Game On

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Director: Edgar Wright
Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Ellen Wong, Anna Kendrick, Jason Schwartzman
Released: 08/13/10

In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Michael Cera plays the title character who is a Toronto native in his early twenties and plays the bass in a band with his friends where all the songs they play sound exactly alike. He falls for Ramona Flowers, the new girl in town (from America!) who entices him with her brightly hued hair (that changes colors every week) and wide eyes that make her look like an anime character. There's just a couple of hitches, though: Scott is already dating a high school girl named Knives Chau (and gets flak about it from his bandmates, his gay roommate (Culkin), and sister (Kendrick), but Scott is too scared to break up with her because he doesn't want to hurt her feelings and is too much of a wuss.

That's not his biggest problem, though. In order to be with Ramona, he must fight her seven evil exes (not ex-boyfriends, but exes). The fight sequences are cleverly film to look like a video game has come to life and it's done in a smart and cool way, not in a dumb and boring way. Now, I haven't played a video game since I had a Nintendo and we're talking about the original Nintendo that you could play classic games like Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt and my personal favorite, Zelda - that was the coolest game ever. Am I right or am I right? The point is, I am no video game aficionado and even I got the little video game gags, like when his opponents turned into a pile of coins whenever they were defeated and when Scott got his 1-Up life (always loved finding those in Super Mario Bros.). I thought it was clever how they made the Universal theme music sound like video game music from the '80s.

The movie moves at a fast pace, but it's a fun and fresh way to view a film. You may think that him having to fight seven exes gets a little repetitive, but it's not. The fight scenes are really cool. The only one I didn't like was when he fought the twins - that "fight" was kinda lame.

This movie could have easily replaced any of the movies that were nominated for a Golden Globe in the comedy/musical category. Granted, I haven't seen any of those movies, but I'm sure Scott Pilgrim is much better and much more fun to watch than Burlesque or The Tourist.  Shame on you, Hollywood Foreign Press!