Shawn's Charlie Bartlett review

Ahhh another review for a movie that's not even out yet. Granted it's not as far away as 88 Minutes but still, it feels good to be ahead of the game.

2008 Movie #22 - Charlie Bartlett

It's certainly no secret that 2008 has featured quite a slew of garbage movies. Fool's Gold, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, Strange Wildnerness, Over Her Dead Body, Meet the Spartans, all just god awful movies that if I weren't doing this damn quest, I never would have had to suffer through. However finally this whole quest has worked out well for me with Charlie Bartlett. The reason is because if I weren't watching every movie that comes out, I may have overlooked this one. That would have been a damn shame because what we have here is one of the better movies to come along this year.

Now I know that may not sound like much of a compliment considering the slew of shit that's leaked out of Hollywood's ass since the start of January, but this would be a good movie no matter what year it came out. It's funny, interesting, it's got characters that you actually care about and it's one of maybe the only teen comedies where you really don't know how the fuck it's all going to turn out.

This movie definitely has some darker comedic elements in it but it never takes it that far to take you out of the movie. It finds a really good balance between fun and lighthearted and more dramatic and serious. The performances are across the board good, especially Charlie (actor's name escapes me and I'm just lazy enough to not go and look it up), and Robert Downey Jr. as the pricinpal. Also it's nice to see Kat Dennings (girl from 40 year old virgin) in a more prominent role because I've always kinda liked her. Also like 3 people from Degrassi: The Next Generation show up throughout the movie which I'm sorry, is never a bad thing.

Overall, I say you should definitely be checking this one out when it hits theatres next Friday. It's definitely not the typical teen comedy, actually daring to take things in new directions. It's got some good laughs and is a welcome bright spot in a year of sad darkness.

*** 1/2 /5

The next update is going to be fucking gigantic and it should come later tonight. I'm actually dreading having to type the fucker up.