Tag: Paul Rudd

Prince Avalanche has the distinction of being the only indie movie this week to come out and actually catch my interest. That interest is easily described coming from two factors.

One – It has a name of Prince Avalanche. What is going on there? I want to be a royal disaster, too!

Two – It has Paul Rudd in it. This might have helped my decision even more than note one.

Well, it is good that the people in this movie work hard.

Alvin (Rudd) and Lance (Emile Hirsch) are construction workers, more or less, working in a remote area. Super remote. Like, only tagging three actors overall remote. It is also set in the 1980s, so a lot of technological luxuries are not present. Just two guys and a truck. Monday through Friday, they work and camp out in the area, drawing lines on the high way, random other bullshit work, who really knows. But on the weekend they can continue with their social lives and interact with their loved ones.

Alvin has a girlfriend, and that girlfriend’s brother happens to be Lance. Aw. It is like they decided together to work this summer because they already knew each other kind of.

They are pretty different, Alvin is a lot more calm and stern, while Lance isn’t an exceptionally hard worker and not really self confident. So he is learning a lot from Alvin.

But things happen in their social lives, those things bringing back both positive and negative energy back to their work environment, making it potentially very difficult.

Also, there is a truck driver (Lance LeGault) who has some speaking lines more than once in this film. Hello truck driver man!

Oooh, they play hard as well!

I really do hate writing reviews out of movies that I get practically nothing out of.

Prince Avalanche is an indie comedy/drama, a pretty standard one at that. What do I mean? I mean not a lot happens in this movie, despite being the length of a normal movie. Realism is taken to the extreme, and we have two guys who work, play, and talk with each other, sometimes yell, and that is about it. Writing that plot description pained me because I really didn’t imagine writing more than two sentences. So if it sounded like stalling, yeah, it basically was.

Not a lot from this story grasped my interest in any way, so it really felt like a battle to get through. The acting? Sure, its okay. Pretty “regular” if anything.

I’d say avoid. It isn’t a complete piece of shit, just felt like a complete waste of time.

Damn it. I had a long into planned for Admission, about Tina Fey being a comedy writer, and how hopefully this movie would deliver. But Tina Fey did not write Admission, she actually just stars in it. Seems a bit rare, I feel like she normally would write it as well.

Just knowing that fact gives me lower hopes for the movie. I won’t judge it on that, it is just, disappointing is all.

That is actually how I talk on the phone too, sprawled out and exasperated.

Portia (Fey) is an admissions rep at Princeton University, who has been pushed back to number 2 in the US Rankings! Oh no! That means they have to be as strict as ever this year, turning down more people, getting better students. Her boss (Wallace Shawn) is going to retire, and he wants to retire on top. So his job will be filled by either her or her rival, Corinne (Gloria Reuben), so it is important that they both get the best students possible.

That is why she decides to jump at the opportunity to add new high schools to her area. The Quest School is a learning community about to have its first graduating class, and the current owner John Pressman (Paul Rudd) wants her to come and visit. But really he just wants her to meet Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), who he believes to be her son that she adopted 18 years ago. Weird.

Hopefully he also doesn’t want to go to Princeton, that might be a big conflict of interest. Maybe.

Oh yeah, and her long term (10 year) professor boyfriend (Michael Sheen) just dumped her for another English Scholar (Sonya Walger) who is having his kids. Whoops.

Also featuring Lily Tomlin as Portia’s very independent mother and Travaris Spears as John’s adopted son.

Her son is like a little rain man. Except not as smart, and less special.

Whew. Well, if anything about the movie, I can say the last third I didn’t actually see going the way that it went. There were surprise in the script, that seemed to be following a pretty straight forward path.

Heck it even had some amusing moments. But most of the film just felt a bit cringeworthy. The constant scenes of Portia running into her ex weren’t really too clever. The things she did to try and make things right were unethical and bad. But more importantly, the film didn’t really feel too resolved by the end. One major dramatic moment (The reveal of being his mother) had a lot of things go wrong with it, but those problems got swept under the rug. I was hoping for some real human emotion there, dang it.

It is okay in humor, and an okay movie. Nothing to special. Technically not terrible, just a bit disappointing overall. Oh well. Maybe next time Fey.

