Zac: This Is 40 is Judd Apatow’s messiest film to date, with plotless wandering, that while often funny, chooses to put its focus on its least compelling elements. [Read more...]
HST… Film Review: The Five-Year Engagement
04/26/2012 by Leave a Comment
Lauren: Having the tagline “from the producer of Bridesmaids” splashed all over the TV spots and poster is quite the stamp on a project. Well, maybe not the producer part, but definitely the word Bridesmaids. But don’t let the name-drop fool you; The Five-Year Engagement is quite a different beast from that non-stop laugh fest of comedic poo jokes and pre-wedding hijinks. Sure, there are pre-wedding problems here as well, but don’t go in ready to compare the two as this is more about the couple confronting life as their ride to the alter constantly finds more bumps to bottom out on. [Read more...]
Film Review: The Muppets
11/23/2011 by Leave a Comment
The Muppets is a joy of a film, as it is wonderful to have the gang back, and the sheer positivity of the characters paired with the excitement of seeing them on the screen again makes it easy to forgive a few shortcomings as you grin ear to ear over almost the entirety of the runtime. [Read more...]
Now Playing Review – Bad Teacher
06/24/2011 by Leave a Comment
I wouldn’t say that Bad Teacher lacks all traces of intelligence, but it seems unmotivated to better itself to get a higher passing grade. It is lazy, goes for cheap and outlandish jokes to get laughs, loses focus… Ok, I am going to stop there. I was trying to recreate a parent / teacher conference as if Bad Teacher was the disappointing student. Mainly I just wanted to avoid the easy insult by playing with the title of the movie, but my attempt was about as poorly done as the film itself.
When looking for the source of a film’s problem, sometimes it isn’t necessary to look any further than the story. Cameron Diaz plays a gold digger that wants to find a husband that will foot the bill for her life of luxury. To do so, she decides that she needs to raise money to get a boob job in order to attract the right kind of man. Now as a comedy these idiotic plots can still lead to entertaining moments that make the lack of depth not really an issue, but this time around we are left standing in the shallow end. [Read more...]
Review: Despicable Me
07/09/2010 by Leave a Comment
Despicable Me is a bland effort around an interesting idea that barely salvages itself from travesty with a pretty decent finale.
The film follows Gru, a villain of the world who hasn’t had a note worthy diabolical scheme in some time. Added to this he has been recently upstaged by a young and upcoming villain, Vector, who has stolen one of the great pyramids and the two begin to battle it out over the next great heist using a top secret shrink ray that has just been produced. The two go back and forth over the ownership of the shrink ray and in the plot to take the ray from Vector; Gru adopts and forces his new young daughters into the mix of his dastardly plans.
Rental Review – I Love You, Man
08/15/2009 by Leave a Comment
We’ve all been there. Making friends can be a scary experience, full of rejection and awkward attempts to impress others with menial talents and sentence forming capabilities, all in the hopes of finding that special someone to share your bucket of chalk with as you draw beautiful murals on the sidewalk. Oh to be five again… Though this is not quite the context, it is the basic premise of I Love You, Man, a hilarious film that restructures the romantic comedy.
Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) has a problem. All his life he has been stronger at forming friendships with girls rather than boys. Though this hasn’t caused any problems prior to now, it quickly becomes a slight set back when he realizes he has no one to be the best man at his upcoming wedding. After a series of unsuccessful, blind man dates, he eventually happens upon Sydney Fife (Jason Segel). Sparks fly instantly, and the rest of the film is spent exploring their newfound friendship.
Review: I Love You, Man
02/24/2009 by Leave a Comment
Paul Rudd and Jason Segel star in this solid comedy that is fairly original but lacks something that puts it into that upper pantheon of comedies over the last few years.
Peter Klaven (Rudd) has just got engaged to Zooey (Rashida Jones) when it dawns upon the couple that Peter doesn’t really have a candidate for best man. Labeled as a girlfriend guy by his gay brother Robby (Andy Samberg) Peter, Zooey, Robby, and family decide to set out and get Peter and best man by the wedding day. While Robby tries to teach Peter the art of “meeting” a guy, Peter’s mom tries and set him up on man dates, and Zooey tries and integrates Peter into her friend’s (Jamie Pressly) husband’s (Jon Favreau) circle of friends. And well, things don’t go as smoothly as one would have hoped. Then at Peter’s big home showcase, he is selling Lou Ferrigino’s house, he has an encounter with Sydney (Segel) an eccentric rich divorcee hunter that hops from open house to open house trying to find someone to take home. The two click and they eventually meet up and have a pretty fine time together as a potential ‘romance’ begins to take shape. How this new found male companionship will affect his life and that with those around him is yet to be seen but on his quest to discover a best friend things couldn’t possibly start off better. [Read more...]
Review: Forgetting Sarah Marshall
04/28/2008 by Leave a Comment
Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller have set an early benchmark for comedies this year with the winner that is Forgetting Sarah Marshall!
Peter just got dumped by “sexpot” TV star Sarah Marshall and decides, after a few weeks of promiscuity and wallowing in the remains of his relationship, that he should go to Hawaii to get away from it all. Little does he know that his ex-Sarah Marshall is there as well and she isn’t alone. Marshall’s fling is British pop star Aldous Snow who sings about being “inside of you” and asks his fans to sodomize intolerance. Peter finds a romantic interest [Read more...]
