Currently browsing the "Comedy" category.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting

I wasn’t expecting much from What to Expect When You’re Expecting, and it’s a good thing because this movie really doesn’t deliver. It’s one of those movies that suffers from too many plot lines and too many stars — Jennifer Lopez, Dennis Quaid, Cameron Diaz, Chris Rock, Chace Crawford, just to name a few. Based loosely on the best-selling pregnancy manual, the movie focuses on five couples who are expecting. Four of them are in Atlanta and one is in Los Angeles but of course they are all somehow connected. (Frankly, we could have done without at least two of the couples.) Throw in the gang of park-walking dudes/daddy support group led by Rock and it’s all just too much going on.

The Five-Year Engagement

The Five-Year Engagement picks up where most rom-coms leave off — with the proposal. Tom (Jason Segel) pops the question to Violet (Emily Blunt) exactly a year after they meet at a New Year’s Eve party. But it doesn’t go exactly as planned. Tom plans to surprise her with a ring on the deck of the restaurant where he works. But Violet objects so much to making a stop on their way to a party that Tom pulls over the car and confesses the whole plan. And thus begins their long and winding trip to the altar. But is their story engaging enough to make it worth a trip to the theater?

21 Jump Street

Okay, this one is really quite simple. 21 Jump Street is cheesy, dorky and crude. But it’s also kinda funny. So if you’re a fan of Harold and Kumar-type humor, then chances are you’ll enjoy this campy, satirical reboot of the ’80 TV show that put Johnny Depp on the map. If you’ve never heard of Jump Street – or you can’t stand H&K – then skip this one for sure. And if you’re thinking of taking the kids on a nostalgic trip down memory lane ’cause the tv show represented mostly good, clean drama (at least in the early years), then be advised: this movie is an action-comedy that more than earns its R rating. In other words- it’s definitely not for the pre-teen crowd.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen may sound like a boring documentary, but it’s actually a rather charming chick flick that will likely need strong word of mouth to expand its audience beyond the indie/art house crowd. So check it out and talk it up! Trust me, there’s a strong chance you’ll like it, even if you can’t find Yemen on a map or couldn’t care less about fly fishing or the migration patterns and ecological needs of salmon.

Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria, The Devil Wears Prada) plays Harriet, a British public relations executive who is given carte blanche to help a wealthy sheik realize his dream of bringing salmon fishing to the desert. She turns to the UK’s leading fisheries expert, Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor) for help, but he finds the entire project completely absurd. So does the British government – until the Prime Minister’s press secretary (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) decides that the salmon project is just what the government needs to divert attention from another Middle East ‘project’ that isn’t going so well – the war in Afghanistan.

This Means War

This Means War could ignite a battle among critics – and debates among friends- because it’s not a great movie by any stretch, but it doesn’t suck either. It’s fine February fluff that’s part ‘buddy movie’ and part ‘chick flick’… part action-adventure-spy-drama  and part romantic comedy. If the combination doesn’t appeal, then skip it. But if you’re looking for a good date movie or compromise among friends, then consider putting this one on the table.

Chris Pine (Star Trek, Unstoppable) and Tom Hardy (Inception,Warrior) play CIA agents whose brotherly bond is tested when they fall for the same girl, played by chick-flick veteran Reese Witherspoon (Water for Elephants, Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama). She, in turn, falls for both of them – unaware that they know each other and are using the tools of their trade to surveil and sabotage her romantic encounters.

Joyful Noise

Joyful Noise is full of, well, joyful noise – at least when the music is playin’. Unfortunately, the movie slows down quite a bit between numbers. In other words, you have to be willing to forgive a heaping spoonful of preachy dialogue and contrived plot to truly enjoy the show. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a sweet, warm-hearted flick that should satisfy fans of the music competition genre (i.e. Gleeks). It’s just not as good as I hoped or expected it to be. I blame the trailer, which gives up all the best lines and high notes.

Young Adult

Young Adult has been out for a little while now, but it’s definitely worth seeing if it’s still in a theater near you or renting when it becomes available. Just be forewarned it is a dark comedy, emphasis on dark. Seriously, from the trailers, I expected this movie to be funnier. They’re totally marketing this one as a comedy. But it’s much deeper and more cynical than the trailer suggests. Not that it’s a bad thing. It just wasn’t what I thought I was going to see.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

They’re baaack! Holmes and Watson (Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law) pick up slightly after we last saw them in the first Sherlock Holmes. Dr. Watson is about to be married, and Holmes is still not entirely happy about it. And meanwhile, bombs are going off all over Europe, and while everyone else is blaming it on anarchists, Sherlock knows that it has something to do with his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris). He just has to put the pieces together, and he is willing to play Moriarty’s extreme body-count cat and mouse game if necessary, even if it means ruining Watson’s honeymoon.

New Year’s Eve

I just re-read my review of Garry Marshall’s easy breezy chick flick of last year, Valentine’s Day, and guess what? I could easily just change out the holiday – and some of the names from the lengthy A-list cast – and present the exact same review. In fact, just for fun, that’s what I’m gonna do! So here goes, with only slight [modifications]:

Garry Marshall is brilliant. He made a mildly entertaining movie with an A-List cast and a name that virtually guarantees it a place in holiday rerun history. [New Year’s Eve] is like Crash-light. Really, really, really light. It follows a bunch of folks whose lives intersect in various ways as they [embrace, reject, and reflect on all that is New Year’s Eve as the ball is about to drop in New York City].

The Sitter

The Sitter is basically an R-rated re-interpretation of the 1987 classic Adventures in Babysitting. The original featured a reluctant babysitter taking her charges on an adventure through the streets of Chicago in an attempt to help a friend in need. The Sitter features Jonah Hill as Noah Griffith, a lazy college dropout who takes his three troubled charges on an adventure through the streets of New York – in an attempt to score some drugs and get laid. It actually sounds worse than it is. Noah is a total shlub but he generally means well. And by movie’s end, valuable lessons are learned by all.