There comes a time in Cinematic History where certain movies seem to leap bounds and fountains over the rest of the movies in that year. Unfortunately, these films are not always recognized for their greatness, and therefore never watched, like Little Shop Of Horrors.

In 2009, with such treasures like Avatar, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, Twilight: New Moon, and 2012, one film was overlooked. One film was passed on the side of the round (or trampled by the lazy). That film of course, was Year One.

YES. YEAR ONE. LET ME SHOUT ABOUT IT NOW FOR YOU.

No, I won’t actually shout.

This film is set in history, maybe roughly 1 AD, but that is a rough estimate.

In it, we have Zed (Jack Black), a bad hunter, and Oh (Michael Cera), an okay gatherer. Zed is feeling unloved, so he eats from the forbidden fruit tree to gain all the knowledge of good and evil! Well, that goes badly, and they are kicked out of the tribe. Now he will never get it on with Maya (June Diane Raphael), and Oh won’t be able to impress Eema (Juno Temple).

On their travels, they find that the world is actually a much bigger place than they thought. They run into Cain (David Cross) and Abel (Paul Rudd), and things (obviously) escalate from there.

They find themselves on run from an angry village, learn about the wheel, and end up in Sodom and Gomorrah where orgies occur nightly, and lets not forget about the sodomy. They not only join the city guard, but also become trusted slaves and chosen ones of the royalty. Queen Inanna (Olivia Wilde) takes a personal interest in Zed, to figure out just what the priest is up to.

Can the Chosen One and Oh save the day with their now stunning intellect? Or you know, will they just be sacrificed for rain? Also featuring Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Vinnie Jones, and Hank Azaria.

Don’t make that face. Vinnie Jones isn’t that bad.

I am agog, I am aghast, that I took this long to see this film. Especially when I bought it about a year ago and have had no real good reason to avoid it (other than, you know, other movies to watch). But this may not only be the finest movie I have seen with Jack Black, but Michael Cera as well, and he was in Superbad! Shit. That is why I had to move up my review o this movie. Originally it would be in two weeks, sine I am behind on posting current theater movies, but I really couldn’t let another day go by.

One major reason to talk about this movie is David Cross, who probably gives an Oscar worthy performance as Cain. He has to live with the guilt of killing his brother, living a life of sin and sadness, while at the same time, dealing with two primitive numbskulls who don’t understand how “modern” society work. I bet the only reason he was overlooked is because it is a comedy, and outside of Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder, they usually ignore them.

Now I know why she has taken on a lot of bad roles since 2009. She just can’t live up to her past great work in this movie.

Year One reminds me of why I love Olivia Wilde, despite her recent mess ups. What a beautiful creature.

Basically, if you had seen Year One (and statistics show that you probably have not), you would know that every line is an ounce of wit, that popularized Arrested Development back in the day, and currently categories some great comedies like Modern Family and Archer.

Yes, it is historically inaccurate, but that should be a given when it also includes stories from The Bible.

I think I am going to have to forgo going to any future movies until Jack Black and Michael Cera are put in another movie together. Their chemistry (bromance?) seems to have towered over any comedic duo that I have seen before. Yes, even more so than David Spade and Chris Farley.

This movie changed my life in more ways than one (I’d say about four). Hopefully one day it can change your life too.

Judd Apatow wants to make a realistic comedy movie about life. How do I know that? Because that is generally what he always does. This time, he is getting older, so he needs a movie about that as well. This Is 40 is the kind of sequel to Knocked Up, featuring the supporting characters from that movie as they both turn 40 in the same week. You know, because 40 is allegedly old age and time to start dying.

Strangely enough, I can’t tell if the mid life crisis mentality is a real life thing, or if it is just a movie creation. Shit, could movies be lying to me about what being older is like?

JUST WHAT IS 40 ANYWAYS!?

Apparently cake. Cake is 40.

Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) are both turning 40 this week, so shit might be hitting the fan. They have two kids, one going through puberty (Maude Apatow) and the other in young annoying phase (Iris Apatow).

But hey, Pete runs a record label kind of. They are poor, sure, and don’t sign any new big people, but they have regular small fan base. Chris O’Dowd and Lena Dunham work for him, but really, it is shit and they are losing lots of money. It doesn’t help that he is also letting his dad (Albert Brooks) borrow a lot of money, as he also has recently had more kids, whaaat.

