Film Review: Cyrus

Cyrus is the latest comedy from The Duplass Brothers (The Puffy Chair, Baghead). Like their previous films, these brothers are now taking their mumblecore genre with some mainstream appeal.

John (John C. Reilly) has been divorced for seven years and is still having trouble adjusting to the single life. After going to a party, he meets Molly (Marissa Tomei), John thinks he has found his possibly new life partner. After a couple dates, he finally meets her 21 year-old son Cyrus (Jonah Hill). John is trying to make the romance work with Molly, but he gets the feeling that Cyrus is trying to destroy the romance.

While this cast work very well with the material, it may not be for everyone. The humor is dry and it doesn't play like an Apatow movie. There are good performances from Reilly, Tomei, and Catherine Keener. The real standout for me was Jonah Hill, his performance was rather creepy and dry. Whenever he had this bug-eyed look, he looked rather creepy, but that definetly seemed like what the Duplass Brothers were going for.

Besides the cast, the film is also frequently funny. My only complaint with the film was that I thought that the dark comedy elements just didn't get dark enough. Hill's performance gave this vibe that made it seem like the film was going to go to a dark place. Put it just didn't dig deeper into that element.

If your a fan of the cast and liked either The Puffy Chair or Baghead, this one is worth your time.

Overall Grade: B

Catch Up

Toy Story 3:

While I don't consider this one to be as good as the first two, this latest entry is still good. It would have been up there with the other two if the film stayed to be as good as it did in the first 15 minutes. Some new stuff worked (the daycare plot, the toys at that little girl's house) and others than didn't (spanish Buzz Lightyear, Ken doll). I think it's still worth your time.

Overall Grade: B

The A-Team

Is it like the TV show, in ways, yes. This one is much more action packed. Some of the action scenes ranged from cool to completely idiotic. The cast was hit and miss. If you're looking for something big and stupid, it'll most likely be worth your time.

Overall Grade: C+

Brief Catch Up

Get Him To The Greek

A somewhat sequel to Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but nearly as good. Jonah Hill is his usual self in this movie, Russell Brand is annoying and not very funny in this. The songs are not very good either, but the read standout from Puff Daddy, anytime he was on the screen, I was laughing quite loudly. Plays like a typical Apatow-esque comedy, throw in the funny in the first half, and throw in some laughs along wiht "dramatic" moments.

Overall Grade: B

Splice

I was surpised by this, judging by the preview it looks like another Species. The film is FAR from that and it more about the relationship of the animal-human hybrid and the two scientists. I must say, this is a solid sci-fi movie, well-directed and goes into a weird direction. A good way to describe this is Cronenberg meets Frankenstein.

Overall Grade: B+

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

The first entry of this trilogy is rather solid, it's a little long but there is enough going on to keep you watching this. The performances are good, the plot is nothing spectacular, but this film is done well enough to get to anticipated the next two entries of the trilogy.

Overall Grade: B+

Catch Up

Prince Of Persia:

When I was watching this, all I could think is was how much of a dated political allegory this was. The whole story was basically an allegory towards the military not finding the WMD's in Iraq. It also seemed like Disney took over this thinking they were going to make a Pirates of the Carribean-like franchise with this one. The cast was bland and the action was dull, and as far as video game adaptations go, this was in the middle of the list.

Overall Grade: D

She's Out Of My League:

When I first saw the trailer for this, all I could think of is that this film is cashing in on the Apatow-style comedy bandwagon. Upon watching, I was surprised to find that this film seems to be more of a Farrelly Brothers movie more than an Apatow flick, even though there is elements of Apatow in this. I'll admit, I chucked at parts here and there, but the predictable romantic comedy formula ruined this film from being any funnier.

Overall Grade: C

Film Review; Macgruber

Macgruber is the latest film to be based off an SNL skit, while it certainly isn't fit with all the terrible ones (Superstar, Night At The Roxbury, The Ladies Man, etc.), it still isn't fit with the best ones either (Wayne's World 1 and 2). It fits in the middle, and I'll have to say that it is better than the skits itself, since I'm not a fan of the skits.

