'Katy Perry: Part Of Me' Reviews, 'The Amazing Spider-Man,' Chris Brown & More: The Week In Ouch
Katy Perry may be one of the most successful female artists of all time, movie critics aren't as enamored with the "Teenage Dream" singer as music writers -- Top 40 radio listeners -- are. Her film debut, "Katy Perry: Part of Me," has been receiving less-than-stellar reviews.
The concert movie has only garnered a Metacritic score of 57, with many critics commenting on the one-sided nature of the film, which just so happened to be produced by the popstar herself. "[It] isn't so much a movie as a canny, inoffensive slice of brand management and marketing," wrote The Austin Chronicle's Marc Savlov.
However, at the end of the day, at least Perry's smash hit sophomore album, Teenage Dream, fared better than Chris Brown's latest -- and brutally reviewed -- studio LP, Fortune. "Fortune is the kind of record that will please Brown's many deluded female fans, but we cannot with good conscience give it a single star," wrote musicOMH.com's Mic Wright.
But can these harsh critiques all be right? Or does everyone just need a few hours alone with the cutest cat on the internet, Lil Bub? Let us know what you think of this week's critical roundup below.
'The Amazing Spider-Man' Isn't So Amazing
<blockquote>[T]he superhero stuff kicks in and the movie shudders and begins falling to pieces before finally becoming a howlingly bad shitshow for the final action scene. The only thing amazing about this movie is how badly it goes off the rails.</blockquote> -- <a href="http://badassdigest.com/2012/07/01/movie-review-the-amazing-spider-man-runs-out-of-webbing/" target="_hplink">Devin Faraci, Badass Digest</a>
Is 'Savages' Misguided?
<blockquote>Like 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps' and 'W.,' 'Savages' feels like Stone softballing something he should be skewering -- in this case, SoCal entitlement and faux-progressive hypocrisy.</blockquote> -- <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/savages,82098/" target="_hplink">Allison Willmore, A.V. Club</a>
Is 'Katy Perry: Part Of Me' Half-Hearted?
<blockquote>"Part Of Me" makes an effort to transition from the Brand fiasco to an uplifting conclusion, but it's half-hearted at best, as Perry continues to visibly struggle against tears as she talks about moving on and helps her sister pick out a wedding dress while making maudlin jokes about putting one on hold for herself.</blockquote> -- <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/katy-perry-part-of-me,82091/" target="_hplink">Genevieve Koski, A.V. Club</a>
Could Chris Brown Stoop Any Lower?
<blockquote>That shameless side, alas, dominates Fortune. The pre-release singles aimed simultaneously at the R&B and pop charts have either! stalled ("Sweet Love," "Till I Die") or tanked ("Don't Wake Me Up"), and deservedly so -- their thin melodies and stock shock lyrics echo better Brown records that are still played everywhere. (Wonder what Brown's parole officer thinks of the "Pimps up, hoes down / Ass up, nose down" refrain of the proudly stoned Big Sean/Wiz Khalifa collabo "Till I Die.") The rest is even worse.</blockquote> -- <a href="http://www.spin.com/reviews/chris-brown-fortune-rca" target="_hplink">Barry Walters, <em>Spin</em></a>
Does Flo Rida Even Know Who He Is Anymore?
<blockquote>On his fourth album, Wild Ones, there's a distinct Flo Rida-shaped hole where his personality once was -- and it's been filled with other people's songs.</blockquote> -- <a href="http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20607465,00.html" target="_hplink">Melissa Maerz, EW.com</a>
Is HBO's 'The Newsroom' Sexist?
<blockquote>One of the bigger problems with "The Newsroom" (and it has a few) is that so many scenes involve men setting women straight, men supervising women, a man teaching a woman how to use email (and the woman getting it spectacularly wrong regardless), a hapless woman seesawing between two different men, etc. It's not that I can buy Will McAvoy, Jeff Daniels's lead character, as a fully realized human being, but it's pretty clear that the show thinks he is right, admirable, or brave most, if not all, of the time.</blockquote> -- <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maureen-ryan/the-newsroom-women-aaron-sorkin-hbo_b_1641982.html" target="_hplink">Maureen Ryan, HuffPost TV</a>
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