Debbie isn’t flying high either. She has a small boutique, with two workers (Megan Fox, Charlyne Yi), but she is missing a lot of money from her inventory as well. She is also trying to stay in shape, change her life around, with the help of a life coach (Jason Segel).

Can the two get their life back on track, learn to trust each other again, and you know, not die alone and unhappy like the rest of people in movies?

When you Google This Is 40, half of the images will just be Megan Fox in a bra. Why aren’t there more of Rudd with the starfish, damn it?

Hey, do you tend to love Judd Apatow movies and its cast and Paul Rudd? Then go see the movie, simple as that, you will anyways. Rudd does play the same character, but he kind of had to, since its a sort of sequel. There are amusing moments in this movie, there are awkward ones, but there are also scenes that go on pretty long. Pretty sure this movie is over 2 hours, which means more time to make you feel bad or good about your own life.

But I think this film could have been a lot better. Maybe, just maybe, a small cameo with Rogen/Heigl from the first movie? But no, we get none of them. Really big miss there in my eyes.

Other than that, this movie is exactly as you think it would be. Apatow has made enough movies to have a certain style and humor in them, and I would say it definitely falls in line with the rest of them.

When I first heard about The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, I just assumed it was some indie high school coming of age comedy, that would appeal only to hipsters and hippies. Technically my assumption was not wrong. I was wrong to use the word only, because after seeing this movie, I can see how this movie would appeal to everyone.

There are many factors that can be attributed to the broad appeal, including this broad.

Set in the 1990s, Perks is the story of a boy named Charlie (Logan Lerman) who is the youngest child in his family and about to start his first day of high school. His older brother is now off to college, and his older sister (Nina Dobrev) wants nothing to do with him at school. She is also busy going through a vegetarian phase with a pacifist boyfriend (Nicholas Braun).

Charlie’s one chance of fitting in rested on the shoulders of the school quarterback (Johnny Simmons) who used to be good friends with his older brother, but still, no dice. Heck, it looks like his only friend will be Mr. Anderson (Paul Rudd), his freshman English teacher.

But then something wonderful happens. He meets strange people. Namely an eccentric senior Patrick (Ezra Miller) who is willing to talk to him, and his step sister Sam (Emma Watson) who begin to introduce him to a world based on non-pop music, and unconventional fun. However, the closer he gets to his older friends, the more they get to learn about how troubled his past actually is and how deep his madness goes.

Sorry, I made that sound like a horror film. This also features Mae Whitman as one of his new group of friends, and Melanie Lynskey as his influential aunt.

How to be awesome at parties. Find couch, sit, and wait.

The first thing I noticed about this movie is that I knew practically everyone in it. In fact, I’d say some of my favorite young actors have rolls in this movie. Everyone know who Emma Watson is and her famous franchise. I’d say Logan Lerman is pretty well known, as both Percy Jackson, 3:10 to Yuma, and Three Musketeers. But Ezra Miller? Well he was Kevin in We Need to Talk About Kevin, a very upsetting movie and novel. Nicholas Braun has been in Sky High and Red State. If they would have just thrown in a Michael Angarano I might have died from good young actor overload.

But you don’t care about past performances, you care about right now. Well their acting in this movie is definitely top notch. I was surprised at how drawn into the story I became, wanting to know the personal histories of every fictional character. The movie was very relatable, but don’t worry, the events in the film never happened with me. The feelings of longing, love, and loneliness are universal emotions that everyone can say they had their share of in high school.

While watching this movie I can personally attest to crying at least four times in the theater. It draws you in and doesn’t let you go for the entire 102 minute run time. There were probably eighteen people in the theater when I saw it, yet when the credits hit only three were able to get up right away and leave. I’d like to assume the rest of us were just trying to compose ourselves before going back out in public. It wasn’t an entirely sad movie though; half of the tears probably occurred thanks to scenes being overly beautiful.

I felt so strongly about this movie that this is the first time I actually want to read the book that the movie is based on. If you like this movie, I would also recommend It’s Kind of A Funny Story, also dealing with high school depression, but in a much lighter tone.

Wanderlust is a movie I really didn’t know much about. But Paul Rudd, I am sure it is good.

