Ed's Review Dot Com

Pantelion Films, 3Pas Studios,

Eugenio Derbez, Salma Hayek, Rob Lowe, Kristen Bell, Raquel Welch, Rob Corddry, Rob Riggle, Raphael Alejandro, Mckenna Grace, Rob Huebel, Linda Lavin, Michaela Watkins, Michael Cera

Maximo (Eugenio Derbez) figures out early in life that working is not for him. He wants to be a gigolo and have rich women take care of him. But when his wealthy widow, Millicent (Linda Lavin) throws him out when she falls for a younger guy, Maximo is out. With no where to go he sets off to his sister Sara (Salma Hayek) to move in with her. But he soon sets his eye on another catch, Celeste (Raquel Welch) but he’s going to have to work really hard because he has some competition, and he’s not getting any younger.

This is a light and breezy Latin comedy, but I didn’t find it overwhelmingly funny. Yeah, the jokes are there, but it feels like most of it are inside jokes and you’re not in on the jokes. I suspect Latin folks would really enjoy this, mostly because they probably know someone like Max and Sara and can really relate. It was okay, and I suspect it was entertaining enough. I didn’t really get into it a lot, and I can’t highly recommend this, but it’s not really that bad. Rent it if you want. There are a lot of surprise guest shots in the movie, and it’s kind of fun to see them and try to figure out who they are.

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FROSCH Entertainment, Bluegrass Films, DreamWorks,

Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, T.J. Miller, Jillian Bell, Vanessa Bayer, Courtney B. Vance, Rob Corddry, Abbey Lee, Sam Richardson, Jamie Chung, Randall Park, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Karan Soni, Kate McKinnon, Jennifer Aniston

Clay (T.J.Miller) and Carol Vanstone (Jennifer Anniston) haave inherited their father’s server company, but Carol is acting CEO while Clay is managing their Dad’s flagship store. Carol, though, is very uptight and the complete opposite of Clay. Carol tells them that all spending is frozen and the annual Office Christmas Party has been cancelled and 20% of his staff has to be laid off. Clay’s response is that he’s on the verge of booking a multi-million dollar sale, and Carol agrees that if he pulls that off, the layoffs will be cancelled. But when Clay with his super IT employees Josh (Jason Bateman) and Tracey (Olivia Munn) visit the potential customer he doesn’t seem willing to sign with them. So Clay decides to throw the biggest, craziest, most insane Christmas party in history.

This is a really fun movie that is similar in many ways to a lot of the typical comedy of this genre. It’s got one disaster after another, and is a bit raunchy. There are a ton of other characters which have their own backstory that makes it interesting. A lot of the jokes are based on the tech industry, so I am sure I enjoyed a lot more than my wife and her sister who accompanied me. I thought there was a lot of good humor here. The movie was fast paced, and filled with good performances. And it’s an in theater Christmas themed movie. I really enjoyed it, and thought it was well worth watching. Not since Harold and Kumar’s Christmas has there been a quality, really funny, Christmas theatrical film.

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Escape Artists, LStar Capital, Media Rights Capital,

Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Rob Corddry, Ellie Kemper, Rob Lowe, Jack Black, Randall Park

Annie (Cameron Diaz) and Jay (Jason Segel) were a hot pair in their early days, but 10 years and 2 kids later things have gone stale. They still love each other, but are just too tired for much alone time. They just want to get the spark back, but their secret rendezvous goes wrong a bunch of different ways and they’re about to give up. But then Annie has an idea. Let’s make a home-made sex tape featuring all the positions in the joy of sex in a three hour marathon. But naturally Jay is hesitant to delete it, and his backup software sync’s it along with his music collection, to all their friends. So now they’re on a mission to figure out how to recapture it before anyone sees it.

