPTION PG13 12:35, 1:40, 3:50, 4:55, 7:05, 8:10, 10:20 CHARLIE ST. CLOUD PG13 11:35, 4:40, 9:45 DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS PG13 11:45, 2:25, 5:05, 7:45, 10:25 THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE PG 2:00, 7:10 DESPICABLE ME PG 12:10, 2:35, 4:55, 7:15, 9:35 THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE PG13 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 10:30 Starts Fri 8/20: 5:15 & 8:00 Nightly Fri & Sat: 10:45 Sat & Sun Mat: 2:30 R directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (AMELIE, CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, DELICATESSEN) Starts Fri 8/20: 7:25 Nightly Fri & Sat: 9:45 Sun Mat: 2:00 R Winner of the 2010 Sundance Grand Jury Prize WINTER’S BONE Starting Fri 8/20: 5:00 Nightly coming soon: GET LOW Sat Mat: 2:00 PREDATORS R 11:20, 1:50, 4:35, 7:10, 9:45 PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME PG13 12:20, 4:20, 7:20, 10:30 RAMONA AND BEEZUS G 11:50, 2:40, 5:20, 7:45, 10:20 KARATE KID (2010) PG 11:10, 12:30, 2:20, 3:50, 5:30, 7:05, 8:40, 10:15 SHREK FOREVER AFTER PG 12:40, 3:20, 5:40, 8:15 SHREK FOREVER AFTER 3D PG SPECIAL EVENT PRICING: $2.00 UPCHARGE ALL TICKETS 11:30, 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30 KNIGHT & DAY PG13 11:55, 2:30, 5:00, 7:35, 10:25 THE A-TEAM PG13 12:00, 3:30, 7:30, 10:10 IRON MAN 2 PG13 12:10, 3:40, 7:15, 10:00 HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON PG 11:40, 2:10, 4:40, 7:40, 9:55 ! Cinéarts " THE KILLER INSIDE ME R 11:45, 2:15, 4:50, 7:25, 10:05 R EUGENE’S ONLY DOWNTOWN THEATER TIX $5 21 & OVER $2 TIX Sun & Tues & pub since 2008 FOOD MENU THURS AUG 19 – WED AUG 25 HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 5:40 DATE NIGHT 5:40, 9:40 DESPICABLE ME IN REALD 3D - EVENT PRICING (PG) ★ Fri. - Sun.(1135 AM 155 PM) 420 PM PIRANHA IN REALD 3D - EVENT PRICING (R) - ID REQ'D ★ Fri. - Sun.(1215 230) 515 800 1015 STEP UP IN REAL D 3D - EVENT PRICING (PG-13) ★ Fri. - Sun.645 PM 920 PM THE SWITCH (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(1150 220) 500 730 1000 NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS (PG) Fri. - Sun.(1130 200) 430 700 930 LOTTERY TICKET (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(1140 210) 445 715 945 VAMPIRES SUCK (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(1225 240) 450 725 935 OC & DA: EAT, PRAY, LOVE (PG-13) ★Fri.(1145 AM) 635 PM Sat.(250 PM) 940 PM Sun.(1145 AM) 940 PM EAT, PRAY, LOVE (PG-13) ★Fri.(1220 250) 400 705 940 1010 Sat.(1145 1220) 400 635 705 1010 Sun.(1220 250) 400 635 705 1010 THE EXPENDABLES (R) - ID REQ'D Fri. - Sun.(1200 205 235) 435 505 710 740 950 1020 SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(150) 440 720 955 THE OTHER GUYS (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(1155 225) 510 745 1025 DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(215) 455 750 1030 SALT (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(145) 410 640 915 INCEPTION (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(1210 345) 655 1005 THE GHOST WRITER 7:30 KICK-ASS 7:30 CLASH OF THE TITANS 9:40 “NO LONGER SNEAKING BEER INTO THE MOVIES SINCE 2008” 762-1700 | 180 E. 5TH AVE | DAVIDMINORTHEATER.COM Free Family Film Festival Tue & Wed 10AM NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS (PG) Fri. - Sun.(130) 440 710 940 VAMPIRES SUCK (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(150) 420 730 1000 SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(120) 430 740 1015 EAT, PRAY, LOVE (PG-13) ★ Fri. - Sun.(1245 350) 700 1005 THE EXPENDABLES (R) - ID REQ'D Fri. - Sun.(100) 410 720 950 THE OTHER GUYS (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(110) 400 650 930 INCEPTION (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(140 PM) 450 PM 800 PM THE SWITCH (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(120 350) 710 930 THE EXPENDABLES (R) - ID REQ'D Fri. - Sun.(100) 420 720 950 SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(130) 400 700 940 DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(340 PM) 645 PM SALT (PG-13) Fri. - Sun.(110 PM) 920 PM Times For 08/20 - 08/22 © 2010 EUGENE WEEKLY AUGUST 19, 2010 21
