Posts tagged engagement
“The Five-Year Engagement” More Like the Five-Year Movie
May 5th
“More Like the Five-Year Movie”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Five-Year Engagement was made by the same people who made the 2008 Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and so it must be good, right?
Well, yes and no. Yes, it is good in some places, and no, it is not good in other places, mainly the scenes that go on for too long and the scenes that should have been cut in the first place.
Jason Segal and Emily Blunt star as Tom and Violet. They met a year ago at a New Year’s Eve party, which we keep seeing in flashbacks at various times throughout the movie.
They get engaged, and during a meeting with Tom’s relatives to plan the engagement party, one of the men comments that the men will all be wearing yarmulkes, of course. Violet says to Tom that he doesn’t have a yarmulke, and he replies that he does and, “It’s in my Jewish drawer.”
The story begins in San Francisco, and you can guess from the title that the engagement isn’t going to go smoothly, right?
Correct. Violet is working on her doctorate in psychology, and she gets accepted to a position at the University of Michigan, which will take two years to complete.
However, because Tom is a chef in a restaurant, he says that he can always find a job anywhere, and so they decide that Tom will move to Michigan with Violet, and they will postpone the wedding for two years.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, couldn’t they get married in San Francisco before moving to Michigan, or couldn’t they even get married in Michigan?
But if they did that, then the filmmakers would have to change the title of the movie, wouldn’t they?
Well, you can guess from the title that the two-year plan isn’t going to go smoothly, either, right? Violet’s work at the University of Michigan gets extended, and I don’t want to spoil anything, but at one point the situation gets so bad that it looks like there won’t be any wedding at all.
Now, you know how the DVD version of some movies contains deleted scenes? Maybe the DVD of this movie will thankfully be missing some scenes that should have been cut.
The Five-Year Engagement lives up to its reputation of being a comedy, but it is more like the five-year movie.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Bridesmaids” All Very Funny
May 19th
Bridesmaids is one of the funniest movies you will ever see if you are a gal and also one of the funniest movies you will ever see if you are a guy, because contrary to what you might think at first glance, it is definitely not a “chick flick.”
In other words, it is not rated “R” for “Romance.”
No, if anything, it is rated “R” for raunchy, ribaldry, repartee, regale, revelry, romping, roughhousing, rattlebrain, roguery, rascality, ridiculing, razzing, raillery, ragging, and ribbing, not to mention rude. Kristen Wiig stars as
Annie, and Maya Rudolph plays Lillian, Annie’s best friend, who is getting married.
So, Lillian asks Annie to be her maid of honor and to handle all the duties that a maid of honor takes care of, which Annie enthusiastically agrees to do.
Unfortunately, Annie doesn’t have any experience with being a maid of honor, and she has to look up what the duties are on the Internet.
In fact, Annie’s own boyfriend recently left her, and although she works selling rings in a store, her sales technique leaves a lot to be desired. She tells one couple who want to buy wedding rings, “You cannot trust anybody, ever.”
Then Annie meets Helen, one of the other bridesmaids, whose husband is very wealthy and who is very competitive. At the engagement party, Annie and Helen get into a “dueling speeches” contest trying to outdo each other, which escalates into a “dueling songs” contest.
Lillian asks Annie to hang out with Helen just once, hoping that they will become friends, and so they arrange to meet for tennis at Helen’s country club, but before they start playing, they can’t resist getting into a “dueling philosophies” contest, and the tennis itself quickly becomes a “dueling tennis” contest.
One of the other bridesmaids is Megan, and to say that she is unique would be stating the obvious. She is overweight, but completely unselfconscious about it, she is not afraid to say anything or to do anything in public, and she does.
Meanwhile, there is a policeman that Annie keeps having encounters with, some public and some private, and there is an especially funny scene when Annie tries to get arrested because she wants the policeman to help her.
Bridesmaids is all this and very much more, and all very funny.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Bridesmaids – Movie Trailer
May 19th
Annie (Kristen Wiig), is a maid of honor whose life unravels as she leads her best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph), and a group of colorful bridesmaids (Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper) on a wild ride down the road to matrimony. Annie’s life is a mess. But when she finds out her lifetime best friend is engaged, she simply must serve as Lillian’s maid of honor. Though lovelorn and broke, Annie bluffs her way through the expensive and bizarre rituals. With one chance to get it perfect, she’ll show Lillian and her bridesmaids just how far you’ll go for someone you love.