I think Michael Cera is mostly a chode.  I haven’t seen Arrested Development, but with films like Year One, and Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, I choose to just say now.  Sure, I’ll give him some cred for being in a Drunk History episode, but so was Jack Black.  I’m digressing.  I don’t like Cera, so I wasn’t expecting to like him in Scott Pilgrim, but frankly, he kicked ass.

The trailers explained all about the plot.  Pilgrim meets a wicked hot chick that falls for him.  But as it turns out, he’s required (by rules never really explained) to fight and defeat her seven evil exes (these include a former girlfriend during her bi-curious phase, twins she dated at one time, and a movie star).

As everyone knows, the film is based on the comic books.  Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall adapted them to the big screen.  And Wright of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame, directed.  The majority of the film plays out as a video game.  Pilgrim frequently earn power ups, gets extra lives, and fights evil exes with mystical powers.  The cast is outrageously good.  Pilgrim’s sister is played by Anna Kendrick (sadly, I have to admit the story lines surrounding her character drag more than the rest of the film), Alison Pill plays a band mate, Kieran Culkin plays the gay roommate.  Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Jason Schwartzman, Brandon Routh, the cast just goes on and on, and they’re great.

The references to scores of video games from the eighties and nineties will be greatly appreciated by those in my age bracket.  The effects are nothing to smirk at either.  Wright really knew what he was doing with pacing as well.  My greatest fear was a really slow beginning, and a boring ‘training phase’ where we would have to watch Cera learn all his impressive movies, but no.  The action starts from the beginning, and keeps you at the edge of your seat until the end.  This is fine summer entertainment.  And you should all go see it as soon as possible.  And bring a friend, the movie is bombing at the box office.

3.5 out of 4 stars

The story follows two BFFs, Zack (played by garbly voiced Seth Rogan) and Miri (played by the wicked hot Elizabeth Banks).  The two can’t seem to make ends meet, and find their bills piling up so far, it’s hopeless to try and pay them back on their meager salaries.  They devise a plan to make a porno called Star Whores. Their plan is thwarted when their costumes and equipment (purchased with the last of their money) are destroyed in a building demolition.  It’s then they decide to make Swallow My Cockachino, conveniently set at the coffee shop where Zack works.  The rest of the movie is a mix between a romantic comedy and all the half-naked sex scenes they could fit in.

Perhaps the movie would have been more hilarious if their situation wasn’t so sad.  This is emphasized when the two go back to their high school reunion and it’s made clear, they’re the saddest, least successful of their graduating class.  This scene does provide a hilarious interaction between Superman‘s Brandon Routh and Accepted‘s Justin Long, who carry on a flaming, homosexual affair, despite being married.  There isn’t much redeeming about Zack and Miri, and the prospect that they finally find their true love for each other while doing it (literally, while they’re doing it) for a low budget porno in the kitchen of a coffee house, really just isn’t that great.  The emotional climax of the film happens while Zack is shouting through a bathroom door, while Miri is seated on a toilet, going number 2. This, to me, isn’t funny.  Seth Rogan should stick with Judd Apatow.  Zack and Miri is good for a few cheap laughs, but more often than not, illicits a smile, and not a laugh-out-loud chuckle.

1 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 65% – Cream of the Crop: 48%