Movie review - "You're Cordially Invited" (2025) ***

 Funny comedy with Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon battling over a wedding reservation - a decent idea, well developed. Ferrell and Witherspoon have different comedic styles - he's more up in the air she's more grounded. I didn't want to see them together - that doesn't become an issue for the last ten minutes or so. Maybe it would've been a better film with more obviously romantic co starring leads.I mean, he's ten years older which isn't that much by Hollywood standards but he seems older. I think mahybe Vince Vaughan or Ashton Kutcher would've worked more.

Movie review - "Despicable Me 4" (2024) **

 Some funny jokes but it's sluggish. Gru goes into witness protection program - there's a heist of a mascot and a man getting revenge on Gru and he hasn't bonded with his son. I wanted more minions and less Gru but who am I to argue with success.

Movie review - "Barbie" (2023) ****

 Moves like a dream for the first two thirds. Can't quite dramatise its plot and issues for the last third - when it needed to build up to a big song, or dance or something it was a lot of talk. And they struggled to use the Will Ferrell subplot. But it has integrity, the politics are complex, the imagination off the charts. Great that it's such a theatrical experience too.

Movie review - "Barb and Star go to Vista del Mar" (2021) ***1/2

 Really fun nutty buddy comedy which goes all over the place - imaginary spirit animals, spy movies, murderers, sex, musical n umber. Jamie Dornan steps into the Jon Hamm role with aplomb. Very strong cast.

Movie review - "The Lego Movie" (2014) ****

 A delight. Funny, clever, inventive. Great characters, doused in jokes. A really good movie.

Movie review - "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga" (2020) ***

A bit flabby, Will Ferrell is maybe too old for this stuff and to co star against Rachel McAdams, and I wondered about Americans mocking Icelanders (is that still okay?)... but the film's heart is in the right place. There's lots of songs and colour, not to mention spectacular Icelandic scenery.

I also liked that Ferrell gave the movie to McAdams essentially - she has the biggest journey, for lack of a better word. Pierce Brosnan rocks up as he often does in Europudding movies. The money spent on Jonsi was well worth it.

Movie review - "The Lego Movie Part 2" (2019) ****

A delight. I haven't seen any others in the series but this was warm, funny, clever, packed with gags. The script is so smart, working on different levels - watching it a second time you note all the set ups. It's so clever, and funny and fast. There's cute songs. I'm surprised it didn't do well at the box office it's  a really good movie.

Book review - " Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests" by James Andrew Miller & Tom Shales (revised edition 2015)

A revised edition which goes up to 2015 so includes people like Kirsten Wiig, Andy Saumberg, Bill Hader and Bobby Monyihan... but cuts out before the Trump presidency years when the show was reinvented and became central to the country's identity once more, in part because it was kind of like the voice of the opposition.

It's still a terrific read, full of bubbling personalities and funny stories - Bill Murray and Chevy Chase fighting backstage, clashes between Victoria Jackson and Jan Hooks how Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were the ones to really form a female power block,  Chase's ability to annoy people. Jim Downey sounds like a bit of a misogynistic prick.

The book was perhaps over long - did we really need all the accounts of people deciding to leave (because when a show goes for over thirty years that happens a lot) and there was maybe too much on Lorne Michaels. Also there's lots of references to characters and sketches which will mean nothing to those in countries who don't get the show, like Australia. Still, this book is a classic.

Book review - "Baby Don't Hurt Me" by Chris Kattan

Saturday Night Live wasn't on network TV in Australia when I was growing up so we were mostly aware of it from movies made with SNL stars. I remember seeing the trailer for Corky Romano with Chris Kattan and knowing nothing about it but that wasn't unusual - we'd had Chris Farley and Mark Myer and Adam Sandler movies foisted on us.

Kattan didn't become a movie star though he had a few chances - Corky and A Night at the Roxbury and Undercover Brother. That's more than a lot of them get. From clips I've seen Kattan was an energetic very physical performer who liked to pull faces - the sort of comic that doesn't age well, physically I mean, though he's no orphan on that score. He became hooked on drugs and blames this on a neck injury - that's not surprising, it happened to Jerry Lewis, though it's clear from the book Kattan had other issues. He was needy, didn't always handle fame well, was chronically insecure about his career.

