Mini Reviews: Bad Moms (2016), Keanu (2016) & Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016)

It's a 2016 comedy special here at Mini Reviews today! As much as I love summer comedies, I didn't get the chance to see them all in the cinema and so I've been saving them up for 1 post. Plus, it's nice to remember these kinds of movies before we move into the seriousness that winter cinema brings!

Bad Moms (2016)

Amy (Mila Kunis) is fed up of Moms like Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate), who take control of the PTA, and scrutinise every single bake sale in case heaven forbid, some of the cake is unhealthy or store bought. She has every right to be fed up! The thought of being a Mom in this decade is terrifying. Thankfully, she isn’t alone, and so Amy befriends Carla (the ever-hilarious Kathryn Hahn) and Kiki (Kristen Bell, the sweetest human being on Earth) and the three of them wear the label ‘Bad Mom’ with pride.

Perhaps it was the cinema effect, or the wonderful company (this one Jenna and I saw together) but I was laughing from start to finish for this, it took me by surprise. Sure, you had to wonder where everyone’s kids actually were whilst these Moms were partying, but who cares! The whole cast just looked like they had so much fun making this movie. Plus, it has some of the greatest clips in the credits I’ve ever seen.

Keanu (2016)

How did a movie about a cute little kitten called Keanu slip under my movie radar? In a plot not so different from John Wick (starring Keanu Reeves, geddit?) Rell (Jordan Peele) comes across little Keanu by absolute chance when he is heartbroken from being dumped. He develops an intense love for this kitten but in a case of confused identity, his house gets trashed and Keanu is stolen. Rell teams up with his cousin Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key) to infiltrate a nearby strip club and get the little furball back.

The movie brings nothing new to the comedy genre, and the plot is entirely predictable, but it’s the chemistry between Key & Peele that makes this so funny. Watching them trying to act ‘gangsta’ never got old, and the recurring George Michael theme was great. It even had a sensible, logical ending, which is often lacking with these kinds of movies. Worth a watch for sure.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016)

This one came out right around the time of my wedding, and as much as I was looking forward to it, as the day got closer anything wedding related was making me feel ill so it was ages until I eventually saw it. Mike (Adam Devine) and Dave (Zac Efron) are brothers who constantly get each other into trouble, and when their sister’s wedding approaches, they are forced to find ‘nice girls’ to bring as dates. Enter Alice (Anna Kendrick) and Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) who can’t be further from the description of ‘nice girls’.

A cast as stellar as this should have been a clear winner, but the entire movie was ‘meh’ for me. It had a few solid laughs, a really awkward massage scene, and a boring plot. A huge shame, because I honestly love everyone in that cast list and I had really high hopes. The highlight was when the four got on stage for a musical number, Zac Efron for Pitch Perfect 3 please!

I think this still leaves Ghostbusters (2016) as my favourite comedy of 2016, although I haven't seen them all yet. What about you guys? What's been the funniest for you? Hold up a sec, I just remembered The Nice Guys (2016). That's my favourite!

Review: Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015)

As I have reiterated numerous times, I like Adam Sandler, most people don't like him and I will happily admit he has made some terrible films but Hotel Transylvania is one of my favourites so the sequel had to be watched.

It took me ages to eventually watch Hotel Transylvania, but I was surprised at how much I loved it, so I was really looking forward to the sequel.

Hotel Transylvania 2 follows on from the first one with Mavis (Selena Gomez) and Jonathan (Andy Samberg) married with a half human half vampire baby, however Dracula (Adam Sandler) is worried that his monster side hasn't come through yet.  To rectify the situation, Dracula sends Mavis to visit her human in-laws and recruits his monster friends to try to encourage Dennis' evil side to come out.

You didn't warn me the first few scenes would make me cry! I'm deep in the middle of a wedding hotel room drama so anything sweet and wedding related sets me off right now. Watching Dracula and Mavis' sweet moments made me do a bit of an ugly cry.

Straight up, this is not as good as the first one.  The jokes aren't as good and the story is pretty poor, however when it does pull a funny, it was really funny.  I laughed out loud countless times and was thoroughly entertained, no naps in this film!! I left my adult self at the door and spent an hour and a half being a kid again, laughing at fart jokes and trying to work out the which voice belongs to who from various Adam Sandler movies.  I was gobsmacked to find Nick Offerman yet again, that man is literally in everything...ever!  Also, did we know that he is married to the awesome Megan Mullally, why did I not know this?!  I would love to be a fly on the wall in that house!

You also didn't warn me that Nick freaking Offerman was in this! We need to talk. Also I had no idea until now that Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally are married. That's awesome on so many levels!

The animation is fantastic as well, the attention to detail never fails to amaze me in modern animation.  Particularly the scenes with big group, such as the birthday party, there are soo many other things happening in the background, I want to watch it again and again to catch them all.

I really enjoyed the story, although this is another case of the sequel not being quite so good. The jokes were okay, but not laugh out loud for me, other than one moment which struck a weird funny bone for me. That moment when both families are having a big meal together, and there's that phantom of the opera styled guy playing the organ. Someone says something a bit controversial and the organ guy just shouts 'AWKWARD' and I don't know why, but it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen!

