DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS
3 out of 5 stars

IDK... as messed up as a dinner for idiots sounds, i would love to attend one just to experience the oddities and quarks of said people. food AND entertainment...that’s what i call a gooood night! :P

it’s sort of strange that paul rudd and steve carell would be paired up in one movie, but i didn’t think it was thaaat bad. paul rudd plays business-driven tim conrad, who works at a private equity fund, and wants to get a promotion up to that upstairs corner office, so he could finally afford all the nice things he ever wanted PLUS he wants to marry his dreamgirl julie. after proposing an awesome business proposal to his boss, mr. fender invites him to a special dinner at his house. a dinner for idiots. he asks tim to bring the biggest buffoon he could possibly find, and if his guest is the best, he can get that promotion. there’s just one problem... where to find such a rare person? well... he ends up running over this guy named barry (carell), who got hit because he was leaning over to pick up a dead mouse. turns out barry’s hobby is mouse taxidermy, and he creates these elaborate and creative dioramas featuring his furry little friends. (i tell ya, the dioramas alone MAKE this movie) so, naturally, tim invites barry to the dinner, but not before barry causes some disruption in tim’s “perfect” life first... :P

OMG the actual dinner is quite amazingly funny esp. when the animal spirit guide lady starts to wig out when they’re served lobster. barry’s tower of dreams is pretty amazing too, but the blind fencing dude and zack galifianakis as barry’s rival therman made me LOL real hard! (honestly, the character therman deserves his own movie and so does animal spirit guide lady!) like i said, the mice dioramas are actually really well done and fit into the story nicely esp. the ending. LOL, lest not forget kieran vollard the crazy british artist who is a little bit too involved with his animalistic side! i thought it could have been funnier esp. with the swiss couple and possibly a funnier lead. not that i have anything against paul rudd- but was mike myers not available? i just expect really funny shit from the director who made austin powers come to life, that’s all... :P

WIN WIN
4 out of 5 stars

if you’re into realistic comedies w/o any cheese, phoniness, or dumbassery, this one might be for you... paul giamatti and amy ryan FTW! ;)

from the looks of it, it may be a high school wrestling movie, but it’s actually a LOT more. financially tight from a slow economy, disheartened attorney, mike flaherty (giamatti) decides to take on the guardianship of one mr. leo poplar, a senior citizen neighbor whose got the early stages of dementia. he does this to eat the monthly commission, and sticks rich mr. poplar in a really nice old folks nursing home. then, one day after church, mr. poplar’s teenage grandson kyle randomly comes to stay with him. mike finds him on the doorsteps of mr. poplar’s home, and he reluctantly takes him in. mike happens to moonlight as a HS wrestling coach, along with his friend and CPA vic (jeffrey tambor from arrested development), and pretty soon, it turns out that kyle was a wrestling champion at his old HS back in ohio! things are going great for everybody until kyle’s ex-junkie mother shows up in town demanding $ and kyle back...

the friendship between mike and his friend terry (bobby cannavale) is PRICELESS and HILARIOUS... (the scene when mike is having a panic attack while on a run with terry...haha!) great dynamic and even the relationship between mike and his kids/wife/kyle, they’re all heartfelt and genuine. i call it a realistic comedy because it keeps the story real so don’t except happy endings that just work out for the sake of working out. really well done, and i can understand why sundance liked it too... ;)

HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU
4 out of 5 stars
 
ok, so i’m a girl and naturally i would like this! plus, i was in that mood craving a “light and fluffy” flick about dating and love, so i ended up with this in my mailbox… ;)
 
most rom coms have predictable plots, but this one was a bit different… let’s start with the married couples: 1) jennifer anniston and ben affleck who break up b/c jenny a’s character really wants to make it official and get married but ben doesn’t because he feels it’s worthless to have a piece of paper state the fact that he loves her nomatterwhat… 2) jennifer connelly and bradley cooper’s cheating ass w/ scarjo (scarlett johansson) the singles: 1) gigi (ginnifer goodwin) who is looking for mr. right by reading into all the wrong signals 2) justin long as the helpful guy pal for gigi- you can guess who he falls in love with! 3) kevin connelly as the hopeless-in-love real estate guy who’s also in love with scarjo 4) drew barrymore whose role is pretty random but that singing VM is probably THE best scene in this movie! movie takes place in bmore, and the relationships between all these people blossom like may flowers after a rainy april day… 

girls who have no sense of dating whatsoever would like this and probably should watch this! but for girls who do, it is FRUSTRATING to watch gigi put herself out there for rejection over and over again… plus, she’s kind of psycho and stalks the men she’s interested in! most realistic couple is jennifer anniston and ben affleck because a lot of couples deal with the notion of whether they need to make their marriage official or not. isn’t loving that person enough? i guess not for some people… there’s one thing this movie teaches you, and it’s if a guy is truly interested, HE WILL CALL YOU. kthanxbye. :P
 

