Movie Reviews: Bridesmaids, Something Borrowed

Bridesmaids
Starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne
Written by Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo
Directed by Paul Feig

Story: Annie's best friend, Lillian, is getting married, and asks Annie to be her Maid of Honor. However, Lillian's new friend, Helen, feels she is better suited for the job.

Review: I had high hopes going in, because I liked the director and producer. (Judd Apatow and Paul Feig created Freaks and Geeks together.) But I don't really like Kristen Wiig on SNL, and it seemed like she had a lot of input on the making of Bridesmaids. After seeing it, I think Wiig might be better suited to the big screen rather than the small. Her timing and mannerisms don't seem so off when she has a three dimensional character to work with instead of a five minute sketch. She's in every scene and carries the movie well. Even the romance between her and a highway patrolman is funny and well played. The supporting characters are all excellent, especially Melissa McCarthy as Lillian's future sister-in-law, Megan. She nearly steals every scene she's in, and remember to stay for the beginning part of the credits to see the Hungry Bear.

Comparable Movies: The Hangover is the easiest one to compare, but I think it has more in common with The 40 Year Old Virgin.

Rating: **** 1/2 out of 5

Great romantic comedy, and not just for girls.





Somthing Borrowed
Starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Kate Hudson, John Krasinski, Colin Egglesfield
Written by Jennie Snyder
Directed by Luke Greenfield

Story: Rachel has an affair with her childhood friend's fiancee, Dex. But it's not so bad because they had crushes on each other in college, but never hooked up until 2 months before his wedding.

Review: Just an awful, awful, awful movie. Not one good thing to say about this one. It's supposed to be a comedy, but I didn't laugh once. It's supposed to have some drama and romance, but I hated everyone in it. I thought I had seen the worst movie of the year when I saw Drive Angry 3D, but Something Borrowed now has taken the lead. If you have a date or want to see a good romantic comedy, go see Bridesmaids. It's better in every way.

Comparable Movies: Love, Actually. The Proposal. Any romantic comedy that made you want to put out your eyes.

Rating: 0 out of 5

BARF!

May the Force be with you,

CHUD

Movie Review: Thor

Thor
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins
Written by Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Don Payne
Directed by Kenneth Branagh

Story: Thor, the God of Thunder, is exiled to Earth by his Father, Odin. There he meets an astrophysicist and must prove he is worthy to carry the Hammer of Thor.

Review: Chris Hemsworth is the reason to see this movie. He is excellent in every scene, and makes a pompous, brash, and arrogant character likable. He really does carry the entire movie on his back. Natalie Portman is acting like she did in Star Wars, Kat Dennings is annoying as her sidekick, and Thor's bros in arms are just boring. But Anthony Hopkins and Stellan Skaarsgard do good work. The action scenes are few and far between, and most of it is CG. I'm ragging on this a little bit too much, but I did like it a lot. When the best part of your movie is the lead character that's in every scene I can look past some wooden acting from the supporting cast. It's just that with a few better performances and some more character back story this could have been great.

Comparable Movies: This fits right in with the Marvel Universe movies (Iron Man, Hulk). So if you like those, you'll probably enjoy this, too.

Rating: *** 1/2 out of 5

I saw it in 2D, so maybe I was missing out on some of the 3D coolness.

May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Preview of May Movies

Yay! Summer movie season is here! Rejoice!

May 6th
Thor - Kenneth Branagh wouldn't be my first choice for a comic book, action movie, but early reviews have been positive. I really like how all of the Marvel Universe movies are intertwined.

Something Borrowed - Maybe, maybe not. It really depends on if I'm still on pace for 100 movies. Looks pretty terrible though.

Jumping the Broom - See above.

May 13th
Bridesmaids - The Hangover: Bachelorette Party Edition.

Priest - Silly vampire hunter movie. I get to see Paul Bettany channel his inner Buffy and kill some vamps. Sounds like fun.

May 20th
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - I doubt they'll recapture the energy and fun of the first movie, but hopefully a bit closer then the first two sequels.

May 27th
The Hangover Part II - Hopefully they have some new material for the sequel and not just a rehash of the first movie. From the previews, I'm not optimistic. Will still be funny, but not as a great as the first.

