After commenting on Twitter that I had seen and pretty much dug Bridesmaids, good ol’ Wifi Pirate from 3SMOVRadio attempted to clarify by asking if it was The Hangover for females. It is very Hangover-esque but featuring women, not necessarily just for them. As The Hangover was very reminiscent of previous movies by Judd Apatow, it seems fitting that this is one of his productions and directed by Paul Feig, one of the many people I love just for being involved with Arrested Development.

As you can probably guess, Bridesmaids centers around a wedding. The bride-to-be Lillian (Maya Rudolph) wants her lifelong friend Annie (Kristen Wiig) to be her maid of honor but Annie’s life is in shambles. She is broke after a failed business attempt and shares a small apartment with a quirky English brother and sister. She is also quite jaded from a recent breakup and probably should not be anywhere near the planning of a couple’s everlasting happiness. Yet, Annie puts on a happy face and endures even though her expression betrays her desire to yell profanities at all the happy couples throughout.

Lillian introduces the rest of the wedding party including the raunchy mother of three Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey), the obnoxiously innocent Becca (Ellie Kemper), the improper and foul-mouthed Megan (Melissa McCarthy), and the controlling perfectionist Helen (Rose Byrne). As the five embark on what would normally be numerous scenes of gossiping or backstabbing in a typical female-biased comedy, there are many inspired moments of gross-outs and physical comedy galore. As such, this is far more satisfying, not to mention hilarious, than the title alone would have you think.

It’s no surprise that I don’t hold out a lot of hope for Hangover 2, so thus Bridesmaids may be the talked-about R-rated comedy of the year. It certainly strives for that title with the knowledge that infantile women and their bodily functions are just as funny as similarly plotted male characters. Yet, much like the best of the entries in this genre, the film is filled with characters who are wacky, yet still realistic which makes it much easier to connect with the story instead of just laughing at the obviously telegraphed portions.

The script from Wiig and Annie Mumolo does not fall into the trap of random sequences strung together for comedic effect or the typical tear-duct cleansing sessions of a normal romantic comedy. There are strong and well-developed characters, genuine character arcs especially with Annie and her romantic flings with Jon Hamm (!) and Chris O’Dowd, and a true sense of comradery between the women as they embark in their quest for the perfect wedding complete with brutal diarrhea or run-ins with an air marshal.

The biggest fault of the movie is its runtime at a hefty two hours and five minutes. Basically, there is no reason a normal comedy should run this long and neither of the two editors seemed to be able to craft a solid narrative out of the (admittedly very funny) interconnecting scenes. I guess then they just stitched it together as good as possible but that left a very uneven and plodding pace present with scenes that easily could have been excised. Considering the strength of the actors and the story itself though, I can almost excuse a bit too much moreso than not enough. In fact, Bridesmaids may be the best movie to bridge the gap between typical male and female movie tastes. That is definitely worth applause.

Sadly, I was late getting into MST3k when it was still around. In my area, we didn’t have Comedy Central until just before the show switched to Sci-Fi so the only option for Joel/Mike and the ‘bots was overly expensive VHS copies or one hour long segments at 2 AM on Saturdays. As such, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (henceforth referred to as whatever acronym I feel like) was an easy way to get your bad movie fix rife with sarcastic commentary. That is, until I realized that the movie is actually quite different from the show.

You should know about MST3k by now considering that we’ve had two previous posts about it, not to mention the dozens of other pages and wikis about the show. The long and short is that a man is trapped on an orbiting satellite just above Earth who is forced to watch bad movies to amuse his captors. Not content to suffer in silence, the first man, Joel, builds four robots, some to aid in the ship’s operation and others to make witty quips with him while watching the chosen horrendous films.

One of the most endearing qualities about a typical episode of the long running series was the reliance on rapid-succession jokes full of obscure references that only make sense after researching it. But, since this was designed to be a feature film to (I presume) increase the show’s exposure, the rifts were not as sophisticated or plentiful. It also helps (or hurts depending) that the film featured was not some DTV piece starring Joe Estevez but rather, the 1950s classic-for-the-time-period This Island Earth. This Island Earth is certainly cheesy with questionable special effects and performances that are mostly on par with other sci-fi movies from this time period but considering the depths of cinematic ineptitude this series has uncovered through the years, this one is Oscar worthy.

