The Green Hornet (2011)

With this summer already set to be jam packed full of super hero stories which production companies all hope will become super blockbusters, 2011 begins with a different type of hero. The popular character, The Green Hornet, which was brought to audiences in many different production markets throughout the early 1900s and originally created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker meets new foes…in 3-D.

Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is the party happy and neglected as a child son of media mogul James Reid (Tom Wilkinson). Britt’s father, who wrote and published articles about the crime and corruption taking over the city of Los Angeles, unexpectedly dies and leaves his newspaper publication to his irresponsible son. After grasping the fact that his father is gone forever and a seemingly innocent prank turns violent, Britt realizes that he needs to do more with his life.

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Easy A: Prepare to be Besmirched (2010)

Everyone remembers high school right? The bus rides or car rides, if you were lucky. The awful smell of the locker room, especially in the guys’ area after sweating all through-out gym class. The lunch; sometimes it looked it like it might have moved when you weren’t looking. Of course the popular and unpopular people and how the latter were relentlessly ridiculed without remorse. But the thing that probably drove high school the most were the random rumors. Some true, most of them more false than the idea that I can dunk a basketball. Gossip pretty much made or broke reputations during those four years and it wasn’t always a good thing. Director Will Gluck chooses up-and-comer Emma Stone to help him tell a story of how far tall tales can grow.

Stone plays Olive, a 17-year old girl who flies pretty under the popularity radar when it comes to school. Her best friend, Rhiannon (Aly Michalka), is constantly going on and on about how Olive hasn’t done anything with a guy yet. So in order to get out of going on a camping trip with her friend and her parents, she makes up a lie about having a date. This false date is with a false older college guy which leads to her having some very false sex with him in an attempt to get Rhiannon to stop pestering her about it. Unfortunately this untruth is overheard by the school Jesus-lover, Marianne (Amanda Bynes). Marianne quickly scolds her for being a “whore” and initiates the spread of this fiction story all over their high school.

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The Proposal (2009)

           There probably have been about a million different takes on the “date-night” favorite, the romantic comedy.  I for one think these different plays on two characters falling in love are a good thing.  It keeps the genre fresh and always delightful.  The Proposal directed by Anne Fletcher continues the flow of somewhat unique plotlines.

            The story begins where else but in New York City with aspiring editor Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) trying to work his way up the corporate ladder as the executive assistant, or secretary, of Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock).  Margaret is a “take no names, unforgiving” type of business woman.  She doesn’t play games and is all about getting work done.  An unexpected dilemma concerning her legal status in the U.S. presents itself when the company’s top executives inform her that she will be fired and deported back to her homeland of Canada. 

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Jackass 3D

With subject matter that included the likes of insane stunts, painful pranks and disgusting results, I don’t think anyone ever thought that Jackass would progress into an all out franchise. But after considering how much people love to see the misfortunes of other people, especially when it usually winds up with them in some kind of severe pain, are you really surprised? With the success of the Mtv-born show created way back in 2000, Jackass has since spawned two movies and even a couple of spin-offs; Wildboyz & Viva la Bam. Now the entire original cast has returned to utilize the growing technology that 3D has to offer.


Jackass 3D is typically more of the same…but this time with three-dimensional special effects. Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Wee-man, Chris Pontius, Preston Lacy, Steve-O and the rest of the gang are once again voluntarily hurting themselves for our viewing pleasure. Being continuously rammed by a goat, staging a bar fight and arrest provided exclusively by little people, peeing into the jet stream of a plane, and the hysterical huge hand “high-five” stunt seen in the trailer are just the beginning. Of course the gang pushes the rated-R cushion to the limit not caring about what they reveal to the audience or what they do to each other.

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She's Out of my League

I think everyone has been there at one point or another in their lives. Either you have been the half of a couple who is considered the average-looking one and your better half is somewhat of a super hottie or perhaps it’s been the other way around where as you are the “dymepiece” of the relationship and your partner is the one shivering away in your shadow. Regardless what your situation, I think everyone can relate. She’s Out of my League puts this situation on the screen for all to scratch their heads together and present the question that real life is afraid to ask; “What does she see in him?” Or the other way around of course.

