Posts Tagged ‘comedy’

Short Take: Has the best combination of humor and horror since "Drag Me to Hell"

Director: Craig Gillespie

Screenwriters: Marti Noxon, Tom Holland

Cast: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Imogen Poots, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Toni Collette

Length: 1h 46m

Synopsis: Charley (Yelchin) is a normal teenage boy whose suburban town has recently welcomed a new neighbor named Jerry (Farrell), who Charley’s friend Ed (Mintz-Plasse) is convinced is a real-life vampire. Ed tries his hardest to convince Charley of this truth, but the absurdity of the accusation is just too great. Soon after pleading for assistance in killing the preternatural being Ed goes missing, and with little hints here and there Charley cannot help but come to the incredible conclusion that his missing friend was right. Unsure of what to do he consults a Las Vegas stage celebrity named Peter Vincent (Tennant), whose forte is the magical and the gothic. Vincent, it turns out, has long since been obsessed with vampires, and so he agrees to help Charley in his dangerous mission to rid his quiet town of the undead predator who threatens to feed on everyone he cares for. Jerry’s cunning and resilience are not to be underestimated, however, which makes Charley’s and Vincent’s task all the more dangerous.

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Short Take: Simple and Funny. Perhaps too cathartic for some.

Director: Seth Gordon

Screenwriters: Michael Markowitz, John Frances Daley

Cast: Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, Jaimie Foxx

Length: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Synopsis: Three men decide to kill their bosses when the constant abuse they suffer at work pushes them over the edge. Dave Harken (Spacey) passes up Nick (Bateman) for a promotion, Bobby Pellitt (Farrell) threatens to destroy the chemical company Kurt (Sudeikis) once hoped to run, and horny dentist Julia Harris (Aniston) sexually terrorizes Dale (Day). Though their plans fail in increasingly absurd ways, the results are not necessarily bad.

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Short Take: As entertaining and well-crafted as anything out this year, short of "Inception"

Director: Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead)

Screenwriters: Michael Bacall (Manic), Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead)

Cast: Michael Cera (Youth in Revolt, Superbad), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Live Free or Die Hard), Chris Evans (The Losers, Sunshine), Jason Schwartzman (TV’s Bored to Death, Fantastic Mr. Fox), Alison Pill (Milk), Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air), Kieran Culkin (The Cider House Rules), Ellen Wong, Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), Mark Webber, Johnny Simmons

Length: 1h 52m

Synopsis: Scott Pilgrim (Cera) is a 23 year old who shares a small apartment with his gay roommate Wallace (Culkin) and is the bassist for the garage band Sex Bob-omb. Also in this band are his friends Stephen (Webber) and Neil (Simmons), and one ex-girlfriend named Kim (Pill), all of whom don’t really approve of the fact that Scott has begun dating a 17 year old girl named Knives Chau (Wong) (though they have yet to even hold hands). One day Scott sees a girl at the library that he only saw previously in his dreams – Ramona Flowers (Winstead). After meeting her face to face at a party and working what charm he has, Scott and Ramona start becoming a couple. Upon this development, however, Scott proceeds to be challenged by each of Ramona’s Seven Evil Exes. In order for the two to keep dating Scott must defeat each evil ex he encounters, all of whom combat him in an arcade-like manner. Will Scott survive the tremendous onslaught of enemies? And more importantly, will he eventually be able to date the girl of his dreams? Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: A fresh take on a tested concept

Directors: Mark and Jay Duplass (Baghead)

Screenwriters: Mark and Jay Duplass (Baghead)

Cast: John C. Reilly (Step Brothers), Jonah Hill (Get Him to the Greek), Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler), Catherine Keener (Where the Wild Things Are)

Length: 1h 32m

Synopsis: John (Reilly) is a divorced middle-aged man living by himself, currently hitting what he believes to be rock bottom. Through encouragement and arm twisting by his ex-wife Jamie (Keener) and her new husband John attends a party where he’ll supposedly have a golden opportunity to get back into the dating game after a 7 year hiatus. As it turns out, that’s exactly what happens. He clicks with a warm, fun-loving single mother named Molly (Tomei), whose 21 year old son Cyrus (Hill) still lives with her. Shortly after the dating begins John meets Cyrus face to face, and at first the two seem to get along swell. What John begins to realize, though, is that Cyrus is actually trying everything he can to sabotage his mother’s new relationship, and so John must try to foil Cyrus’ plans under the nose of the woman caught between them. Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Contains Jeunet's trademark quirkiness, but lacks the polished writing of "Amelie"

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet (A Very Long Engagement, Amélie, Delicatessen)

Screenwriters: Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Guillaume Laurent (A Very Long Engagement, Amélie)

Cast: Dany Boon (The Valet, Change of Plans), André Dussollier (Wild Grass, A Very Long Engagement), Nicolas Marié (Safari, Secrets of State), Julie Ferrier (Accro ô croco), Dominique Pinon (Roman de gare, Amélie)

Length: 1 hour 45 minutes

Synopsis: Director/screenwriter Jean-Pierre Jeunet is best known internationally for 2001’s Amélie. That film showed Jeunet’s ability, much like fellow Frenchman Michel Gondry, to create quirky fantasy worlds that resemble our own but have just a bit more whimsy. Micmacs, basically translated as “shenanigans,” follows in that same vein. However, unlike its predecessor, which examines love, Micmacs criticizes weapons manufacturing and its global and more personal effects.

