Two very funny movies opening this weekend

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 12/11/11 at 2:19pm

Caught Young Adult yesterday and loved it. Charlize is in top form and absolutely nails this character. She completely gets what Diablo Cody was going for and the two mesh beautifully. Also, having lived several years of my life in Minnesota, I can vouch for Cody capturing the milieu perfectly.

I don't know if you can call Charlize's character an anti-hero exactly, but she's the flawed bad girl you want to root for. Her role is similar to that of Julia Roberts' in My Best Friend's Wedding. She returns to her hometown to pursue an old flame who is happily coupled. Unlike the Roberts flick the stakes are much higher here as he (Patrick Wilson) is married with a new born daughter. It's not Oscar bait material, but you can see why she consistently gives a performance that's award worthy.

Today I saw another hilarious movie, but for all the wrong reasons: New Year's Eve! I mean this made Jack and Jill look well-made, and it was really fun to see the actors try to outdo each other for a Razzie. There is an ensemble Razzie, right?

The two biggest offenders for each sex were Zac Efron, Jon Bon Jovi, the ever awful Katherine Heigl and truly hysterically bad Lea Michele. (Halle Berry does her best to be a runner-up for the award, but her big Razzie moment is too little, too late.)

My friend agreed that it was one of the worst movies of the year, but definitely funny bad and not just bad bad.

[tazber]

Posted: 12/11/11 at 5:45pm

I absolutely loved Young Adult too. Charlize is perfection.

And Patton Oswalt was also outstanding. In fact he won the runner up prize for supporting actor this weekend in the LA Film Critics awards.

New Years Eve I think I'll pass on until it hits dvd. I feel like I need to be high to truly appreciate how awful it is.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 12/11/11 at 6:28pm

I agree, Patton Oswalt was terrific. I'd never seen him before and was very impressed. Makes me wish that Lips Together, Teeth Apart revival had happened a few years ago.

My friend who saw New Year's Eve with me was kinda drunk; he claimed the movie both sobered him up and brought him to a new sort of drunkenness!

Oh, and I forgot to mention the best part about New Year's Eve from a Broadway perspective: The Marquis!! In some of the opening shots the Marquis has Wonderland playing! Then in later shots Donny and Marie Christmas is playing, and then back to Wonderland!! (Of course Wonderland only played March-May, so even if they had stayed consistent it wouldn't have made sense.) They did digitally change all movie posters though. So in one of the final shots there was the Wonderland marquee next to a Sherlock Holmes 2 poster!

[ChenoKahn]

Posted: 12/11/11 at 6:49pm

I know it would be nice if they had accuracy but it's not like most people seeing the movie even know Wonderland exists but still if they photoshopped a Sherlock Holmes 2 poster they should have changed the marquee.

[tazber]

Posted: 12/11/11 at 7:54pm

Check out the movie Big Fan to see another superb performance from Patton Oswalt, Whizzer.

[Kad]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 12:14am

Just saw Young Adult tonight and really liked it.

I do think you'd call Theron's character an anti-hero... she has pretty few redeemable qualities. I loved how the film flaunted the conventions of the genre, and was funny without ever forcing comedy.