Newspapers / Meredith College Student Newspaper / Sept. 26, 2007, edition 1 / Page 5
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FEATURES Septeinber 26^ 2907 5 A Silly Obsession: American Teenagers Love Simple Movies Amber McKinney StaffWriter Do you know which movie held the num ber one spot at the box office for two weeks running this summer and continues to bounce between the second and third spots? That's right, Superbad. This hormone- driven movie has a plot that centers on a trio of high school seniors attempting to get alco hol for a party. The film was an instant hit among the youth of American. Similar movies that have recently been in theaters or are still in theaters are Balls of Fury, The Brothers Solomon, and Hot Rod. Most people will admit that certain mov ies, such as the ones listed above, are espe cially ridiculous. When I first started writing this article, I wanted to describe these particular movies with the adjective "stupid." Interchangeable adjectives suggested to me were "redundant," "predictable," and "dumb." I decided to go with the words "simple" and "B-list" because they refer to the simpli fied plot lines and overly used gag jokes that these movies are known for. Simple movies are easy to understand and enjoy because they do not require any deep emotional reaction from the audience. They are all very similar, and it's sometimes difficult to distinguish one B-list movie from another. They have a basic plot- line that the characters mosey along and get eas ily distracted from. AU of them abound with slap stick comedy, and many of them incorporate vul gar language and crude jokes. I've watched plenty of simple movies, and to tell the truth. I've enjoyed some of them. I picked out four of the movies that I've seen that I think best portray what I think a B-list movie is. SuperBad: If you can get over the fact that almost every oUier word is an expletive or a sexual reference, that the plot is mainly about teenage boys getting alcohol so that they can have sex with girls at a party, and that cops let a high-schooler shoot at a flaming car, then maybe you'll see the deeper meaning of friendship that is portrayed by the main characters. Most likely you'll be distracted by the half-naked, drunk teenagers or by tihe drunk police officers or by the angry, drunk bum. Napoleon Dynamite: No foul language or exceptionally crude jokes in tiiis one but no plot either. Maybe the screen writers were going for a Theater of the Absurd feeling. The comedy of Napoleon Dynamite mostly revolves around how awkward and nerdy the main character is. Most people eid\er love or hate Napoleon Dynamite; there are very few people who are neu tral about the character. Zoolander: This movie plays on the ste reotype that all male models must be stupid, and the male models in this movie are defi nitely stupid. There is an impossible, rambling plot line that centers aroimd stopping the main char acter, an idiotic, failing male model, from kill ing the Prime Minister of Malaysia. The stupid male model has been brainwashed by his mod eling agency to be an assassin. Chaos ensues. Blades of Glory: Will Ferrell King of B-list movies, stars in this out landish film along, with the star of Napoleon Dynamite aka Jon Heder. When you'ire not won dering how they got WiU Ferrell into those clingy Spandex suits, you're wondering about the sexual orientation of the characters. Are they gay. Are they straight? Does it even matter? The ending makes you sit there and stare at the screen, not in admiration but in abso lute shock at the absur dity of it. It's not as if simple movies are a new inven tion. The Three Stooges were the WiU Ferrell, Adam Sandler, and Ben Stiller of yesteryear. Of course, the old black and white actors stayed away from anatomy jokes and expletives, but their per formances still ran purely on slap-stick comedy and oufrageous situations that are common in B-list films today. Many Americans have become obsessed with ridiculous mov ies like these and can't seem to get enough of them. Teenagers espe cially seem to be drawn to such movies. You won't find many senior citizens or families sit ting down with their popcorn and mega-Cokes to watch Knocked Up or Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Teenagers are the target audience for the B-list movies. I speak from experience. We go out in our social hordes and watch movies like Borat and Mr. Woodcock for $8.50 a ticket. Why? We're wasting our money on movies that have barely any substance to them and seem capable of zapping our brain cells with stupidity. One thing that I think people really like about simple movies is that you don't have to pay attention when you're watching one. You don't have to imderstand some great, motivating mes sage or associate with a character's conflicted feelings. You can even zone out for half of the movie and come back in later, and you will still relatively know what is happening. Most of the time, we don't want to think when we go to the movies; we just want to relax and have a good time. There's often no real substance to a B-list film; the point is to make you lau^ at stupid situations and jokes for an hour or so. These movies are fun to watch, and they make you feel good about youjTself because you can say, "Well, at least my life isn't that aazy." B- list movies don't make you want to get up and change tiie world or face a social problem in our society. All the conflicts in the film are fixed in a nice, neat bundle by the end of the movie, and Slat's the way we wish things worked in the real world. For American teen agers, watching simple movies is a guilty plea sure. We know that we should be spending our time doing something worthwhile. We know that we should be wast ing our money on some- tiling that's vocabulary contains words beyond four-letter curses. However, we still find ourselves mesmerized by the simple, B-list movies. They allow us to escape from real life drama and hard decisions into worlds where everything is just one big, rambling joke that has a clean cut, happily-ever-after ending where the good guy wins and the bad guy gets a cantaloupe thrown at his head. 8in|^e white male with certain quirks seeking siu|^e white female. Mnst be wiliinjc to care for mj' li^r when the need arises. Clae»4i>DlL^nh making abilitie« are a plas. Must get idong with my dysfimo tional familytUnde Rico, the would-be NFL star. Kip, the online dating; genius and my dun^rid- ing grandmoAer. Contact N.Dyiuuiute@hotmaiLcom “The idea is to get the pencil moving quiclc- ly.” —Bernard Malamud So get your pencil mov ing, and send your fic tion, poetry, and cre ative nonfiction to be published in The Colton Review. Email your submissions to editor, Whitney Wilson wilsonwh@meredith.edu Deadline:December 7th Are You Free on Friday? Mark your calendars! September 28^^, CAB is sponsoring a FREE coffeehouse in the Cate Center. Don’t like cof fee? Go anyway! There will be coffee, tea, hot cocoa, cheesecake, and cookies. String Theory, a southern, folk band, including our own Professors Michael Novak, Bill Schmidt, and Georgia Schmidt and NCSU Professor Steven Vincent, will be the entertainment. This event is community friendly, so feel free to bring your boyfriend and other friends who are not Meredith stu dents.
Meredith College Student Newspaper
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Sept. 26, 2007, edition 1
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