Category: comedy
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The Heat [2013] ★★½
Think of “The Heat” as the female version of “The Other Guys”. Kick it up a notch by casting Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy (hilarious in “Bridesmaids”), spice with action and snappy jokes then sit back and laugh your ass off. I did and I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m tempted to call it my…
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The Internship [2013] ★★½
Sometimes a shamelessly silly comedy is all you want out of life. “The Internship” more than fills the bill. Is it cheesy? Heck yes. Is it predictable? You bet it is. But it’s also entertaining and really funny at times. Cheers to Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, who gave us “Wedding Crashers” aka one of the funniest films…
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Now You See Me [2013] ★★
Ain’t that a kick in the head: “Now You See Me” has the coolest cast in town and a solid premise yet halfway through the film my mind started to wander. Instead of being pulled into the story I felt myself drifting away from it. The movie starts out promisingly enough though. In a companion piece to “Ocean’s…
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The Hangover Part III [2013] ★½
Oh geez I really wanted to like this one. Instead, I left “The Hangover Part III” feeling dazed and cheated. So what the heck happened? Or to paraphrase Mr. Chow, “I want answers, motherfuckers!” How could such a good comedy degenerate into a sloppy, unfunny one? The first “Hangover” was one of the funniest films…
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Movie 43 [2013]
Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber, Anna Faris, Kieran Culkin, Emma Stone, Richard Gere, Kate Bosworth, Justin Long, Jason Sudeikis, Uma Thurman, Kristen Bell, Christopher “McLovin” Mintz- Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Gerard Butler, Sean William Scott, Johnny Knoxville, Halle Berry, Terrence Howard, Dennis Quaid, Greg Kinnear, Elizabeth Banks, Josh Duhamel and Seth McFarlane all…
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21 & Over [2013] ★½
Remember “Superbad” in 2007 and “The Hangover” in 2009? If so, you’ll feel like you’ve already seen “21 & Over”, except that it isn’t funny or original at all. The movie features two morons who surprise their friend with a visit for his 21st birthday. The guy has an important medical school interview early the next morning…
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Scary Movie 5 [2013]
Maybe you thought since Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan poke fun at themselves that this fifth installment would be double the fun. Not a chance. On a scale of 1 to 10 on the laugh meter, “Scary Movie 5” is a negative 10. A stupid, unfunny and shamelessly lazy farce packed with tired, cringe-inducing jokes…
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![The Big Wedding [2013] ★½](https://tlkabtmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/the-big-wedding-poster.jpg?w=1024)
The Big Wedding [2013] ★½
Four Academy Award winners were involved in this craptacular comedy. Four! Robert DeNiro, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton and Robin Williams. Time to weep. The plot? DeNiro and his crazy family are trying to survive a weekend wedding celebration, with disastrous consequences (pun intended). This embarrassing comedy wastes a talented cast in a laugh-less story. Gag after gag falls…
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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone [2013] ★★½
Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi as corny Vegas magicians. Jim Carrey as a wannabe magician. What’s not to like? “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone”, cheesy as it may sound, has a lot of genuine laughs. Too bad it doesn’t have enough to carry it over the finish line, a mere 90 minutes after it begins. Still,…
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Wadjda [2012] ★★★½
Can I tell you how thrilled I am that I got to see this movie? Part of the response comes from the excitement of discovery: a writer-director from Saudi Arabia,Haifaa Al Mansour, making her feature debut, and creating a movie that is both entertaining and thought provoking. The hype-meisters of moviedom have made it difficult to use words…
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Identity Thief [2013] ★★
I wouldn’t call “Identity Thief” a great comedy, but I had a lot of fun watching Melissa McCarthy, who effortlessly commands the screen and proves once again that she’s a real comedian. As an employee at a financial business in Denver, Jason Bateman is cast in the role of straight man, and while he’s good, the main reason…
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Seven Psychopaths [2012] ★★★
I don’t care how much you think director Martin McDonagh is working you over with “Seven Psychopaths”, his first movie since 2008’s “In Bruges” (terrific movie by the way). And I don’t care how many annoying film critics complain that McDonagh doesn’t yet know his way around a camera. “Seven Psychopaths” is literate, lively cinema. A bit…
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Warm Bodies [2013] ★★½
Comparing “Warm Bodies” to “Twilight” doesn’t do this movie justice. Unlike “Twilight”, this is a larger-than-life zombie yarn with special effects and a sense of humor. It isn’t my favorite kind of entertainment, but writer-director Jonathan Levine (who won us over with his 2011 movie “50/50”) has brought an appealing cast to the story adapted from Isaac…
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This Is 40 [2012] ★★★
If you want to hate on Judd Apatow’s “This is 40” then go ahead. But get ready to be drowned out by the sound of laughter from the rest of us. Yes I laughed. Then I laughed some more. I’ll admit there’s something sitcom-trite about the setup. Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) from “Knocked Up”…
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Stand Up Guys [2012] ★½
Excuse my sarcasm but why in hell do Studios always choose January to bury their misfires? They must think we won’t notice, distracted by award season and all. But we do, especially when it’s a film starring legendary actors Al Pacino and Christopher Walken. I’m talking about “Stand Up Guys”, a sorry excuse of a movie about…
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Parental Guidance [2012] ★★
OK family movie with predictable slapstick moments is strengthened by Billy Crystal and Bette Midler’s performances as grandparents who find themselves having to take care of their three grandkids when their parents (Marisa Tomei and Tom Everett Scott) go away for work. Works better if you’ve never seen “Cheaper by the Dozen”, “Daddy Day Care”,…
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Pitch Perfect [2012] ★★½
I’m not a big fan of musical comedies, but “Pitch Perfect” kept me entertained, at least for a while, even as it covered familiar territory. Audiences who liked “Bring it On” for instance will definitely get a kick out of it. Anna Kendrick does a good job as a college freshman who dreams of being…
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Silver Linings Playbook [2012] ★★★
You will hear a lot about this movie. But first you’ll hear it from me. It’s damn rare these days to encounter a film that doesn’t rely on cheap tricks and a predictable script. That’s one reason why “Silver Linings Playbook” is so good. The characters in it are like nothing we’ve seen before, and…
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Hope Springs [2012] ★★★
People over 60 talking about sex and — yikes! — having it! Welcome to “Hope Springs”, a comedy drama that qualifies as a waking nightmare for teens and infantile men whose definition of “hot” hovers around women in their 20’s. Screw them. In this delightful movie from director David Frankel (who previously worked with Meryl Streep in…
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To Rome With Love [2012] ★★½
There’s nothing really wrong with a Woody Allen movie set in the Eternal city, but there’s nothing really right about it either. I had a few problems with his latest film “To Rome with Love”, but I had a good time watching it and sometimes, that’s what really matters. As usual, he has assembled an…
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