The Change-Up

2011 Comedy/Romantic Comedy by director David Dobkin

Description:  Dave, a lawyer by day and a family man, with a wife and 3 kids by night and his long time friend Mitch, slacker/stoner/very small time actor are about to take a ride on the weird roller coaster.  After an evening watching the game at a bar and getting a little drunk Mitch and Dave accidently pee in a fountain while wishing for each other’s lives.  So as is common when simultaneously peeing and wishing in the presence of a statue or fountain or in this case both, they wake up in the other’s body.  Let’s see just how much damage Mitch can do to Dave’s life and how many awkward situations Dave can experience with Mitch’s.

Review: Can I just express my favoritism here for both Jason Bateman & Ryan Reynolds? They are so funny!  But they have totally different styles of humor. Ok, on with it… Out of all the “trading bodies” movies out there, this one definitely just knocked my number 1 down a peg. Although the plot of the story isn’t original, it’s the writing and the delivery that I love. The physical and visual comedies are just hilarious. The character Tatiana is so messed up and Mitch is sick and twisted for actively perusing and just being involved! Watching Ryan & Jason play each other is great, because you get to see through their eyes kind of; body language, facial expressions, verbal character (pitch, whine, assertiveness, etc). Do not miss this movie.

My ratings:
Storyline & Plot – 9
Acting – 10
Comedy – 9.5
Romance – 7.5

My favorite quotes:

ü  “You’d be early too, if all you did all day is eat hummus and masturbate.”

ü  “I’m the mother, its 3 o’clock in the morning! Get the fuck outta the bed right now before I fucking cut you!”

ü  “No way! Phil Neikro is like my number one favorite of all time! Why is my voice so high?”

ü  I’m goin to work today, I’m gonna quit my job. I’m goin to apply to um Kinkos alright? Or maybe Chick-fil-A or Waffle House, huh? Foot Locker….”

Lead cast: Ryan Reynolds, Jason Bateman, Leslie Mann
Supporting cast: Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin, Mircea Monroe

Friends With Benefits

2011 Romantic Comedy/Drama by Will Gluck

Description:  Jamie is a New Yorker corporate head hunter looking to fill an executive position at GQ magazine.  Dylan is a successful writer for a very popular internet news blog from LA. When Jamie convinces Dylan to come to NYC to meet with GQ a friendship sparks.  Both are recently dumped and bummed about their single status.  After drink a few beers and watching a goopey romance movie they decide to add a few benefits to their friendship.  They do pretty good for a while… But eventually find that they have both invested more than intended in their sexual relationship.

Review: The story is kinda “been there, done that”, especially lately with “No Strings Attached” releasing in January 2011 and this one releasing in July 2011.  Seeing as how I have seen both and am reviewing one I will try to keep an open mind and do this like I haven’t seen the other.  There was a sad element to this movie so it wasn’t all ewwy gooey through the whole thing.  It was definitely funny, and I thought that the flash mob thing was cool.  Mila and Justin work really well off of each other.  There were several interesting twists throughout the film.  There was a lot of sex going on, like more than normal even for romantic comedies.  Not bad… J

My ratings:
Storyline & Plot – 7
Acting – 7.5
Comedy – 8
Romance – 8
Drama – 8

My favorite quotes:

ü  “I don’t want to be the guy that shits the bed.”

ü  “Why don’t they ever make a movie about what happens after the big kiss? – They do… It’s called porn.”

ü  “I love women. They’re beautiful, majestic, mysterious, mesmerizing creatures.  Smart, empathetic, far superior to men in every way and if I had a choice I would be with women to my dying day.  But me likes cock, so I’m strictly dick-ly.”

Lead cast: Mila Kunis, Justin Timberlake, Woody Harrelson
Supporting cast: Richard Jenkins, Jenna Elfman, Patricia Clarkson, Bryan Greenberg

Breakfast With Scot

2007 Comedy/Drama by director Laurie Lynd

Description:  A former tough guy pro hockey player, Eric, and his lawyer, Sam, who is Eric’s partner, are tasked with temporary custody of a young boy after his mom dies.  Eric is mortified when he discovers that young Scot has a liking for the flamboyant, gaudy, feminine side of things.  While trying to care for and protect Scot from being teased and picked on, Eric unintentionally gives the impression that Scot can’t be himself.  How high is the price of Scot appearing to be a “normal” child?

