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Kim Hollis: What have you watched lately, and what did you think?

Edwin Davies: I watched 22 Jump Street and my face actually hurt from laughing so much. I'm a huge Lord and Miller fan, but I always thought the 21 Jump Street didn't go far enough with its attempts to satirize reboots of TV franchise; it started as one, then became more or less a straightforward (but very funny) buddy cop comedy. 22 Jump Street, by comparison, is one of the most self-reflexive mainstream films since Scream; it's relentless in its satire of lazy sequels, yet it tweaks its own formula enough to avoid becoming one itself. It also does that thing that Lord and Miller's work is so good at which is being both ironic and earnest at the same time. It can be this elaborate commentary on the nature of sequels while also treating the central relationship with a modicum of sincerity, without sacrificing laughs or heart. I thought it was kind of amazing, really.

I also rented David Wain's They Came Together, which attempts many of the same things that 22 Jump Street does but for romantic comedies instead of action movies. It's pretty sharp and incisive in pointing out the cliches of the genre, then pushing them to absurd lengths, but it almost feels like it's too restrained most of the time. The biggest laughs come when the film does stuff that is completely crazy, such as having an otherwise lighthearted scene take a dark turn when one character falls through a window, but most of the time it holds back. It's also completely lacking in sincerity, but then again it's a lot more vicious than Jump Street so it's allowed to be more detached.

Felix Quinonez: Amazing Spider Man 2 - I still loved the performances of the leads, but even though I REALLY wanted to love the movie, even I can't deny that it was a bit of a mess. A lot of times it really felt like they had no idea what they were doing. I still enjoyed it but it was very disjointed and felt more like a commercial for future installments than an actual movie.

X-Men:Days of Future Past - I can't exaggerate how much I loved this movie. It didn't even feel like a comic book movie but a comic book on screen. (It makes sense to me.) It wasn't perfect but it came pretty damn close. I've seen it twice and I want to see it at least a couple of times more. It had action, humor, emotion, and the performances were great. AND THAT QUICKSILVER SCENE...WHOA. Just writing about it makes me want to skip work tomorrow and watch it all day. Right now I'm more excited for X-Men:Apocalypse than Avengers:Age of Ultron. And that is saying a lot. I really hope Bryan Singer comes back to the director's chair.

Maleficent - The movie certainly was nice to look at and Angelina Jolie gave a great performance. I'd definitely say she elevated what is otherwise a very forgettable movie into something that is quite enjoyable. But the movie was kind of odd. I was especially perplexed by its pacing. It felt like they spent a lot of time on something that should have been a quick montage or a couple of scenes and then they rushed stuff that they should have spent a lot of time on.

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