Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Movie Reviews: We're the Millers and Grudge Match

We're the Millers.  David Clark (Jason Sudeikis) is a small time pot dealer.  Unfortunately for him, he is robbed of his pot stash and cash.  He owes his supplier for the pot.  To cover his debts, David is told he has to go to Mexico to transport pot back into America.  He decides that it might make it easier to cross back into America if he could act like he was returning from a family vacation.  The problem:  he doesn't have a family.  And so he goes about trying to put together a family.  His wife, a stripper named Rose O'Reilly (Jennifer Aniston).  His daughter, a runway named Casey Mathis (Emma Roberts).  His son, a rather strange young man named Kenny Rossmore (Will Poulter).

I found this movie to be surprisingly entertaining.  I'm not really into drug comedies.  How High?  Harold and Kumar?  These movies generally don't do it for me.  But this movie's comedy doesn't really revolve around folks getting high.  It is really about four nearly randomly selected individuals slowly coming together as a real family and the random fun that results from all of that.

Does this movie rank up there with some of the better comedies of recent years such as This Is the End?  No way, but if you're looking for a few laughs, why not spend time with this made-up family.


Grudge Match.  Henry 'Razor' Sharp (Sylvester Stallone) and Billy 'The Kid' McDonnen (Robert De Niro) were once boxing rivals equivalent to Dempsey vs. Tunney.  Thirty years have passed since their famous bout.  McDonnen lives a successful life as a restaurant owner (hey, that sort of sounds like Dempsey).  Sharp meanwhile has just found out that he is getting laid-off from his manufacturing job (this doesn't exactly sound like Tunney, oh well).

In comes wannabe boxing promoter, Dante Slate, Jr (Kevin Hart), who wants to put on a rematch between Sharp and McDonnen.  Sharp wants nothing to do with this idea, but a confrontation with McDonnen results in a fight date being set.

This movie has the occasional Rocky joke to make it amusing, but it really isn't worth one's time.  Yes, Alan Arkin, Kim Basinger, Jon Bernthal, and LL Cool J provide this movie with a great supporting cast, but it just isn't enough.  The problem isn't the actors, it's the script which just doesn't hit us with enough amusing moments.

Note:  Stallone is in much better shape than De Niro so the fight and the tension regarding who will win the fight makes no sense.  Yes, this movie is a comedy and so realism (see We're the Millers) isn't a requirement, but seriously.

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