Tag: Amy Poehler

Envy

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 1:39 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Envy
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Rachel Weisz, Amy Poehler, Christopher Walken
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: Dreamworks SKG
Release Date: 2004
Kiddie Movie: Nope.
Date Movie: Nope.
Gratuitous Sex: Rachel gets horny in one scene.
Gratuitous Violence: A horse and Christopher Walken gets shot with an arrow.
Action: Nope.
Laughs: Few.
Memorable Scene: None.
Memorable Quote: None.
Directed By: Barry Levinson

You would think you could put Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Christopher Walken, and Rachel Weisz in any movie and there would be something enjoyable about it, wouldn’t you? Somehow “Envy” proves this wrong.

This review will be short because I finally hit a movie that I came really close to walking out on. My preview of the movie gave this synopsis: “The story has Ben Stiller as Tim and Jack Black as Nick. It seems they are best friends and co-workers. Nick comes up with some cockamamie invention called Vapoorizer, a spray that makes dog poop vanish. Tim had a chance to buy into it before it hit big, but he thought it stupid. Now Nick is rolling in dough and Tim just gets more envious of Nick. Add Christopher Walken and hilarity ensues.” The problem – hilarity didn’t ensue, in fact, hilarity was nowhere to be found. Alright, that’s really not true, I did laugh a couple of times, but you know, I don’t even remember at what.

I’m not going to waste your time with this movie any more than you should waste your time with this movie. It’s ½ star out of 5, and the only reason for the ½ star was because there was a scene where Rachel looked extremely hot. What a waste of talent.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Should Amy Poehler and Tina Fey host another award show?

A lot of The Golden Globe Awards was pretty boring, with much of Twitter calling them a joke, many of the winners looking “shocked” and or astounded, and a Red Carpet show, or should I say “shows” asking people about their clothes and the people wearing said clothes acting like they just threw something on yet knowing everything about who to give credit to for their outfit.

The bright spot, at least for me, was that during the opening Tina Fey and Amy Poehler actually did an okay job of sending some jabs at people in Hollywood, but sadly during most of the rest of the show, well, they were just about nowhere to be found.

Sure, I would have liked to have see more of them instead of the stupid Diet Pepsi commercial with that chick from “Modern Family,” and this coming from someone who loves Diet Pepsi, but award shows are what they are, so I suppose I shod just be happy for a few laughs at the expense of some actor types.

Funny? Yes. Mostly normal award show? Yes. Plight? Should Amy Poehler and Tina Fey host another award show?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Do You Plan on Watching the Golden Globe Awards?

It’s award show season, and there is no more controversial award show than the Golden Globe Awards. There are many in the industry that consider it a joke, that the Hollywood Foreign Press is a joke, and that the award is really meaningless, but these are the same industry people who are praying for their movie, show, song, etc., to be named as the winner this year. Why? Publicity, and somehow the Golden Globes figured out how to market themselves as the “fun” award show. Yup, you get everyone seated at round tables instead of a stuffy auditorium, so it seems like a wedding reception, and then of course there is the flow of alcohol that sometimes loosens up either a presenter, or better yet, one of the award recipients. We like a train-wreck, and for the most part people aren’t tuning into the Golden Globes to see who won, nope, they are tuning in to see said train-wreck, and hope it might be an actor or actress we admire who is slightly over-served and trips on their way to the stage.

Okay, I don’t know if that’s why people are tuning in, but it’s one of the reasons I’ll be tuning in, that and the fact that this year Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are hosting it and they can usually bring the funny. Hopefully they will be unleashed, hopefully the booze will be flowing, hopefully someone will be goofy, but you can bet there will be someone who gets up there proclaiming they didn’t have a speech written because they didn’t think they would win, people will gripe tomorrow, especially if a “darling” doesn’t win, that the awards are a joke, and in a few weeks once the Academy Awards hit no one will care who really won the Golden Globe. Except the winners.

