Justin Long

30 Shows in 30 Days

Vince Vaughn takes off on a tour of 30 cities and 6,000 miles in 30 days with a foursome of comedians from the Comedy Store and a few guest spots from some old friends.  This film documents their journey, performances, and behind the scenes moments on the road.  Is it worth you time?  Read the full review inside the Full Diagnosis to find out!

Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show
3 Stars

Vince Vaughn piles four comedians (Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst, and Sebastian Maniscalco) into a bus and travels across the country for thirty days for a comedy tour.

Starting out in California the troupe hits thirty cities in thirty days and this new film gives us a glimpse of their journey and performances.  Like all live comedy there are good moments, and well, you know.  It takes a while for the film to really get going (and to get out of California), but once the tour starts to make their way east things begin to pick up.

Along the way friends of Vaughn’s show up for specific performances including Justin Long, Keir O’Donnell, and Jon Favreau.  These scattered moments help to add a little more spice to the film, but the comedians themselves provide most of the tour’s memorable moments.

An odd note – although the tour hits many towns it purposely stays out of the Midwest, preferring to travel south through Texas and Oklahoma and only coming northward to make stops in St. Louis and Chicago to end the tour.

So, is it worth your time?  Well, maybe.  With this much time and material, and variety of comedy, you certainly get quantity, even if not all of it is of a high quality.  For me some of the best parts of the film were the behind the scenes moments of the comedians discussing their performances and the audiences at various venues.  There are also some touching moments as the tour is forced to make changes do to Hurricane Katrina, and even give a free matinee for many refugees of the storm.

There are some laughs and some groans, and many moments in between.  The best moments for me were John Caparulo’s reaction to being informed about the “clean” show, and the personal moments both before and after performances between the comedians.  It’s not a must-see and will no doubt find a larger audience on DVD than its initial theatrical run, but there is enough here to make the experience worthwhile and enjoyable.

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Walk Hard

  • Title: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
  • IMDb: link

“It ain’t easy to walk to the top of a mountain.  It’s a long hard walk, but I will walk hard.”

The collaboration between Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow is a perfect parody of recent overly serious and sentimental music biopics like Walk the Line and Ray which examine the entire life of an artist with all the skill and depth of a Behind the Music special.  The film follows Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly, who plays the character from the age of 14 to 71) who faces the tragic death of his brother to an unfortunate machete accident, the disapproval of his father (Raymond J. Barry), drugs, booze, and women, to become a legend.

Although it helps if you’ve seen the films this one parodies it’s not a necessity to get most of the jokes (though you will miss some of more subtle moments including specific shots and camera work).  Reilly is terrific in a role that let’s him prove just what a great dumbass he can play.  And, as he proved in A Prairie Home Companion (read that review), he can sing.  It’s a combination of the music and sharp unrelenting wit that transforms this film from the regular mass produced parodies like the Scary Movie franchises, and moves into the elite company with This Is Spinal Tap and Airplane.

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Wait Until You Hear About the Mascot

  • Title: Accepted
  • IMDB: link

accepted-posterIf you liked movies like Waiting…, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Risky Business, and Van Wilder, then you should give Accepted a shot.  It’s a little of all of those movies, and others, rolled into one.  But what makes it different is the humorous AND seriousness with which it discusses our educational system – and that it has something to say, unlike most teen comedies these days, rather than just show.

Unable to find a college who will accept him, Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) decides to create one instead.  With the help of his friends (Jonah Hill, Columbus Short, Maria Thayer) he creates a web page, leases a rundown mental hospital, hires a former educator to be their dean (Lewis Black), and thus creates the South Harmon Institute of Technology.  His parents seem convinced and he and his friends sit down to party all summer long.

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