The film plays off like a homage/spoof to the chessy action films of the 80's. Macgruber (Will Forte) dissapeared off the face of the earth after his wife was killed by Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer). After found by the colonel (Powers Booth) and Phillip Dixon (Ryan Phillippe), they offer Macgruber to take part of an assignment involving Cunth and a nuclear missile. At first, he declines, but he eventually takes the job after some convincing.

Macgruber teams up with Dixon and Vicki St. Elmo (Kristin Wigg) in order to stop Cunth (the film is filled with 'Cunth' jokes, and it does get old fast) from obliterating America. Upon the mission, Macgruber keeps messing up for the sake of comedy, while Elmo and Dixon are picking up the pieces. That is basically the whole joke of this film.

Most of the time, I found this movie to be very stupid, but the film did have several laugh of loud moments. I wished it focused more on making fun of action cliches than it does with Macgruber messing up a mission. The film also makes a good running joke involving throat-ripping. Kilmer is also pretty good in this, but I was hoping he would have delivered a campy villian accent instead of his normal voice.

Overall, this film is a one-note joke that occasionally contains some funny moments, while the rest of the film is just insanely stupid.

Overall Grade: C+

Catch Up

Robin Hood:

Ridley Scott delivers another ambitious miss, but that doesn't mean this is a terrible film. Scott proves he can still direct and give believable performances, even though I wasn't a fan of casting Crowe as Robin Hood. There are some good actions scenes thrown in, but there are too many dull scenes. There are also some inaccuracies with the Robin Hood story as well, I don't recall King Richard dying before Robin Hood is considered an outlaw. As far as prequels go, this did an ok job.

Overall Grade: C

The Human Centipede:

Your liking to this movie will depend of how sick your sense of humor can be. To me, this is one of those movies where when you talk about it to your friends, basically pitching this would be funny. But it doesn't come off very funny when put on the screen. I admire Tom Six with coming up with an outlandish idea and sticking with it. If you think the idea of a "human centipede" is disgusting and unfunny, then this film is not for you, others lie myself would think it's not that good. While this film works as being what I call a fucked up movie, there are still some flaws. I admire that Six didn't attempt to being too gross, but still being gross. The acting and pacing is awfully dull. Many of the actors aren't very good, and the dialogue is pretty poor. There are moments of sick brilliance, and moments that go a little too far. I also enjoyed the campy performance from Dieter Laser. I read that Six is planning to make a sequel, and he promises that this film will be tame compared to the sequel. I thought this film was disgusting enough, but I'm probably watch the sequel out of curiosity.

Overall Grade: C+

Catch Up

Yeah, It's been awhile

Death At A Funeral

If you've seen the original, there is nothing new brought to this. It's the same movie done by different actors. Some of it still worked, the performances from Columbus Short, Marsden, Glover, and Luke Wilson did well. If you haven't seen the original but want to see the new one, go ahead.

Overall Grade: C

Oceans

Beautifully shot, but the narration of Bronson is rather dull, and it ends with a message we've seen too many times before

Overall Grade: C

The Losers

Somewhat enjoyable, but there are too many scenes that were stupid and most of the comedy didn't work. If you want to watch a big stupid PG-13 action movie, you'll enjoy this. This film has a shitty villian though, he seemed bored. Columbus Short was good in this, everyone else was ok. The final ending moment was stupid.

Overall Grade: C

Nightmare On Elm Street

What an unnessesary remake, well-done lighting mixed with shitty performances. Jackie Earle Haley's Kruger was rather boring, all the humor of the original is gone. Don't waste your time.

Overall Grade: D-

I Love You Phillip Morris

Ewen McGregor is on a roll this year, and this is one of Jim Carrey's best comedies. The sexual content may be uncomfortable for some (makes Brokeback Mountain seem tame), but if you can sit through it, you'll find yourself laughing through the entertaining black comedy. Also one of my favorites this year.

Overall Grade: A-

Iron Man 2

I'm pretty dissapointed with this one, it was too heavy on plot and pretty light on action. The film was uneven, and it reminded me of Spider Man 3 at times. The performances are all good, and Faverau seems to improve as a director. I think they were cramming too much just to set up the Avengers movie.

Overall Grade: C