In order to get a movie into Sundance, or perhaps break into the movie business as a new writer, you have to be very different. Different is fine and OK if its interesting or very funny and a good example of this is the movie “Napolean Dynamite, which came out in 2004. This movie was highly unusual and downright weird but it was funny so you liked it. “Napolen Dynamite” was so different than anything you had seen before so the movie was a surprise hit. This movie, “Me and Earl and the dying Girl” attempts to be very different and weird and unlike anything you have seen before. The problem with this movie is that in many areas its too different, weird and unusual to make it a very good movie or a very funny movie. The subject of the dying girl in this story is the central theme of the entire movie and while this can be both touching and depressing at the same time, the premise is too sad to make the other parts of the movie; the parts that try to be funny or very different successful.

Overall I liked this movie and the attempts to be very different and funny, but for the most part, it was not funny enough to overcome the many flaws that include the fact that this movie is trying to be too weird and different to be an effective story. Different and quirky has to be paired with quality and while this movie had much of that, for me it just quite didn’t have enough.

I am neutral on this movie, so I cannot recommend or not recommend it. This movie should be seen by anyone who wants to see something different and something they have never been seen before.

Writing a movie to be different

This is a good Disney-like movie about a dog who was in Iraq with his owner who is killed in combat and then the aftermath of how the dog is adopted by his owners family. The flaws in this movie are obvious and include giving the dog almost super-natural tracking skills and he is able to track some villains in the movie over a great distance, which is not very realistic. In typical Hollywood style, in order to make the movie more exciting the movie ends with a big chase/caper series of scenes which is also not very realistic, but overall this is a good movie and even a good movie to bring kids to.

I do recommend this movie.

Hollywood Movie Paradigm

I thought that TED 2 is better than the first one only because there is a greater number of good laughs in this movie than the last one.  About half of the attempted funny scenes or dialogue work, and about half don’t work.  Some scenes are more disgusting than funny but overall I was satisfied that this is a solid comedy movie overall.    I appreciated some of the attempts to reference other movies like the Breakfast club and the remark about Samuel L. Jackson (the same name of the female lead in this movie) being the black guy in every movie and the appearance of Morgan Freeman at the end of the movie as very often these 2 actors are confused.

Overall I thought this movie was pretty funny and I do recommend it.

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