Mike (Joel’s replacement) and his robot pals have fun riffing the movie and most of their lines stand out as laugh-out-loud funny as opposed to the hit or miss barrage of jokes from the series. But I still feel a little cheated that a good portion of This Island Earth is excised which makes it look more vapid and nonsensical than the movie actually is. Also that the feature length film runs a good ten or fifteen minutes shorter than an average episode with seemingly longer host segments is almost inexcusable as well. Reportedly, there was a bit of animosity during the production with the almost certainly free-spirited MST3k folk battling corporate bigwigs. Perhaps that is the cause of the significant shift in execution or its truncated length but regardless, MST3k:TM is a much funnier and enjoyable time than your average Adam Sandler movie.

Ah, the restaurant industry. Definitely an excellent muse for a movie script. Rob McKittrick was working in a restaurant while he wrote Waiting… The result is an alarmingly accurate depiction of what it is like to work in the food service industry, with some exaggeration to try to appeal to those have never been gainfully employed in this vocation.

Honestly there really is not much of a plot. The film mostly takes place during one day at work at Shenaniganz, a casual dining restaurant. It’s like any other restaurant; filled with guests who can’t order steaks at proper delicious eating temperature, poor tippers, assholes that complain about everything. The only real continuous storyline involves Dean (Justin Long) who has been a server for 4 years. Much like many servers, he took the job as a temporary gig, while taking classes at community college, but somehow ends up there longer than planned. When his mother tells him of his former classmate Chet, who now has a Bachelor’s degree, Dean becomes a bit more disillusioned and questions his position in life. His friend, roommate and co-worker, Monty (Ryan Reynolds) has no qualms with being a server (and also a pervert who likes underage girls). Other than that, we wander through some hilarious, but sometimes a bit over the top dialogue, in a pretty competently directed film.

I should say, that I have worked in many a restaurant. Perhaps this is why the movie resonated with me. It really is damn accurate as to how it is to work in the industry. I should say, that I have never worked in a restaurant where there was a game that involves exposing male genitalia, and I have NEVER seen anyone mess with anyone’s food. However, as a guest, you should know, the latter is possible. The ultimate question is, can this film translate to someone who has never been there? I think it does. It helps that it has mostly established actors in it. If it were cast with complete unknowns, it may not. Ryan Reynolds definitely does his comedy Ryan Reynoldsey thing, but his character is like that so it works. In fact another character calls him out on it (“…your personality is one small punctuated joke after another.”). The film is full of vulgarity, alcohol and drug abuse. It really is like a sort of Animal House for servers.

Perhaps the funniest thing about a film like this, is how folks who have never worked in a restaurant may react to the events of the film. They have no idea what it’s like on the other side. The disdain for having to make the deserts. The hatred for having to sing “happy birthday” to a guest. The inability to understand the shitty attitude and tip one can receive no matter how good the service they provide. The inexplicable rudeness involved walking into a causal dining restaurant 5 minutes before it closes to sit down and eat as if you were in a Denny’s. What results is a seemingly thoughtless wacky comedy geared toward a specific demographic, but believe me, it is specifically pointed at all people who are inept at the unwritten rules of eating out. This is what makes it awesome. Sure it’s funny. But, be careful. It could be real.

This is a definite comfort movie. Just watch it. It’s funny.

I am an Adam McKay fan. Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers? I enjoy all of those. The Other Guys, however; was an utter disappointment.

Detectives Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Danson (Dwayne Johnson) are your typical action movie cops. Hanging on to the roof of bad guys’ cars as they are being chased by the rest of the police. Jumping from moving vehicles. Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) are desk jockeys, Gamble having been transferred from Forensic Accounting and Hoitz having accidentally shot Derek Jeter. Gamble and Hoitz are desk mates, and thus “partners” and are made fun of quite a bit. Gamble actually enjoys his desk work, while Hoitz is a “peacock that needs to fly.” Hoitz and Gamble (Gamble by force) seize an opportunity to become the kind of detectives that Highsmith and Danson are by trying to take on an exciting case, but largely screw up. However, by slowly focusing on what seems like a routine, boring non-movie case, they keep uncovering suspicious activity until they are involved in a half blown action film.

