Spring Break Movie Review: It’s A WIN WIN!

As the More is More Mom®, I’m all about………more entertaining movies over spring break! While the kids are away, the parents can play. We are a movie loving people, but with a busy family that needs to be driven here, or would like to have 6 friends over for dinner there, it can be nearly impossible to eak out time to head over to the Cineplex. Faced with a little free time, Chuck and I whipped out the movie section of the Sunday paper to check out what was playing on the big screen.

I really owed Chuck big after asking him to sit through The Black Swan. He is a good sport of mammoth proportion, because after all of that acclaim, Black Swan was a real stinker. No, this time, I had to pick a winner. I was so disappointed after perusing the selections. There was virtually nothing good to see. I was kind of up for Paul with Simon Pegg (of Run, Fatboy, Run fame), but that seems more like a movie that we might enjoy with Nick, as it is from the same makers as Superbad. If we had a little one in tow, I would totally have seen Rango, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, or Gnomeo and Juliet, but, alas, we were childless. There were a few extremely dumb looking teenie-bopper movies (a great big NO THANKS. Somehow I have managed never to have seen High School Musical I, II or III. No reason I should backslide now).

How incredibly disappointing! The only movies left were Limitless with Bradley Cooper. I didn’t like him in The Wedding Crashers because he was mean to Vince Vaughn, so that kind of ruins him for me in other movies. Plus, his character was despicable in He’s Just Not That Into You. After I heard Matthew “Do you want me to take my shirt off?” Mc Conaughey remark in an interview that he hadn’t been in the courtroom since A Time To Kill,  it made me have no interest in seeing his latest legal drama, The Lincoln Lawyer. I thought, “You do know you’re not actually an attorney, don’t you?” Clearly you are smoking way too much….cannabis. Then there was Matt Damon’s The Adjustment Bureau, but I’m more of a Ben Affleck gal. Ben was great in The Town and you can see it in the comfort of your own home now On Demand.

 

The one movie that I did want to see was WIN WIN with Paul Giamatti, but it was only playing in three theaters in the entire Chicago-land area! Normally, this would be a real deal breaker for us, but since we are home alone, with no one to consider but ourselves, we decided….Road Trip.

WIN WIN is the delightful story of a down on his luck attorney, Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti), who also happens to be the coach a fledgling high school wrestling team. Through a series of events, a young boy named Kyle (played beautifully by new comer Alex Shaffer) comes into the Flaherty’s lives, where Mike and his wife Jackie (Amy Ryan) welcome him into their home. As they help him sort out his troubles, they discover that Kyle is an amazing wrestler who joins Mike’s team. Kyle’s arrival makes an interesting impact on all of their lives. Both Jeffrey Tambor (who makes me cringe) and Bobby Cannavele (who played Vince, Will’s boy friend, On Will and Grace, and is darling) costar. WIN WIN is a total feel good that was absolutely worth the drive into the city (and paying for parking)!!

More road trips, more free time, more popcorn, more great movies……        

For a Good Time…Get Him to the Greek!

I know that it’s summer, not by the warm weather, sunshine (ha! if there ever were any) and gorgeous flowers, but by the number of times that we have been to the movies. The lazy days of summer are a beautiful thing…..

My mom is a total gamer that loves the movies (I would venture to say even more that we do!). She quotes lines from the Hangover with Nick. Seriously, only a very cool grandma would talk to her grandson about eating couch pizza. So when she read the reviews of Get Him to the Greek, she knew she had to see it with her Nick (fortunately she didn’t mind that Chuck and I tagged along to the Multi-plex too. Not to worry, Amanda and her pal CC saw the Karate Kid instead. What kind of parents do you think we are anyway?).

As with all good movie going experiences, our show started with the Coming Attractions (and a few even looked promising!).

• That Michael Cera is an unlikely leading man. I have not had the pleasure of seeing Superbad in its entirety, but he was super cute as Paulie Bleeker in Juno (I loved Juno! Everyone was fantastic, but Ellen Page and J.K. Simmons ~Juno’s dad and the editor in Spiderman~ were especially great!). In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, our hero must defend the honor of his beloved Ramona and her League of Evil Exes (Boyfriends that is. 7 of them; 8 if you include the twins.). The previews are genius! I only hope it’s half as good as it looks.

• I don’t know what makes me think that this is potentially a good idea, but I kinda can’t wait to see The Other Guys. Some of Will Ferrell offerings (okay, Elf might be his only charming movie) can take a while to get accustomed to, but after you see them several times, you can’t help but like him. This is a seriously All Star cast; The Rock, Samuel L. Jackson (you know I think he’s one Bad Ass Mother F*#@*r!), Mark “Marky Mark” Wahlberg (BTW, when does HBO’s Entourage start up again?), the one and only Michael Keaton, and Eva Mendes….as Will Ferrell’s wife (totally plausible, because nothing else is plausible either). I am going to roll the dice and declare this one a winner (I hope I’m right, because I think I might be willing to pay full box office prices to find out.).

• Step Up 3D. Who approved this script? If this is what they think looks like a good idea, I shudder to even think about what might have been rejected.

• I like Josh Brolin and I love, love, love the super creepy John Malkovich, but I fear Jonah Hex may not be for me. I’m not a huge fan of the paranormal.

• Dinner for Schmucks….looks like a movie for schmucks. This one just isn’t grabbing me, though I am a fan of Paul Rudd (I have adored him since Clueless) and Zach Galifianakis (Fat Jesus. Another Hangover reference, sorry…). I might leave it on were I to be flipping channels on my cable-box.

• Matt Damon sure does make a lot of movies, though I think I am more of a Ben Affleck kind of gal. The Adjustment Bureau, with Emily Blunt (of Devil Wears Prada fame. She was also quite likeable in Sunshine Cleaning.). holds the promise of intrigue, drama and romance. I would expect nothing less of Jason Bourne.

With so many promising previews, I nearly forgot about the main attraction! I was a huge fan of Forgetting Sarah Marshall (though Jason Segal’s full frontal nudity was slightly uncomfortable), and when I saw that Russell Brand was going to reprise his role as Aldous Snow, I was psyched! Inconsistency drives me crazy however, so the only thing I had a hard time getting past was that in Forgetting Sarah Marshall Jonah Hill was a waiter on the island and in Get Him to the Greek he worked at a record company. Both characters worshipped rock star Aldous Snow. Perhaps the guy on the island was Jonah’s evil twin….

Get Him to the Greek (I thought they meant Jimmy the Greek, but I guess that dates me and doesn’t make any sense) was a wacky and hilarious buddy picture. Russell Brand is absolutely charming and delightful, kooky and dandy! Instead of portraying the completely moronic pot-head that he usually plays, Jonah Hill was wonderful, tender and interesting as Aaron Green. I just loved Get Him to the Greek.

While the plot was a complete romp, what made this movie so good was the largely witty dialogue and the complex character development of Aldous Snow (who could have totally been a one trick pony, and is instead endearing) and Aaron Greene (who was sympathetic and likeable). One of my favorite observations was when Aldous says to Aaron, “Off drugs, your life must be a baffling to do list.” As the More is More Mom®, don’t I know it?

Personally, I rate movies based on whether I would; pay full box office prices (an offensive fortune…movie makers, we need to talk), go to the bargain show, watch it on cable or wait until it is further butchered on basic television. Not only would I see this again at the show, but it will be a classic that I add to my collection as soon as it is released on DVD. As the More is More Mom® I want more Russell Brand and more Get Him to the Greek!