This is a raunchy romantic comedy featuring two guys who aren’t afraid to let it all hang out. It’s not real naughty, but there’s lots of skin, and some really adult topics, so it’s really worthwhile to respect the R rating this film earned. But for all of us who have seen the years chip away the love life we once knew, we’ll identify with their problem. They are both very comfortable actors, so they fit into the role seamlessly and it seems natural to them. Rob Lowe has a supporting role as a possible future boss to Annie, and he’s mastered the quirky off the wall guy from Parks and Recreation that allows him to really play this unexpected and unpredictable part. You never know what he’s going to come out with next. All in all, it a typical race to stop someone from getting something they shouldn’t that is always pretty much the same. But they really have a lot of fun with this film, it’s obvious, and it’s funnier than most, even if it is a bit racy from time to time. I still enjoyed it, and if you’re comfortable with the R content, I recommend this for a loose and light comedy.

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Darko Entertainment, Principato-Young Entertainment,

Rob Corddry, Leslie Bibb, Keegan Michael Key, Riki Lindhome, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer, Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon

A couple, Jack (Rob Corddry) and Vanessa (Leslie Bibb) move into their new home. Vanessa is very pregnant, and they bought the house at a good price, but that could be because it’s reputed to be the most haunted house in all of New Orleans. The house comes with it’s own demonic curse, and soon Vanessa learns she has twins, but one is a kind and gentle child, and the other is the devil’s child. The family has to call on the elite Vatican exorcism team for all the help they can get.

There have been some great horror and suspense movie satires. I usually really enjoy spoof movies. After all my sense of humor bends hard toward sarcasm, and satire is my cup of tea! I like the Airplane movies. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is probably my favorite film. I sat through the Charlie Sheen parodies, and everything Leslie Nielsen ever made. Police Squad is a personal favorite. But this one was just plain stupid. There wasn’t anything funny about this film. Well, that’s not fair, as there were a few times when I laughed, but there’s a fine line between genius and just plain stupid. It’s like how some SNL skits become classics that endure for generations, and some other ones just make you say, “What were you thinking?”. I don’t know who approved this one, but it’s not very good. The whole thing is mostly silly, and it’s a decent idea that just was executed very badly. If you can imagine about 90 minutes of the killer rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail in his own feature film, that’s about as grabbing as this movie was. It reminds me a little of the old, old Soupy Sales show that instead of being clever and funny, was just plain tedious because he tried way too hard. (Not a Soupy Sales fan. I know you’re out there). I just didn’t think this movie was worth the effort, and I really found myself getting annoyed more and more by this. I felt the story was dumb, the acting was awful, the humor was over the top and not funny, and it wasn’t remotely scary, although they didn’t really try for that. They were too busy slap sticking it up to really have any meat n the story. I recommend you skip this one!

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Paramount Pictures, De Line Pictures,

Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Ed Harris, Ken Jeong, Anthony Mackie, Rob Corddry, Tony Shalhoub

Based on the true story of Miami body builder Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) who felt like he was tired of just trying to get by. He looked at all the good stuff everybody else seemed to have and figured it was a good idea for him to get a piece of it. So he enlisted the help of two of his fellow body builders Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson) and Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) to pull off a kidnapping and extortion plan. Of course, nothing goes right for this bunch of inept guys, and everything that could go wrong does. But one thing you have to give these guys credit for is they’re persistent! The most amazing thing about this hilarious adventure is that it really happened. The statement about truth being stranger than fiction surely applies to this story.

This is a really funny story. I’m not a big fan of Markie Mark, but he really did a good job in this film. This film has a bit of a Monty Python feel to it, although if it was fiction I would probably be complaining that it was too unbelievable. These guys make the Marx Brothers look sane. This is a very funny story, after all. But The Rock is the big surprise in this film. This was something he could sink his teeth into, and here he is, an ex-con, now a Christian, and finally sober, and the other guys pull him into everything that is against what he’s trying to be. His loyalty is tested, and he has some troubling choices to make, but that just adds to the comedy. I think the secret to this movie is director Michael Bay. This is a bit of an unusual film for him, I think he must have enjoyed having this tiny budget, and such a dark story that is so damn funny, to play with, and seeing what he could do with it. Essentially, what he did was bring his style of directing to this comedy and turned it into an “action/comedy” where there is a lot of stuff going on in a really funny way. All in all, it was a funny movie, though these guys did some really sleazy things. It appears they are basically good guys, that got sucked up in this caper simply for a lack of good sense. If you like dark crime comedies, this is a good one, and well worth the time!

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