2012: Bonus Review: The Campaign

The Campaign

Genre:  Comedy

Main Players: Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott

General Gist: An unlikely candidate runs for congress against the long reigning congressman for a district in North Carolina with the encouragement of two big time CEO's with an ulterior motive.

Tiff's Take:
I had the pleasure of seeing this with my lovely husband and brother-in-law.  I knew if there was any movie my husband would be happy to see it would be this one.  He's a huge Will Ferrell fan through and through.  That being said, there was no way I was going to go to this movie without him.  Boy was it worth it.   

This movie is classic Will Ferrell.  I mean classic.  It reminded me of some of his earlier movies.  It was crude, vulgar, hilarious and inappropriate.  And adding Zach Galifianakis to the mix only made it that much sweeter.  It doesn't really matter so much about the plot or anything like that because you really only go to this kind of movie for the humor.  With Will and Zach that's all you get.  And props to Dylan McDermott and Jason Sudeikis for holding their own with these two comedian power houses. 

I'm so glad I went with Russ to this because he made it funnier for me.  I like Will Ferrell and I like comedies but I'm not sure I would choose them over a love story or good drama.  If I had gone with anyone else I might not have thought it was so funny.  Russ thought it was hilarious which made it easy for me to enjoy it that much more.  There were times when Russ was laughing so hard that he was crying and couldn't breathe.  He would miss a whole scene because the first part was so funny that he couldn't recover in time.  My brother-in-law seemed to enjoy it just as much too.  Actually, he enjoyed it enough to go the next night with my father-in-law.  (Does this paint a tiny picture of what I married into?)  

Most people either like Will Ferrell's sense of humor or they don't.  Not a lot of in between.  If you don't then by all means skip this one.  It would probably only offend you.  If you like his humor then go.  You'll laugh.  A lot.  But choose your company wisely.
     

Tiff's Rate: Friday Night

Week 22: The Hangover II

Wow, I can't believe we are on week 22! This year is flying by, almost to the half way point. Well, as Tiff already posted, we say The Hangover II. I did see The Hangover and let me tell you, that was one of the funniest movies I have seen! Like this movie, it has a lot of crude humor, and nudity, and kind of out of control crass situations. I think the downfall, was the fact that I saw The Hangover and because it was so good, I wanted this one to match it...

The premise behind this movie was basically the same, bachlor party gone bad. The thing about the first one, was all the situations were so "real" In this sequel, that situations seemed a little far fetched, not so believable. The humor was there, and I did enjoy the actors Bradley Cooper (one of my favorite hotties) Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis. Zach did make the funny more funny, and unfortunately, I think really he was the only funny one. I did not like Ken Jeong in this one, (or the first one) and he kind of got on my nerves...and he played a much bigger role in this movie so I wasn't as impressed.

Really, the whole suite theatre experience was the cool part of this movie for me. I would highly recommend if you haven't tried a movie suite experience do it! It was pretty cool to have comfy seats, wait service and drinks all while watching a movie! I will definately be patronizing that theater again!

As far as the movie...I did laugh, I was glad I was with my brother and sister and people my age and not my mom and dad. (even at 40 some things just aren't comfortable around your parents!) It wasn't as good as the first one, but it was light hearted and fun. Best quote: "My uncle once saw an albino polar bear"

If you want some laughs go see it, but don't expect it to compare to the first, you will be let down! See you next week!

Week 22: The Hangover Part II

Over Memorial Day weekend we went and saw The Hangover Part II.  I'll admit that I didn't see the first one.  I usually don't do that but I figured I wouldn't really be missing out on the plot line by not seeing the original.  I think I was right but it did make me want to see the first one.  I hear it was better.

One thing that made this particular movie fun was the ambiance.  We went with my brother and sister-in-law and a bunch of her family to a theater downtown that had the studio suites that served food and had big reclining chairs.  It was pretty cool.  We decided we'll have to go back with our spouses next time and get better seats. (We were in the first row.  Not ideal.) 

But the movie itself...I thought it was pretty good.  Not hilarious though.  I actually thought it was more shocking then funny.  It reminded me a lot of that movie with Cameron Diaz called Very Bad Things.  Do you remember that one?  About a bachelor party that went bad.  Sort of black humor kind of movie.  I thought The Hangover Part II was funnier but sort of along the same lines. 

I thought all the actors were good.  Zach Galifianakis was probably the best.  But Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms were really good in this kind of comedy too.  Oh and Ken Jeong who played Mr. Chow was good. 

Remember that this is the kind of movie you probably don't want to go with your parents or grandparents.  It wasn't overly sexual (I thought Black Swan was way more sexual) but it was crude with a lot of nudity.  Male nudity at that.  Frontal male nudity.  You don't see a lot of that in movies.  Overall I thought this movie was decent but can imagine that the first one was a lot better.  And not as many laugh out loud moments as you might think.

To Sum it up: Vulgar, good comedic characters but falls a little short of belly laughing humor.