Comedy

Leatherheads on DVD

  • Title: Leatherheads
  • IMDB: link

“You’re only as young as the women you feel.”

In 1925 college football was king and professional football was struggling to get by.  Here we join Dodge Connelly (Geroge Clooney) and his desperate last attempt to save the league by wooing college star and war hero Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski) into professional football.

Those familiar with the screwball comedy know what to expect as we’re given fast-talking dialgoue, phsycial hyjinks, and a love story between a footballer and a reporter (Renée Zellweger).  For more on the film itself read the original review.

If you missed Leatherheads in the theater it’s worthy of at least a rental.  The extras alone, though nice (at least on the regular DVD edition), don’t scream must have however.  The special features are nothing special and the commentary gives little added insight to the making of the film.  Fans of Clooney, screwball comedy, and 1920’s era style films will still want to take a long look at this good, though not great, DVD edition.

Leatherheads on DVD Read More »

Ghost Town

  • Title: Ghost Town
  • IMDB: link

“You died.”
“I died?”
“A little bit.”

Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) doesn’t like people.  The dentist has a disdain for pretty much the entire human race, but his life is changed by an unforeseen side-effect of a routine surgery.

The dentist goes in for a routine colonoscopy, dies for seven minutes on the table, and walks out with an ability to see and hear dead people.  And New York it seems has more than its share of ghosts.

Pincus is hounded by the spirits needing closure led by recently deceased Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear) who wants Pincus to ruin his widow’s relationship with a lawyer.  Pincus immediately falls for Gwen (Tea Leoni) and agrees, but most overcome his own personality and self-history to win her over.

Ghost Town Read More »

Burn After Reading

  • Title: Burn After Reading
  • IMDB: link

“I thought you might be worried about the security, of your shit.”

Burn After Reading, written and directed by the Coen Brothers, is a thriller set in a world not too far from Dumb & Dumber.  It’s a tale of secrets, lies, and murder through an idiot lens.  It’s an interesting idea that struggles at becoming a good film.

The story centers around a recently fired CIA agent (John Malkovich) with a bad temper whose memoirs wind up in the hands of two dumb gym employees (Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt).  After being attacked the first time the pair attempt to return the disk their plans turn towards blackmail or to selling the dubious contents to the Russians.  As to why the film chooses the Russians, well, the joke is obvious though the rationale (like so much in the film) is not.

Burn After Reading Read More »

It Starts with a Bang

  • Title: The Big Bang Theory – The Complete First Season
  • tv.com: link

“I think that you have as much of a chance of having a sexual relationship with Penny as the Hubble telescope does of discovering at the center of every black hole is a little man with a flashlight searching for a circuit breaker.”

Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons) are nerds.  The pair’s apartment is filled with all range of comic, fantasy and sci-fi merchandise.  They work as physicists and spend their spare time with fellow geeks Raj (Kunal Nayyar) and Howard (Simon Helberg) in a variety of activities guaranteed to keep the ladies in galaxies far, far away.  Their universe is changed by the arrival of a beautiful new neighbor, Penny (Kaley Cuoco), to whom Leonard instantly develops a crush.

Their universe, much to Sheldon’s dismay, is changed by Penny’s arrival, but whether anything romantic will develop between Leonard and Penny will have to wait until season two.

It Starts with a Bang Read More »

The House Bunny

  • Title: The House Bunny
  • IMDB: link

“But I’m 27.”
“That’s 59 in Bunny years.”

The day after her 27th birthday Shelly (Anna Faris) is thrown out of her comfy lifestyle in the Playboy Mansion.  Her initial forays into the real world aren’t too successful, and an unlikely misunderstanding with a cop (Dan Patrick) even lands her in jail for a night.

Her luck changes with the discovery of an entire street of mini-Playboy Mansions and a new calling as a House Mother for the lamest sorority on campus, the one full of the kind of misfits you only find in movies like this and Sydney White (read the DVD review) and is constantly facing probation, expulsion, or both.  From here you can guess what happens next.

Shelly uses her gifts to turn all the other girls (Emma Stone, Kat Dennings, Katherine McPhee, Dana Goodman, Rumer Willis, Kiely Williams) into hotties, fights off the mean sorority girls across the street (Sarah Wright, Rachel Specter), learns an important lesson about herself, and saves the Zeta’s house in a last-minute impassioned plea to the Dean.

The House Bunny Read More »