Jennifer’s Body
I loved JUNO when it came out in late ‘07/early ’08. I thought Ellen Page was great, Jason Bateman was funny, and Michael Cera did his awkward/quiet thing to perfection. The writer, Diablo Cody (real name Brook Busey), kind of went into a media blitz where we couldn’t hear anything else but how she was a stripper and she bounced from writing a blog and a memoir to this hip script on teenage pregnancy. But it was still a great script and we got to see said exotic dancer at the podium with a statuette and her huge, garish tattoo come Oscar time, which led to Steven Spielberg signing her on to write for his series “The United States of Tara” which got Toni Collette a statue of her own recently. So yeah, she’s got some game.
But when I heard her next film would be a zombie-demon-teen horror flick, I was skeptical, even with the smoking hot Megan Fox signed on to star. And even in sitting through the film, I kept bouncing back and forth as to whether or not I liked it. Teen horror flicks tend to lean towards the cheesy, and for those parts of the film, the followed that formulaic pattern. But Cody put in touches of her hip-funny dialogue at other parts which took the movie to a level above the typical, banal horror banter. However, apparently her dialogue exists on a bell curve, where you can only put up with it to a point, and then you just think she’s trying too hard for the obvious laugh. For example, an early riff on backdoor virginity gets laughs, but her line later (from the previews) about “going both ways” gets a groan.
The storyline is an original twist on the typical horror flick. A band fronted by an eyeliner-wearing Adam Brody comes to the little town of Devil’s Kettle and seduces local hottie Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) into their suspicious van. Jennifer’s friend, Needy Lesnicki (Amanda Seyfreid, looking good as well, though playing second fiddle to Fox), notices a change to Jennifer after this van trip, and also notices an increase in gruesome murders among the local boys. In true best friend fashion, Jennifer explains the circumstances of her demonic transformation to Needy, its link to the dead boys, and Needy must make that often difficult decision most young girls have to make with their best friends: stay friends, or kill her. Needy’s boyfriend, Chip (Johnny Simmons), ends up being an object of contention between the two girls, making the decision a little easier for Lesnicki, leading to the climactic GIRLFIGHT…which incidentally was the title of this director’s (Karyn Kusama) first movie.
Speaking of the director, Karyn Kusama’s association with the show “The L Word” may have caused her to add a completely random, yet incredibly hot, kissing scene between Fox and Seyfreid. It has nothing to do with the plot, does nothing to further the story, and is not dealt with afterward. But again…pretty hot.
But that kissing scene, some of the early lines, all of Adam Brody’s parts, and some great lines from J.K. Simmons as a teacher, give the movie what little credit it should receive. But when all is said and done, it’s still a teen horror flick, with just a few interesting parts… and most of those parts belong to Megan Fox (Get it? I’m referring to body parts. It works better in a Groucho Marx accent).
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