Quite simply, the reason why this movie sucks, is because the comedy isn’t funny, and the cop story is uninteresting. McKay films are typically full of humor, starting right away, and then consistent throughout. This was not only unfunny, but completely boring. It’s actually quite weird. It is not funny for one second. I would never had known it was a McKay film, had I not known that prior to viewing.

Everyone is fine in this film. Ferrell and Wahlberg (the actor, not the alter ego, Puck!) do their best given the material they have to work with, but even they cannot save it. It is just uninteresting and unfunny.

I do not recommend this. Waste of time.

“Is that blood on your Zombie?”

For my first review, I thought I’d choose a movie about a subject very near and dear to my heart: Zombies. This is a quaint, heartwarming movie about a young boy named Timmy Robinson (Kesun Loder), his parents, and his beloved pet, Fido. Timmy and Fido go the park, take walks, etc. Timmy gets picked on by bullies and Fido saves the day. Oh, I forgot to mention……Fido is a zombie.

The beginning of the movie explains that the zombie war/apocalypse has already taken place, humanity has taken the majority of control over the situation, and everyone’s lives can return back to normal…ish. The corporation Zomcon has invented a collar that renders the zombies docile and semi-functional, allowing them to be controlled and used as house servants. All this takes place in 1950’s America, with all the trappings you’d expect: the music, brightly colored houses with white picket fences, and prejudices against anything different than yourself. This time though, instead of minorities we have zombies.

The writers of this film are to be applauded. They have blended drama, horror, comedy, and disturbingly enough, romance into one film, and quite smoothly. None of these elements ever feels piecemeal or thrown in. The direction and cinematography is excellent, this film was shot beautifully. Everything looks exactly how it should. There was a lot of care taken to make this movie seem like a Lassie Movie, just tweaked a bit and substitute a zombie for Lassie. Yes, even the classic “What is it boy?” questioning is there, adding to the similarity. But the joke never feels forced. For a zombie movie, Fido is fairly light on gore but it doesn’t need it. The acting and line delivery is spot on. You can imagine taking anyone here and transplant them into Leave it to Beaver, Lassie, etc and their characters would still fit in. Save Fido, of course.

Fido is played by Billy Connolly and gives the role of the zombie slave depth and emotion. Timmy’s parents are Helen and Bill Robinson (Carrie-Anne Moss and Dylan Baker). Helen is a homemaker, strangely intrigued by the zombies and seeing all of her neighbors getting undead servants, has to have one. Bill however is terrified of them due to past experience, but reluctantly agrees and makes the purchase. Also in the mix is Mr. Bottoms (Henry Czerny), hero of the zombie war, and agent of Zomcon. Lastly we have Mr. Theopolis (Tim Blake Nelson), the neighborhood kook, which creepily keeps a zombie girlfriend, but is likable enough otherwise.

I loved Fido; it’s now one of my new favorite movies. It’s dark comedy done very well, and I admit … I do love zombies, so bonus points for that.

After starting the movie with little information going into it other than a recommendation by PBF, I thought that the opening scene had a very zany, almost Naked Gun-feel to it. Imagine my surprise when I learned in the credits that Top Secret! was written and directed by none other than the once great, now not-so-much trio of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, or ZAZ for the motivationally challenged typists.

Having been a big fan of Airplane! and The Naked Gun! in my younger years it was a shock to learn of another movie in the vain of those aforementioned that I had only fleeting knowledge of its existence. That would be the equivalent to finding out George Romero had another zombie film in the 1970s, you know before he started sucking.

Skirting along on the daintiest of plots, Val Kilmer is very pretty here as Nick Rivers, an American pop singer who is summoned to perform in East Germany and goes on a haphazard journey before aligning with French revolutionaries who seek the country’s downfall. As someone who is not a big fan of Elvis Presley and thus has never seen any movie he has been in, it took some reading up to discover that Top Secret! is a parody of his films, I presume as the hunky heartthrob who launches into song at the drop of a hat, mixed with spy movies in general.

