HairBrained

This - "I want to be a funny movie" - almost gets there, but falls short.

It's got good script, plot, photography, settings, characters, but it stumbles along and I think the trouble is with the editing. The entire movie is choppy bits of story and few scenes flow well into the next. I'm at a loss to clearly express my feelings; just as this movie is at a loss to be really good.

Wolff and Fraser make a good team but the experience of Fraser's background in acting make Wolff appear a bit amateurish (but that is understandable by his age) it just was another problem for me to like the end product.

It's fun enough to rent.

Review: This is one of those low budget comedies about a teenage school kid who is a genius. Because of his advanced mind, he enters the college mastermind competitions with the major goal of beating Harvard. With his new found friend, an 41 year old student played by Fraser, and his 3 team mates, they battle through the competition achieving more than expected. I personally didn't find this movie that funny or even slightly interesting. If you don't take the movie that seriously, then it's light hearted fun, but the storyline is quite weak and the acting wasn't anything spectacular. There are a couple of scenes which were quite amusing, but it's not a movie that I will be watching again in a hurry. Disappointing!

Round-Up: As I hadn't heard of this movie before, I wasn't expecting that much. I was shocked to see that Brendan Fraser was in this movie because it seemed more like a college teenage film, but after watching it, I do see the point of his casting. He has definitely had one of the weirdest careers to date, because he has made some really bad movies and then he will casted in a blockbuster. From the Mummy franchise and G.I. Joe, to silly movies like Furry Vegeance and Bedazzled, he really has had a versatile career. I did like him in Crash and Gimme Shelter so he does have his good moments, which are mostly when he is playing serious roles. In this movie he has gone into comedic mode, but personally I didn't find him that funny. 

I recommend this movie to people who are into there teenage movies about a college genius who enters mastermind competitions to try and beat Harvard. 3/10

We loved HairBrained - it's got a real 80s teenage movie vibe meets college days with a hipster indie streak - it's silly, and cool, and just kooky enough to be off the beaten track without going AWOL.

The plot of the 13 yr old genius (Alex Wolff) gets to go to college and his adventures is one to simply kickback to and enjoy. Brendan Frasier and he make good foils for each other and the film has plenty of nice touches.

It subverts the sports / college genre nicely and all in all you could do a lot worse if you want a good sports comedy.

One of my favorite films of the year so far - honestly? A fun and original movie - and we don't get to say that often enough these days....

I actually liked this movie, although I can see why others wouldn't. When I started watching, I thought it was a Brendan Frasier film, but it is most definitely not. Although he does a fine job in it, he is most definitely in a supporting role here. The acting was all around pretty good and the jokes, although a bit obscure, were quite good. It seemed to be fairly well written, and definitely had a certain " feel " to it from beginning to end. My suggestion would be that if you enjoy Wes Anderson films, you'll probably enjoy this. It's not quite as Quirky and odd, but definitely has the same vibe to it. Would definitely recommend for a rental.

Overall the movie is fairly enjoyable but it has some turns that just feels very forced and contrived.

And although the cast does a fine job there are some random character developments with some of the smaller roles that seem to happen instantly and completely out of the blue, for instance the popular girl who's personality literally changes from one scene to the next in one moment of the film.

And other random odd ideas, which doesn't seem like they were meant to be funny but just poor script-writing and lack of knowledge of human interaction or potentially something made up on spot while filming.

I won't go into too much details as I don't like to spoil movies but I'm sure if you watch it you'll figure out instances I could be referring to.

Anyways besides that yeah it's fairly entertaining it's just not as good as it could have been.

Oh and despite Brendan Fraser and Alex Wolff's tennis get-up on the poster I don't actually remember them playing tennis once in the movie (and I just watched it) so unless I dozed off a minute and they did that for 20 seconds then there's no tennis in this movie (and that seems unlikely).