Ed's Review Dot Com

Apatow Productions, Forty Productions,

Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Megan Fox, Albert Brooks, Jason Segel, John Lithgow, Robert Smigel, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Annie Mumolo, Charlyne Yi, Tatum O’Neal

Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) are turning 40, and Debbie is especially against the idea so she resorts to lying about her age. The two are growing apart, and are having all kinds of challenges with each other, while trying to deal with two teenage daughters and a father who wants to be close to borrow money all the time, and a father who is estranged and now finally trying to come back into life. Financial problem, in-law problems, child problems, and relationship problems abound in this funny “coming of old-age” film by Judd Apatow, as a “sort of” sequel to Knocked Up.

This is a film that may bore the crap out of young people who never plan on becoming old someday, but will strike fear into those who are approaching 40 and bring back fond memories of those who have long passed the half century mark. This is a funny film with gag after gag, and although Paul Rudd can be really annoying sometimes, it works for this film. You can see why Debbie is going nuts trying to deal with him, but she’s far from perfect either. A comedy romance, heavy on the comedy, and light on the romance, we know these two really love each other, but have just forgotten how to with all the day to day strife and problems. This rings so many bells for me, that I can see myself in this thing over and over again. It’s like a biography of all married couples. The humor is somewhat raunchy, but it’s adult fare. It’s not disgusting or gross at all, but it is about turning 40 after all, so the kids probably won’t be interested anyway. But for those of us old people, it was a really funny film, and a great rental for a nice relaxing evening at home. With the other cast members like Megan Fox, Jason Segal, Albert Brooks, Melissa McCarthy, Annie Mumolo, John Ligthgow, and more, the laughs really pile up. This is a good comedy.

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Locomotive, Points West Pictures, Red Granite Pictures,

Adam Scott, Jennifer Westfeldt, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Chris O’Dowd, Megan Fox, Edward Burns, Lee Bryant, Michael Dean, Ilana Levine, Derek Cecil

Two best friends, Jason Fryman (Adam Scott) and Julie Keller (Jennifer Westfeldt) are happy just being friends. But both see an advantage to having a baby, but don’t want to mess up their friendship with romance. So they decide to have a baby as partners, and to share the responsibilities without the hassles of romance. Looking at their friends who are married, none of them seem to be really happy. But when Jason meets a really perfect girl in Mary Jane (Megan Fox) and Julie decides it’s time to settle down with her new flame, complications in the arrangement pop up all over the place. Is it right to raise a child without a family? Can child rearing be a business venture? These questions are answered with lots of humor and comedy mixed in for good measure.

I was not highly impressed with this film, but at the same time, it wasn’t all that bad. This is definitely a rental, no doubt about it, but as a simple date night DVD, it’s not half bad. The acting is decent and the dynamics of the married folks (especially between husband Jon Hamm and wife Kristin Wiig) is pretty funny. I was amused throughout the film, but it was never over the top funny. Basically it’s pretty good. The timing between these two is really awful, and every time one of them nearly gets it together, the other one screws up. This gives us a lot to watch and enjoy and a lot of realization that life isn’t all that easy. The casting is really well done, and the script isn’t bad, so it’s a nice little romantic comedy that is a different look at the situation that I’ve seen before, and I think it’s well worth the price of a rental. I enjoyed it.

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Four by Two Films, Kanzaman,

Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, Jason Mantzoukas, John C. Reilly, B.J. Novak, Chris Elliott, Fred Armisen, J.B. Smoove, Megan Fox

General Aladeen (Sasha Baron Cohen), dictator of the Republic of Wadiya, loves to oppress his people and fight democracy. His whole purpose in life seems to be to bring attention to himself, and life a life of luxury taking advantage of all the benefits of capitalism without any of the work. Rich oil reserves set him up for a life on Easy Street. But some people would like to end his role, so while in the US on a visit, his all female crack lifeguard force protects him for all the bad things that could be coming his way including a usurper and those who want him dead.

Has Sasha Cohen jumped the shark? [For the meaning of this term, click here.] In my opinion, he is a has-been. Sorry, but he has attempted to offend everyone possible, and there’s no one else to pick on, so he’s back making fun of the Arab’s again. There are about 2 1/2 decent gags in this film, and all of those were in the preview. I was actually pretty anxious to see this film, and almost went to the theater to catch it so I wouldn’t have to wait. Boy am I glad I didn’t burn my hard earned cash on this waste of time. It just really seemed pointless to me. Naturally he has to pull out the body double bit, all the way back from Mark Twain’s “The Prince and the Pauper”. It’s not very unique here, it’s the same-old same-old.

I like slap stick, and I love puns and verbal play. I enjoy impressions and character sketches. But there’s really nothing here we haven’t seen over and over again from this guy. His stunt with Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet at the Oscar’s was dumb and not funny, and the film is even worse. Trust me that “sight gag” is hysterical compared to most of the stuff on this film. I was really sorely disappointed and very, very bored throughout the whole thing. I have to say, I was impressed with his first film, and the second one, though not nearly as good has some really funny stuff in it and it was over the top offensive. This one is very stale, and it just annoying. Woody Allen did this kind of stuff even better way back in the 70’s. If you haven’t been sucked in to this yet, please avoid it. If you go ahead, don’t blame me, cause I warned you. This guy needs to come up with something new. This isn’t it.

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Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Mad Chance

Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, John Gallagher, Jr., Tom Wopat, Michael Shannon, Wes Bently, Julia Jones

Jonah Hex (Brolin) is a scarred bounty hunter with warrants on his own head.  He’s on the run, when the US makes him an offer of freedom from the charges in return for stopping a terrorist who is about to attempt to wreak havoc in the nation.   Turnbull (John Malkovich) is the one who murdered Jonah’s family while Jonah was made to watch.  This is what disfigured Jonah in the first place.  Turnbull faked his own death, but joined with a bunch of Conferederate supporters to try to attack and punish the union.  Hex has to stop them before July 4th.

I really did not enjoy this movie in the least.  It is based on a comic book, and I must say that I’m not typically a comic book movie fan, but this one was particularly BAD in my opinion.  There was hardly any story and everything was really ho-hum.  Megan Fox was especially awful.  Her performance was like a high school play.  I think Josh Brolin tried hard, but his speaking due to the disfigurement of his face made him really hard to understand like someone talking with lockjaw.  The worst part is though that I could just not keep my attention on the story.  It was so dull that I found myself think of other stuff almost constantly.   I was really disappointed in this film.  Some users are talking about the worst movie of the year.  Well, it certainly, to me, was the worst with the caliber of stars that were in this film.   I just can’t figure out how it got released like this. The movie can never really decide what kind of movie it was. Disjointed at best, and just not very good. I’d say skip this one unless you’re a fan of the comic book version, although I’m not sure how well they did in capturing the comics either.

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