This mashup gives Abrahams and the brothers Zucker more than enough material to throw out jokes in dizzying frequency, much like their previous comical collaborations. The beauty is that the jokes here are not particularly germane to the plot nor do they even really make sense. But then again, certain shots like the random guy desperately running down a tree or Omar Sharif in a compacted car do not need relevancy or a great history behind them so long as they are funny. And Top Secret brings the funny.

While certain filmmakers of shitty “parody” movies (cough, Stan Helsing) are able to get the base formula for their movies down, if a parody is as funny as an average phone call to your cable company, someone has failed. Like their previous films, there is little that ZAZ will not do for a joke whether it is a physical, cultural-based, or just plain off-the-wall gag. My biggest complaint would be that this feels through and through like an 80s movie and while I understand the humor with most of the topical gags (like Montgomery Ward or Pinto), it dates the film moreso than the simple craziness from their other genre entries.

Certain parody movies get a pass on some fronts that normally go into analyzing a film. Is the plot believable? Nope, but it doesn’t really matter much. Are there grade-A actors who can really sell the nuances of their characters? Again, no and watching such a movie looking for deep character moments and compelling drama is missing the point. Granted, Val Kilmer may not be known for his comedic strengths but he is able to carry things on very well in a manner that is surprisingly honest with just a hint of factiousness.

So while Top Secret may be more dated than some of its 80s brethren, it is still quite enjoyable in a random kind of way.

Beerfest is the fourth film by comedy troupe Broken Lizard. I watched the unrated version on DVD and found it to be more humorous than I remembered. I assume that this is because most (if not all) of any recent viewings before this were on Comedy Central or some other basic cable channel, thus it was edited in to being unfunny.

Johann von Wolfhouse, grandfather to Jan and Todd Wolfhouse, dies, and the brothers are sent to Germany by their Gam Gam (great grandmother) with his ashes. It’s Oktoberfest, and the Wolfhouses accidentally destroy a drunken celebration under a tent. They are taken to Beerfest, which is a drinking competition run by Wolfgang von Wolfhausen. Like the Olympics, teams from many different countries compete, and (unlike the Olympics) the Germans are the best. The German team are also Wolfhausens and it is discovered that they are the cousins of the Wolfhouses. However, the Wolfhausens are less than hospitable, claiming that Johann was a stable boy who stole a family beer recipe and fled to America with his mother (Gam Gam), who was a German whore. A brief drinking contest occurs between them and the Wolfhouses lose horribly, and the Wolfhausens dump the ashes of Johann all over them, disgracing them in front of a large audience. Upon their return to America, the Wolfhouses vow to return to Germany and beat the Germans at Beerfest, so they assemble a team and enter in to a year long training. During the rest of the film, somewhere around 1000 gallons of movie beer is consumed, and we are subjected to Jay Chandrasekhar’s ass. Small price to pay for good comedy.

Super Troopers also took a second viewing for me to fully enjoy, and now that is one of my favorite comedies, and in my opinion, Lizard’s best. I may now have to watch Slammin’ Salmon again because of this, but I refuse to watch Puddle Cruiser a second time, but that was completely different than the rest of these films and is most certainly an exception to that rule.

Beerfest worked for me because the comedy was solid and the troupe was really tight. It’s funny; as nonsensical and less plausible as the plot was than Salmon (a film that takes place in a restaurant), the comedy and interactions with each other were more natural, therefore the flow of the movie overall was better. Again, Broken Lizard are not some kind of revolutionary comedy geniuses, nor are they in it for the art (and they aren’t especially gifted actors either). In that respect it would behoove them to simply provide an above average comedy to distinguish themselves from the thousands of mediocre and unsatisfying films that are out there. They do accomplish this with Beerfest. Sure, it has your basic, seemingly low brow recipe: alcohol, nudity, language, scientist masturbating a frog. But the jokes are funny, the troupe works well together and the output is just simply a good comedy that you can return to time and again.

