Movie review - "Anaconda" (2025) **1/2

 Starts strong - I loved the filmmaking stuff. Doesn't quite manage the shift to killer monster movie. It's no Piranha, say. Paul Rudd and Jack Black have a high old time. Thandie Newton and Steve Kahn feel underserviced as do the baddies. 

Movie review - "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" (2007) ***

 John Reilly's swing at a star vehicle didn't make it with the public but is full of terrific moments. I wonder if it lacks an emotional relationship or two the way the best Will Ferrells do - or maybe Reilly simply isn't Ferrell.  Reilly is terrific though - Jenna Fischer a lot of fun (looking more hot as the sixties go on), Kristen Wiig always good value. There's cameos from the cool group - Jack Black, Jonah Hill and so on.

Maybe the fact he didn't see his kids hurt this financially? It's very funny.

TV review - "The Only Murders in the Building" Season 3 (2023) ***

 Still fun, and Meryl Streep is always entertaining, though haven't we seen Paul Rudd play a mock version of himself before? Or just too many other actors do it? Selena Gomez seems bored. The mystery is fine. I love the Broadway stuff.

Movie review - "Ant Man and the Wasp" (2018) **

 Quips. Slick. Inserted emotion. Hair plugs. Stars. Evageline Lily is a little dull. The film focuses more on her family - Michael Douglas and her looking for her mother Michelle Pfeiffer. Villain who isn't really bad just sad and thus redeemable. Quips. People like Michael Pena , Judy Greer and Bobby Canvale coming back.

But really the only reason for this to be made is money. I get that's why the first was made but that had some fun with the concept and a hero that needed reforming. Now he's reformed there's no point.

Movie review - "Captain America: Civil War" (2016) ***1/2

 The Marvel gang can be annoying with their hair transplants, pilates physiques and perfect teeth but this is a super slick very well done movie, admirable in its action scenes and way it juggles so many characters. Dull villain, manufactured heart (Stark's parents were murdered, etc), brilliant airport fight sequence.

Tom Holland steals the show as Spiderman.

Movie review - "The Bob's Burgers Movie" (2022) ***1/2

 I've never seen an episode of this but I got the idea very quickly. It's a joyful, funny film, packed full of gags that bespoke a writers room and has a strong enough idea for a spin off i.e. investigating a murder. Some strong guest names like Kevin Kline, Zack Galifianakis, Paul Rudd, Jordan Peele. Clever, funny, a good time.

Movie review - "Ant Man" (2015) ***

A tribute to the skill of Marvel - the films kept getting bigger but then they decided to scale down for this smaller scale (literally) take of one of the lesser known superheroes. It still has some spectacle - the impressive tiny special effects.

They didn't reinvent the wheel, using a familiar structure, close to that of Iron Man. Nice cast - no one terribly new or exciting, but everyone doing decent work, Paul Rudd is affable as always, the typically slick action scenes.

I liked the father-daughter parallel of Rudd trying to be a decent dad, and Douglas trying the same thing too.

Another bald villain - oh we are persecuted. Absolutely fine.

Movie review - "Avengers Endgame" (2019) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

So much has been written about this I'll just throw in random thoughts:
- they pulled off a very difficult act but then Marvel figured out what so many other super hero groups didn't... to make the stories human and personal and add humour
- there's a lot of hair piece acting in the film
- I didn't like it as much as the first... the surviving people were mostly pretty dull... the first third was awkward (surely Thanos' head could've been cut off in part one?) but the second half picks up
- loved fat Thor - finally a Chris Hemsworth part I can relate to
- if the future is changed then wouldn't that mean Robert Downey Jnr's kid would die?
- I did cry at Downey's death but I did see this on a plane
- Gwyneth Paltrow looks silly in an iron man costume but I guess it was effective to have her there at the end
- Michelle Pfeiffer's cameo is weird
- What happened to the romance between Hulk and Natasha?
- missed Dr Strange vs Iron Man most of all
- Very rousing when all the Avengers get together.

Movie review - "Wet Hot American Summer" (2001) ***

Films become cults in my lifetime and I have no idea of the fact until I read some article about the cult - Clue, The Room, Birdemic, this. I do kind of scratch my head as to why - it's a perfectly decent spoof of late 70s early 80s teen camp films (Meatballs, Little Darlings) with some funny moments and a superb cast. Maybe it's one of those movies that hold up when you watch it again and again.

It joyously plays with tropes and conventions, although you never feel for the characters in the way that you did in say Flying High (I had the same problem with They Came Together). I did like the way it "went there" with some scenes - the counsellors taking heroin, Michael Ian Black and Bradley Cooper having torrid sex, Paul Rudd being responsible for several kids drowning and no one seeming to care.

