Year One

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: Two men (Jack Black & Michael Cera) from a primitive village, who think they are meant for more than the small life they are living, set off on a pedestrian road trip to discover what else can be accessed by foot in the world around them.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Vinnie Jones, Hank Azaria, Juno Temple, Olivia Wilde, June Diane Raphael, Xander Berkeley, Horatio Sanz, David Pasquesi, Matthew J. Willig, Gia Carides, Bill Hader, Kyle Gass, Harold Ramis, Eden Riegel

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. I had a really hard time answering the question, "What is the movie about," so that's not a good sign. And if my description sounds boring, maybe that's the movie's main problem-- it's really not about anything. The only thing the plot lends itself toward is a series of silly jokes and sketches about biblical times, and another amazing performance by Michael Cera.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Is there still an audience that finds licking poo and animals attacking funny?

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: No, but their hairstyles may give you visions of happy little bugs, living happy little lives, in the happy little bug villages that most likely exist at the border of these men's scalps. It definitely makes you wish they'd invented Supercuts a lot sooner.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: While the farting and the graphic intestines scenes are disgusting, I will give this movie credit for having the Best Peeing Scene I've ever witnessed in a movie.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Not since Stanislavski has someone reinvented the art form of acting the way Michael Cera has. In movie after movie, he brings a style to the screen that is completely original, surprising, and real. I don't even think it's possible to write for the way he makes stuff funny. He's a genius.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: The whole movie feels dated. Unfortunately, it's not so much because it takes place in the days after Jesus died, as it is because the whole style of the piece feels pulled right out of an ancient time I like to call the 1980s.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The writers do manage to put the characters into precarious situations, like getting coiled by a snake and attacked by a vicious cougar, but instead of showing us how they get out of those binds, they simply cut to the next scene, and have the characters say things like, "Wow, that was a bad day." To put this in terms you can relate to immediately, that's like me telling you about the time I was mugged for my computer by meth addicts, and how I chased them, and they held me at gun point, and just when you start to wonder how I was gonna get my computer back and escape with my life, I start talking about ice cream.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/year-one/30328/trailers

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Easy Virtue

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: Set in the UK in the 1920s, the prodigal son (Ben Barnes) of a rich family returns home with an older woman (Jessica Biel), whom he's already married, and who is American. And so his mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) sets to breaking them apart.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth, Kimberley Nixon, Katherine Parkinson, Kris Marshall, Charlotte Riley, Christian Brassington, Pip Torrens

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. Based on a Noel Coward play, the fast paced farcical tone gets off to a good start, but about 20 minutes in, you realize that this movie has no plot, and the story element that would've made the catty goings-on more interesting is not revealed until 20 minutes before the end.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: The dialogue is quick witted, but you might want to brush up on your proper English listening comprehension skills, because in some parts it is so fast and thrown away that you completely miss what they're saying.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Maybe, if you've ever had in-laws. But probably not.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Can you imagine how insulted Kristin Scott Thomas must have been when she found out she was going to be acting up against 7th Heaven's Jessica Biel? Apparently she put all that anger into this role, and it served her well because she has already won a couple of acting awards in Great Britain for this film.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Jessica Biel is pretty, but she's completely miscast as the older woman. Not only does she not appear to be older than her husband, but in real life, she's several months younger than Ben Barnes. The whole movie would have made a lot more sense if they had gotten Charlize Theron or Angelina Jolie. Another reason those actresses would've been more impactful, is that they wouldn't look so ridiculous trying to act next to top tier professionals like Kristin Scott Thomas and Colin Firth. On a positive note, I'd like to ask you all to look out for Kimberley Nixon, a fairly newcomer, who really does hold her own next to these old pros. I see a big career in her future.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Even though it is an adaptation of a play, and takes place primarily all on one giant estate, it never feels too small or boxed in to be a movie.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The script, on the other hand, does not escape the play-to-movie transition unscathed. A play and a movie don't have the same format. In a play, the audience is more patient, and you can leave certain key plot points and underlying emotional motivations until the end. But in a movie format, the audience is accustomed to knowing why a character is being unreasonably cruel much earlier, so that they can feel deeply for both the villain and the victim, and experience the moral dilemma of choosing sides. If the screenwriters had introduced the pivotal plot piece twenty minutes into the film instead of twenty minutes from the end, they might have had a movie. But as it sits now, they have a very cinematic play.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/search/easy%20virtue/trailers

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