Bridesmaid (2011)

Bridesmaid (2011)

7/10

Starring

Kristen Wiig

Maya Rudolph

Melissa McCarthy

Directed by Paul Feig

Bridesmaids was a movie that made waves when it came out in 2011. I didn’t see it then, mainly because I considered it a chick flick. After watching it now, I’ve concluded that it is a chick flick—but a chick flick with a lot of entertainment and it is worth seeing. Bridesmaids is well-scripted, well-cast, and has no dull moments. The movie deserved all the attention and accolades it received, and I really hope they don’t make a part two and ruin it.

Nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Melissa McCarthy) and Best Original Screenplay, this romantic comedy was directed by Paul Feig. Since this movie, I’ve seen him go on to direct two more films with Melissa McCarthy: The Heat (2013) and Spy (2015).

Bridesmaids was both serious and fun, and the incidents that occurred in the movie were so over-the-top that you wouldn’t believe such things even crossed the writers’ minds. Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo wrote the movie, and Wiig also starred in the lead role as Annie.

The movie starts with a hilarious sex scene—one you have to see. It then introduces the two best friends, and we see how Annie balances her life, which is in shambles, with her love and companionship for her friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph). Everything was a mess but still great for Annie—until Lillian tells her she’s getting married. Her boyfriend popped the question, and Annie is to be the maid of honor.

Annie is supposed to be thrilled for her friend, but that’s not the case. For Annie, she and Lillian were single together. Now, she’s single alone, and her friend is starting a new life with her groom.

Things get worse when Annie meets Helen, the groom’s boss’s wife. Instant dislike and jealousy spring up between the two, as Annie finds out Helen and Lillian have been spending a lot of time together, bonding.

This jealousy leads to a series of events that mar the bridal shower and, if not nipped in the bud, could ruin the wedding and Annie’s future happiness.

Bridesmaids is a good film—funny and thrilling. It was a critical and box office success. Word is out that there are plans for a part two, and like I said above, I hope those plans never come to fruition. Movies like this only need one part.

What do you think?

Old School (2003)

Old School (2003)

6/10

Starring

Luke Wilson

Vince Vaughn

Will Ferrell

Directed by Todd Philips

First, I’d like to say this: if anyone tells you you won’t enjoy Old School, they’re lying—because I did, and I know you will too. The movie features Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell at their best, and the script isn’t flaky or weak. It’s just a bogus attempt to feel real, an attempt I applaud. Maybe it is my age talking, and someone born much later will find this movie offensive, but it was to me very funny.

I guess there are some things you’re better off leaving to memory. In your head, they remain something you worship. Way back in 2003, I loved Old School. Watching it again made me wonder what made me rate it so highly back then. The movie did have the jokes, I enjoyed the script, and Will Ferrell was funny back then, but it wasn’t as great a comedy as I remembered.

I’ll admit, I must’ve been naïve back then to think this was one of the funniest movies I’d seen Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, or Luke Wilson in. That said, the movie is still good enough to be rated a 6/10. It has cool scenes and brings out the best in the actors.

For me, Old School is about how three men facing midlife crises handle their lives to avoid self-destruction.
One of the men is Bernard (Vince Vaughn), who feels trapped in his marriage but won’t do anything to jeopardize his family. Another is Frank (Will Ferrell), who just got married and can’t believe how much he has to compromise to stay married. The last is Mitch (Luke Wilson), who catches an early flight home to surprise his live-in girlfriend—only to find her involved with other people (emphasis on the “people”).

Mitch gets an apartment near a campus, and Bernard decides to turn it into a den where the guys can escape their lives and be free. The whole idea and partying catch the attention of the campus dean, who happens to be an old acquaintance the trio ridiculed in high school. He decides to make things difficult for them, forcing them to turn their den into a fraternity. Now, they have to defend its existence and keep its members happy and fulfilled.

The movie was a box office success, making more than three times its production cost. It almost had a sequel, but we were saved from seeing it when Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn declined to be in it. Here’s an old movie I can say I saw and liked.

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

10/10

Starring

Cary Grant

Katharine Hepburn

Directed by Howard Hawks

This movie is outstanding. I have to be honest—if you haven’t seen this movie, you need to. This is the best Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant movie I’ve seen to date.

The first time I ran into a paleontologist was in Friends, and in Friends, Ross was just as scatterbrained as Dr. David Huxley, played by Cary Grant in this 1938 screwball comedy classic. Now, I am not saying all paleontologists are scatterbrains, but based on my movie and TV viewing, they do not have good representatives.  Screwball is a genre where the female lead dominates the male.
Their onscreen chemistry is magical, and the screenplay is something you don’t see every day. The lines are more than comical—they’re hilarious. The moment the two leads start getting in each other’s way, you wish they’d never stop.

As the movie progressed, I wondered if the script would have them married and struggling to raise a child. I was wrong—Baby is actually a 3-year-old leopard that Susan’s brother sent her to look after.