Jay Baruchel plays Kirk, an average guy who works airport security and is still not over his ex-girlfriend from years past. With nothing very special about him, he works with his friends, has a run-down car and his ex-girlfriend still hangs out with his parents and family with her new boyfriend. One day a near perfect woman comes through the security checkpoint and loses her phone. Who should happen to find it but Kirk. He eventually returns it to its owner whose name is Molly. For whatever reason, she takes a liking to him and they begin dating.

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Vampires Suck (2010)

The popularity of the genre that is the spoof comedy is currently at a steady trickle down. Actually, it’s more like a down pour of mediocre and downright bad projects and moviegoers are stuck outside with no umbrella. Don’t you hate it when that happens? Apparently there are a lot of anti-Twilight supporters out there and even more anti-vampire picketers because someone saw it necessary to construct a film making fun of them. Although Vampires Suck mainly takes shots at the Twilight Saga, it incorporates little tidbits about other past and present popular vampire themed scenarios.

Not much to say about the storyline really, if you have even the slightest inkling about the Twilight plotline then you pretty much already know how this one plays out. The character names are slightly adjusted, of course, but not too much to make any sort of a difference. Becca Crane (Jenn Proske) instead of Bella Swan; Edward Sullen (Matt Lanter) instead of Cullen and Jacob White (Chris Riggi) instead of, well you know. Becca moves into town, meets Edward, falls in love with him but also has Jacob the werewolf desperately vying for her affection.

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Youth in Revolt (2010)

Developing an alter ego can lead to many benefits. An alias to go under if you’ve just committed a crime, creating a fictional character that may lead to a higher self confidence or pretending to be someone cool in order to impress a girl. Nick Twisp’s reasons and benefits are a little of all of those. Especially the impressing the girl part. Youth in Revolt delves into a place in a teenagers being that we all at one time or another have either considered or actually done.

Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) is your pretty basic teen. Keeps to himself, not many friends, is an aspiring novelist who has an appreciation for classics such Frank Sinatra and old poetry and has never been with a girl. He lives with his mother who is divorced from his father and co-habitats with her less than likable boyfriend. He has come to the depressing conclusion that his life is terrible and that he will certainly die a virgin.

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Date Night (2010)

Stuck in the same old rut day in and day out? Routine, familiar, normal, same old same old. These words describe many married couples who have fallen into that mundane stage of their relationship where they don’t do anything out of the ordinary. Everything is pretty much planned out and done the exact same way day in and day out. Steve Carrell and Tina Fey represent this type of married couple in Date Night.

Phil and Claire Foster (Carrell & Fey) are a quiet, very ordinary New Jersey married couple with the house, the kid, and the cars. Everything you would expect from a nuclear family. The go to work, they come home, they entertain their kids, and they go to sleep. One night a week, they go out and attempt to enjoy themselves but even that “date” is a very predictable one.

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The Other Guys (2010)

Once again Will Ferrell and Adam McKay team up to bring us another outrageous comedy. However, simply calling it outrageous is not doing it justice. The buddy cop or copedy genre receives a true template on how to make these kinds of films when The Other Guys was created. Generally you think taking a mild-mannered, well behaved police officer and pairing him with his complete opposite is the basic ingredient to a recipe for guaranteed success. This is not always the case. After experiencing plenty of films such as these, audiences begin to crave more. As in any other genre, the same old obvious jokes and puns simply do not work anymore. We need a new breed of stupidity. A different path on the road to uncontrollable laughter. The alternate route to this destination goes through this Ferrell/McKay production.

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Death at a Funeral (2010)

Originally a British comedy released in 2007, Death at a Funeral is the American remake. With the same plotline, it offers up comedy and funny situations that normally would make you feel ashamed to laugh at. But it’s a movie, so laugh away.

Starring Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence and Tracy Morgan, the cast is super-sized to put it modestly. Fortunately, it’s an A-Lister so the large amount of characters in this film works very well. Director Neil LaBute had not only the luxury of Chris Rock co-producing this project but a plethora of veteran established comedians to make this movie go.