Don't overthink it and you'll love it!

Definitely worth a watch, but I prefer the original!

Review: Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)

Hey there, pitches! Gosh, it feels like I’ve been waiting for Pitch Perfect 2 for a long time. Not longer than most mind, I only watched the original last year, and it was the first ever film we reviewed on our blog. You can check that out here. 

Pitch Perfect 2 starts off with our beloved Barden Bellas making fools out of themselves in front of the US President, mainly thanks to Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson). Now they need to work from the bottom to regain their respect and fame, and try to win the World Championship which no American team has ever been able to do. Beca (Anna Kendrick) is trying to juggle her duties as a Bella and an internship at a recording studio, and we’re also introduced to a new Bella, a ‘Legacy’ by the name of Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) who has a natural talent for songwriting.  Did anyone else find the story oddly familiar, like it was the original but with a new Beca?!

I was unsure about the new addition to the Barden Bellas, especially as she stole so much screen time from Beca, but I grew to love her in the end. The story was predictable without ruining any enjoyment, and didn’t feel like a ‘copy & paste’ job to me. The jokes we loved in the original were taken one step further this time, especially John Michael Higgins, sexist remarks. There were huge gasps of horror followed by laughter to most of his one-liners at the cinema I was at.  I was a bit disappointed to be honest, I had read a review beforehand which said it was as good as the first but I didn't think so.  Although, it was still really funny, the story wasn't as good for me (a little bit too far fetched!) and it felt like that had to make up story so they could bring in past characters who would have graduated since the first movie.  Don't get me wrong, it was still brilliantly likeable and I will love having Pitch Perfect marathons with the girls and a bottle of wine but the first one is still a winner for me.

The songs and the mash-ups were just as good this time round, although I thought we could have done with some more recent hits. My favourite performances were put on by the German group, Das Sound Machine, I want the soundtrack just for them! They scared the crap out of me, they were just so aggressive and reminded me of Ben Stiller's dodgeball team! Beca’s attempts at comebacks when the two groups were confronted were just hilarious, and I’m sure I read somewhere that Anna Kendrick improvised most, if not all of those.  She was hilarious with her comebacks - another reason to lurve her...

As much as I loved Pitch Perfect 2, I haven’t made my mind up yet whether it’s better than the original. The sequel feels bigger, everything that worked well in the first has been improved on, but it just doesn’t have the magic of the original, but I guess that’s the problem with all sequels. I think they’re on a par for me.

What I will say (without ruining it) though is that the ending scene was awesome, and actually gave me goosebumps. Oh, and that mid-credits scene was amazing! So glad I stayed for that.  The ending made it for me, if it hadn't been as good as it was I may have been seriously disappointed but I came out smiling and happier for watching it so that can't be a bad thing!

 

Review: Let's Be Cops (2014)

So, here's a funny story. I had been looking forward to Let's Be Cops for ages, and I wrote my review pretty much straight away, and then Jenna destroyed it. Well, what I mean is that her laptop somehow duplicated our Premium Rush review and deleted my Let's Be Cops one. Sadface! That was ages ago now, but I was just in Letterboxd when I realised I had copied and pasted my review in there! So, resurrected from the dead, here's my review!

Note to Jenna's laptop: Please be kind, I really want to publish this! Sorry!!

On a plus note, since all that happened I have managed to see the film so I can comment :-)

Let's Be Cops is a fake buddy cop movie about two friends, Ryan (Jake Johnson) and Justin (Damon Wayans Jr) who have never found their true calling in Los Angeles. They decide to move back to their home town, but first they go to a costume party as cops. It turns out that they pass for the real deal, and so the two friends pretend to be real cops, which lands them in trouble with a local crime gang.

I worried that all the funny moments would be in the trailer leaving nothing else, but I was wrong. There were plenty of moments where I laughed out loud, mainly due to the chemistry between the two main characters. I read that most of the dialogue was improvised, which worked really well. The film itself introduced a new character who I don't remember being in the trailer, Pupa, played by Planet's Funniest Animals host, Keegan-Michael Key. Pupa was hilarious. He was the highlight of the film for me!

The only thing that let the film down for me was that there was virtually nothing new brought to the table. There's the basic plot of two guys pretending to be cops, but then everything else is just a mash-up of other films I've seen. The plot was almost the same as The Heat for a start, Pupa reminded me a lot of Jamie Foxx's character in Horrible Bosses, and there was an End of Watch vibe to it all too. I can forgive it though, because it's still really funny.  

I think they were aiming for the success of The Heat but the male version but lets not kid about, this is not The Heat, this isn't even in the same area code as The Heat!  Yes it's funny but it for me it wasn't hilarious and its not at all memorable, I can run off 20 brilliant one-liners from The Heat but I am struggling to remember a single funny part from this!

I thought the soundtrack was brilliant too, once I find out what the name of that dub-step song is, it'll be playing in my little girly car as I drive to the supermarket on a Sunday morning! Hard as nails, me.

All in all, Let's Be Cops wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, but it was still a funny film and I wasn't disappointed. Bring on Horrible Bosses 2! <--- obviously this was written a while ago!! haha!