Again, don’t take this to mean that you are going to be watching a film on the same level as The Hangover, but it is definitely not as bad as, say, Dude Where’s My Car? Broken Lizard seem to have no middle ground. It is either pretty funny, or it isn’t at all. Beerfest is the former.

Broken Lizard’s first film, Puddle Cruiser is just not very good. It isn’t funny and less silly than the later films. It’s quite sloppily put together, the acting is deplorable and it’s very uninteresting. Some of the conversations last way too long and a lot of the jokes are quite long winded and just unfunny. You can see the beginning of the troupe’s rapport with each other start to form, but it isn’t strong enough yet to pull the film off.

The Slammin’ Salmon is the most recent film that has been released by the comedy troupe Broken Lizard. This one was directed by Kevin Heffernan, as opposed to Jay Chandrasekhar, who directed the troupe’s previous films.

“Slammin” Cleon Salmon is a former boxer that owns a restaurant called the Slammin’ Salmon (this will be the last mention of the film’s title). He bets the head of the Japanese Yakuza $20,000 in a rousing game of Japanese Albino Hunting and loses. He needs the money by tomorrow so a challenge is placed to the staff of the restaurant to make $20,000. The prize is $10,000 to the top waiter (don’t worry;  it’s part of the comedy, not a plot error) while the punishment for the lowest performing waiter is a broken rib sandwich. Cleon is played by Michael Clarke Duncan, so as you may imagine, that is a large and painful sandwich.

Broken Lizard has a small collection of films including Super Troopers and Beerfest. It seems like the more movies they make, the less funny they are. I have not yet seen their first, Puddle Cruiser, so I can only speak from Super Troopers on. Broken Lizard films are not really “deep.” They basically involve a fairly simple plot that can plausibly involve at least 5 people in the central story. So you aren’t going to find too much that is very cerebral or even that much character development past basic character traits (asshole, romantic, lunatic, etc.) that rotate between actors film after film. That being said, something has to take me for a ride during my 90 or so minutes. Obviously, that would be comedy. I mean, if I am not really interested in who wins the contest, that’s cool, just make me laugh the whole time. This is where the film failed. There were some funny lines and moments, but it was really uneven, and most of the film was just not funny. I thought for a moment that it might be because there was too much interaction with other characters not played by Broken Lizard, but even when it was just them together it just wasn’t as funny as the earlier films. And the restaurant setting was not as funny as it could have been. The setting really was almost irrelevant in the sense that this type of contest could have happened anywhere. So there wasn’t a lot of restaurant humor, ala Waiting, because the fact that they work in a restaurant was not really the focal point. It was merely a setting to facilitate a contest in which everyone could act nutty in case a small audience was watching them. Each one of the cast individually had at least one funny line (except for Erik Stolhanske; all his lines were patently unfunny for some reason). Michael Clarke Duncan was funny more than he was not, but when he wasn’t, he really wasn’t.

There were some things that were just too silly, like all guests ordering 6 of every entrée, a character named Dick Lobo that was the creator of a show called C.F.I. Hotlanta and the constant use of the character name “Guy.” Honestly, it was just a big mess.

There were all kinds of random people in the film from Olivia Munn (oh my) to Lance Henricksen (trivia: shares a birthday with Puck). My favorite probably being a 5 minute scene with Jim Gaffigan.

I seriously hope that this descent into lackluster entertainment does not continue to go the M. Night Shyamalan route,  as Super Troopers 2 has been announced and that is my favorite Broken Lizard film thus far.  I would not say that this film is totally unwatchable, but I now understand why I didn’t know it existed until I saw it on Comedy Central one day.

I had never actually seen the entirety of Team America: World Police until today. From the creators of South Park is an absolutely hilarious, offensive, politically themed action movie parody, complete with their song “Montage” in which the lyrics describe what a montage is during a montage. Also included is “America, Fuck Yeah!” and quotable lines like “Derka derka derka.” Also, the film includes perhaps one of the most disturbing sex scenes, ever. Did I mention that there are only voice actors, because everyone is a puppet? Completely over the top, but not without a valid message.