Review: A really great movie, with a great story, and great actors portraying great characters.  It shows the struggles of both children and grownups and it served up good “it’s ok to be yourself” lessons all around the table. I really like Tom Cavanagh as an actor; I don’t think that I have ever seen him in a bad movie.  I don’t want to say diamond in the rough because that seems too cliché and not quite right.  But how about if I say that it was a treasure buried in a sea of movies and is not likely to show up on a lot of people’s radars.  So if you are reading this, I hope that you will rent this title.  I have not read the book that this movie is based on, but I think that I will have to pick it up; if the movie was this good I can only imagine what the book will be.

My ratings:
Storyline & Plot – 9.5
Acting – 9.5
Comedy – 9
Drama – 9

My favorite quotes:

ü  “Look Sam, You wanna be worried about anything? Worry that that kid’s upstairs singing Christmas carols in October… To himself… By himself.”

ü  “When you’re out in public, watch the twirling, ok?”

ü  “You’re gonna get tall and you voice is gonna change and your face is gonna change and it’ll all be amazingly different.  But it’ll all happen so slowly, you won’t even notice. But I’d notice. I’d notice you. Every day I notice you.”
ü “We're all a little sissy around here."

Lead cast: Tom Cavanagh, Ben Shenkman, Noah Bennett
Supporting cast: Jeananne Goosen, Dylan Everett, Fiona Reid

Surf's Up

2009 Animation/Comedy/Family by directors Ash Brannon & Chris Buck

Description:  A young penguin, Cody, just wants to get out of his small town home of Shiverpool, Antarctica, when a scout for the annual Penguin World Surfing Championship comes to town.  Feeling like this is his big break; Cody follows the scout to the sunny tropic island where the championship is being held.  Surf along with Cody as he deals with a big bully, big waves and a larger than life role model.

Review: Great movie, it really was delivered well.  Most streamline animated movies are made for children with a few adult elements thrown in so the parents watching with their kids are completely bored.  But it’s almost as if Surf’s Up is the opposite; made for adults but fun for kids too.  I was also impressed that it has a real music soundtrack… Most “family animations” have a score of made for the movie songs.  It also did a really awesome job trying to make the camera shots as realistic as possible.  Plus this movie has “The Dude” in it :oP

My ratings:
Storyline & Plot – 8
Acting – 8
Child Friendly – 7.5
Comedy – 8

My favorite quotes:

ü  “He’s a dirty trash can full of poop.”

ü  “Dude, she's totally into you! She called you crap!”

ü  “I'm gonna chum the water with your head!

Lead cast: Shia LeBouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel
Supporting cast: Jon Heder, James Wood, Diedrich Bader

The River Why

2010 Drama/Comedy by director Matthew Leutwyler

Description: A coming of life story about a young man who wants nothing more than to live in the river, Gus. Raised by a by the book fly fisherman and a spontaneous bait fisherwoman, Gus decides that it is time to get out of his dueling parents line of fire and strike out on his own.  Now, spending all of his time on the river, he begins to question his beliefs in everything.

Review: A wonderful tale, great characters and contrasting points of view on the “whys” of life.  The pace of the movie is on track with the pace of fly fishing.   It’s not a well known movie I guess, but it was definitely a good find.  The actors did a great job portraying their very different character roles. Beautiful footage of the NW United States scenery!

My ratings:
Storyline & Plot – 8.5
Acting – 8.5
Drama – 5
Comedy – 6.5

My favorite quotes:

ü  “Um, Titus? The dog’s in Dochart’s chair now… And he’s rocking… Should I tell him to get down?  It’s amazing, how did you teach him to rock a chair like that?”

ü  “How can you be so patient when searching for fish and so hasty to write off your soul because you can’t see it?”

Lead cast: Zach Gilford, Amber Heard, William Hurt, Dallas Roberts
Supporting cast: Kathleen Quinlan, William Devane, Gattlin Griffith