Movie review - "They Both Came" (2014) ***

Genuinely funny take off of romantic comedies - most specifically You've Got Mail but also a whole swath of them. It's a sign of the changing Hollywood that instead of being done for a decent budget with a big marketing push it was made for a relatively low price and seems to have found only a small audience online.

The cast are full of names, even if at times it feels like the same old gang: Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler in the leads, Bill Hader and Ellie Kemper as their friends (either could have played the lead as well), Colbie Smulders as the bitchy fake love interest for him, Ed Helms as the boring fake love interest for her, Jason Mantzoukas and Max Greenfield as Rudd's posse. They're all brilliantly talented performers and do a fine job.

There's lots of funny moments and jokes. I do feel for a feature length satire to work you have to ultimately care about the lead characters - like I did in Flying High. I didn't quite get there here, and occasionally if felt like a sketch that had been stretched out, but it was highly enjoyable.

Movie review - "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" (2013) ***

Pretty good sequel, if not as funnier as the original - it also doesn't have as "fun" a story. The first movie was about a good thing happening in news history, i.e. women being allowed to anchor the news; this is about a bad thing happening in news history i.e. the dumbing down of news. The team of Ferrell and McKay often like to make sharp satirical points in their movies (something for which they never get enough credit for, I feel) - but here it's a bit depressing. (It's kind of like the two magazine war mini series in Australia - the first one was about women's sexual liberation the second one was about trash).

The satire is very strong and there are some excellent gangs. It's also got a nice "comedy of remarriage" plot between Will Ferrell and Christina Applegate, and their son, plus some excellent music (mostly soft rock). And the performances are all strong, not a weak link in the bunch.

On the down side, it's very long (almost two hours) and feels it; there are too many characters, some of whom feel entirely superfluous (why didn't they combine Meagan Good and Dylan Baker's characters) or ill-defined (Megan Good starts off tough, then is sort of evil, then sort of good). Steve Carrell gets a great romance with Kristen Wiig and Josh Lawson is an effective villain as a Junior Rupert Murdoch, but there's no subplot for Paul Rudd and David Koechner, which is a shame (it would have only taken an extra scene or two). And after a while all the cameos stop being fun and start being annoying.

Movie review - "This is Forty" (2012) ****

A follow up to Knocked Up was not as popular despite a similarly strong cast and script full of observant moments. Yes it's long but so was Knocked Up. I think the relative lack of popularity stemmed from two things: stories about turning forty aren't as inherent appealing as ones about falling pregnant (the latter is the start of a new chapter, the former is a mid point next stop death); and secondly, Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd can't carry a film as stars. I admit that's a harsh, personal judgement - both are very talented, capable actors, likeable and all that... but they're not stars. They're not Jason Segel or Kristen Wiig or Seth Rogen or even Katherine Heigl and it hurts in a film on which so much is dependent on these two.

Compounding the problems are the two Apatow kids as the Mann/Rudd children. They were weak in Funny People too - the elder daughter more so than the younger - and that problem is repeated. They are okay, but they're not exceptional, and character driven comedies like these need exceptional casting.

This becomes more obvious when the lead four actors engage with the superb support cast: Segel, Albert Brooks (some brilliant work as a funny very reluctant late in life father), John Lithgow, Rob Smigel, Melissa McCarthy (again, brilliant), Lena Durham and even Megan Fox who is really funny. When the lead four characters engage with them is when this really comes alive. Even with them it's still pretty good - full of honesty and warmth and funny observations (husbands sneaking off to the toilet to get alone time, partners fantasizing about killing each other in a loving way).

Movie review - "Our Idiot Brother" (2011) ***1/2

The face of new indie cinema, just like The Kids Are Alright - an all-star cast, emphasis on story about family, gay characters, pleasant rather than confronting. This is a reassuring movie but it succeeds because it's based in truth - Paul Rudd is a sweet drop kick, the sort of under achiever everyone knows. He gets out of gaol for selling drugs to a uniformed cop and then accidentally creates havoc by telling too much of the truth - about his brother in law's (Steve Coogan's) infidelity, his tough sister's (Elizabeth Banks') lack of journalistic scruples and feelings for the neighbour (Adam Scott), his bisexual sister's (Zoe Deschanel's) infidelity to her lesbian partner (Rashida Jones). It all works out as nicely as any Hollywood movie.

I thought at first all these names agreed to do it out of their obligation to the cool group but having watched it, I think they were just glad to play a decent role - especially the girls, who are often sidelined into girlfriend parts. I loved the bromance between Rudd and the guy who replaced him with his girlfriend - that "aw gee yeah we could do this" mentality that teenage boys have but most of them grow out of. Very sweet and engaging.

