Extra Ordinary (2019)
Out of left field we bring some comedy this week. I will admit I wracked my mind for a bit to come up with a suitable “go ‘murica” fourth of July entry that I haven’t already done, but when I finally got down to it and started scrolling through my to-watch list this one gave me a chuckle. Does the trailer make it look like a pretty dumb movie? Yeah. Does it also have a bit of accent to it? Yeah. So forget about logical theming, we are gonna watch the charming looking ghost movie and see if it is in fact Extra Ordinary.
That’s not a typo by the way, it is intentional by the movie and also a really smart way of not having every search for it be cluttered by the use of the actual extraordinary. Anyways, our plot follows a driving instructor - she’s not really all that good at it, and is a bit lonely, but also turns out she has some psychic powers that she’s really against using. We’ll find out why later on in the movie, but when she finds herself having a nice interaction with a fellow who fakes wanting to learn to drive (he already knows how) in order to ask her about having his dead wife removed when his daughter gives him the ultimatum it was her or the ghost, she has a bit of a change of heart. Things take a twist when a local import musician decides to use the man’s daughter as a sacrifice in a satanic pact to give him talent so he can once again be rich and famous, and now the man and the driver have two nights to gather up enough ghost-goo to free his daughter from the spell she’s been put under.
Actors here do a great job. There’s a lot of comedy in the movie, and a bunch of it will be that same kind of mundane-absurd stuff you would find in something like Hot Fuzz. It’s a blend of delivery and facial expressions that makes a lot of it land or not, so I feel like the actors here are doing a great job with it. Yes, there are times when it doesn’t quite knock it out of the park, or times when it might just seem weird - but I think for the most part it’s intentional. The dad also gets to do some double duty, as he gets to do a few possessed scenes during the goo-gathering charades, and although it isn’t anything major I do still feel he did a well enough job at swapping around some mannerisms. The accents are charming, as I’m sure we’d expect me to say considering how fancy literally any accent would sound to me living in the middle of nowhere, but i feel there’s a lot of people who are in the same boat of loving hearing a different accent especially when they can still understand what’s being said with it.
Characters are here, and theoretically on paper there are actually multiple people with arcs. Weather it’s learning to believe in yourself, forgive yourself, or stand up for yourself, at least three characters get varying levels of backstory to help fill them out, and of course our main two we spend enough time with that we get to see some good chemistry play out as well. It might feel a tad routine perhaps, but I don’t think it has to be way out there in order to still be good - something had to work well to become paint by numbers in the first place. That said, the movie does use characters for a lot of the gags as well, so perhaps some might find that part a tad bit cringy - but who doesn’t crack a joke at ones own expense now and then? The baddie has probably the most what-ever plot beats to him, but the way events play out and his roll in them still favors amusement.
Drive those ghosts wild.
Given there are ghosts in the movie, you can expect some varied levels of effects work. I don’t think I would actually call any of it bad here. Sure some moments it feels like you’ll borderline see the string tugging an object, but I think that’s also very much intentional. Some of them are subtle, much to the movies point, and some of them are fun - like when you actually see a supposed ghost and it’s literally a bedsheet with eyes. It’s that kind of comedy - well, and some “grosser” stuff like the ectoplasm - that the effects work pretty good with. There is also some perhaps unexpected violence in the movie, with a few body explosions and a cut in there as well, but I feel like the R probably more came from the language than any real intense effects work. It’s not a zombie movie where people are eating guts and it’s all super graphic and gory, but every now and then there’s just a severed finger, you know?
Settings are pretty hum drum, as is the costumes for the most part. Nothing against either department, it’s just the curse of being a modern setting coming back to haunt the imagination is all. The movie has plenty in other spots to keep you entertained or interested, and it’s not by any means poorly done. Humor exists, and ranges from some slapstick like things all the way to some sexy innuendos. It’ll probably be hit or miss for some folks, and I can’t blame them because I’m the same way with humor. Still, I found some good stuff to laugh about during the run time for whatever reason. I will also say potentially the hardest laugh I’ve had in the entire movie was the end, and it might be up there as one of the best endings I’ve seen.
Audio is balanced as well. Line deliveries are mostly well done, or at least as intended I think. Despite all the jokes and levity in the movie, there are actually a bunch of things for a watcher to latch on to if they like to think. Some easy examples I’ve actually already mentioned earlier: believing in oneself, forgiving oneself, and standing up for oneself. We could also take some stuff about what’s normal, and good versus evil and all that, and on paper also some of the logic behind why a ghost might stick around at all in the first place. It’s got a lot more than you would think on surface level, and I can appreciate that regardless of how much depth is given to any one of those elements.
It’s a crossing zone, get it?
I overall had a good time with this movie. Plenty a chuckle was had, many an event was called well before it happened, and overall enjoyment was had. Sure, a lot of the elements will have a varied effect depending on your seriousness and preferences, but for me and my buddy watching tonight we both had a good time. It was satisfying, not entirely against trying to pull a fast one on you, and also makes you think of a lot of other movies you may have seen that also were fun without making you wish you were watching one of those instead. Check it out sometime.