Something about hippies, and lots of sex. Not expecting much, but potential for a lot, hooray! Too bad its previews began with lies!

This scene is no where in the movie. This scene is a lie. Yet this scene was heavily publicized.

George (Rudd) and Linda (Jennifer Aniston) are a couple in NYC! Just bought a “micro loft” which kind of sucks, and well, George’s company goes under and he loses his job. Yes, right after they bought the place. Linda doesn’t really work, but has different projects. Well they are fucked, so they head down to Atlanta on a really long and annoying road trip, to visit George’s dick brother, Rick (Ken Marino) and wife. But due to stress, and being tired of the car, they stop at the first place they find, a bed and breakfast.

Where they find a naked guy, Wayne (Joe Lo Truglio) and immediately try to run, messing up their car. So they have to stay, thankfully he is the only nudist. And in the middle of the night they are woken up by strange sounds, a party downstairs. Full of drugs and craziness. Turns out this is a place where a bunch of free spirited people live and just be happy.

Currently lead by Jesus looking Seth (Justin Theroux), the place features everything. Truth circles, sex orgies, whatever. But when a government company is planning on using the land to build a casino, because no one can find the original deeds to the land, what will happen? Lots of shit. Other hippies include Malin Akerman, Lauren Ambrose, Kathryn Hahn, and an elder, Alan Alda.

And because you wanted to make sure there was more naked people in this movie.

Wanderlust had all the potential to be an amazing film, but to me fell short when it only relied on dicks and lame sex jokes. That is dicks in the “hey we will keep showing you dicks” sense, and the “hey, a few of these people are super dickish, and thus funny” sense. The sex jokes end up disappointing, probably due to the lack of sex that actually occurs (aka none?).

Although moments did make me chuckle, I found them to few and far in between. It is hard to find a likeable character in this movie, and the ending just doesn’t seem fulfilling.

Not much else to say. Paul Rudd, stop doing very similar characters. I want some variety damn it.

Our Idiot Brother, or “that movie where Paul Rudd has a beard and long hair” can somewhat be compared to Hesher.

Why? Because the main characters both have long hair, when normally they don’t have long hair. Outside of the head situation, movies are quite different though.

Also, Rudd wears nifty sweaters, while “Hesher” doesn’t own shirts.

The movie begins with Paul Rudd being PUT IN JAIL! For selling pot. But he is a friendly guy. He got out of jail pretty early. See, he isn’t an “idiot”. He just assumes the best out of everyone. Why would people want to screw him over?

Enter his sisters. Liz (Emily Mortimer), the oldest, married to Steve Coogan, a documentary maker. Then there is Miranda (Elizabeth Banks, who looks way too much like Parker Posey), writer for some sort of magazine! Has a neighbor too, Adam Scott, and she is very bossy. And last he has Zooey Deschanel, hippy sexual sister, living with like, seven roommates and currently lesbianing it up with Rashida Jones (who is the “more successful stern” lesbian).

After being released from prison, he is kicked out of his old home, and lives with the different members of his family. Of course while he does, he “Accidentally screws everything up” by doing the right thing, trying to make everyone happy, and believing other people to honest / not so cynical. So more or less, he is just a good free spirit, who doesn’t think the world is out to get him.

And that’s the movie. By the end they all love each other and have their lives fixed (and in better standing) than before, and then they do a giant disco party.

Hah! No disco party. Sorry. But here is Zooey and Rashida.

It was an enjoyable movie, but I thought it could have been a lot better. Not sure if I will ever watch it again, but glad I got to see it at least once. Paul was great in this role, pretty different than his normally “ahhh everything so stressful!” roles. His character does crack near the end, and it was great. The sisters all had good chemistry with each other and him, and it actually felt like a family.

This is not a Hollywood original movie. I am flabbergasted at this notion. It is based off a French movie from the previous millennium in 1998. The Dinner Game. How dare you, Hollywood.

Okay that is fake anger. Dinner for Schmucks is the American version and therefore the better version, amirite?

This is the most American picture I could find.

Paul Rudd plays 6th floor Stock Broker or something like that. He keeps proposing to his woman, but she won’t accept it. He just wants to move up in his company. Thankfully, he gets his first opportunity, but the boss is a weirdo. Once a month he hosts a dinner party where everyone brings one amazing guest. And by Amazing, we mean weird. And the “weirdest” individual gets a trophy, and the person who found him gets bonuses.

