Tag: Comedy

Frozen review

Director:
Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
Cast:
Kristen Bell
Idina Menzel
Jonathan Groff
Josh Gad
Santino Fontana
Rated: PG
Trailer

Disney’s has made another classic in “Frozen.”

The movie is built on two intertwined character arcs, with the story following the sisters Anna (Bell) and Elsa (Menzel). The plot begins by showing that Elsa has the power to create and manipulate ice. Because of the lack of control over her abilities, her parents decide it’s best for her to hide them from the world, including her sister. After the death of their parents, the movie moves forward to the day of Elsa’s coronation as queen.

Everything seems alright at the coronation for a while, that is until Anna, being the more free spirit that she is, makes a bold announcement that doesn’t sit too well with Elsa. The whole ordeal causes Elsa to reveal her power and flee the kingdom. In the process of running away she freezes the entire land in the middle of summer. To end the cold spell, Anna decides to confront her sister and get her to end the winter that now exists. Along the way she is joined by an ice seller named Kristoff (Groff) and his reindeer as well as a living snowman named Olaf (Gad).

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The Best Man Holiday review

Director:
Malcolm D. Lee
Cast:
Morris Chestnut
Taye Diggs
Terrence Howard
Monica Calhoun
Sanaa Lathan
Rated: R

So much drama in one movie.

Director Malcolm Lee helmed “The Best Man Holiday,” the sequel to his 1999 film “The Best Man.” The film starts with following the main character Harper (Diggs), an author who is having a case of writer’s block right around the time of the Christmas season. When the festive holiday finally arrives, Harper and his wife are invited for a big Christmas party weekend at the home of his former friend Lance (Chestnut).

The first movie revolved around the drama of Harper and Lance and Lance’s wife Mia (Calhoun) and it picks up again here. On top of that, are the many subplots surrounding the rest of the other friends of Lance and Mia’s who are invited to the party. From there, hi-jinx ensue.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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