Kung Fu Panda 2 - The first was good, but with Dreamworks I'll always be wary after Shrek 2.


Not a lot of movies, so I'll probably have to see some awful shit to keep pace. But I love the summer tent poles. The Wolf Pack is back! Kick Ass!

May the Force be with you,

CHUD

Movie Review: Scream 4

Scream 4
Starring Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin
Written by Kevin Williamson
Directed by Wes Craven

Story: That crazy Ghostface shows up again to kill attractive high schoolers and Neve Campbell.

Review: Scream was my favorite horror movie when I was growing up, and was the first horror movie I saw in the theater, so I have a soft spot for the series. There's a lot less tongue-in-cheek humor in Scream 4 than in the third movie, which is a welcome return to normal. Scream 3 was almost a parody of the first two movies, but Scream 4 is a true sequel to the first two movies. Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox reprise their roles and give respectable performances. The new cast members (Panettiere, Roberts, Culkin) do a nice job too. But I really liked Erik Knudsen as the horror film geek/blogger Robbie Mercer. He basically takes the Jamie Kennedy role from the first three films, and explains the rules for the new movie. Scream 4 feels a little bit rushed in its pacing. There's too many characters introduced and I didn't feel any emotional attachment to any of the characters that are sliced an diced. I think the series needs to leave the original cast behind and introduce a completely new cast for Ghostface to terrorize. After reintroducing the original guys and gals there's not enough screentime left to show the new cast, and get to know them.

Comparable Movies: It's #4 in the series, so you should know if you like this type a movie or not. I like the fact that it's a slasher movie instead of the usual torture/horror movie (Saw series).

Rating: *** out of 5

May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Movie Review: Rio

Rio
Starring the voices of Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Jemaine Clement, George Lopez, Jamie Foxx, will.i.am
Written by Don Rhymer, Joshua Sternin, Jeffrey Ventimilia, and Sam Harper
Directed by Carlos Saldanha

Story: A domesticated bird, Blu, is taken to Rio De Janeiro to screw the last female of his species.

Review: Another 3D animated movie to suck the money out of parents wallets. Rio is just meh. Who cares? You'll leave the theater and have forgotten the most of the movie by the time you start your car. There's a few funny lines, and some pretty cool animations, but nothing that you haven't seen before. I was a little weirded out by Linda's relationship with Blu. Nobody should love their pet that much. She trained him to help with breakfast, doing chores, and working around her bookshop. What else did she train him to do? And wouldn't you know, she falls for the guy that imitates birds to communicate with them. I think there's some pretty freaky shit going on in that household.

Comparable Movies: Didn't actually see either, but it seems to be a mash up of Alpha and Omega and Madagascar. There's two animals forced to mate with each other and funny monkeys.

Rating: * 1/2 out of 5

Nothing new here. I'm sure little kids will love it, but if you don't have kids just wait for the next Pixar movie to come out.

May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Movie Review: Fast Five

Fast Five
Starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, The Rock
Written by Chris Morgan
Directed by Justin Lin

Story: Dominic Toretto and Brian O'Connor are fugitives from the US Government. The Rock chases them to Rio de Janeiro as they try to rob $100 million from the biggest crimelord in Rio.

Review: The action is really stepped up in Fast Five compared to the first four Fast and the Furious movies. It's not a smart action movie, but it is big. Perhaps the most ambitious action film since Live Free or Die Hard. Like Die Hard 4 though, big action doesn't make a good movie. Sure it's fun, but the stunts are so unrealistic that it's more funny than good. Same with the acting, more funny than good. Everything in between car chases and fist fights is cringe-worthy. Speaking of fight scenes, The Rock and Vin Diesel have one of the best brawls ever put on film.

Comparable Movies: This could be Bad Boys 3 if they had put Will Smith and Martin! in it. Big car chases, gun fights in ghettos, girls in itsy-bitsy bikinis, and lots of male bonding. Plus add a little Ocean's Eleven in there, too.

Rating: **** out of 5

The acting and writing deserves 1 star, but this might have the best action scenes of the entire year. Definitely worth seeing in the theater on a big screen and big sound. Don't worry if you haven't seen the first four films, because there is no storyline.

May the Force be with you,
CHUD