Quick Review: This Is The End

And now back to our regularly scheduled movie review programming. (I hope.) I expected a lot from the trailer for This Is The End and, unlike a lot of movies recently, this one mostly lived up to my expectations. A comedy in which the Apocalypse takes place is one thing. When it focuses on how this event affects Hollywood celebrities, that's another story. And when those celebrities -- James Franco, Seth Rogen, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel and Danny McBride are the stars, with many other cameos, from Rihanna to Michael Cera to Channing Tatum -- are playing exaggerated versions of themselves, it goes to the next level. Lots of raunch, but also lots of laughs and some meta commentary about the celebs themselves, their importance (or lack thereof), how they're perceived by the public and media, etc., and a little stab at religious beliefs (after all, the Apocalypse is happening). Had me laughing almost from the start to the finish. My grade: A-minus.

Quick Review: How To Train Your Dragon

This computer-animated movie has been out quite a while, and I'm not sure if it's even still in a lot of theaters, but it was a surprise success. While other films dropped from the box-office charts quickly, "How To Train Your Dragon" hung in there and, spurred by great word-of-mouth, has earned over $200 million in North America. It's one of those misfit-who-makes-good tales. On an island called Berk, the Vikings who live there are in an endless war against the dragons that fly in and steal their food. Hiccup (voice of Jay Baruchel), young son of the chief Viking (Gerard Butler), is the misfit, getting in the way and such during one of the dragons' raids. Incredibly, he manages to shoot down a rare, and feared, dragon called a Night Fury. No one believes him, so he goes off in search of the dragon and finds it, wounded but alive, unable to fly away because a piece of its tail is missing. Instead of killing the dragon, Hiccup studies it, comes up with a way to "fix" the tail, and bonds with it. The knowledge about dragons he gains helps him at dragon training, until the time comes when he actually has to kill one. It's a story with some depth and some silly humor as well. I didn't see it in 3-D but I didn't find it necessary to my enjoyment. My grade: B.

Quick Reviews: Hot Tub Time Machine/She's Out Of My League

Time to discuss a pair of R-rated comedies. "Hot Tub Time Machine" came with all the hype, thanks to the trailers and the outlandish title itself. Its premise: middle-aged friends Adam, Lou and Nick (John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson), having issues with the way their lives have gone, head for a weekend at a ski resort where they partied in their younger years. Tagging along is Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke), a video game geek. The ski resort has, like the friends, fallen on some hard times. The hot tub works, though, and through the magic of Hollywood and a spilled beverage, somehow whisks them all back to a particular weekend in 1986. To everyone else, the three older men look like their 1986 selves while Jacob still looks his normal age. That tells you about the logic. You're just supposed to roll with the raunchiness while the guys re-live that weekend and try to change things to improve their lives in the present day. The 80s nostalgia works to an extent, with the music and clothing of the era, but throughout there was a string of gay jokes that, frankly, turned me off. I think I'm pretty liberal when it comes to using such jokes in comedies, but this film had a bit of a mean streak. My grade: B-minus.

Meanwhile, "She's Out of My League," which promised to be equally raunchy, also had a surprising amount of sweetness to it. Kirk (Jay Baruchel), a skinny, nerdy, not particularly attractive TSA employee at the Pittsburgh airport, is still trying to reconcile with his ex-girlfriend, who wants no part of him. One day a complete bombshell, Molly (Alice Eve) -- who also is out of a bad relationship -- leaves her iPhone in the security area, not realizing it until she's on the plane. Kirk returns the phone and hits it off with Molly, so they begin dating. His friends can't believe she's really into him, her friend insists she's only seeing him because he's safe. Not completely formulaic, and as I said, surprisingly sweet. Funny, without the gay jokes. My grade: B-plus.