Tag Archives: Comedy

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Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)

After the success of the first Madagascar, in which four wild animals from the New York zoo end up in the wild of Madagascar, it is no surprise that a sequel would be made. The lion Alex (Ben Stiller), hippo Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith), giraffe Melman (David Schwimmer) and zebra Marty (Chris Rock) decide to leave the island (together with the penguins) to return to New York. Because penguins are not the best mechanics, the plane they have fixed literally falls short of their goal to reach home and they crash in Africa Continue reading →

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Red (2010)

Despite the lakes of adrenaline action stars do get old eventually. This doesn’t prevent them from still making action movies though as we already saw earlier this year with The Expendables. Bruce Willis (55) already played a small part in it, but in action comedy Red he’s the star. The rest of the actors are not known for action movies, but Morgan Freeman (73!), John Malkovich (56) and Helen Mirren (65) show that they know how to handle weapons. Do these older actors still manage to make explosive action scenes or has their time come and should they start looking for retirement homes? Continue reading →

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The Other Guys (2010)

The first scene of the Other Guys is so good and over the top that Michael Bay probably will be impressed by it. Agents Christopher Danson (Dwayne Johnson) and P.K. Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) show in only a couple of minutes how to catch criminals, even if that means causing millions in damages. They are so popular that nobody really cares about something like that. They also refuse to do any paperwork (as they are way too cool to spend time on something so useless), but their boss, Captain Gene Mauch (Michael Keaton), doesn’t mind as there are enough other police officers available at headquarters that are able to do this boring job.

Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) are two of these officers. Allen doesn’t mind doing it at all (he even volunteers doing it), but Terry hates having to sit behind a desk. Because of an error he made when he was younger he’s forced to having a desk job.
Allen however is excellent in the job he does and by doing his paperwork properly he finds out that David Ershon, a wealthy businessman, has made some mistakes related to his business. Allen and Terry decide to arrest him for it and by doing so they get entangled in a bigger case than they were expecting. Continue reading →

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In Search of a Midnight Kiss (2007)

It’s never nice to be alone during the holidays at the end of the year. Wilson (Scoot McNairy) is not looking forward to the end of the year and wishes the year to be over as soon as possible. A friend of him convinces him to get a date on the last day of the year. He places an ad on Craigslist and it doesn’t take long for replies to appear. He decides to meet up with Vivian (Sara Simmonds). The movie follows the two during the last hours of the year and shows them meeting up and talking to each other.
As the movie has won quite a lot of awards I was looking forward to seeing. Unfortunately I wasn’t prepared for such a big disappointment. Continue reading →

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This is Spinal Tap (1984)

When you first see the title of this movie you would immediately think that this is a documentary about them touring, being to watch what happens behind and off stage in the lives of the members of Spinal Tap. But when you actually start watching it you’ll find out that it’s not a serious movie, but a mockumentary. The band members are interviewed and tell a lot of crazy stories (which you know can’t be true, like why they had so many different drummers and how they kept dying) Continue reading →

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Get Him to the Greek (2010)

Forgetting Sarah Marshall was a comedy which I really liked (I gave it a 9 and have seen it several times). In that movie Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) was the extremely annoying new boyfriend that Sarah was dating, a rocker who just said what he thought. Get Him to the Greek is a Forgetting Sarah Marshall spinoff, focussing on Aldous Snow.
Aaron Green (Jonah Hill, who’s playing a different character as he did in Forgetting Sarah Marshall deed) works at a record company. The sales of Aldous Snow’s music are exteremely low and Aaron suggests to organise a concert by Snow in L.A.’s Greek theater to repeat a succesfull show he had there exactly ten years before to stimulate sales.
His boss, Sergio Roma (a very funny Sean Combs), thinks it’s a great idea and orders Aaron to fly to England to get Aldous Snow and make sure that he travels to L.A. (without any problems) to do the show. Aaron has no idea what he has gotten himself into. Continue reading →

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The Invention of Lying (2009)

Could you imagine a world in which everyone told the truth? Not only in situations where you asked someone a question, but all the time. So at the beginning of the date the other person immediately tells you what his/her plans are and what they think you. So no compliments to make you feel good, just what is going through the mind of that person.
This is the world of The Invention of Lying. It’s a funny starting point which does results in some good jokes in the first half of the movie. When Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) loses his writing job for a television network and gets into financial trouble he decides to make something up. This results in the world’s first lie. Because no one actually knows the concept of lying he sees a world full of opportunity. Continue reading →

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Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

It’s not often that movies based on someone’s life are funny. I Love you Philip Morris is one example I can think of, but so is Charlie Wilson’s War, despite the serious subject of the tension that was brewing in Afghanistan between the local people and the invading Russian army.

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is a politician from Texas who lives a very luxurious life while he has his seat in the American Congress. He likes his women, booze and drugs and really has fun with it all. When he sees the situation in Afghanistan on TV something changes. He decides to do something about it and finds out that America is hardly spending any money on getting the Russians out of Afghanistan.

He’s helped by Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) who, although she’s not a politician, does know the right people to get things done. There is also help from CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who really doesn’t care what the people within the CIA think of him. Together they try to make some money available for Afghanistan. Continue reading →

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Boy (2010)

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I usually don’t hear or read a lot about movies from New Zealand. Of course WETA and Peter Jackson are the most famous export “items” from this country, but I can’t remember any movies I’ve seen that were filmed there with local actors. Until I saw Boy.
Boy is main characters in this movie, a kid who loves Michael Jackson, who just released his album Thriller. As the movie is set during the eighties, it’s something which is used to great effect. So they are not only talking about Michael Jackson, but other well-known eighties subjects, like E.T., are also mentioned. Boy has a lot of imagination and at school he tells a lot of big stories about the things his father did and how great he is. He does not tell the class that in reality his father is stuck in jail.
As you do when you are young (and also when you are older) Boy tries to be cool to his friends and tries to impress the girl he has a crush on (including a Michael Jackson dance routine).
Because his grandmother isn’t home (his mother passed away when he was younger), it is up to him to take care of the rest of the kids. This includes his little brother Rocky, who thinks he has superpowers. I really loved the way these special powers are shown, which is very imaginative (and results in some laughs). Continue reading →

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The Proposal (2009)

Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) is a very succesful Canadian businesswoman working in Amerika. She rules her department as a dictator. Everyone is afraid of her and she has almost no personal contact with other people. Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) is her assistant and is forced to deliver perfection because if he doesn’t he will lose his job.
When her boss tells Margaret that she is losing her work permit for the US, which would force her to go back to Canada, she already sees the career she worked so hard for disappear. That is until she tells her boss that she can stay in the US as she’s marrying Andrew (who is just as surprised as everyone else about this news). Andrew doesn’t see any other solution than to play along with this. When an INS agent shows up to check on their relationship they are forced to act as if they are a couple. Continue reading →