Movie review – “How Will You Know” (2010) ***

Charming rom com which apparently cost $120 million, which is disgraceful since it’s basically a couple of people talking in a room movie. Like Broadcast News (also by this writer-director) it’s a love triangle with a feisty short woman at the centre, and where the false love interest is by far the best character. But unlike Broadcast News it’s not set in an interesting world – you think it’s going to be, the world of female sports (which would have been really great), but Reese Witherspoon is axed from the team at the beginning and never goes back. So instead of her being active, like Holly Hunter was (producing TV, etc), she’s passive, hanging around guys, trying to decide what she wants to do with her life.

 

Also the whole Paul Rudd plot is a bit tired – his business is going down the toilet, you know his father (Jack Nicholson was paid $12 million apparently for a role that could have been done in two days) is behind it, so it’s no shock. This goes on for too long and is too familiar. 

 

By contrast Owen Wilson’s character and the playing of it is really fresh and interesting (this is one of Wilson’s best performances).

 

When it comes to romance this film is on sure ground. Brooks handles scenes differently and lightly – it has real charm. But it lacks an interesting “world” within it is set – or weight (Broadcast News had journalism, As Good as it Gets had crazy Jack Nicholson). It didn’t deserve some of the critical shellacking it received but I can see why it wasn’t a big hit.

TV review – “Party Down – Seasons 1 and 2” (2008-9) *****

Brilliant comedy, which I only happened to see because I had some time to kill and it was available on a plane, which has turned me into a big fan of John Enbom and Rob Thomas, the big creative players.

The series was originally meant to star Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell, who were in the pilot, but Adam Scott and Ken Marino are excellent replacements. 

 

The supporting cast is outstanding: Martin Starr’s character got better with every episode – bitter, tormented, with far too many principles (constantly on about hard sci-fi and selling out); it took me a while to get on Ryan Hansen’s wavelength (it’s a more familiar character, the himbo actor) but once I did, he was great; Lizzy Caplan is very sexy and funny as the love interest; Jane Lynch is a genius. Replacing Lynch with Jennifer Coolidge towards the end of Season 1 didn’t quite work because Coolidge played too similar a character (i.e. old acting veteran), but Megan Mullaly was great because she was different (a cheerful stage mother).

 

Some great guest roles: JD Simmons as a foul-mouthed producer, Kirsten Bell brilliant as a tightly-wound rival caterer (I would have loved to have seen more of her), that really tall hot Russian model from Entourage who plays another really tall hot Russian but is very funny; Steve Guttenberg (looking very weird in the face) as himself.

Movie review – “Role Models” (2008) ***

Buddy comedy which tickled the public fancy – partly, I would guess, because it’s reassuring to women: you know that dopey dissatisfied guy who complains about his job all the time? And that good looking but sleazy guy always chasing tail? Well, down deep they’re just nice blokes who want to commit and have children. It also has two well cast stars, Elizabeth Banks giving solid support (she’s giving Drew Barrymore a run for the money in the believably-attracted-to-dopey-guys stakes), and an impressive array of support characters who seem to be having fun, and doing a lot of ad libbing.

Movie review – “I Love You, Man” (2009) ***1/2

This would have made a great Australian movie because of the mateship undercurrent but it’s still pretty good. It’s made in that casual-seeming Judd Apatow style – scenes tend to amble along, with a semi-impro feel and often obsessional references to slightly obscure pop culture items (here it’s Lou Ferrigno, the band Rush – not the Australian one, and Chocolat). 

The casting isn’t quite as strong as for the best of Apatow, but it has some fine lead performances; Paul Rudd, a girl’s guy star, is very well cast as a girl’s guy who needs a friend and Jason Segel further establishes himself as the next big comedy star. Rashid Jones is very likeable as Rudd’s fiancée, and Jamie Lynn Presley and Jon Favreau (as a bullying, angry Jew – a type we don’t see often on screen) are strong in support. Some great moments, such as Rudd excitedly trying to introduce Jones his favourite band via the tinny sound of itunes

Movie review - "Anchorman: the Ron Burgundy Story" (2004) ***1/2

Will Ferrell and friends take on 70s newsreading, with a serious subtext (the arrival of a female newsreader) beautifully integrated. Ferrell is in fine form and goes off on some wonderful tangents when he talks - every line seems fresh and new (I particularly liked his exclamations). The support actors are very fine as well, with a stand out turn from Steve Carrell and the dog.

My favourite moment is the newsreader rumble, a moment of pure comic genius, complete with severed arms and assassinations with tridents (I'm from Brisbane, and I couldn't help imagine Bruce Paige doing it with Frank Warrick and company). The cameos are enjoyable, including Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughan, Tim Robbins and Luke Wilson (remember when he was famous enough to make cameos?). Occasionally it goes a bit overboard and gets too mean.