Maid of Dishonour

Cine Review: BRIDESMAIDS
15 – 125mins – 2011
Written by: Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig
Directed by: Paul Feig,
Starring: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolf, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper, Jill Clayburgh, Matt Lucas, Rebel Wilson, John Hamm
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Surpassing the hardly meagre takings of other Judd Apatow-produced big hitters such as Superbad and Knocked Up, the Kristen Wiig co-written Bridesmaids has proven beyond any questionable doubt that sisters can do it for themselves. By “it” of course I mean: get pissed, act like crude kids and royally fuck up to comedic success – but hey, if it’s good enough for the Wolfpack…

Wiig (Whip It!, Paul) grants herself top billing, starring as 30-something Annie, a woman who always thinks she’s hitting rock bottom, until the next disaster befalls her shambles of a life. Dumped, penniless and renting a room from a pair of clueless chubby siblings (Wilson and Lucas) after her bakery business went bust in the recession, Annie futility pines for more from her arrogant fuck buddy (Mad Men’s Hamm) while driving a shit-heap of a car and making ends meet as a lowly cashier at a high street jewellers.

Annie’s life-long BFF, Lillian (Wiig’s MacGruber co-star Rudolf), meanwhile, seems to be moving onwards and upwards with her life, having recently gotten engaged and befriending her fiancé’s boss’s glamorous, loaded and oh-so-perfect wife, Helen (Byrne). Lillian naturally asks Annie to be her maid of honour, but this doesn’t stop jealousy immediately flaring up as bridesmaid’s old and new compete for Lillian’s allegiance in the lead up to her big day.

Supported by an ensemble of colourful misfit cohorts (McLendon-Covey, Kemper and McCarthy), Annie and Helen attempt to give Lillian her dream send-off, but their competitive natures often lead to cringingly awkward but laugh-out-loud hilarious calamities which begin to threaten Annie’s friendship with Lillian – and her involvement in the fast-approaching nuptials.

Wiig is fantastically credible in the central role; Annie’s depressing situation evoking sympathy from the audience without her frustrations becoming so despairingly insurmountable that you pity her plight. The authenticity of the social drama is sometimes at odds with the gross-out humour (shitting in the street being the ultimate low) – to such an extent that you feel the film would still be watchable even without the juvenile laughs – but an interesting (if potent) cocktail it sure does make.

McCarthy is also impressive as the vulgar, no-nonsense porker of the pack, Megan, who plays the oddball role with confidence and gusto without becoming the offensive loser that Zach Galifianakis became in The Hangover Part II (reviewed HERE). But for me the stand-out performance goes to The IT Crowd’s leading Irishman Chris O’Dowd who plays amiable traffic cop Nathan Rhodes. Down-to-earth, charming and fun; he’s the kind of guy Annie should be dating, proving that if women can act like drunken louts, then men can be caring and kind-hearted. See, we aren’t all self-obsessed jerks.


In a CR@B Shell: A combustible cocktail of humorous and heartfelt, Bridesmaids is an engaging comedy-drama which bestows its 30-plus femmes with kaleidoscopic shades to their personalities beyond the customary disapproving spouse stereotype. At just over two hours, however, it does feel like it could do with a trim to up the pace and sustain enthusiasm.
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The Bubble-jet Effect

DVD Review: HOT TUB TIME MACHINE
15 – 101mins – 2010
Story by: Josh Heald
Screenplay by: Josh Heald, Sean Anders, John Morris
Directed by: Steve Pink
Starring: John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry, Clark Duke, Lyndsy Fonseca, Crispin Glover, Chevy Chase, Lizzy Caplan, Sebastian Stan, Charlie McDermott
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In an extreme example of lazy journalism, it seems that every US comedy with a lead cast of middle-aged men is evermore destined to be compared to commercial goldmine The Hangover. But am I the only person who wasn't overly enamoured with last year's less black, more slapstick take on Very Bad Things, and feel “2010's answer to The Hangover” (as the Hot Tub cover quote boasts) flies waaaaay over the bar set by Todd Phillip's Road Trip for the over 30's?

A far more appropriate comparison – take note, Glamour “critics” – would be to call Hot Tub Time Machine the US answer to the brilliantly underrated Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel, minus the cosy quality of the intimate pub backdrop and chummy dynamic of the nerdy leads. What d'ya mean that's too wordy for a cover quote?!

But whereas the UK's feature-length sitcom flushed its characters into a baron and apocalyptic future via a lavatory portal, Hot Tub spins in the opposite direction, beginning with its protagonists at an all time low, despairing at their miserable adult lives, before an evening in the titular outdoor jacuzzi hurtles them back to their 80's heyday at a holiday ski lodge brimming with jheri curls, leg warmers and icons of old (Crispin Glover! Chevy Chase!! ALF!!!).

Eshewing a total geek-out, Hot Tub is fully loaded with crude humour (“It looks like Gary Coleman's forearm!”) and gross-out moments (“You drive a BMW, right?”), while the foul language gauge is (unnecessarily) cranked up to code blue throughout. This is, after all, a post-American Pie product, albeit with an 80's flava.