I’ll be watching, but I wonder and I plight: Do you plan on watching the Golden Globe Awards?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Blades of Glory

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 1:33 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Blades of Glory
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, Amy Poehler, Craig T. Nelson, Jenna Fischer
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: Dreamworks Pictures
Release Date: 2007
Kiddie Movie: There’s a lot of adult content.
Date Movie: If she likes Will Ferrell comedies.
Gratuitous Sex: Some boob grabbing and cleavage.
Gratuitous Violence: Some fighting and cross-bow shooting.
Action: Some chasing, but not really action.
Laughs: From start to finish.
Memorable Scene: Too many were memorable.
Memorable Quote: Too many to quote.
Directed By: Will Speck, Josh Gordon

Our next episode of “Stu & The Dude Reviewin’ the Movies for You” will be handling “Blades of Glory,” but until the animation and stuff is done, I thought I would give you a quick review of the said “Blades of Glory” movie because I can’t tell you fast enough that if you want to laugh, go and see this movie.

The story is as simple as the trailers you have probably seen… Will Ferrell is Chazz Michael Michaels. He’s the bad-boy figure skater. Jon Heder is Jimmy MacElroy, the, umm, prissy-boy figure skater. They are arch rivals, and when they tie at a championship match, and then they fight, and then they set a mascot on fire, they are banned from competition. Three-ish years later they are relegated to minor jobs, but an obsessed fan of Jimmy’s figures out a loophole to get Jimmy back into competition, by entering the pair’s competition, and informs Jimmy of the hole. Jimmy lets his Coach (Craig T. Nelson) know of this loophole, who at first wants nothing of it, but eventually realizes that Chazz will be the perfect partner for Jimmy, so the controversy of two dudes entering the pairs figure skating competition begins, much to the dismay of the pair’s champions brother and sister team, Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg (Will Arnett and Amy Poehler). And through it all a butt-load of hilarity ensues.

As much as “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” poked fun at NASCAR, “Blades of Glory” takes poking fun at figure skating to a much higher, and much funnier level, maybe because there are so many more things to make fun of, and for most of this movie, all of the making fun of worked. Will Ferrell was back in over-the-top mode, and fantastic. Jon Heder embraces the goofiness of him. And the addition of tons of cameos, from Nancy Kerrigan and Brian Boitano (and what would Brian Boitano do?) as judges stripping Chazz and Jimmy of their medals, to Scott Hamilton and Jim Lampley as the sports anchors during the competition segments (totally reminding me of Bob Costas and Al Michaels in the much maligned but one of my favorites “BASEketball”) were fantastic. And all of the actual ice skating segments, from the training to the competitions, were hilarious.

In keeping this sort of short, if you have never watched, nor had any desire to watch a figure skating competition, and think seeing a movie about it might be wrong, “Blades of Glory” was funny as hell, so much so there were many segments where I almost fell out of my seat or spewed water up my nose, and you will probably be jealous of Chazz (who is also a sex addict) getting to squeeze the boobs of Katie Van Waldenberg (Jenna Fischer, who might just be the new love of my life).

Stu Gotz will have his say when we get our next animated review posted, but for now I couldn’t wait to tell you that if you like to laugh “Blades of Glory” should make you laugh, especially if you had any kind of chuckle during the trailer. From me it’s 4 ½ stars out of 5.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Baby Mama

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 1:39 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Baby Mama
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard, Maura Tierney
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Kiddie Movie: They will be bored and you will probably have to answer where babies actually come from.
Date Movie: It’s a 5 Star movie on The Dudette Scale.
Gratuitous Sex: Cleavage, talk, and pushed up boobies are all you will get.
Gratuitous Violence: Umm, no.
Action: Umm, no again.
Laughs: Probably more for the dudettes who can understand it more than us dudes.
Memorable Scene: The shower scene (Dudes, it’s not what you instantly put into your head).
Memorable Quote: “My avatar is dressed like a whore!”
Directed By: Michael McCullers

I saw “Baby Mama” in the theater, and even though this movie screamed dudette-flick, I enjoyed it. The weird thing is that as I watched the DVD, pretty much everything I thought in the theater crept back into my head, and you know what? I still liked it.

