Bridesmaids (2011)

I've been looking forward to this film for a while, so when the chance came up to get preview tickets, i was quite diligent in getting them (I'm usually too slow in getting those tickets usually).
It's a condescending statement to make but i've always wanted to see that comedy where girls are mischievous and funny, like in the films i love like Superbad or Withnail And I. I mean most of the women in my life are really funny and funny women are so sexy to me. Too much information I know but ... still at some point, these films turn into identikit romcom tripe. I mean I'm (fairly) romantic (I'm not made of stone!) and i love comedy- romantic comedies should be glorious but they're usually neither. Bridesmaids solves that problem by removing the romance angle.
Okay, it doesn't actually but it's not the crux of the film, just a sub-plot. When the film works best, it's when these women are all together and playing off each other and the other strength is that all but 2 or 3 characters in the film are women. It should go without saying that Kirsten Wiig is brilliant, mostly playing the straight woman it should be said. If I'm honest I found her sketches on SNL really irritating TO START but then I quickly realised how super talented she is not performing comedy. But then in her modesty, she's not only co-written a film to showcase her talents- she created a world for all these other talented women to work too like Rebel Wilson and more obviously, Melissa McCarthy. She's going to big star now after her role as tenacious Megan and I get the feeling... It maybe something I read but I think they reshot to put more of her in the film based on the stirling work she was doing. But then there's Chris O'Dowd and Jon Hamm as Kristen's good and bad love interests; Hamm gets to be deliciously vile and the lovely Chris O'Dowd gets to be the sweet guy. THEY MAKE SUCH A CUTE COUPLE.
Well put together by Paul Feig and Judd Apatow, it's just a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours in the cinema and you feel good leaving the cinema. It's funny and delightful and sweet. I have could watch this film over and over again and in a year, where everyone is making these dirty comedies- it's nice to see one that's as funny as it is naughty.

I watched Bridesmaids (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Norweigian Ninja (2010)...

Paul (2011)

Who can deny the charm of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost sharing the screen?
Yeah, you liked Pegg before you'd ever heard of Nick and if you see Nick turn up in something, you get a cosy feeling but they're never as effective as when they're working together. I mean they're obviously great friends and would never tire of each others company but it totally translates on screen too.
So the idea of watching Paul, something they both wrote too is a simple prospect to accept. But after a half-hour into watching Paul, there was one guy I couldn't stop thinking of. Edgar Wright. Damn my cynical brain but I was less watching a film with Pegg & Frost but a film that wasn't directed by Edgar Wright. I've always had a weird feeling coming out if his films but now I realise what it was. When I saw Shaun Of The Dead and when I saw Hot Fuzz, I was very confllicted. I knew I had really liked what I had saw but I felt a bit batter and bruised and tired. These feelings were even more extreme after seeing Scott Pilgrim. But I think I understand what it meant now. An Edgar Wright production packs so much entertainment into every frame, be it action or comedy- that it just knackers me out. It's exhausting. So watching Paul has helped me in the respect of figuring out that mystery. But sadly I can't judge Paul singularly by it's own merits and the style of Edgar Wright in conspicuous by it's absence. But let me be clear, this is no diss to Greg Mottola. I love him and I liked Adventureland and LOVED Superbad. It's just that Paul, while I did enjoy it and it's funny... It's not firing on all cylinders; it's just a cultureshock to see Pegg and Frost in this paired down visual style I guess and that's me; that's no else's fault.So if you can get passed that overwrought and basically unfair point; there is a lot to like about this movie. A great American cast of some of my favorite current comedy actors like Bill Hader and Jo Le Truglio, who both were in Superbad- who play dumb FBI (!?) agents and Kristen Wiig who's currently on SNL with Hader. These are all guys, if I find out they are in a movie-I will endeavor to see it. You already know I unashamedly love Seth Rogen so i'll simply say he's quite good in his part as a Seth Rogen alien. But all is not right in the world of Pegg and Frost.For some strange reason, they've swopped roles. Yeah. In this one, they've decided after those 1,2-2 films, that they've grown weary of Frost playing the silly one and Pegg playing the grown-up one and they've swopped. I know i shouldn't be so frumpy about what's such a sweet and pleasant film but Frost and Pegg swopping roles was a bit of shark-jump for me. Please go see Paul as such endeavors should be encouraged but don't go expecting an Edgar Wright production. It's like watching the side-project of a band you like and you're just kinda willing it to be just as good.


I watched Paul (2011) at the cinema.
My 2011 In Movies will return with the mammoth double bill of Troll 2(1990) / Best Worst Movie (2009)...