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Banks

Deschanel

Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, and Rashida Jones have signed on to star opposite Paul Rudd in My Idiot Brother, which was written by Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall and will be directed by Jesse Peretz.

Banks, Deschanel, and Mortimer will play Rudd’s sisters.

“Banks is a career-driven single about to get her big break in journalism after spending years writing about accessories at a fashion magazine; Deschanel is a bisexual whose flakiness and lies are getting in the way of moving forward with her caring, responsible girlfriend (Jones); and Mortimer plays a Park Slope mom too worried about having the perfect life and children to notice that her marriage is falling apart.” -THR

Mortimer

Jones

Filming is scheduled to begin in New York sometime next month.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Short Take: Laugh for laugh it's as good as you can expect, which is pretty darn funny

Director: Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall)

Screenwriters: Nicholas Stoller (Yes Man), Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall)

Cast: Jonah Hill (Superbad), Russell Brand (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Sean “P. Diddy” Combs (Monster’s Ball) Elisabeth Moss (TV’s Mad Men)

Length: 1h 49m

Synopsis: Aaron Green (Hill) is an unassuming employee who works in the think tank of a major record production company that’s looking to cash in on a large scale event that will give the business more staying power. He suggests a comeback concert for fledgling English music artist Aldous Snow (Brand), who used to be as popular and successful as anyone before his last album tanked due to it being horribly offensive, idiotic, and distasteful. The studio green lights Aaron’s idea, and even insists that he himself go to England to pick Snow up and bring him to Los Angeles where he’ll perform his revival concert at the famed Greek Theater. What Aaron finds out is that such a simple task is made exceedingly difficult when the rock star continually fails to cooperate in any way, electing instead to do as he pleases – which includes partying, drugs, and women. Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Fun, but ultimately superficial

Director: Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard)

Screenwriters: Peter Berg (Very Bad Things), James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, Basic)

Cast: Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Taking Woodstock, Watchmen), Zoe Saldana (Avatar, Star Trek), Chris Evans (Sunshine), Jason Patric (Narc)

Length: 1h 38m

Synopsis: A smoking aces U.S. special ops team gets double-crossed during a routine mission in Bolivia, and as a result they get the blame for the deaths of over two dozen innocent children. After faking their deaths to escape the CIA they work towards finding a way to get back to the states, but money is tight and options are limited. Opportunity finally knocks in the form of a mysterious woman with wealth, connections, and a serious attitude. Once back in America the group makes it a point to hunt down the person(s) responsible for framing them. Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Palatable and amusing, but doesn't offer much originality

Director: Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, The Pink Panther, Cheaper by the Dozen)

Screenwriter: Josh Klausner (Shrek the Third, The 4^th Floor)

Cast: Steve Carell (The Office, Get Smart, Dan in Real Life), Tina Fey (30 Rock, Baby Mama, Mean Girls), Mark Wahlberg (The Lovely Bones, The Departed)

Length: 1 hour 28 minutes

Synopsis: When New Jersey couple Phil (Carell) and Claire (Fey) Foster worry their marriage has lost its spark, they alter their usual weekly date night plans and head to a popular new Manhattan restaurant.  However, when they arrive, the restaurant is too crowded so they steal another couple’s reservation.  Unfortunately, the couple from whom they stole the reservation, the Tripplehorns, is in trouble with a powerful and dangerous gangster and when the gangster’s henchmen mistake the Fosters for the Tripplehorns, Phil and Claire must spend the rest of their night trying to set things right.

Note: This review contains details that some might consider spoiling Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: It's exactly what you'd want it to be.

Director: Robert Fleischer

Screenwriters: Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick

Cast: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland), Emma Stone (The Rocker, Superbad), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine)

Length: 1h 20m

Synopsis: The world as we once knew it is over. The vast majority of people on earth have become zombies, leaving a remaining select few to wander about trying to survive. A teenage boy – referred to by his home town, Columbus, Ohio (Eisenberg) – gets picked up by a zombie-killing professional (Tallahassee) and the two destine to travel west across the U.S. in search of a zombie-free locale. On their way they encounter two girl con artists named Wichita (Stone) and Little Rock (Breslin), and the two pairs henceforth oscillate between being trusting and distrusting of each other as they travel together. Zombies, as the common enemy, might prove to be the only thing the four have in common. Read the rest of this entry »