RED
3 out of 5 stars

umm… had mixed feelings about this one because i thought the premise of old/retired CIA agents taking on their lifelong employer would be fun/comical and would have me rooting for the underdogs. not so much, which was disappointing… was it the lack of good acting? (ahem, a boring bruce willis) or perhaps lack of a really good script? (confusing at times) plus, would this tech. be a romantic action? still sooooo confused to where this was going… :/



there are already two movies sim. to the plot of this one, where a govt agency is trying to eliminate old assets. (e.g. A-TEAM and the losers) well, you’re in luck because this is pretty much the same thing. bruce willis plays frank moses AKA ex-CIA black ops operative who is now retired and living on his pension in a quiet suburb of cleveland, OH. he’s bored, has no family, has no romance, so he chats up an equally lonely soul over the phone, who happens to be his pension benefits rep. (mary louise parker) then, all of a sudden (not really), frank is visited by a special ops execution squad who want him dead. they also want MLP dead too, so frank flies to st. louis to then take her to new orleans, where joe (morgan freeman) can help him figure out who is behind the hit(s). this then leads to crazy marvin (john malkovich), who probably has the craziest living situation on the face of this planet. (you’ll see what i mean...  LOL that pig is so awesome!) throw in, helen mirren’s character victoria (a great sniper and with such class!) and brian cox playing an ex-russian spy, and pretty much you’ve got this movie! :P


oh, and then there’s a conspiracy involving the VPOTUS, but you can figure that out for yourselves… best characters were probably veteran actors helen mirren and john malkovich (he’s always playing some wacked out character), but ACTINGFAIL on bruce willis. (why is he so boring?) then, there’s the whole romantic angle between MLP and bruce willis, which is fine in an action flick, but does it really have to be the center of it? i think i would have felt better if this was more of the old guys taking down the “company” for their own reasons, comical or not. (e.g. not getting their full benefits thus preventing them from having an enjoyable retirement) see… i can see john malkovich going bat-shit crazy over something like that! :P

DEVIL
4 out of 5 stars

very well done! it’s creepy… it’s suspenseful… it’s also thrilling! LOVED this one! ;)



the movie starts out with someone falling to their death off of a really tall office building. this prompts the philly PD to investigate into such a bizarre suicide, since the victim died with a rosary in their hands and a note stating that “the devil is near”. det. bowden (chris messina) is assigned to the case, and he arrives just in time when five ordinary people get stuck in an elevator. the five people are: a mattress salesman, a mechanic, a wife, an old lady, and a security guard. suddenly, odd things start to happen in the elevator, and everyone starts to freak out. there’s a hispanic security guard looking at the security camera inside the elevator, and thinks that one of them is the devil. (he’s uber-religious and believes that an old mexican folklore story his mother told him when he was young is coming true…) so, which one is it? (i have to leave the plot summary as is since i don’t want to give away any of the awesome plot twists!)


if you’re looking for a creepy thriller that’s quasi-religious, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU. this one is perfect to watch with the lights out, popcorn freshly popped, and on a dark/stormy night… get the mood right, and you’ll be officially creeped out…in your home AND perhaps on an elevator someday. oh! forgot to mention that master ghost storyteller m. night shamalan wrote the story to this movie AND helped produce it. it just goes to show that when he sticks with what he knows, the end product is AMAZINGLY GOOD. (such as this)

GROWN UPS
2 out of 5 stars

wow, with a cast of the funniest dudes in the movie biz, this one sure tanked... this one ended up turning into the roast of rob schneider and not a good plot at all! you’ve got adam sandler, chris rock, kevin james, david spade AND rob schneider! this was an epic fail, SMH... :/


basically, these five dudes are reunited after their beloved youth center basketball coach dies, and they go to their old lake house to mourn/celebrate his life over the 4th of july weekend. lenny (sandler) is a big time hollywood agent living the LA dream with his fashion designer hotty wife roxanne (salma hayek), eric (james) is a lawn mower sales guy, kurt (rock) is a home daddy, marcus (spade) is mr. single, and rob (schneider) is a new age medicine man. the fab five instantly pick up from where they left off 30 years ago, and it just doesn’t quite tickle the funny bone, despite all these COMMEDIANS in one movie! (seriously! comeon, bring out the days of happy gilmore or billy madison, PLEASE!?!)

i think the only funny person in this was kevin james, and possibly chris rock when he’s making fun of this mother-in-law. the mother-in-law’s fart scenes stole some of the show, but like i said, this easily turned into the roast of rob schneider because half the jokes in this were directed towards him. there was one good scene where he’s singing “ave maria” at the coach’s funeral which got a good laugh out of me, but don’t waste your time on the whole thing like i did... :/

DUE DATE
4 out of 5 stars

ethan: “you should name your kid after sonny.”

peter: “i am not naming my first child after a masturbating dog.”

LOL zack galifianakis really steals the show as actor-wannabe ethan tremblay! if i were to road trip with anyone, it would be him! :P

it doesn’t sound like much of a story but how high strung and father-to-be peter highman (robert downey jr.) and actor-wannabe ethan tremblay (zack galifianakis) end up on the road together is “interesting”... essentially, peter and ethan end up on the TSA no-fly list due to ethan’s usage of the words “bomb” and “terrorists” in front of an air marshal, and of course, with peter’s $ lost @ the ATL baggage claim, ethan asks peter to join him on the road with his crazy self and his pitbull sonny. thus, the adventure begins! peter just wants to get to LA in time for his wife’s delivery, but ethan literally keeps derailing them...such as buying his medical MJ from a dealer in birmingham (juliette lewis), asking peter to make a pit stop at the grand canyon to spread his father’s ashes, and of course, getting into a fender bender in TX. LOL, it wouldn’t be a todd phillips movie w/o an impromptu trip to mexico, of course! so, fasten your seatbelts and get ready for one wild ride... ;)

i think HANDS DOWN (no pun intended) the 2 best scenes are when ethan is masturbating in the car along with sonny and when darryl (jamie foxx) accidentally puts ethan’s dad into the coffee machine. (“this tastes like cat litter” LOL!) those two scenes i literally rewinded because they were so funny... this doesn’t beat the hangover or old school, but it is pretty good. it’s been a while since RDJr. has been in a comedy, and with zack g. by his side, this one doesn’t disappoint! :)