The Hangover

How do three grown men (well, actually 4) get so drunk that none of them remember the night before? That was my first thought when seeing the trailer for the Hangover. It is answered in the movie and it does make great sense. I should have guessed it.

How do you top Old School's lightning in a bottle of bawdy comedy? You put together a team of guys who have been steadily gaining steam over the years. Bradley Cooper: Wet Hot American Summer. Need I say more? Don't remember him? He gets buggered by Michael Ian Black in the sport shed. Midnight Meat Train? Terrible title; pretty bad movie, pretty good gore. He's the best thing about it (Vinnie Jones coming in second). 

Ed Helms? Jumping from the Daily Show to what was basically the Dwight of Stamford's branch and making the character his own. At this point, you don't remember a time when the 'Nard Dog was not on the show. That's impressive.

Zach. Oh Zach. Who let the dogs out indeed? Anyone remember his talk show on Vh1? I remember the commercials, does that count?

It comes out next week. Go see it if you find yourself at the picture place.

Did you enjoy it?
Yes.

Would you see it in theaters again?
Yes.

Would you rent it?
Yes.

Would you buy it?
Yes.

Would you watch it if you saw it was on TV?
Yes. It remains to be seen at what point this movie will stop being funny to me.

Adventureland

When I heard about this movie I was hoping against hope that this was a reference to the Altoona, IA amusement park. Either shot there or basis there. Sadly, it was not. Even without my home state namesake I still wanted to see this. Heder and Wiig in support roles. Some dude that looks like Dwight from the Office singing Rush in the trailer(see previous post). Ryan Reynolds. The kid from the AT&T commercials (but they're from September!). I could keep going. The guy behind Superbad. Anyways, it had a lot going for it.

But here is another example of a movie I respect more than I enjoy. It's very real world and grounded. But the lack of a main driving conflict brings the movie to a halt. Or not even a halt, just a scattershot of directions. Is he supposed to be with her? Is she really in love with someone else? Is anyone going to fight? What is going on? Why didn't we refrigerate these corn dogs.

I would say this is the flipside of the coin with Nick & Nora. That movie sucked just enough, Adventureland was just entertaining enough.

Did you enjoy it?

Yes.

Would you see it in theaters again?
No.

Would you rent it?
No.

Would you buy it?
No.

Would you watch it if you saw it was on TV?

Yes.

Fired Up (aka FU)

What can I say about FU? It's a movie about high school kids looking to get laid. Is it wholly unbelievable? Yes. Do they cheat out to talk to each other whilst facing the camera? Yes. Is it funny? Yes. Is there ample nudity? Nope. Its basically an American Pie light. The main characters really play off each other well. One guy was Hunter on the Office. The other has been in NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE and Tru Calling. There is no confusion that they're doing Shakespeare here. But its a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes.

Did you enjoy it?

Yes.

Would you see it in theaters again?
No.

Would you rent it?
Possibly.

Would you buy it?
No.

Would you watch it if you saw it was on TV?

Yes.

Fanboys

Part of the trade off in seeing He's Just Not That Into You was that my girlfriend would come see this movie with me. You can't really tell from the poster here, but at the bottom it says "Coming to Our Galaxy 2007". Well, that didn't really happen. But it did get here. The big controversy with this film was that the Weinsteins were test screening it for so long. There is a plotline in the movie about one of the guys having cancer. Some versions didn't have that plotline at all. The final version that came out had what I would call "mild" cancer. Not the full storyline but it was present.

Its a road trip movie about friends going to Skywalker Ranch to see Episode One (the movie is set in 1999). As a Star Wars fan it had some cool easter eggs here and there. Overall, I was disappointed. That might also have come from the build up for literally years waiting for it to be released.

Did you enjoy it?

Yes.

Would you see it in theaters again?

No.

Would you rent it?

Yes.

Would you buy it?
No. Maybe to have as part of the cult collection. "Oh, you've never heard of it? Let me talk about it for the next 30 minutes."

Would you watch it if you saw it was on TV?

Maybe once. If they do 80's HBO and air it every 4 hours for a month, then no.

He's Just Not That Into You

Taken from the "self help" book comes the movie version. It goes back to the classic branding. Lets take a book that women love written by a male comedian with a soul patch and have it star a lot of people. I call it Woody Allen for dummies.

Let's just get to the rating questions:

Did you enjoy it?

Eh.

Would you see it in theaters again?

NO.

Would you rent it?
No.

Would you buy it?
No.

Would you watch it if you saw it was on TV?

No.