Ralph's Movie Reviews: YOUTH IN REVOLT

Sunday, January 10, 2010

YOUTH IN REVOLT

Romantic comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Michael Cera: sex-obsessed 16-year-old Nick Twisp and his alter-ego François
Jean Smart: Nick's divorced mother Estelle
Zach Galifianakis: her current crude and rude live-in boyfriend Jerry
Portia Doubleday: 16-year-old Sheeni Saunders
Mary Kay Place: her mother
M. Emmet Walsh: her father
Steve Buscemi: Nick’s dad George
Adhir Kalyan: Nick’s newfound friend Vijay
Ray Liotta: Oakland PD Officer Lance Wescott

REVIEW
You might want to take note of two clues before deciding to see this film:
1. The title which promises rebellious behaviour
2. The R classification since there are sexual situations, nudity and vulgar language.

And if that is not enough, while the screen remains black we hear the unmistakeable sound of someone whose only sexual outlet is of the solitary sort. Clearly this would be very much to the liking of the target audience: young adults, especially horny male teenagers who feel comfortable with graphic, vulgar behaviour.

Not fitting that description I walked out.

CLASSIFICATION

for sexual situations, substance abuse, vulgar language and nudity.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.