June 19: Wedding Crashers

"John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey, a pair of committed womanizers who sneak into weddings to take advantage of the romantic tinge in the air, find themselves at odds with one another when John meets and falls for Claire Cleary."

It's hard to believe that Wedding Crashers is 8 years old. It's even harder to believe that since then, Vince Vaughn has only made terrible movies (not to mention two back-to-back Christmas bombs). Either way, it's nice looking back to 2005 and watching one of the best comedies of the last ten years. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are perfect together and Wedding Crashers certainly could have been the start of an incredible comedic duo making tons of movies together. I continue to wait for their reunion and while I can't see a Wedding Crashers 2 happening, I hope they cross paths again sooner than later. And immediately after typing that I looked up the two and came across this. They are reigniting their potent man-chemistry for another movie, called Interns. 

Wilson and Vaughn work together every 8 years, yet this f**ktard makes a piece of shit once a year? The world is so unfair. 

Wedding Crashers follows Jeremy (Vaughn) and John (Wilson), two best friends who work every angle imaginable to get laid at weddings they aren't even invited to. They come up with characters, fake-family connections, back-stories, and elaborate lies to not only get in with the ladies, but become the life of the party. They are both incredibly engaging, easy-going and extremely confident and although their intentions are not the most "pure", having a party with either of them would be one hell of a good time. When the two crash a high-end, very public wedding of the Cleary family, Jeremy and John both find themselves caught up by two very unique and attractive women. Jeremy goes after Gloria (Isla Fisher), who turns out to be an insanely clingy, nymphomaniac and John falls for Claire (the perfect Rachel McAdams), a woman "promised" to another man (Bradley Cooper). After a very odd turn of events and character's decisions, Jeremy and John are invited to the Cleary estate for a weekend of family fun and activities. As Jeremy struggles to get out of his overly-attached "girlfriend's" grip, John falls deeper in love and the two have to change the rules of wedding crashing to get through the weekend.

Mandatory McAdams is mandatory. 

Wedding Crashers is an amazing comedy that can be quoted over and over again. Sure it has its faults, as most of the minor characters make stupid decisions to keep the plot going, but it's still so much fun. Vaughn and Wilson make the film their own and without them, Wedding Crashers would be nothing more than a throwaway comedy. It also has Christopher Walken, who is just kind of their for his star power, but still manages to be pretty darn creepy-awesome. Also, keep in mind that Wedding Crashers set a standard for R-rated comedies and continues to be one of the best out there. It's still good and always will be. I certainly recommend it.

The Good:

a great premise that's executed wonderfully with a script that you can only imagine is as good as it is because of Vaughn's and Wilson's improvisations

The Better:

Rachel McAdams as the beautiful woman anyone can fall in love with and the awkwardly sexy Isla Fisher who is the woman anyone would want to take to bed (in a freaky, kinky kind of way)

The Best:

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson at their bests, and even better when they're together

Overall: 8.2/10

Trailer:

April 5: Limitless

"A writer discovers a top-secret drug which bestows him with super human abilities."

   Limitless is a really good average film. It has a great plot and just as good acting, as well as tremendous detail in the visuals, but for some reason it just doesn't leave a lasting effect. This is actually the second time I've seen it, and it really feels like it's the first time. Very little from my first viewing lingered in my brain (which ironically, a big part of the film's idea is that you can access all parts of your mind). It's not that the film even leaves a bad taste in your mouth, it's just the fact that it simply leaves no taste. It's actually like the little pill in the film. You take it, you enjoy a little high (in this case 115 minutes), then you return to normal. 

Unlike heroine. It's real bad, mmkay?

   The premise is cool. Eddie (Bradley Cooper) finds himself in possession of a clear little pill called NZT. This pill lets him tap into every corner of his brain and completely focus on anything he wants. He can do incredible math, speak new languages, and even recall old Bruce Lee movies he saw on TV to learn how to fight. A lot of it is similar to The Matrix, where Neo could download anything he wanted to know into his mind. In Limitless, Eddie simply needs to hear or see something to learn it. Of course, with every good thing there is consequences, and Eddie finds himself hitting lows and becoming addicted. Cooper does a fine job in the role and he dances on the border of genius and douche-bag. You can't tell if Eddie deserves the kind of power he's discovered and you can't help but be jealous of what he's tapped into. Oh, and Robert De Niro is in the film, but he's just around for his big name. 

You won't be jealous of the hangover he gets. *badum tss*

   Overall, even though it's nothing memorable, I'd recommend Limitless. Directed by Neil Burger (The Illusionist), Limitless is a fine example of a film with an attention to detail. Every time the drug is used, the camera, just like the user, gains a heightened sense of things, and focuses in on every detail. The style is terrific and adds so much to the film. The color and effects are kind of like a Michael Bay movie without the explosions, and thus, Limitless is pretty to look at. Even though it's good to look at, it also has a solid script. The only complaint is that Limitless doesn't leave you wanting more, it just simply is what it is. 

The Good:

great story that's very original and well executed

The Bad:

having that story not linger in your mind like it should

The Ugly:

wondering what you could do if you had the kind of pill in the film

Overall: 7.0/10

Best Quote:

Eddie: I don't have delusions of grandeur, I have an actual recipe for grandeur.

Trailer:

Jan 20: The Hangover Part II

"Two years after the bachelor party in Las Vegas, Phil, Stu, Alan, and Doug jet to Thailand for Stu's wedding. Stu's plan for a subdued pre-wedding brunch, however, goes seriously awry."

   A couple of years ago, I saw a movie called The Hangover. It was a great movie featuring three somewhat unknown actors who went on one hell of an adventure in a night in Vegas. It was not just hilarious, but original and very unexpected. Before the film even hit theaters, Warner Bros. green-lit a sequel. Not only does The Hangover Part II utterly and absolutely fail as a sequel, it fails as a film. Part II is exactly, and I mean exactly, the same movie as the first one. In the rehashing and recycling, I became very frustrated and I actually grew to hate the first Hangover as well. One film, to have the power to ruin itself and another film, is quite atrocious, and in the end, laughable. The fact that Warner Bros. had the balls to literally "re-release" the same movie they did two years ago, albeit a change in location, is disgusting, yet you almost want to give them a pat on the back for getting away with it. The film did not just succeed at the box office, it surpassed the first film's gross and became the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time. So with that, I politely tell you to f**k off, Warner Bros. as you manipulated the entire world. But hey, good for you right? WRONG. There may be millions of people out there who do not know any better and sure, you can take advantage of them. But there is only so much you can get away with. Movie viewers are getting smarter each and every day. With every new film we absorb into our consciousness, we grow wiser and become harder to impress. We catch on to cliches and rip-offs and we see that some things aren't as shiny gold as you would like them to be. We can sense when something is rushed, and when no care is given to the film's script or production value. And with The Hangover Part II, you may have made a ton of money, but we have all now seen what you tried to do. And if you think you can even ATTEMPT to make The Hangover Part III anywhere near the same as the first two, you will see it in the box office numbers and reviews. Go on, I dare you to try and rehash and feed us the same shit again. You guys will be the ones waking up in the middle of nowhere, hungover from excessive alcohol and drug use. But this isn't a movie and simply emptying your pockets won't give you the clues needed to figure out what happened. 

I will not be rating this film. I saw it when it was just called The Hangover.  

   Oh, and P.S. Will all of you studios stop casting Ken Jeong as the racist stereotyped "over-Asian". In fact, don't cast him at all. 

He's not f**king funny. At all. Not one bit. Stop it.