Yet it's hard to be insulted by the laddish banter thrown about by the middle-aged trio of Cusack, Robinson, Corddry and young tag along Clark Kick Ass Duke as Hot Tub's depressed gents come to terms with being wild teenagers all over again (or in Duke's case, not even born) and attempt to retread the exact same steps they took two decades previous – with hilariously disastrous results.

The zealous cast are superb, their every desperate action exuding charm as they attempt to appease the timeline and not erase themselves from existence. “The butterfly effect?” Corddry's loud-mouth Lou questions, “I LOVE that movie!” Any viewers initially deterred by the high concept time travel shennanigans will be won over by the human plight at the film's core, and the fact that only Duke's basement-dwelling role-player Jacob has any real grasp of the technicalities (“I write Stargate SG-1 fan fiction!”).

From Lou's fascination with anticipating when the hapless bellboy (Glover) will lose his arm, to Robinson screaming down the phone to his nine year old future-wife about the evils of adultery, even the most clichéd and farcical genre tropes become laugh-out-loud running jokes which won't confound even the most resolute sci-fi hater.

The writers know Hot Tub Time Machine is by no means the first comedy to genre hop; it's out-there, sure, but they aren't reinventing the wheel here. Yet they are having a blast sending up the classics (Back To The Future!) and wallowing in retro heaven while the amiable characters rediscover friendship, fun and how to take a fork in the eye for a second time. And that's what comedy is all about, right?

Finally – and this deserves a paragraph all of its own – Craig Robinson's singer-turned-under-the-thumb-husband Nick getting up on a stage at Winterfest '86 and regaining his youthful groove by giving the awestruck audience a twenty year preview of The Black Eyed Peas' “Let's Get It Started” is a stand out scene I simply cannot watch without cracking an almighty grin. Don't believe me? Do a search for the clip on Lougle.


In a CR@B Shell: Anyone dissuaded by the bonkers expository title really should learn to jump in and relax, as Hot Tub Time Machine is an endearing tale of lost friendship salvaged by time (travel), humorously dressed up in a laugh-out-loud sci-fi concept and neon leg warmers.
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Recent Review Run-down

A medley of mini-monologues from a myriad of mediums. Try saying that 3 times. Hell, try saying that ONCE. You'll sound like a right knob.

CINEMA:

Avatar: James Cameron's overly-hyped return to the big screen is a stunning visual achievement. Reversing the dogma that less-is-more, the fictional world of Pandora is a luscious cornucopia of dense jungle, mountain-top vistas and stretching landscapes, brought to live with a fully-realised eco-system. Even the most ludicrous Cloverfield cast-offs mated with a rhino and dipped in neon paint look astonishing in three dimensions. It's a shame that the story is so achingly predictable and jarringly high-concept, but even this doesn't doesn't harm the overall sensory experiene once the 3D glasses are on. ****

Sherlock Holmes (2009): The former Mr Madonna reinvents Baker Street's super-sleuth as a boxing, drug-addicted eccentric in a murky and washed-out industrial-era London on the build. Which is the ideal setting for a mystery so meticulously constructed it requires scaffolding (or, at least, slow-motion replays for explanation). Fun and imaginative, if a little mired in cults and black magic (thus nothing is what it seems - cue the slo-mo gimmick), it's just a pity Mark Strong is such a bland and unimposing villian as Lord Blackwood. ***

DVD:

Dorian Gray (2009): Oscar Wilde's classic tale of excess and amorality in Victorian London gets another big screen adaptation. Yet for all of the acts of greed, sin and debauchery on show, the screen never really comes alive, with the action and scenery looking as flat as a portrait hidden in the attic. All of the actors - especially fresh-faced newcomer Ben Barnes as the naive eponymous self-destructor - are guilty of going through the motions in this slow-moving cautionary horror. Pity it's horrific for all the wrong reasons. **

The Hangover: An enjoyably zany film, if not the "comedy of 2009" it has been hyped to be. This is mainly because it has all been done before; a drink-and-drug-fuelled party (here a stag do) goes too far and it's up to the hungover guests (groom's best mates) to retrace their forgotten steps to put things right (find the groom) before time runs out (the wedding starts). Essentially, it's a cocktail of Dude, Where's My Car? mixed into a pitcher with Very Bad Things. So, Mate, Where's The Groom? or Very Confusing Things, if alternative, copyright-infringing titles were required. Which they aren't. ***

TV:

The Turn Of The Screw (2009): No, not Shakespeare's meta-comedy on courtship and marriage (that's The Taming Of The Shrew, genius!), but a BBC remake of Henry James' 1898 ghost story. Auntie Beeb have successfully managed to evoke a creepy and cagey atmosphere within the haunted country house, while the acting is first rate, especially by the two young stars playing the possessed siblings. Unfortunately - and maybe this is an issue with the source material rather than this particular adaptation - the horror builds to an entirely anti-climatic showdown with the disgruntled deceased, comprising of... a bit of shouting. The Exorcist, this ain't, although - *SPOILER ALERT* - somehow a child dies? Of what - a burst eardrum?!! ***