Jennifer Aniston

Mother’s Day

  • Title: Mother’s Day
  • wiki: link

Mother's DayFollowing the pattern of his last two films (Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve) director Garry Marshall‘s Mother’s Day is a cookie-cutter ensemble dramaedy set around a particular holiday. Filled with paper-thin characters who all can be described by a single characteristic who are marginally connected through themes of mothers and their daughters, Mother’s Day is a lazy film filled with sitcom humor and blase drama that asks the bare minimum of its cast. If it were a meal, Mother’s Day would be a lukewarm McDonald’s extra-value meal that no one bothered to put under the heat lamp. If it were a color it would be beige.

The stories include divorced mother (Jennifer Aniston) of two sons (Caleb Brown and Brandon Spink) struggling with the news that her ex-husband (Timothy Olyphant) has married a much younger woman (Shay Mitchell), grown sisters (Kate Hudson and Sarah Chalke) hiding their romantic relationships from their conventional parents (Margo Martindale and Robert Pine), a widower (Jason Sudeikis) and his two daughters (Ella Anderson and Jessi Case) struggling to move on a year after his wife’s death, a career-minded Home Shopping Network star (Julia Roberts) with what passes for a dark secret in this movie, and a waitress (Britt Robertson) unable to commit to her boyfriend (Jack Whitehall).

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Re-Released on Home Video: Rock Star

  • Title: Rock Star
  • IMDB: link

Rock StarBased loosely on the real life of Tim “Ripper” Owens, a Judas Priest tribute band member who was chosen to replace the real band’s lead singer, 2001’s Rock Star centers around a similar journey for Chris Cole (Mark Wahlberg). Shortly after being kicked off the tribute band he started, the Steel Dragon obsessed singer gets a chance to live his dream by replacing the Dragons’s lead singer (Jason Flemyng).

The script is hardly original as the dream life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll eventually destroys Cole’s relationship with his girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston) and makes the singer stop to reexamine what is truly important in his life. That said, the Steel Dragon world, complete wit over-the-top antics and odd characters such as the tour’s road manager (Timothy Spall) and a public relations manager (Dagmara Dominczyk) packing more than just a love of the music, provides some entertaining moments.

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We’re the Millers

  • Title: We’re the Millers
  • IMDB: link

We're the MillersDespite boasting four separate screenwriters who cobble together a script which teases (but doesn’t really deliver) an attempt to be edgy and cool, We’re the Millers is your predictable raunchy comedy featuring three unlikable characters and one idiot who all learn important life lessons before the credits roll. The result is an occasionally amusing by-the-book flick that’s far less cool than it wants to be.

Jason Sudeikis stars as a low-rent drug dealer who needs to come up with some cash fast after he’s robbed while trying to help out his dimwitted neighbor Kenny (Will Poulter). Owing nearly $50,000, his drug-dealing boss (Ed Helms in a role that requires him to be both funny and scary, only one of which he pulls off) offers David (Sudeikis) a way out by taking a trip down to Mexico and bringing back a small load of marijuana over the border. With no choice, David enlist the help of Kenny, a homeless girl (Emma Roberts), and a stripper (Jennifer Aniston) to pose as his family and help him drive the RV chock full of drugs back into the United States.

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Horrible Bosses, average comedy

  • Title: Horrible Bosses
  • IMDB: link

Horrible Bosses posterDon’t you wish you could kill your boss? Wouldn’t it be cool if you’re two best friends felt the same way and you all decided to go into it together? That’s the basic premise of Horrible Bosses, a foul-mouthed raunchy comedy that is neither as dark or as funny as it needs to be.

It isn’t that the movie is bad, I’ll admit to laughing at some of the ridiculous antics displayed on-screen. Not big laughs, but laughs none the less. The problem is it just isn’t that memorable.

One of the cardinal rules to screenwriting is to never mention or evoke memories of better movies, thereby reminding the audience of films they would rather be watching. A clever homage, maybe, but it can backfire at least as often as it succeeds. Namedropping movies the audience would rather be watching, yeah, that’s not such a great idea.

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