Outdated Movie Review: The Wackness

Last night, Evil Twin #2 and I went to watch The Wackness starring Ben Kinsley, the doofus from Nickelodeon and future hottest chick on earth, Olivia Thirlby.

The movie takes place in the summer of 1994, the time between graduating high school and starting college for the two main protagonists. We were both excited because the fall of 1994 was when the Evil Twins, KenTak3, Sparks and I all attacked NY for the first time for our freshman year of college. Probably our favorite NY, on display in the big screen just minutes before all the charming grit got washed away in a blur of late 90s prosperity/excess. Further, I was excited because one of the key elements of the movie was a tight early-mid 90s hip-hop soundtrack featuring B.I.G., Nas, Raekwon...all the greats.

Could a movie live up to such expectations? Somewhere in between the dream sequence that include "fly girls" and a scene where our protagonist had to blow into his Nintendo cartridge to make it work, I knew the answer. YES.

The story was a bit of a rehash of the usual "coming of age" story. But it was well executed, details in how people spoke, drank, talked and dressed gave it the feeling of a period piece and it was superbly acted. Ben Kingsley was all manner of awesome. For a minute, I totally wished I was in high school again so I could have a pining rush on Olivia Thirlby's character.

Even a minor cameo by Mary Kate Olsen as a pre-millennial hippie, a unique creature that we all knew really well in college was credible and well executed.

I liked it, I smiled a lot. I had no other ambitions for my 2 hours.