Hollywood loves to make high school sex comedies based (loosely) on classic works of literature. Clueless was adapted from Austen‘s “Emma”, and 10 Things I Hate About You is a retelling of Shakespeare‘s “The Taming of the Shrew”. When these sort of movies happen, we can only hope that the writers involved keep the original [...]
Read More Amanda Bynes, comedy, Easy A, Emma Stone, Patricia Clarkson, PG-13, romance, Stanley Tucci, Thomas Haden Church, willPan-cultural comedic fusion isn’t attained in director Fatih Akin’s most recent film, but it’s a warmly felt and amusing ode to an eatery.
Read More Adam Bousdoukos, comedy, DVD, Fatih Akin, Pheline Roggan, Soul Kitchen, UnratedSteve Carell makes for a very funny sort-of-bad-guy in Despicable Me, a CGI ‘toon with an amusing premise that kids will find irresistible but as a whole isn’t half as funny as it should, or could, have been.
Read More animation, blu-ray, comedy, David, Despicable Me, DVD, family, Jason Segel, PG-, Russell Brand, Steve CarellSo, there I am, quietly minding my own business, providing the kind of customer service to the clientele that has my fellow employees looking upon me as some sort of titan of the industry, when I am approached by the Overseer of the Newsletter. “We need you to write a review of the Will Ferrell [...]
Read More action, blu-ray, comedy, crime, DVD, Eva Mendes, J.D., Mark Wahlberg, Michael Keaton, PG-13, Samuel L. Jackson, Steve Coogan, The Other Guys, The Rock, Will FerrellCyrus got a lot of positive press, and a good number of critics liked it. It has all the ingredients for getting a big thumbs up from me, too, but it just didn’t go down so easily. The directors, brothers Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass, also gave us The Puffy Chair, which was a staff [...]
Read More blu-ray, comedy, Cyrus, drama, DVD, Jay Duplass, John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, joyce, Marisa Tomei, Mark Duplass, R, romanceExit Through the Gift Shop is a new documentary that is not about graffiti. Well, not really anyways. Exit Through the Gift Shop follows obsessive Frenchman, Thierry Guetta, starting the moment he picked up a camera for the first time, till now, where he is transformed from failed documentary filmmaker into failed street artist with [...]
Read More Banksy, comedy, documentary, DVD, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Jeremy, R, Thierry GuettaI love and respect Emma Thompson, and if you do as well, you will approach the Nanny McPhee franchise in the proper spirit. Emma Thompson produces and stars in the original and the sequel as the enigmatic, magical Nanny McPhee (“little ‘c’, big ‘P’”), a nanny in the tradition of Mary Poppins who appears to [...]
Read More comedy, Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor, family, Fantasy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Maggie Smith, Nanny McPhee Returns, PG-, Ralph Fiennes, RobinOnce upon a time there was an animated ogre named Shrek. He was in a movie that made a lot of money, so its studio said, what the heck? There are enough ideas for a few more rounds. We’ll make some sequels and try not to run the idea into the ground. They came close, [...]
Read More adventure, animation, comedy, David, DVD, Eddie Murphy, PG-, Shrek, Shrek Forever AfterCouch-jumping theatrics aside, Tom Cruise is still a movie star, and also the main reason to see Knight and Day, a breezy, Hitchcockian action comedy co-starring Cameron Diaz that nails the action stuff but veers a little off course when it comes to the comedy.
Read More action, adventure, Cameron Diaz, comedy, David, James Mangold, Jordi Molla, Knight and Day, Marc Blucas, Paul Dano, Peter Sarsgaard, PG-13, Tom CruiseGoing the Distance was just an okay romantic comedy. I didn’t love it by any means. I didn’t feel any great chemistry between the stars, Drew Barrymore and Justin Long, even though they have been an on-again, off-again couple for a while. I really liked Drew in He’s Just Not That Into You (a much [...]
Read More blu-ray, comedy, Drew Barrymore, DVD, Going the Distance, joyce, Judd Apatow, Justin Long, Nanette Burstein, R, Robert Evans, romance