27 Dresses is about as standard of romantic comedy fare as you can get, but some very likable and funny performances push it into recommendation territory. Best of all, it doesn’t resort to poorly-executed slapstick (okay, it does a little) or preachy anti-male tirades for laughs. Sure it’s predictable, but… Continue reading
Watching Juno is like spending ninety minutes with the wiseass office “intellectual”; the kind of person who quotes movies like The Matrix with a straight face and thinks Dennis Miller ruled on Monday Night Football. The Indie comedy used to have something to say, but now it’s just a front… Continue reading
Dan in Real Life is a mixed bag of misery, tenderness, and moderate wit; all wrapped around a wonderful performance by Steve Carell. The film suffers from the usual issues: contrivances are piled as high as one character’s famous pancakes, there are too many characters, and the humor is truly… Continue reading
Something has happened to the Farrelly Brothers since 2005’s Fever Pitch, and that something is named Judd Apatow. While the Farrelly’s laid the groundwork for the contemporary raunch-fest with a heart, Apatow has brought it full circle with the likes of The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. The… Continue reading
Dane Cook plays a dentist in Good Luck Chuck, but the movie plays that part straight. Having had braces, three tooth extractions, three bone graphs, and three dental implants, I can say with relative ease that none of that was as painful as watching this pathetic waste of celluloid. The… Continue reading
Stardust is the most gleefully silly fantasy tale in years; a whimsical experience in the vein of The Princess Bride. Unlike the latter, Stardust is aimed more so at mature adults in its themes and execution. It contains enough self-referential humor and zest to keep one engaged throughout. In a… Continue reading
No Reservations, a remake of 2001’s Bella Martha (Mostly Martha here in the States), should have been a standard romantic comedy vehicle and nothing more. All of the ingredients (pardon the pun) are in place: The uptight, independent working woman who desperately needs a change of pace and some substance… Continue reading
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is the kind of comedy that tries to toe two lines and stumbles on both. It spends its first half gleefully mocking homosexuals and everything about them, then does an about-face and turns into a tolerance sermon as the two main characters slowly… Continue reading
Writer/Director Judd Apatow may just save the R-rated comedy yet. Between this and The 40-Year-Old Virgin he has proven himself to be the go-to guy for uproarious, thought provoking comedies with real characters. Even more dazzling is the fact he can achieve such emotion without sacrificing the kind of lewd… Continue reading
It comes as no surprise that the late Adrienne Shelly’s Waitress was a breakout hit at Sundance this year. It’s the kind of sly, witty independent gem that rolls through every few years, lighting up crowds and forcing men to admit they were wrong when they thought they were being… Continue reading