Get Smart

Get Smart was one of Ben's favorite televison shows as a youth, but I have never seen the show. It must not have been on reruns on my local stations as a youth and I didn't have cable. My review therefore is on the merits of the movie alone and not how it relates to the original TV series.

Maxwell Smart (Steve Carrell) is an analyst who has finally passed the tests to become a CONTROL agent. He idiolizes the sauve Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson) and hopes to become a great agent like him. After an attack on the CONTROL center and subsequent attacks on all CONTROL agents in the database, Smart and Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) head to Russia to take on CHAOS, an enemy organization that has nuclear weapons and plans to use them.

Overall, the movie was cute with funny parts. I thought it was funny, but Ben thought it was laugh out loud funny at parts. I particularly liked the dance scene. It is not sophisticated humor, but is an entertaining movie. I like Carrell and also liked all of the supporting cast.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Forgetting Sarah Marshall was an okay movie. It was the story of a composer named Peter who has been dating Sarah Marshall, the star of a CSI like drama for the past five years. His world is shattered when Sarah breaks up with him (while he is naked) for a British rocker. Peter travels to Hawaii to forget Sarah, but discovers she is staying at the same resort with her new boyfriend. Peter makes new friends including the receptionist, Rachel.

I liked several aspects of the movie including:

1. Male nudity. Well, I didn't like it that much - but was happy that they were showing a man and not just a naked lady like most movies.
2. Relationships from a caring, sensitive male point of view. It was nice to have the story of a nice guy on screen.
3. Three dimensional characters. I really liked all of the leads characters - they were really well developed and realistic.
4. Complicated relationships. Sarah may seem like a witch at first, but flashbacks and conversations show that Sarah and Peter's relationship had been fraught with difficulties that had come to a head.

I'm sure there were more things I liked, but for some reason I just couldn't get into this movie. Maybe I am over the whole gross-out comedies of late. Or maybe there was too much sensitive guy with Peter and his weepiness. I'm not sure what it was about it . . .did anyone else feel the same as me and find themselves wanting to love the movie, but falling short?

Made of Honor

Made of Honor was a cute romantic comedy starring Patrick Dempsey. I'm feeling my age though. The opening sequence showed when the two characters met in college in 1998 with Clinton and Monica jokes and outfits at Halloween. That would be when I was in college, but I don't remember Clinton and Monica dress up at Michigan Tech! :-) As a side note - not to be picky, but Patrick Dempsey is a good 12 years older than me. He would have been the oldest senior in college around in 1998. Sorry - just had to put that out there!

Patrick Dempsey stars as Tom, a rich playboy. He meets Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) in 1998 at college. Hannah is a girl that tells him the way it is and doesn't want to sleep with him - so they become friends. Ten years later, Hannah travels to Scotland to restore artwork. While she is gone, Tom discovers that he misses her more than he realizes and loves her. When Hannah returns, Tom discovers that Hannah has met and become engaged to Colin. Coin is the "perfect" man. Not only is he Scottish, but he is very wealthy, a Duke, great at everything he does, and greatly "endowed" we found out in a gym scene. Tom feels overwhelmed, but agrees to be Hannah's "maid" of honor in order to stay close to her and steal her back for himself. Much hilarity ensues at the wedding in Scotland.

I enjoyed this cute movie. I didn't love it, but did think it was good.

The Simpsons Movie

Ben and I watched the Simpsons Movie last night and I must admit, nether one of us was that overly impressed. It was basically like a giant TV episode, but without the clarity and focus of a half an hour show. It was entertaining, but I actually have seen many episodes that are better than the movie!

The overall plot of the movie is that Homer and his rescued pig "Spider-Pig" has caused an environmental disaster by dumping pig poo into Lake Springfield. The poo was the last pollutant to tip it all over the edge. The EPA takes over and puts the city under a dome. The Simpsons manage to escape the city and movie to Alaska, but they are moved to save the day and the town of Springfield.

There were several laugh out loud moments and it was worth seeing once. But as I said above, the episodes you see on TV are actually more entertaining.

