The most overlooked movie of 2013 may have been Shawn Levy’s (Date Night, Night at the Museum) The Internship. The film reunited Vince Vaughn (Dodgeball, Old School) and Owen Wilson (Hall Pass, Midnight in Paris) for the first time since 2005’s box office mega-hit Wedding Crashers. Fans had been asking for the two to reunite for a movie. Many were calling for a Wedding Crashers 2. It was one of those scenarios where no matter what the pair decided to do, it was destined for failure because it would not be able to live up to the hype. In a way, it’s as if The Internship never got its fair chance, and I include putting myself in that lump sum. I remember when I first saw the trailer for the movie. I was utterly disappointed at the end of the trailer when I saw that the film was only PG-13. I was ready for some R-rated comedy between the duo. I wanted it to be as raunchy as Wedding Crashers. Unless the reviews for the movie were incredible, I knew I was unlikely to see the film in the theater, if at all, because of a rating that I deemed unacceptable for a Vaughn/Wilson comedy. However, I did decide to give it a go when it came on HBO, and I’m so glad I did. It’s a comic gem.
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Category Archives: Comedy
22 Jump Street (2014)
A comedy sequel that is better than the original is rare to find, if not impossible. I’ve had this conversation with some of my friends before. The example that we agreed upon was National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It’s debatable if this is even really a sequel, though. We couldn’t find another sequel that was even really comparable to the first in terms of hilarity. The Hangover Part II was funny but offered nothing new, and the first The Hangover was hilarious. After watching The Hangover Part III (which I found absolutely terrible), I liked the first two even less. Many great comedies (Old School, Wedding Crashers, Groundhog Day, There’s Something About Mary) certainly made plenty of money to warrant a sequel but went the smart route (at least to me) in not making a movie to make a movie. A couple of franchises did the original proud by being *almost* as funny (the American Pie franchise comes to mind). Then there were other franchises that waited so long to make their sequel and had such high expectations that they were bound to fail (Meet the Fockers wasn’t anywhere close to as funny as Meet the Parents, while Little Fockers was more of an embarrassment than was The Hangover Part III). Likewise, The Naked Gun is an all-time classic, but The Naked Gun 2 1/2 and The Naked Gun 33 1/3 are worth watching but are not nearly as funny). So there wasn’t a massive precedent for 22 Jump Street being as funny or funnier than 21 Jump Street. But, if it wasn’t more humorous than the original, it was darn close and worth the admission price.
Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
Emma Thompson (Howard’s End, Remains of the Day) got hosed out of an Oscar nomination! I had made it a goal to see all the nominees in all major Academy Award categories. Still, I didn’t see the snubs or the next in lines for Best Actor, Best Actress, etc., unless their movie received a nomination in one of the other major categories. It’s been a while since I reviewed all of the really good films of 2013. I’m sure I had already replaced Amy Adams (American Hustle) with a more deserving candidate. I don’t remember who I replaced her with at the moment, and I don’t feel like going back and looking. I’m pretty sure I did this, though. I believe I replaced the Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for this movie because I didn’t feel like any of them deserved it. I think I did keep Jennifer Lawrence as a nominee because the nominees in the Supporting Actress category in 2013 were not overly impressive. But this review isn’t about the underwhelming American Hustle. It is about the under-appreciated Saving Mr. Banks, a movie I had written off as a lame little kids’ movie after a single trailer. It was one of those movies that I told myself I would eventually see because it had so much hype surrounding it, and I have yet to talk to someone who didn’t, at least, like it.
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The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (2013)
If one trailer in 2013 left you thinking, “That movie could either be good or terrible,” it was the trailer of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. This movie stars Ben Stiller, more or less, outside of his usual comedy genre. This movie is certainly not There’s Something About Mary or Meet the Parents. This isn’t the equivalent of Ed Helms in Jeff Who Lives at Home, Jim Carey in The Truman Show, or Will Ferrell in Everything Must Go. Those movies, each starring a comedic actor outside of their comfort zone, were more dramas, whereas this movie is both a drama and an adventure. In many regards, I appreciate the effort of Stiller venturing into something new. I think there is a place for a character of his ability in similar films. Unfortunately, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is not this movie. The movie is rated PG, and I’m not entirely sure why. This isn’t Night at the Museum. I don’t feel like the younger audiences had/would have much interest in this movie. And even if it did appeal to this group, I’m not sure Stiller is the star to lead it. Maybe, but I’m not convinced. With that said, I appreciate a movie that aims for the PG rating when it seems it could easily drift towards the PG-13 rating
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Enough Said (2013)
It is unfortunate that director Nicole Holofcener (Friends With Money, Lovely and Amazing) Enough Said was the last film that James Gandolfini (television’s The Sopranos, The Last Castle) completed before his untimely death, but what a lasting impression he will leave with the mass public in the most real and honest movie of 2013. Gandolfini has frightened us on the big and small screens for the last 20 years. He has played some of the vilest characters and some of the meanest. Like me, you might go into this movie thinking Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in a romantic dramedy. There’s A) No chance it will be good, and B) Even if the critics somehow give it a positive review, there is no way I will give it a chance because it will be so unbelievable. Just like with Gandolfini as some mobster, hard military man, or hitman, we think of Louis-Dreyfus as the queen of goofy television comedies like Seinfeld, Veep, and The New Adventures of Old Christine. There is no way this movie could ever work in the world, right? Well, I will say unequivocally that this assumption is wrong. This movie is not just good. It is great. The chemistry between Gandolfini and Louis-Dreyfus is not something that just gets by. It is something that works effortlessly.
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