Kattan talks a lot about the origin of characters like the Roxbury guys and Mr Peepers which is only going to mean anything if you know them. He had a mixed relationship with the show - it gave him fame, his only real fame (he's done some stuff since then but none of it has really broken through). He quit the show, seems to regret it, has doubts, wonders about his place on the show, etc. Lorne Michaels has seen them come and go.

Mind you what could he have done once his films didn't do that well? Probably stayed on the show and tried another film, maybe. But his drug habit would have made that too tricky.

He was a pants man. He dated Zooey Deschenal, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Coolidge, the red haired girl from Clueless. He also had a fling with Amy Heckerling. This is the most interesting part of the book no matter how indiscreet. He also talks about his friendship with Will Ferrell, who formally ended their friendship by taking him aside and ending it.

It's a really fascinating read.

Movie review - "Holmes and Watson" (2019) *

Will Ferrell was once the blue chip comedy star - so many of his films were great. John C Reilly's fantastic too. I figured this couldn't have been as bad as I heard.

It was.

What went wrong? There are some funny bits - I laughted at Kelly MacDonald's Mrs Hudson continually having sex with celebrities in Watson's bed. I liked Lauren Lapkus pretending to be a cat. I laughed when Holmes and Watson knocked over Queen Victoria.

But the film doesn't seem to have a comic vision. Ferrell always plays morons. And some of the time Holmes is a moron. But other times he's quite smart. And it doesn't make sense.

The film is all over the place.One minute the leads are gay then they're straight. The humour is broad then it's subtle. Is it a spoof? A buddy comedy?

The Adam McKay Ferrell films always felt very clean and clear. You got a sense of what they were about, what they were trying to do, what they were sending up. You knew the world. (The time line for this movie is all over the place - there's Harry Houdini, Queen Victoria, the Titanic. It doesn't take much effort to get that stuff right.)

It's just a mes and was hard to watch.

Movie review - "Zoolander 2" (2015) **

This very late in the day sequel didn't seem to please too many people but I found it had its moments. Sure, everyone is getting old but there's still a lot of talent on display: Stiller, Wilson, Ferrell, Wiig, etc plus Cyrus Arnold as the newcomer.

I wish Wiig had been given more to do - she's excellent - and feel maybe they made a mistake having outlandish Penelope Cruz as the love interest instead of a straight "normal" woman like Christine Taylor in the original. Kyle Mooney's character is irritating, as is the sheer number of cameos.

But lots of funny stuff, like Wiig, and Justin Bieberm and Cruz. I couldn't understand the hate. Maybe because I saw it at home on TV and not in a theatre or something.

Movie review - "The Big Short" (2015) ****

Hollywood takes on the GFC - so the protagonists are people who made a pile of money out of it, by betting against the market. It's an irony the characters often comment on - the fact the heroes triumph mean that the world's economy crashed. But it is a fresher way of looking at the disaster.

There are three main groups - Steve Carrell and his gang, loosely associated with Ryan Gosling; Christian Bale and his gang; two guys and Brad Pitt. The villains are the bankers and inefficient government.

There's a lot of exposition - so much so you wonder if it couldn't have been dramatised better. I think the filmmakers fell in love with the conceit of having celebrities explain things when surely they could have been demonstrated via action. It's criticisms about the treatment of immigrants and poor people might have had more impact in a film that didn't fail the Bechdel test so badly (most female characters are strippers, and/or celebrities).

But it is a smart film and it treats its audience smartly. Bale and Carrell engage in a lot of Acting but after a while I got used to it, and the social anger and comment is insightful and pointed. Often very funny and also anger making, and further serves to highlight Adam Mackay as the leading political satirist of his generation.

