Comedy – Page 24 – Matthew Liedke on Film

50/50 review

Director:
Jonathan Levine
Cast:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Seth Rogen
Anna Kendrick
Bryce Dallas Howard
Rated R

50/50 follows the story of Adam (Levitt), a 20-something who has a steady job, a girlfriend, a house and keeps himself in shape. However, his life is completely thrown upside down when he goes to the doctor for back pains and discovers he has a rare form of cancer on his spine. After researching about it he discovers his chances are 50/50.

The rest of the film follows his personal journey through his treatment, meetings with a psychologist (Kendrick), dealing with a relationship with his girlfriend Rachel (Howard) and spending time with his friend Kyle (Rogen).

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Crazy Stupid Love review

Director:
Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Cast:
Steve Carell
Ryan Gosling
Julianne Moore
Emma Stone
Analeigh Tipton
Jonah Bobo
Kevin Bacon
Rated: PG-13

Predictable? At times yes, but boy does it work.

Crazy, Stupid, Love follows the character Cal Weaver (Carell), a man who immediately finds out that his wife Emily (Moore) wants a divorce and informs him that she cheated on him with a man named David Lindhagen (Bacon). After finding out, the two split up and Cal lives on his own in an apartment. However, he becomes bored and heads to a local night club and tries to drink his problems away.

While there a young man named Jacob (Gosling), who is a smooth talking ladies man, takes pity on Cal and decides to help him out by getting him into some new clothes and meeting new women. However one woman, Hannah (Stone), a law graduate becomes one girl that Jacob can’t seem to seal the deal on. As the film goes on Cal enjoys his new life of being single a bit, but it eventually leads to things becoming more complicated.

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“No Strings Attached” got it wrong, this got it right.

“Friends With Benefits” follows the story of Dylan (Timberlake), an editor who has just been offered a job as editor for a major magazine. Upon arriving in New York, Dylan meets Jamie (Kunis), who is his sort of temporary agent to help get him the job. Before going to work, Dylan and Jamie spend some time together exploring the city and eventually become good friends.

After Dylan gets the job he settles into the city and continues his friendship with Jamie. Eventually the two get really close however do not want to start a relationship, with both of them having bad break ups in the past. The two then decide to just have casual sex instead of a relationship so they won’t have to worry about having the issues of dating, however this raises come complications through out the film.

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Horrible Bosses review

Director
Seth Gordon
Cast:
Jason Bateman
Jason Sudeikis
Charlie Day
Jennifer Aniston
Colin Farrell
Kevin Spacey
Jamie Fox
Rated: R

One part where this movie failed was making a convincing argument that Jennifer Aniston’s character was really a horrible boss.

The film follows three characters, Nick (Bateman), Kurt (Sudeikis) and Dale (Day). All have fairly average jobs and life would probably be going just smoothly for them in the day-to-day grind of the work place, if not for them having the worst bosses in the world. Nick’s boss Mr. Harkin (Spacey) tricks Nick thinking he’s getting a promotion, Kurt has to deal with his former bosses son Bobby (Farrell) taking over the company and running it into the ground and Dale has the misfortune of having a boss played by Jennifer Aniston who wants to sleep with him when he’s already engaged.

Being completely fed up with their situations in their careers, they decide to take action and hire a hit man to get the job done. They go to a bar in a bad part of town and meet the character Mother Fucker Jones (Fox), a man who says he can get the job done. However they soon find out that Jones just got out of prison and can only be their murder consultant and that they have to pull off the killing on their own.

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Zookeeper review

Director
Frank Coraci
Cast:
Kevin James
Rosario Dawson
Leslie Bibb
Joe Rogan
Rated: PG

Yes, this movie is just as stupid as the trailer makes it out to be.

Zookeeper follows around, not surprisingly, a zookeeper named Griffin (James), a man who is dedicated to his job but also wants to marry his long time girlfriend Stephanie (Bibb), however when she turns him down and breaks up with him, he is left heartbroken and continues his day to day routine for the next five years.

Cut to the present and Griffin is the lead zookeeper and very well liked by the animals and the staff, so things seem to be alright. However, we find out that Griffin may want to leave to work at his brother’s car dealership. As this happens Stephanie comes back into the picture, so the animals of the zoo come around breaking the code that they have to not talk to humans and help Griffin get the girl he’s been wanting. but things get complicated when Griffin starts changing who he is.

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Midnight in Paris review

Director:
Woody Allen
Cast:
Owen Wilson
Rachel McAdams
Tom Hiddleston
Corey Stoll
Marion Cotillard
Rated: PG-13

The artistry of Paris being on full display was expected, the time-travelling was not.

Midnight in Paris follows the character Gil (Wilson), a Hollywood screenwriter who is on vacation in Paris with his fiance Inez (McAdams) and is also in the middle of writing a novel. While the two are scheduled to be married, it is apparent that they have problems, as Gil is usually dragged around the city by Inez and her parents to some of the more dull parts of the city.

However one night Gil finds himself walking the streets of Paris and at midnight, he is taken into an old model car and brought back to the age of the 1920’s. Here, Gil meets famous artists from the time including Ernest Hemmingway (Stoll) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Hiddleston). The rest of the film follows Gil’s mundane life during the day and his exploration of his favorite artists at night.

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Your Highness review

Director:
David Gordon Green
Cast:
Danny McBride
James Franco
Natalie Portman
Justin Theroux
Zooey Deschanel
Rated: R

Your Highness is the latest ‘stoner comedy’ type film to come out, trying to be like other successful films such as “The Pinapple Express.” The story follows the character Thadeous (McBride), a man who is constantly living in the shadow of his older, heroic brother Fabious (Franco). Upon the return of Fabious’ many quests, it is revealed that he has rescued a woman named Belladonna (Deschanel) and plans to marry her. However she is kidnapped by an evil wizard, Leezar (Theroux).

So Fabious has to go on a quest to save her and Thadeous is forced to go along or face banishment. Along the way they are accompanied by Isabel (Portman), a woman warrior who wants to get revenge on Leezar, and a love interest for Thadeous.

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