“Baby Mama” is a tough movie to review, but not because of the content but maybe just because I see too many movies. The reason I say that is because as the movie starts out, I was buying the entire process, but the movie shifted to “let’s put in a twist” and then “make the ending obvious mode.” I was already set with the original “obvious ending mode,” but I pretty much hated the one the movie finished with. I suppose we’ll start with the basic story, first…

Tina Fey, she of “Saturday Night Live,” “30 Rock,” and “Mean Girls” fame plays Kate. Kate is a 37 year old business woman who has given up love and children for her career, and although she’s not looking for love, she now wants a baby. Unfortunately for Kate she is cursed with a T-shaped uterus, which I guess means it is nearly impossible for her to conceive a baby, even when she was going the sperm donor/in vitro route. Adoption isn’t an option for her, either, so she ends up looking for a surrogate mother with the help of Chaffee Bicknell (Sigourney Weaver) and her surrogate agency. Enter Angie (Amy Pohler) and Carl (Dax Shepard), two, over-the-top, for no better way to put it, white trash folks, looking for a paycheck. Angie agrees to have Kate’s baby, Angie and Carl break up so Angie moves in with Kate, and we now have a white trash girl living with a female executive, but they both have a lot they can learn from each other, especially Kate as she finds a new man, Rob (Greg Kinnear), while Angie, well, she needs to learn some basic manners and how to sing.

Angie and Kate are bonding as Angie moves along in her pregnancy, and for me the new love interest and Kate’s over-aggressive mother were fun enough, but suddenly Michael McCullers (he wrote and directed the movie), I guess, felt the movie needed some kind of diabolical turn to mix things up. I didn’t need mixing up, and once the mixing up happened I instantly knew how this movie was going to end.

Now that might sound a bit obscure, but I really hate to give this movie away by saying anything else, thus ruining it for most of you, the casual movie-goer. Ughh, I so want to give it away!!!!

So let me get to the good and ignore the bad; Tina Fey and Amy Pohler were fantastic as polar opposites actually needing each other and letting their bond as baby mama and surrogate mama grow. Hooray! Sigourney Weaver was great as the creepy, overly fertile Chaffee Bicknell. And the person who made me crack up the most was Steve Martin as Barry, the hippie/guru/wanting his new store to have the “essence of a shell he found on the beach while he was walking” man. So as far as star-power goes, I’ve got to recommend “Baby Mama,” even for the dudes. For me, well, I was just disappointed the film folks felt they needed to “stir-up” the original story.

Let’s see, me, being disappointed in the ending story, I’m giving the movie 2 ½ stars, but on “The Dudette” scale the movie is probably the perfect length with an uber-happy ending for 5 stars on that scale. I’ll average them together and round up because I loved Steve Martin’s character and Tina Fey’s slutty outfit therefore leaving “Baby Mama” with 4 stars out of 5.

For you dudettes out there, especially those that are mama’s, go ahead and round up your dudette friends and have a dudette DVD viewing party, leaving the kids with your dude, and for you dudes out there, “Baby Mama” isn’t that horrible, and just remember payback can be a bitch when you rent “Iron Man”!

As far as the DVD goes, I’m still in the dark ages, without a Blu-Ray player, so I couldn’t partake in cooler things like getting insights into scenes instantly, without stopping the movie, or having to listen to the entire commentary, and fine, as much as I liked the movie, I don’t think I would be creating clips, “My Scenes” as they would be on the Hi-Def side, but on the standard DVD side, I have to say I was happier with the actual ending, rather than the alternate ending, there were a couple of quick, “Hey, this is how this movie ended up being made!” clips, but I have to say that there were a couple of deleted scenes, that although I can understand why they were deleted, they were funny as hell. Do your self a favor and at least watch the deleted scenes.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!