Then Steve Carell comes crashing into his life! He then has to spend the next few days with Steve as he seems to ruin his life. Also featured in this movie are Zach Galifianakis, Lucy Punch (who was just in Bad Teacher), and Kristen Schaal. But more importantly, Jemaine Clement.

Jemaine is nothing like his normal New Zealander self (from Flight of the Conchords). He plays some other type of foreigner, has no glasses, long hair, and just continued to make me laugh.

He is an artist!

But yeah. Yes Steve is very annoying, but he plays the character well. Some scenes I felt were too long or unnecessary. The Brunch scene was too excessive. I am glad the whole movie wasn’t the dinner, only about the last 20 minutes. Definitely didn’t see it coming. But I did laugh. Despite half of the humor being pretty stupid. I did laugh.

I almost forgot! Chris O’Dowd is in this movie, and plays the great blind fencer. His roles are always way too good. I have to watch The IT Crowd now.

I Love You, Man is my first review of a movie that has been requested of me. Every movie I have seen (except for a few I saw in theaters) have been based off of one time viewings only. I owned this DVD already, so I had seen it once or twice before, so this review is more than a first reaction. Oh boy! I will have to do more reviews of things I have already seen, to help bring an influx of reviews to the site.

If anything, this movie can win an award for being one of the few movies where you don’t immediately hate yourself a bit because Jaime Pressly is in it. Yay small roles! I am however fine with her in TV shows.

“Hey Darnell!”

Most of you know the movie, but it stars Paul Rudd, about to get married to Rashida Jones, but they come to the realization he doesn’t really have any male friends. Not even his family can think of any (Parents, J.K. Simmons and Jane Curtin, brother is Andy Samberg).

So Rudd has to try to find new friends, going on a few mandates and failing miserably. Thankfully at a house showing of Lou Ferrigno‘s house, he meets Jason Segel, and the rest is history! The film explores how hard it is to make friends when your older. Even though it isn’t an Apatow movie, it still has the awkwardness down to a T.

What really makes this movie is the chemistry between Rudd and Segel. I found Rashida Jones to not be as good in it the movie, but eh, not everyone can be perfect. The movie does a good job of making you feel annoyed at the annoying parts. I could go the rest of my life without hearing Slappin’ Da Bass, which was an obviously bad inside joke in the movie, yet for some reason people like to bring that annoyingly bad saying into my real life conversations with them. Fuckers.

Although a very decent movie, it is probably one best enjoyed with many months of downtimes between viewings.

By now you probably know, if there can be a Hulk image, there will be.

3 out of 4.

Whoa. The director of How Do You Know is the director of As Good As It Gets. Holy shit. That movie was awesome. Maybe this one is too?

Nope. The only real constant between the movies is Jack Nicholson.

But less crazy dog love.

Unfortunately even Jack Nicholson’s character is particularly weak in this movie. The synopsis was a bit confusing, both in trailer and reading, so here we go. Reese Witherspoon is an olympic soft ball player who had just got cut from the roster (getting old there, Reese). Owen Wilson is a pitcher for the Nationals. Paul Rudd is executive who is suddenly being indicted because of, well, he doesn’t know why, and Jack is his dad/boss.

So through a serious of awkward dates, no one knows really who likes who. Well, Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson are sure they don’t like each other. So the title is asking the question, How Do You Know if you are in love?

But blahhh. Does it fall short. Neither Reese nor Owen are particularly good characters. While watching this movie, you won’t care for them, you will only care for Paul Rudd. You hope he is happy by the end, and gets out of the mess, but unfortunately (thanks to a nice list shown in the movie) even with his happy ending, it still has negative consequences on his life. He also is still jobless! That has to suck.

One of the better parts was played by the pregnant secretary. Her acting was crazy good, yet still for some reason I don’t provide a link to her imdb. That is just the way the world works.

Spoilers. In this scene, Rudd kills Witherspoon.

Part of the problem too is it just takes too long for the outcome. Doesn’t even give me the normal cheap joys a regualr romcom would. Barely any conflict. Just people being unsure about who is a true love or not. Borrring.