The movie starts with an introduction to Dr. Huxley, who is planning to get married until his path crosses with Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) on a golf course while he’s meeting with a benefactor. After a series of events where Susan and David spend more time together, Susan takes a liking to David, while David is ready to do anything to get away from her.

Susan’s decision to pursue David takes the movie through a series of twists and turns, and I laughed hard watching the two of them get in each other’s way.

For me, the gem in this movie was Katharine Hepburn. I totally adored her in this film and fell in love with her character immediately. You will too when you see and hear the hilarious lines she delivers.

The movie’s production took a long time to materialize, mostly because Grant and Hepburn had to ad-lib their dialogues, which made them laugh and struggle to get their lines right.
Bringing Up Baby wasn’t a box office hit when it was released in 1938, but as it got re-released, it became a success.

Furthermore, the movie is ranked 88th on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition), 14th on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs, and 51st on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Passions list.

What a wonderful movie—one you’ll enjoy watching and revisiting.

Super Mario Bros. (1993)

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Super Mario Bros. (1993)

3/10

Starring

Bob Hoskins

John Leguizamo

Dennis Hopper

Samantha Mathis

Directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel

After seeing the Honest Trailer on Screen Junkies (Youtube) I just had to go look for this film. Reading more on the movie on Wikipedia didn’t help, it just made me more inquisitive.

Here is a movie Bob Hoskins (he plays Mario) said, "the worst thing I ever did" and his quoted to have answered Super Mario Bros. to three of the questions he was asked in a 2007 interview with The Guardian. The questions were, "What is the worst job you've done," "What has been your biggest disappointment," and "If you could edit your past, what would you change?

John Leguizamo who played Luigi also said in his autobiography "Oh man that movie sucks. And I suck in it."

I just had to see this movie to see why it sucked and boy did it suck. This movie is so off the mark and borderline confused on whether it was a family film or not. When I was done watching, I felt the directors and writers never played the Mario game before making this movie.

The movie has good effects, bearing in mind it was done in the early 90s, but the story and screenplay didn’t add up.

What was with the fungus?

The game made sense with the characters (the bad guys) being anthropomorphic turtles, instead in this movie they were humanoids of reptilian descent, living in another dimension. Mario and Luigi live in the human world.

For the movie plot, I was expecting Mario to have to go save Princess Peach, but the movie’s love focus was on Luigi and Princess Daisy. That was my first turn off.

Daisy was brought to the human world and raised there, Koopa needed to get a rock which was in Daisy’s possession, so he sent his goons to kidnap her and bring her to his own dimension, which they did.

Mario and Luigi followed into the new world, where fungus is growing everywhere and Koopa was king and ruler.

The two heroes have to find Koopa and save Princess Daisy before Koopa gets his hands on the rock in Daisy’s possession and merge the human world with his.

Being critically panned by critics and also a box office disaster (making $20 million from a $48 million production cost) It is rumored, this is the reason no other live action film has been released from the Nintendo garage of characters and I hope they get over it, this was in 1993 a lot of great writers can spin characters like Metroid and Zelda into box office hits.

I don’t know why, but I will be keeping this crap.

This Is the End (2013)

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This Is the End (2013)

6/10

Starring

James Franco

Seth Rogen

Jonah Hill

Jay Baruchel

Danny McBride

Craig Robinson

Directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Their debut)

This Is the End is the second Seth Rogen film (the first being The Interview (2014) which also starred James Franco and Seth Rogen) I have enjoyed. I didn’t get to see it when it came out in 2013 because I’m not much of a Seth Rogen fan, but the movie wasn’t bad at all. The comedy were well paced and I didn’t find myself being dragged on for too long, before another laugh comes crawling up my belly.

The whole idea of the main cast being an exaggerated version of themselves, is one you will enjoy. My favorite was the exaggerated version of James Franco, with him being addressed as a nerd because that dude is a total nerd, check out his bio on Wikipedia to see how many degrees he has.

The movie mixes and matches, using many cameos to play exaggerated versions of themselves, using Biblical themes of the end of the world and trying to pass a message that regardless of how life presents itself we should think about others (although this message may not have been in the mind of the makers) all this was done in a perverted way, which I didn’t initially appreciate, but soon saw the fun in it.

The movie plot is about two actor friends Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel who decide to go for a party at James Franco’s house. Seth wanting his new friends James Franco, Jonah Hill and Craig Robinson to be friends with his old mate Jay, wasn’t coming out well. Both Seth and Jay went on a stroll while the party was still going on and witnessed what seemed like an earthquake to Seth and the Biblical end of the world to Jay.

They both get back to the party and the world started to burn before their eyes, with people dying and some being sucked up by a blue light. Now trapped together (James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson), they have to find a way to survive what is hapening.

I can’t jump out and say the acting was great, or the script was wonderful, what I can say is that the movie is fun to watch and James Franco was the bomb in the movie.

The movie had a grand ending, I enjoyed seeing the Back Street Boys partying in heaven and then the graphics of the movie is wonderful. Towards the end of the movie, some intense CGI were used to depict monsters and demons and it was so good.

This is the end is a movie you should watch, sorry it ain’t a family film, but it is a funny film.