BradInAZ

June 2 2010 - saw advanced preview of "Easy A" tonight. Emma Stone plays sarcasm great in this one, and supporting cast works well with her. Emma also narrates heavily throughout, and though not rolling on the floor funny, this has the feel of a John Hughes film (even makes reference to him in a longing way). Thomas Haden Church is funny as the only teacher we really meet, and Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson are well cast as the understanding and 60's hippy mentality parents. The crowd I saw it with laughed frequently, and there are a lot of "I've been there" or "I've seen that" moments that you can relate to from your own high school. The writing is a little bit above the age - that is to say, you'd be surprised to hear the advanced dialog coming from today's teenagers, but this movie worked for me and those with me. Makes for a fun night at the movies. Scheduled for release Sept 17 2010.

Having seen a preview showing in San Diego / Hillcrest this past week, and then listening to Zach Braff talk after the showing and answering many probing questions, I am even more impressed with his first time directing/writing/movie acting debut. I expect many future gems from Zach over the years.

As he talked about this film after the viewing, I could see how much he's put in to it, and how in real life he is a lot like the character he plays on Scrubs. He mentioned how painful it was to cut at least 45 minutes from the film, which should make for a very good future DVD with the deleted scenes intact.

He told a very funny story about how a mutual friend knew of this masturbating dog, and they just had to find a way to work him in to the movie. There's actually a couple of scenes with dogs in the movie. Apparently the camerman stood with the dog all day to get the shot, and the dog, a bit nervous for the cameras, was not doing his thing on cue as usual.

Camped in a house, camera training on the dog, waiting, the rest of the crew was shooting a scene outside. Out comes the cameraman finally after all day in the house with the dog, thumbs up, smoking a cigarette - "Got the shot man !".

This movie hits on many levels - good acting, even better script, and tight camera work. And all on a 2 1/2 million dollar budget shot in 45 days. Superb job Zach. Everyone should see this film.

I think the exec at Time Warner was right. For once, a movie that goes against the idea that the summer is only for big spectacle action films.

A.I. has some nice effects here and there, but it's the story that carries the movie. That *is* the movie.

I recommend it highly. It's not a movie for everyone, but is a movie that seems plausible, and really makes you think where we're headed in our society.

I don't want to spoil any plot or surprises, so lets just say that A.I. has some nice developing storylines that go deep into the future of what robots might mean to this world.

Go see it !