Hot Fuzz

Ben and I watched Hot Fuzz this past weekend. Hot Fuzz is a British comedy from the same people who put together Shaun of the Dead. As with Shaun of the Dead, Ben seemed to enjoy the movie much more than I did. I'm not sure if it's a guy thing or if Ben just gets the British humor better than I do!

Hot Fuzz is a parady of buddy cop movies. Nicholas Angel is a cop that is just too good at his job in London so he is promoted to a Sargent and transferred to the sleepy English village of Sanford. Sanford appears to be a sleep village with no crime, but when "accidents" start to appear at a greater frequency, Sgt. Angel starts to suspect that there is more to the village than meets the eye. He is partnered with the police chief's son Danny much to his dismay as Danny is not a very good cop. Together with Danny he investigates the "accidents" and learns that there is a horror in the village that only a giant gun battle can contain.

The movie took a rather strange twist in the middle and made it become a much different kind of movie. I was entertained, but didn't think of it as a fantastic film. I read a lot of good reviews of it so maybe my expectations were too high - or maybe I don't find British humor that funny. I'm not sure!

There are some rather gruesome deaths in the movie so it's not appropriate for young ones. Kile was innocently playing would always happen to look at the screen during those moments. If he is tramatised later in life, I know why.

Has anyone else seen this movie? Did you love it/hate it? I'd be interested in your opinion of it.

Ocean's Thirteen

Ben and I watched Ocean's Thirteen over the weekend and enjoyed it. Ben especially enjoyed the 1960's inspired soundtrack as did Kile. Kile was happily playing, but whenever he heard the music, his head would start bopping!

Ocean's Thirteen finds George Clooney (Danny), Brad Pitt (Rusty), Matt Damon (Linus), and the rest of the crew thankfully back in Las Vegas. Eccentric and wealthy former casino owner (and one of the original 11) Reuban is strong-armed into giving up his share of a new casino to Willy Bank (Al Pacino). This causes Reuban to have a heart attack. Determined to give Reuban a reason to live again, Danny Ocean gathers the gang together to ruin Willy Bank's new casino by not allowing him to get a five diamond rating and by rigging it so that so many people win that the casino is financially ruined.

I thought the movie was enjoyable and liked how they gave it a 60's vibe with the music and coloring. It was much better than Ocean's 12, but I think that Ocean's 11 is still the best of the three. I missed Julia Roberts in this one!

Knocked Up

Ben and I watched Knocked Up last weekend and we both thought it was highly overrated. I guess that's what happens when you spend half a year hearing about how funny and great a movie is, you finally get around to watch it, and it just doesn't live up to the hype.

The movie concerns two main characters Ben Stone (Seth Rogan) and Alison (Katherine Heigl). Alison has just gotten a new reporter job at E! entertainment news and goes out to the club with her sister Debbie. There she is hit on by Ben Stone, a loser that lives with his four crass roommates, has no job, and seems to smoke pot all day. She doesn't know this at the time and he seems like a nice guy. They both get drunk, things happen, and Alison finds herself pregnant. Ben is the total opposite of her and they try to make things work out to be good parents. It seemed like a typical plot. Boy is stoner loser, learns that he must grow up and become man and get his own job. Girl must learn to accept man as he is. It grew old I thought. I also didn't think there was any chemistry between the actors portraying Ben and Alison.

I don't need to see this movie again.

Nacho Libre

I know what you are thinking . . . Nacho Libre does not seem like a Laura kind of movie at all. Ben really wanted to watch it, and it was his birthday so I watched it with him. Having no expectations at all for the movie, I found myself pleasantly surprised and entertained. It was definitely not the world's best movie, but it was an enjoyable movie to watch - and one that you could enjoy with your whole family.

The movie tells the tale of Nacho (Jack Black) who was an orphan raised at a Mexican monastary. He grows up and becomes a cook and friar, but dreams of being a wrestler. He also has a forbidden love for a nun.

If you watch this movie, don't expect a masterpiece, but do expect to be entertained.