Movie review - "Daddy's Home" (2016) **1/2

Smooth, well constructed comedy with Will Ferrell as a step-dad intimidated by the real deal, Mark Wahlberg. Linda Cardinelli plays the thankless Marissa Tomei-style role. The jokes and story are solid rather than inspired, but it has a good heart, and nice message (about being a dad). I enjoyed the dance off finale.

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 – “The Other Guys” (2010) ***

Many hilarious moments in this: the deaths of Sam Jackson and the Rock, the TLC running gag (even if to be honest I only recognised some of the lyrics), Will Ferrel listening to Little River Band all the time, Will Ferrell’s history as a pimp. And there’s a strong satirical point – the end credits sticks it to the irresponsibility that contributed to the GFC. But for some reason this doesn’t work. The best bits feel like add-ons rather than stemming from the actual story; it seems to lack heart, or purpose or something. Maybe I’m just not a fan of the buddy cop genre, or maybe it’s something else – I’m not sure. I laughed out loud, the cast is outstanding (though Michael Keaton doesn’t really suit his role – needed someone crustier)… but it dragged.

Movie review – “Step Brothers” (2008) **1/2

Funny, with moments of brilliance. The lead characters are basically retarded – I had trouble wrapping my head around it, I mean they're forty years old. Maybe if they had been sons of a rich cloistered family, like the Kennedys, or European royalty or something. Couldn't Mary Steenburgen have made the effort to look a little bit older? Maybe also I would have liked it a bit more if the relationship between the brothers had been a bit closer to the one I had with mine.

Movie review – “The Foot First Way” (2006) **1/2

A credit card movie fairytale – it didn’t become the box office sensation that Napoleon Dynamite did, but it helped make a name of Danny McBride and help its talented director (who is hilarious in a support role) get a Hollywood feature.
The basic concept is strong – a tae kwon do instructor with a bad personal life – and you can see why it quickly became a cult film, with Will Ferrel amongst its’ fans: plenty of great lines and “bits”. There’s grown men beating up little kids, jokes about Hollywood stars, a cute little fat kid. Guys who took martial arts lessons at some stage will find it especially fun and you can imagine fans reciting the dialogue ad nauseum.
But there really isn’t a story, and I found it got a bit tiring after a while. It lacked a little heart or something. The best moment is the party where McBride and his gang start kicking butt.

Movie review – “Night at the Roxbury” (1999) **

Early Will Ferrell vehicle has some good laughs but doesn’t quite work as they didn’t get the dramatic subtext right, crucial for a comedy. Also Ferrell doesn’t own the screen like he later would –Chris Katten, his partner is a lot more confident. Molly Shannon is fun as is the soundtrack (including Haddaway’s immortal ‘What is Love’) and Richard Grieco in the support cast..

Movie review – “Semi Pro” (2008) **1/2

The Will Ferrell sports movie formula, normally so sure-fire, hit a bit of a snag with this film. So much of it is right – the period detail, the basketball, Ferrel’s performance – but it simply doesn’t have a very strong idea. Ferrell owning a team that needs to win games in order to get into the NBA… there’s not enough there cf the inherent conflict with Will teaming with John Heder in Blades of Glory, or breaking up with John Reilly in Talledega Nights. Maybe if Woody Harrelson had had a more interesting character.
 There are many hilarious moments, Ferrel is divinely mad, the disco soundtrack is great, and I loved the bear and Will Arnett as a jaded sports commentator.

Movie review – “Zoolander” (2001) ***1/2

Entertaining comedy full of classic moments. I’m not a lunatic fan but I always enjoy it when it’s on tv, particularly some of the more outlandish stuff (I loved the orgy with the midget), and the trio of Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Will Ferrell are in strong form (what, no Vince Vaughan?). 

Apparently they thought this would clean up at the box office in the wake of September 11 but audiences didn’t embrace it, preferring instead the more realistic Black Hawk Down (showing that in times of turmoil people don’t always want pure escapism). But it’s cult has continued to grow ever since. Apparently some male models get upset by the fact this film perpetuates the stereotype of them being dumb – like, who cares?