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Dinner for Schmucks (2010)

Steve Carell is an idiot! I had no idea he could be this stupid. He is a true-blue dummy. I don’t mean literally, I’m talking about his role in his latest film. Dinner for Schmucks goes on the list for one of the funniest comedies of the year. Almost singlehandedly because of the “idiot” I spoke about at the beginning. Carell goes for the hat trick with his third comedy of the year and very well delivers.


Re-teaming with Paul Rudd, Carell plays Barry, a taxidermist who dresses up dead mice and re-creates famous works of art for a hobby. Rudd plays Tim, an equity executive who is on the verge of a very big promotion. But in order to fit in with the higher-ups at his company, he must impress them at a special dinner that they hold once a month. They each bring an “extraordinary person” to the dinner for entertainment and proceed to make fun of them. Without the knowledge of their guests, of course.

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The Back-Up Plan (2010)

Jennifer Lopez seems to love the romantic comedy. I think she’s done more of those types of films than any other. Let’s face it; they haven’t really turned out all that great. I will admit, I did take a liking to Angel Eyes, but that wasn’t a romantic comedy, so never mind. Her latest, but not greatest, is The Back-Up Plan.

The premise, although not completely new, is pretty simple. A single woman, Zoe (Jennifer Lopez), is finally ready to have kids. One problem, she doesn’t have the other ingredient needed, that essential part being a man in her life in order to do so. So, she decides to have herself artificially inseminated to try to become pregnant and is completely fine with doing the single mom thing. Enter Stan (Alex O’Loughlin) and a chance meeting between him and Zoe when they accidentally get into the same taxi-cab. He asks her out, sparks fly, they begin to date, yadda yadda yadda. The real plot begins when she discovers her doubtful attempt at pregnancy has ended in success. Now, she has to make a decision: tell him or not to tell him? That is the question…that almost no one has ever had to actually do before in real life.

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The Bounty Hunter (2010)

After seeing the trailer for this run-around romantic comedy, I felt like it had potential. Sure the concept of ex’s being forced to sort of work together has been done numerous times before but I figured pairing these two stars together would shed some unused light on the topic. Sadly, I was wrong. Not completely, The Bounty Hunter does entertain in some sense of the word, but doesn’t quite provide the substance needed to really be a full movie. This might be bad because this type of story really doesn’t need much substance to be considered entertaining.

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Zombieland (2009)

So it seems like the zombie genre might be getting to the point of being run into the ground. There have been countless zombie movies, some good and some bad, that have graced the big screen and either found their way into our hearts or into the realm of forgotten movie lore. I could throw random undead titles out at you but…I’m not. You know which ones you liked and which ones you didn’t so we’ll just leave it at that. Hopefully Zombieland finds its way into the pile that you like.

Taking after such films like Shaun of the Dead, (c’mon, I had to include at least one film reference) Zombieland combines horror and comedy. It takes the meat and potatoes that are used to make scary movies about the wandering undead and dips it into a pastel colored icing and puts a really big exploding candle on top: the funny part. Ok, a disgusting analogy yes, but hopefully you got the point.

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Despicable Me (2010)

We all know there have been many films about orphans and the way they fall into some unsuspecting Joe’s life who has never had children before. We also all know that by the end of the story their usual carefree lifestyle has been significantly changed by the presence of unwanted responsibility and the unexpected rewards that raising children can bring. Usually this change and mentality in our new parent’s life is a positive one and everyone lives happily ever after.


Despicable Me proves to be much more than this. Sure, it follows this basic concept and you can almost guess how everything is going to turn out but what is not predictable about the film is how the characters arrive at the end of the story. Therefore it is not your average bachelor meets orphans fairytale.

Our hero… or villain Gru (Steve Carrell), which is actually what he is in the movie, is seen as a disappointment across the “bad guy world”. Although he has the smarts, the evil scientist/inventor sidekick, Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), and around a ka-jillion silly childlike, yellow minions who are just waiting to do his every bidding, he still seems to fall short on the super-villain scale. The new kid in town, Vector (Jason Segel), pulls off one of the greatest diabolical plans in the apparent history of evilness and leaves Gru wondering why he didn’t think of it first.

