Motherless Brooklyn is a nice little passion project from Edward Norton and you can see that come through with his direction and performance. However, that same passion also made for an overly long film.
Blockers is neither great nor bad. There were moments I did genuinely laugh and at its core there is a positive message, though in some respects, the film does re-iterate a few themes from American Pie. The cast were mostly fine, though Ike Barinholtz was perhaps the highlight.
How to Be Single is just the latest ensemble rom-com that doesn’t quite work with an unfocused story and message, however the cast turns in the best performances as possible given the material, though it belongs among the ranks of Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve if not a slight step above them.
Vacation might turn some off and the certainly the humor is off-color but for myself, it managed to surpass my exceptionally low expectations where I did manage to laugh more than a few times and tolerated characters who might annoy others. That said, this isn’t a good movie per se but a passable one that I probably would put on the same level as European Vacation and Vegas Vacation.
The Other Woman takes its time at the start but picks the pace up once Diaz and Mann join forces making for a fun movie with some funny scenes amidst a few heartfelt moments as well. The performances from Diaz and Mann are both fantastic and got to give kudos to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau for having to play a thoroughly bad douche with no redeeming values whatsoever.
This is 40 is a huge misstep for Apatow and company. The characters are nasty and highly unlikeable, the script itself just isn’t very funny lending itself to maybe a chuckle or two and where Apatow’s previous endeavors had a certain heart behind the sex jokes is lost here. Also not helping matters is the fact the story drifts aimlessly with multiple subplots that often don’t even have a resolution.
ParaNorman isn’t a perfect movie by any stretch and the story isn’t all that interesting, at least in the middle part, but one can’t help but admire the stop-motion technique and just what’s involved to make a 90-minute feature film. Along with the voice casting, the movie is absolutely fantastic to look at.