Made Fun!

When I went to see Easy A today, the trailer for Catfish was among the previews. First of all, Easy A was alright enough. Emma Stone continues to own a part of my heart by being hilarious and effectively relatable. Second of all, I want to see Catfish.

I’m kind of bummed I hadn’t heard anything about it before now, because it’s definitely the sort of movie that appeals to the internet creeper plus meta-loving wretch in me. At first I thought it was some kind of surprise new trailer for The Social Network, but no, it’s actually a movie that just proves again how much social media has infiltrated all aspects of life, namely Facebook and, more recently, Twitter. (The best part of the VMAs last Sunday was how every correspondent in the pre-show got a lower third with their names and then their Twitter handle under that.) This movie also, in its way, celebrates the continued amateur/DIY aesthetic people love about the 21st century with — bonus! — a voyeurism angle.

Watching other real people hook up is the foundation for modern media. That’s what The Real World and XTube have taught me. And it’s repeated a hundred times a day that we live in an age where everyone can be a creator. (My new iPod Touch apparently shoots 720p HD video. An exclusive first look at my major motion picture will be online tomorrow.) Add in a little Paranormal Activity-esque suspense and Catfish seems like a pretty perfect amalgamation of what gets people going these days. It’s also just a really nerdy endeavor, this indirect indicator of how much film, social networking, and reality media have merged, but that’s also part of what makes it seem interesting.

Although it doesn’t make a great case for internet dating. It’s hard out here for digital love.

Alright, 2009’s Fast and Furious wasn’t the greatest movie or anything, but it did do everybody the favor of mostly pretending like The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift never happened. Other than Sung Kang and the trick the movie was named for, there was little point to sitting through that borefest, since it was about as entertaining playing with a pet rock.

With the fifth installment in the street racing franchise, it looks like Justin Lin and company are looking to make extra good by bringing in all the best characters from the sequels. After I saw the fourth flick, I left the theater talking loudly about how all I wanted was some Tyrese, really, come on, because he’s good at what he does, hot, and genuinely funny. Plus, the banter and homoerotic fight in the sand between him Paul Walker is something I’d like to have repeated. But no dice. That is, until now!

Tyrese Gibson (who’s Twitter icon is an animated GIF of himself getting sexy with a woman, I just want to note — an animated GIF) has posted some cast pictures recently, featuring himself, Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Sung Kang, and Ludacris. It’s been announced that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has also joined the cast, set to shoot in Brazil and Puerto Rico, which basically means it’s going to be a movie full of fast cars, attractive dudes, a few scenes of serious man pain, I’m sure, and violence in the name of thievery and outrunning the law, AKA Everything I Ever Want, All The Time, For Eternity.

If this movie continues to shape up this way, Fast Five will make for better blockbuster emotional porn than the Twilight saga manages to be for teenage girls and Stephanie Meyer. Hell, find a role for Taylor Lautner that includes him shooting just one person and it’s basically guaranteed. The only way they could make it better than that is to bring Michelle Rodriguez’s character back from the dead.