Tag: Comedy

About Time review

Director:
Richard Curtis
Cast:
Domhnall Gleeson
Rachel McAdams
Bill Nighy
Rated: R

For once we have a time travel movie that isn’t all that confusing.

Tim (Gleeson) is the main character of “About Time.” On his 21st birthday, Tim finds out from his father (Nighy) that his family has the ability to travel backwards in time, but only during one persons life, not being able to travel to a time before the person was born.

Tim soon grasps the opportunities he has with the ability, and it helps him through life as he starts working as a lawyer in London. As time goes on, Tim also meets his true love in Mary (McAdams) and helps the relationship along with his power, however, as he does he learns that he can’t make everything perfect.

Continue reading “About Time review”

Last Vegas review

Director:
Jon Turteltaub
Cast:
Michael Douglas
Robert De Niro
Morgan Freeman
Kevin Kline
Mary Steenburgen
Rated: PG-13

Before you ask, no, this is not just a blatant rip off of “The Hangover” with old guys.

“Last Vegas” follows a group of four friends who have known each other for more than 50 years. The group includes Billy (Douglas), Paddy (De Niro), Archie (Freeman) and Sam (Kline). Each one of them is dealing with their own issues in life, Archie has to keep track of pills, Sam feels tired of being around other seniors in Florida and Paddy is still mourning the loss of his wife.

The one that has things going right is Billy, the most successful of the group. Billy plans on getting married to a woman much younger than he is in Las Vegas and wants to hold a bachelor party with all of his buddies.

Continue reading “Last Vegas review”

Don Jon review

Director:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Cast:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Scarlett Johansson
Julianne Moore
Tony Danza
Rated: R

Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes his directing debut in “Don Jon” and pulls it off just about perfectly.

“Don Jon” is the nickname given to the title character. Jon is a young man living in New Jersey who has developed a routine which he follows every week. Jon goes to the night clubs, sleeps with women, attends church and confessional and more often than not ends up watching porn.

That routine becomes shaken up a bit when he meets and starts a relationship with Barbara (Johansson). Jon starts to believe that Barbara could be the right one for him, yet as time goes on he starts questioning the relationship. When he starts taking a college class at the request of Barbara, he meets a woman named Esther (Moore) who ends up helping him a bit with his relationship situation.

Continue reading “Don Jon review”

The World’s End review

Director Edgar Wright has once again delivered a great genre film that doubles as a comedy in “The World’s End.”

The movie follows Simon Pegg as the character Gary King. Gary and his best friends originate from a small town in England and when they were younger, they attempted a pub crawl called “The Golden Mile.” The crawl has a total of 12 pubs, the last one being The World’s End, however, the group never made it there.

Fast forward to the present and Gary is the least successful out of his friends and is struggling through life. To recapture the good times, he gets his old group back together, which includes Andy, played by Nick Frost, Oliver, played by Martin Freeman, Peter played by Eddie Marsan and Steven played by Paddy Considine and once again attempt the Golden Mile.

Continue reading “The World’s End review”

Kick-Ass 2 review

Looks like Kick-Ass 2 caught a severe case of “sequelitis.”

“Kick-Ass 2” follows the title character super hero who, under the mask, is high school student Dave Lizewski (Taylor-Johnson). The film picks up two years after the first movie where Dave decided to give up being Kick-Ass. However, as time goes on he hears the calling to return to crime fighting.

To improve his skills, he seeks the help of Mindy Macready (Moretz), who goes by her alter-ego Hit-Girl. Mindy helps train Dave for a while, however, circumstances force her to give up crime fighting. In order to continue patrolling the streets, Dave joins a group of amateur super heroes led by a man named Colonel Stars and Stripes (Carrey).

Trouble starts brewing though as the villain’s son from the first film, Chris (Mintz-Plasse), decides to seek revenge by building an evil army.

