spooky_trix

This movie isn't actually as bad as you would think. I dreaded this movie all the way home from the video store (where my 2 year old insisted that we rent this movie), thinking a movie about barbie has got to be horrible. But I was pleasantly surprised. The movie actually follows somewhat of a coherent plot. The animation is above average for these direct to video movies. The characters are of course beautiful, but they are also pretty well fleshed out for a 60 minute long movie. Of course after seeing this my daughter wanted to immediately run out and buy an Elina doll. However, for those of you who aren't excited about buying Barbie dolls due to the sexist and perfectionist attitude taken making the dolls can rest assured that the dolls are at least mythical fairies, and therefore can't help being perfect. Or whatever, just buy your daughter the dolls already. Okay so maybe the movie did make me want to buy the dolls, but like I said it was a pretty good movie for what it is!

What? That's the question I kept asking myself while watching Showboy. I thought I was in for a great satirical mockumentary in the christopher guest tradition. What I got was an unfunny, depressing, and at times, boring movie full of gay stereotypes. Why in the world movies made by gay men have to be full of stereotypes still is beyond me. You want to know some of them? Okay lets go: Christian lives with numerous "roommates" most of which lisp. Multiple choice time, Christian gets fired from his job and tries to find work as a (a) construction worker (b) office professional (c) auto mechanic (d) vegas chorus dancer. Duh the answer is d! Christian is obsessed with the tiny itty bitty amount of extra skin he has in his mid section. Christian insists on wearing white socks and shorts. Do I have to go on? The other main annoyance was how mean spirited the whole movie was. Guest can take characters and basically tear them apart, making fun of them the whole way, but there is this over the top jest to the proceedings that make it funny, not harsh. This movie has a gritty voyeuristic quality to it that makes the constant failure of Christian and the impossibly cool nature of the documentary crew (example time, Christian pours his heart out telling the crew that the only reason he lets them follow him around is because he'd feel so empty and lonely without them, they continue letting him believe they are actually trying to film a nice documentary about him and his script) really really hard to take. I chuckled a few times, mostly during early scenes of an inappropriately attired Christian learning to dance, but mostly I sat through the whole thing tempted to turn it off and watch something else. .5 out of 10 stars