The Other Guys

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A couple of buddy cops who hate each other (Will Ferrell & Mark Wahlberg) try to prove that they are not the two most incompetent police officers who ever lived.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Will Ferrel, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Keaton, Eva Mendez, Steve Coogan, Rob Riggle, Damon Wayans, Jr., Dwayne Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Stevenson, Bobby Cannavale, Andy Buckley, Lindsay Sloane, Natalie Zea, Anne Heche, Michael Delaney

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Go! As far as Will Ferrell movies go, this one actually has a story. And yes, I admit that my expectations for his movies are so low that I may be being more lenient than I normally am.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Prepare for usual stupid, wacky Will Ferrel comedy stylings, which often make no logical sense, and yet seem to catch on like The Macarena.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: No, but when people fall from tall buildings, you actually get to see them hitting the ground... So that's disturbing.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: I think it's going to be up for the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for the mind blowing stats and charts during the credit sequence that point out exactly how badly we were screwed by the banks in the financial collapse. What, you didn't know this was a message movie?

Q: How is the Acting?

A: First of all Mark Wahlberg is hilarious in this. His curmudgeonliness reminded me of Mr. Roper from Three's Company, the way he would smile through intense annoyance, unable to hide his insincerity. And Will Ferrell's jokes are always funnier when they come from a character who is sweet, naive, and innocent, as they do in this film, than when they come from that unlikeble cocky, bastard place, as they do in some of his less well developed films. I am always happy to see him in a character that highlights his strength. Sadly, I didn't think Steve Coogan was exploited to the best of his abilities.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Adam McKay, who directs most of Will Ferrell's movies, succeeded in making it look like a Will Ferrell movie.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: I was ecstatic to see that there was one, even if it contained several moments, emotions, and jokes that have no basis in reality.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-other-guys/38655/trailers

Back To Top

The Brothers Bloom

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A couple of con artist brothers (Adrien Brody & Mark Ruffalo) contrive their cons to tell the stories they want their lives to be about.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, Mark Ruffalo, Rinko Kikuchi, Robbie Coltrane, Maximilian Schell, Ricky Jay, Zachary Gordon, Max Records, Nora Zehetner

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. Highly stylized and convoluted, this is a love-it or hate-it kind of piece, that asks the question can you control the outcome of your own life, by planning the perfect con?

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: It is certainly a comedy, but in a bizarre and artsy way. Babel's Rinko Kikuchi, whose offbeat character garners most of the laughs without hardly ever uttering a word, sums up the tone in a nutshell. But then again, blowing things up can often be a more decisive way to express yourself than words.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Rather than use words to answer this, I'm just going to blow something up... [wait for it]... [wait for it]... Okay, it's done. And I think you catch my drift.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Rian Johnson's last film, Brick, was nominated for a bunch of Independent Spirit Awards, and they tend to enjoy recycling their nominees, so in that sense this film has a decent chance of getting attention over there. Unfortunately, this film is a lot more entertaining than Brick, so Johnson may have shot himself in the foot, because the Spirit Awards don't usually nominate films that are fun to watch.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Superb across the board. All the actors manage to give real feeling performances while delivering lines and concepts that are completely over the top and absurd. Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo are excellent, but it's the women who steal the show. Rinko Kikuchi with her evilly detached, yet secretly caring persona. And Rachel Weisz, who glows and bounces off the screen with a childlike joy, that makes it hard to tell if she's the conman or the mark.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: As in writer-director Rian Johnson's first film, the story blurs the lines between a realistic world and a fantasy, without ever outright defining the rules of the fantasy world. The look of the film is realistic, not fantasy, so you're never quite sure where you are in this pseudo-surreal existence. If my description isn't making this any easier for you to grasp, know that that is quite deliberately the filmmakers intention.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The story is a lot of fun, though in some ways predictable. You never know who's conning who, but you know it doesn't matter because it's all being done out of love. You also never know what the con is that their pulling, who's getting what out of it, or even what era the movie takes place in, as the characters dress and talk like they're in the 1940s, and travel to Europe by boat, despite the discovery that one of them has a cellphone. Those are the aspects of the film you will either find highly artistic and inventive or completely annoying.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-brothers-bloom/27798/trailers

Back To Top