Inside Out (2011)
Runtime: 93 minutes
Directed by: Artie Mandelberg
Starring: Triple H!, Michael Rapaport, Parker Posey, Bruce Dern, Julie White
From: WWE Studios!
This movie is leaving Netflix Instant after Thursday; it's not something I'd recommend people see but this isn't a crap pile either. I explain it all in my Letterboxd reviews below:
No, I did not see the acclaimed Pixar movie last night; rather, I saw what I think is one of the more obscure WWE Studios productions; it involves a recently released from prison Triple H (currently the WWE Champion-if you can believe it-although that will likely change with Wrestlemania coming up this Sunday) playing someone named Arlo Jayne who is so obsessed with PICKLES that he wants his post-prison life to be devoted to making pickles and how things go wrong when he hangs out with his old criminal friends and things go sour...
You can say that Arlo is in a pickle of a situation, as he experiences the jarring feeling of temporarily living with his pal and his wife... and the three were part of a love triangle in high school and his pal (Michael Rapaport) is the one who is F'ing everything up. Would you believe that the wife is played by Parker Posey, or that the ringleader is Bruce Dern and his illegal operation currently is not trafficking coke or pot but rather untaxed cigarettes? I swear that it's all true. Heck, the daughter of Rapaport and Posey is known as Pepper, and once I realized the goofy reason why the screenwriters used such a name... that is “WWE humor”, believe me.
The movie is definitely uneven in tone and for a melodrama where some serious things happen, there are plenty of goofy moments and five minutes after a character does something bad to someone else, that someone else forgives the person rather easily. Yet, I can't say I wasn't entertained by this Louisiana-set and filmed production, where you are reminded of the setting by seeing several people wear New Orleans Saints t-shirts. The movie is not great but I did not find it to be awful either; the cast (even Triple H) is fine, Dern gets to be his usual Grumpy Old Man persona in this stage of his career, and whether intentional or not I certainly got laughs from its wacky tale it told.
While it's not something that I'd recommend-even if Triple H talking about the act of making pickles is incredible-at least it is not something that I regret seeing as it was thankfully not a waste of time.
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