Continue reading “Kick-Ass 2 review”

We’re the Millers review

Director:
Rawson Marshall Thurber
Cast:
Jason Sudeikis
Jennifer Aniston
Will Poulter
Emma Roberts
Ed Helms
Nick Offerman
Kathryn Hahn
Rated: R

The Millers have a long way to go before being on the level of the Griswolds.

David Clark (Sudeikis) is a pot dealer who is living in an average apartment and going day to day without any real plan. One evening when returning home, David gets into a series of events that ends up with him getting robbed. Because of this, he has to meet with drug kingpin Brad (Helms) who he owes money to.

Brad offers David a way out and to make some money on the side, by smuggling some marijuana across the Mexican border. David agrees and to do so comes up with the plan to hire three others to act as a happy family on vacation. He ends up recruiting a stripper named Rose (Aniston), an awkward teen named Kenny (Poulter) and a runaway named Casey (Roberts).

Continue reading “We’re the Millers review”

The Way Way Back review

Directors:
Nat Faxon
Jim Rash
Cast:
Steve Carell
Toni Collette
Sam Rockwell
Liam James
AnnaSophia Robb
Rated: PG-13

Ah, the good ole’ coming of age genre.

“The Way Way Back” follows 14-year-old Duncan (James), a socially awkward teen who is on a summer vacation trip with his mother Pam (Toni Collette) and Pam’s boyfriend Trent (Carell). Duncan doesn’t exactly get along with Trent very well and keeps to himself for much of the start to his summer at a beach house.

The mundane nature of Duncan’s summer comes to a screeching hult, though, when he meets Owen (Rockwell), a man who works at the local water park. Owen is a carefree, fun loving person working with a staff who invites Duncan to get a job at the Water Park as well. Duncan starts working there and it becomes an escape from his less than stellar life at the beach house.

Continue reading “The Way Way Back review”

2 Guns review

Director:
Baltasar Kormakur
Cast: R
Denzel Washington
Mark Wahlberg
Paula Patton
Bill Paxton
Rated:

Denzel Washington sure did make a nicer partner to work with here than in “Training Day.”

Director Baltasar Kormakur’s new film “2 Guns” follows a pair of men, Bobby (Washinton) and Stig (Wahlberg), who appear at first glance to be criminals. The two decide to rob a bank and after they do, it’s discovered that both aren’t who they said they were.

Bobby turns out to be a DEA agent and Stig happens to be a naval intelligence officer. To make matters worse, they find out that the money they stole, both doing so as part of their own investigations, turns out to belong to crooked members of the CIA. The lead CIA agent, Earl (Paxton) is now after the both of them, as well as other forces out to get the money they took.

Continue reading “2 Guns review”

RIPD review

Director:
Robert Schwentke
Cast:
Jeff Bridges
Ryan Reynolds
Kevin Bacon
Mary-Louise Parker
Stephanie Szostak
Rated: PG-13

One positive aspect of the movie? It was only an hour and a half.

“R.I.P.D.” follows the story of Boston cop Nick (Reynolds) who one day gets killed in the line of duty. His soul is then immediately sent to a heavenly police station and is told by the chief played by Mary-Louise Parker that he has skills that they could use.

Nick is then officially made an officer for the Rest in Peace Department and is partnered with a man named Roy (Bridges) who died in the days of the wild west.

Continue reading “RIPD review”

Grown Ups 2 review

Director:
Dennis Dugan
Cast:
Adam Sandler
Kevin James
Chris Rock
David Spade
Salma Hayek
Maya Rudolph
Rated: PG-13

You can tell a comedy is bad when it produces more sighs than laughs.

“Grown Ups 2” picks up some time after the first movie, and follows Hollywood man Lenny (Sandler) now living with his family in his home town. The movie follows Lenny and his friends Eric (James), Kurt (Rock) and Marcus (Spade) through a day where they plan on having an 80s theme party that night.

That short paragraph is, in truth, the only story going on in “Grown Ups 2.” The movie is more or less connected by a string of subplots that go nowhere and random hijinks between the four leads and their families.

Continue reading “Grown Ups 2 review”