There is this undeniable, crazy-intense talent that I think Rainn Wilson has yet to unleash on us, that goes beyond his hilarious and iconic portrayal of Dwight Schrute on
The Office. Thanks to smaller roles that he's had, including his creepy character on
Six Feet Under, I've had faith that Wilson is not a one-note actor, and that he possesses the tools to take part in a variety of genres. So, I was looking forward to his first time out as a comedic lead in
The Rocker.
Note: I posted this review soon after I saw this movie at
Sundance, and today it's out in theaters, so I thought I'd share my thoughts again. It has some flaws, but overall I really like this movie.
Henry Poole Is Here was one of the first non-documentary feature films to be
snatched up by a studio at this year's Sundance, and I can easily see why. It's a sweet, feel-good movie featuring great performances and a quirky look at the old discussion of faith vs.
I never really thought I'd say a Ben Stiller comedy was genuinely smart and funny, but here I am, saying just that. It's partly the talented cast and partly Stiller's collaborator on the film, Justin Theroux, but whatever the cause,
Tropic Thunder is a hilarious movie that doesn't completely rely on gross-out humor or cheap shots for laughs. The entire thing exists to comment on the hypocrisy, egotism, delusional sense of self-importance and backward moral codes of the people who keep the Hollywood machine churning.
I live near Napa Valley and I enjoy wine a great deal, so when I first heard about a new little movie called
Bottle Shock all about the historical legitimization of California wine, I was intrigued. I may have taken for granted the fact that Napa hasn't always been a world-renowned winemaking region, and that at one point it was viewed as nothing more than a bunch of back-water country hicks noodling around with grapes. Which is why I was disappointed to not love this sincere attempt to bring this story to life on the screen.
How much you enjoy
Pineapple Express may depend more on how charmed you are by the chemistry between James Franco and Seth Rogen and less on how funny you find pot jokes. Don't get me wrong, marijuana jokes abound in this comedy written by Rogen and his frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg, and they are funny. But I was surprised by how much more Pineapple Express falls into the category of buddy movies like Lethal Weapon, rather than the stoner category like Half Baked.
