Posts tagged Ed Helms
“Cedar Rapids” Two Bags of Peanuts Up
Feb 28th
“Two Bags of Peanuts Up”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
CEDAR RAPIDS is a pretty good comedy about a weekend at the annual convention for Midwest insurance salesmen that takes place in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
I know what you’re thinking.
“Cedar Rapids is large enough to handle a convention?”
It stars Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, who seems to appear in all comedies of this sort, and Anne Heche, who should appear in more comedies of this sort.
Helms plays Tim Lippe, an insurance salesman who lives and works in Brown Valley, Wisconsin, and Tim is so naive that he has never been on an airplane before the one that takes him to Cedar Rapids for the convention.
On the other hand, back in Brown Valley, Tim is having sex with the recently divorced Macy Vanderhei, played by Sigourney Weaver, who just happened to have been Tim’s seventh-grade teacher.
And yet Tim is so naive that one time after sex, Tim tells Macy that he used to look at her in class and think dirty things, and then he says, “Did you ever used to look at me and think dirty things?”
Anyway, when the star salesman in Tim’s insurance company suddenly dies, Tim is chosen by the boss to go to the convention instead, and the boss warns Tim to avoid another salesman named Dean Ziegler “like the plague.”
Of course, Tim is so naive that he calls Macy when he arrives to describe the hotel to her, but then guess who ends up sharing a hotel room with Tim.
Right. Dean Ziegler!
Dean is played by John C. Reilly, and he takes it upon himself to show Tim how to have fun at a convention, so to speak.
Another experienced conventioneer is Joan, played by Anne Heche, and she joins them for a lot of extra-convention activities, as well, but Tim is so naive that when they all go skinny-dipping, Tim goes Skivvies-dipping.
Tim thinks that insurance agents get a bum rap, but then he discovers how the star salesman he replaced managed to win the Two Diamond Award at the last two conventions, which his boss ordered him to win this year on his own.
Tim is so naive that two bags of peanuts on the airplane cause him to say “Awesome.”
CEDAR RAPIDS is funny, and I give it Two Bags of Peanuts up.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Cedar Rapids – Movie Trailer
Feb 24th
To call insurance agent Tim Lippe (Ed Helms), “naïve” is a gross understatement. He’s never left his small hometown. He’s never stayed at a hotel. And he’s never experienced anything like Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Sent to represent his company at the annual insurance convention, Tim is soon distracted by three convention veterans (John C. Reilly, Anne Heche and Isiah Whitlock Jr.) who will show him the ropes and push his boundaries. For a guy who plays everything by the book, this convention will be anything but conventional.
“The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard” Rude, Crude, Extremely Lewd and Very, Very Funny
Aug 19th
Rude, Crude, Extremely Lewd and Very, Very Funny
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD is one of those movies that get talked about more than seen, which is a shame, because it is well worth your time, trouble, and money.
It just won’t win any awards for quality or be on anyone’s list of the best films of 2009 or any year.
Of course, this means that it will do bang-up business when it comes out on DVD.
Jeremy Pivens stars as Don “The Goods” Ready, and so the title can refer to him just as easily as it can to the concept of the movie, which is selling used cars.
In fact, the first sale in the movie is a classic, and it takes place before the opening titles.
But as Ready says at the end of an inspiring speech on an airplane to convince the stewardess to let him smoke, “I’m Don Ready, and I’ve got the goods!”
Then you have to see what happens next to believe it.
Don and his team of two men and one woman are freelance used-car sellers, and they are called to Temecula, California, to help save the dealership of Ben Selleck, played by James Brolin.
They will be in charge over the Fourth of July weekend to save the business that has been in the family for 40 years, and one method they use is to hire some dancers from a local strip club to loosen up the customers.
One subplot is that Selleck’s daughter, Ivy, is engaged to the son of Selleck’s rival, played by Alan Thicke, who wants to buy Selleck’s dealership and give it to his son as a place where his son’s band can rehearse.
Another subplot is that one of Selleck’s salesmen might be Don’s son from a one-night stand he had in Temecula 23 years ago.
And a third subplot is a running reference to something bad that happened to Don in Albuquerque, which we don’t learn about until near the end of the movie.
So, Don makes a deal with Selleck’s rival that they will sell every car on the lot by the end of the weekend, and if they don’t–. Well, you have to see the movie to know what the bargain is.
THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD is rude, crude, extremely lewd, and very, very funny.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”