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Hot Fuzz (2007)

The same cast and crew that delivered us the zombie/living dead spoof, Shaun of the Dead, brings us a cop drama/action spin off. Hot Fuzz takes from almost every action adventure movie about the law that you could possibly think of. It, of course, adds its’ own over the top moments to help develop the comedy aspect of it.

Top cop Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) of the London Metropolitan Police Force (uh, I mean Police Service) is transferred, against his will, from the high crime streets of the city of London to the peaceful, not much going on, little village of Sanford. He is partnered up with PC (that stands for Police Constable) Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) who, along with the rest of the Sanford Police, hasn’t seen much action due to the quiet and subdued state of the town that they patrol. Angel struggles to fit in until he comes across a few deaths that have been determined to be “accidents” which has his police gut telling him that all may not be what it seems in silent Sanford.

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Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

So what would you do if you had the opportunity to travel back in time? I would try to correct so many mistakes I made that by the time I finished with all of them, I would probably be back at the present. And I know it’s not just me, everyone, or almost everyone would take that chance to go back and change something or maybe just to relive a special moment they shared in their life. The sheer idea of time travel, though not yet available in real life, has been the topic of numerous movies so far. The Time Machine (duh), Back to the Future, even Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure capitalized on the fantasy concept and has entertained audiences and readers throughout history. The latest film to use this plot line is the utterly, yes I said utterly, hilarious comedy directed by Steve Pink, Hot Tub Time Machine.

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Knight and Day (2010)

Ok, so the last time actors named Cruise and Diaz were combined, the final product was a seriously confusing and jumbled story titled Vanilla Sky. The best thing about that tangled web of plotlines was the inclusion of one of Cruise’s ex’s with a similar sounding last name, Penelope. Nine years later, Tom and Cameron have returned but with a different director, James Mangold; different writer, Patrick O’ Neill; and a different genre, action, with some subtle comedy blended in, to bring us Knight and Day.

Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) is a CIA agent who has possibly or possibly not gone rogue due to his knowledge of the whereabouts of a special power source that is wanted by, well, everyone. He “accidentally” bumps into vintage automobile restorer, June Havens (Cameron Diaz), at the airport in order to get the package through security for him, without her knowledge of course. They find themselves on the same flight destined for Boston and get to know each other. During a bathroom trip, June realizes she is smitten with her new airplane buddy and decides to make a go at him while oblivious to the ruckus occurring outside the restroom. A ruckus that includes everyone and everyone, even the pilots, attacking Roy because yes, you guessed it, they are all after that little package I told you about earlier.

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Toy Story 3 (2010)

Until I became an older brother, I was an only child for the first 6 years of my life. All I had to keep me busy were my school friends, my parents (my father still remains undefeated in our career of random play fights at the very youthful age of 52) and my gi-normous box of toys which I had all to myself. I will take great pride in stating that even though I probably had every toy imaginable in my legendary “toy box”, I was never a spoiled brat. My mother refused to let me be. I think I still might have some battle bruises from the wars I also lost to her. Of course, that was back in the 80s and many kids nowadays would probably have no idea what some of those toys were. But ultimately, toys made my world go round, that and whenever my mother packed Kool-Aid instead of milk in my Knight Rider lunchbox. I also remember losing a lot of those toys but had never had any idea how that happened. It wasn’t until 1995 when a completely computer animated film called Toy Story was released and I discovered that my toys might actually be alive. I was like 13 by then so that premise never stuck but it did make me think.

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Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

In a couple of my previous reviews, I stated that out of all comedy sub genres, I love the silly, even stupid if you might call it, crazy comedy that is usually put out by actors like Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller, Steve Carell, Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and John C. Reilly. One of the kings of this type of comedy is none other than Will Ferrell himself. Dating back to his Saturday Night Live days, he has been one of the purest comedic actors in our generation. I would say between him and a couple other actors on the historic skit show, it was kept afloat as one of the best comedy shows in history. Some of my favorite films of his are Talladega Nights, Old School, and above all else Stepbrothers. This time around he brings us a story that takes place in 1970s San Diego, California about a news station. The KVWN-TV Channel 4 Evening News and their team of newscasters.

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