‘Comedy’ Archives
The Hangover
After this movie won the Golden Globes for best comedy I had to check it out. I have to say I do like it. This is a comedy with a clever plot, as opposed to comedies with a funny concept that are just a series of sketches. Here it is in a nutshell: a group of friends go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, but the morning after they wake up [...]
Funny People
After watching two TV series by Apatow, it made sense to watch his latest movie. Funny People is clearly an Apatow movie: funny but poignant. It's not a series of jokes for the sake of making you laugh. It's a story about a down to earth character that makes jokes for a living. So there are plenty of opportunities to makes us laugh, but there's [...]
Russell Peters
My Canadian friend told me to check out Russell Peters because he was really funny. However not knowing him at all it just wasn't a priority for me. Until one night my friend came to my apartment and we started watching part of his show. In the end we watch almost all of it (minus some parts with swearing, to avoid my son hearing them at 3). He [...]
Up In The Air
This is the critical darling of the year that can be enjoyed by everybody. It's a light comedy that has plenty of drama and seems to have deeper meaning. It has great performances, a popular lead actor (Clooney), pretty women (both young and older). Just the perfect mix. At the heart of it it's about our connection to other people, the [...]
Julie & Julia
Here's another great performance by Meryl Streep, who portrays a non-fictional person Julia Child in Paris, in the 1950s. Her story is only half of the movie, the other half is about Julie Powell (Amy Adams) in present day, who writes a blog about Julia's cookbook. Even though the subject of this story is cooking, it didn't feel boring to me (I [...]
Bruno
I enjoyed Borat especially because I watched it with a couple of friends. But Bruno was a disappointment. Apart from the fact that I watched it by myself, it just wasn't as spontaneous as Borat. Most of the movie is like a normal movie shot with cameras and actors. There are only a few scenes where people are not actors and are simply disgusted [...]
Four Christmases
Romantic comedy, Vince Vaughn, Reese Whitherspoon. Do I need to say anything else? Nothing special about this one, just a typical romantic comedy. It's fine to watch with your partner, it won't stick in your memory for too long. Rating: 2 Stars
The Answer Man
The only reason I watched this movie is the presence of Lauren Graham. I hadn't seen her since the end of the Gilmore Girls show, so I just wanted to check out a recent film of hers. Too bad it was this bad, clichéd story. Jeff Daniels tries his best to bring this character to life, a know-it-all snobbish man who wants to date an innocent [...]
Gigantic
This is a quirky little romantic comedy, that dabbles in surrealism. The story is focused on Brian's dream to adopt a Chinese baby and his relationship with Happy. But there's also a surrealism added in the form of a homeless man who keeps beating Brian on the street. It's never explained if he is real or not, and if not what he represents. [...]
(500) Days of Summer
This is probably my favorite romantic comedy of the year. It's just a very different movie that keeps surprising me. First of all the story is not told linearly, it jumps back and forth between the beginning and after the break up. But that's not just a gimmick, there's a reason for it: Tom is trying to figure out why it didn't work out, and he [...]
Tokyo Godfathers
After watching 2 Satoshi Kon movies, I was eager to watch a third. Unfortunately life go in the way, and now it's been 14 months!! I can't believe it was that long ago, in my mind it felt like a few months. But I finally managed to watch the only movie of his I haven't watched yet. And it might be my favorite. This movie is more grounded than [...]
UP
I came into UP with high expectations, not only due to previous Pixar movies, but also reading the praise from all critics. This time, my expectations were just a bit too high. This is a great movie, I especially loved the first 20 minutes. Everybody's talked about the montage, chronicling the couple's whole life together. And it was a great [...]
The Proposal
Wow, another rom-com with two actors that I don't really care for!! Sandra Bullock's humor is a bit too physical to me, I just don't find her too funny. For some reason I never liked Ryan Johnson, can't really tell why exactly. Is it realistic that the immigration office would go those lengths just to catch a fake marriage? He seemed like a bad [...]
The Ugly Truth
Here's another rom-com, this time the concept is... what is the concept? Let's try: controlling woman finds the perfect man, but changes herself in order to get him. Then realizes that she doesn't want him, she wants someone who loves her for what she is!! Ok, that was long and stupid. That's pretty much what this movie is, stupid. I admit I did [...]
My Life In Ruins
Since I had a week of holiday, I found some romantic movies to watch with my wife. Here's the first one, which was pleasant but very light-hearted. This is actually more of a comedy than a romance, though that element is always present. Nia Vardalos is cute and funny, so I did have a good time with her. I also like Richard Dreyfuss in general, [...]
The Brothers Bloom
Ryan Johnson's first movie (Brick) is one of my favorite little movies of the past few years, so I went into this follow up with high expectations. Luckily I was rewarded (or maybe I'm just too biased). This is a con movie, but more importantly it's a movie about con movies. The difference here is that the con is all about the characters and [...]
Duplicity
This is a nice spy-thriller/romance movie, light but at the same time clever. The two leads are very charismatic ones, so I think they did a good job in casting this movie. The spy plot is very interesting and has many twists and turns. First we think that Ray (Clive Owen) and Claire (Julia Roberts) meet by chance a few years after their first [...]
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
This is a twist on the Christmas Carol story, adapting it to a hopeless playboy who doesn't believe in marriage. I must say the idea is interesting, but the execution is nothing too special. I never liked Matthew McConaughey, though I guess we're not supposed to like him here at first. Jennifer Garner on the other hand is a favorite of mine, [...]
Office Space
This is one of those movies that I've heard about but never got to see it. I was not working when this came out, so I am glad I got to see it now. There are many scenes that are obviously taken from real life in an office (the printer constantly not working, the cubes etc...). So I definitely identified with those. When Peter is hypnotized he [...]
Management
As romantic comedies goes, this one was funny at times. That's due in large part to Steve Zahn's performance as Mike the loser. I've liked Jennifer Aniston since her days in Friends, but I don't see her broadening her acting beyond these romantic comedies. The scene in her hotel room where Sue lets Mike touch her butt is funny and odd. There [...]