Quick Review: Despicable Me 2

Often, when I really love a movie, I hope that no sequel arrives. So often those sequels disappoint. Thus, I was worried about Despicable Me 2. How could they come up with another story involving supervillain-turned-doting dad Gru (voice of Steve Carell), his three little girls and his seemingly endless supply of Minions? Would they turn Gru evil again? Find a reason for him to be separated from his daughters? Thankfully, there's a workable story which avoids both of those obvious misfires. Gru is recruited by the Anti-Villain League to help stop a different criminal's fiendish plot, teaming up with one of their agents (Kristen Wiig). There isn't as much interaction between Gru and the girls, as this time Gru's personal growth, if you will, comes from his getting back into the world of...dating. Also, the Minion activity is upped, which some adults may find tiresome. But I'm a big kid at heart. My grade: A-minus.

(Speaking of the Minions, I bought a DVD of the first movie because it had a coupon for some Fandango cash, and look who was inside?)

Quick Reviews: Hope Springs, Premium Rush

As I sit down to write this, it occurs to me that this might be a good pattern: two movies in one post. That way I won't feel too pressured to get a post done immediately after I see a movie, but at the same time I don't get too far behind. Of course, if I disciplined myself I'd post right away anyway.

"Hope Springs" had a much more serious tone than I expected. Either that or the attempts at humor fell way flat. It was odd to me. A long-married couple, Arnold and Kay (Tommy Lee Jones, Meryl Streep) are so set in their routines that Kay becomes unhappy and, against her husband's wishes and using her own money, books a week-long trip to coastal Maine for intensive couples' counseling with a therapist (Steve Carell). Much of the movie I felt like it was more of a drama (again, maybe I just didn't connect with the jokes or something). I also felt like Arnold was a total jackass and his wife should've just dumped him. But hey, this was meant to be a comedy, or a comedy-drama, and that just wasn't going to happen. I didn't really start laughing until we got to the point where Kay was about to practice oral sex by using a banana, and the real reason I laughed was because, let's face it: MERYL STREEP WAS ABOUT TO GO DOWN ON A BANANA. Still, it was well-acted, and if I ever need couples' counseling I want Steve Carell to be the therapist. My grade: B-minus.

Never feeling serious at all, despite the action and violence, is "Premium Rush," in which the always-awesome Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Wilee, a bike courier racing against the clock in New York City to get a very important envelope delivered, while a corrupt police detective (Michael Shannon) is after him, intent on getting the envelope himself. It was interesting to see the slo-mo technique used to see how Wilee (yes, that's how it's spelled and yes, there are references to Wile E. Coyote, although it's not an apt comparison considering how the bike courier is actually more like the Road Runner) instantly calculates the safest way to zip through crowded intersections. It might be interesting to see someone use this technique and show what's going through the mind of Peyton Manning as he makes his reads before firing a pass. Anyway, this is another example of mindless summer movie that's easy to sit through. My grade: B.

Quick Reviews: Seeking, Ted, Abe

I managed to see three movies in four days, and none of them was "Magic Mike." How is this possible? Someone needs to remind me that I'm gay.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World: All attempts to stop an asteroid from crashing into Earth have failed, says the radio at the start of the movie. The world will end in three weeks. We then get Steve Carell in his typical role as lovelorn shlub. We know this immediately because as soon as the radio DJ finishes the news update and resumes playing music, his wife jumps out of their car and runs away, never to be seen again. While some people start partying and having random sex without concern for pregnancy or disease, Carell's character, Dodge, tries going to work as usual, selling insurance. Then he meets Penny (Keira Knightly), and they end up trying to track down his high school sweetheart, the one true love of his life. Since the focus is on their trip and its impact on them, there isn't much focus on the whole world-ending thing. "The Day After Tomorrow" this ain't. So when they're nearly caught up in riots, it comes off as more of a plot device. And the way it ended didn't seem quite right to me. But some stretches of it were quite affecting. My grade: B-minus.

Ted: From the mind of Seth MacFarlane comes the story of a boy who wishes for his teddy bear to come to life, has his wish magically granted, and still lives with the bear 25 years later, both wasting their lives away drinking, getting high, etc. Basically a mediocre episode of "Family Guy" but with more explicit raunch and language, and

Quick Review: Dinner For Schmucks

This may be the quickest Quick Review I've done in terms of how soon it's been since I saw the movie. Since I tweeted about it after I left the theater (without mentioning the title) I feel it's necessary. "Dinner for Schmucks" is based on a French film based on a French play, "Le Dîner des Cons." In this Americanized version Tim (Paul Rudd), a midlevel employee at a financial firm, impresses his boss and earns a chance at a promotion. What he has to do is bring someone to a monthly "dinner for idiots," where each employee brings someone that they all can laugh at and the boss awards a prize for the biggest idiot. Tim seems to be appalled by the idea until he runs into -- literally, with his car -- an oddball (Steve Carell) who creates dioramas using dead mice. This leads to problems between Tim and his fiancee, Tim and a deranged old flame who's stalking him, and so on. There's a whole thing with an artist working with the fiancee. The artist is played by Jemaine Clement, best known from HBO's "Flight of the Conchords" -- side note: Clement spends much of his time shirtless (the accompanying pic is from some other film but you get the idea) but Paul Rudd is never once not fully clothed. That's a demerit in itself. Eventually we get around to the dinner itself, and at that point there were maybe two moments which made me laugh. As for the rest, well, here's my Twitter update from earlier: "That movie was stunning in its painfulness." I feel like someone should take me to one of those idiots' dinners just for seeing this film. My grade: D.

Quick Review: Despicable Me

I guess I can state this as a fact: usually, the first trailer for a movie will be a small tease, often showing very little of the film itself. Something like this one, for example. Then, as the film's release date nears, its trailers get more detailed -- and in some cases, too detailed, giving away key plot points unnecessarily. In the case of the computer-animated (and 3-D, although I've pretty much decided that 3-D isn't worth the extra money) "Despicable Me," the first teaser only showed a bit of the film's opening scene, capped off by a silhouette of the supervillain Gru (voice of Steve Carell). Later trailers introduced the little yellow minions that we're all now familiar with, and then the three little orphan girls, and by that point I wasn't quite sure how all of this was supposed to fit together. Fortunately, it fits together very well. Gru, with the help of his minions and his assistant, Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), plots to steal the moon (by shrinking it) in order to regain his status as the number one supervillain from Vector (Jason Segel), but Vector has stolen the shrink ray Gru needs. Enter the three orphan girls, selling cookies door-to-door; Gru adopts them just to get into Vector's lair but then finds himself becoming attached to them. So there's the requisite warm-and-fuzzies, and a good number of laughs to boot. (I loved the sight gag showing what the Bank of Evil, where Gru visits to try and obtain funding for his moon-stealing plot, used to be.) It's not quite "Toy Story 3," but it's close. My grade: A-minus.

Quick Review: Date Night

Steve Carell and Tina Fey are anchors of NBC's Thursday night lineup...let's rephrase that. After all, when it comes to NBC, anchors are what their lousy ratings must be attached to. So let's just say they're key components of NBC's lineup, and they star in "Date Night" as Phil and Claire Foster, a married couple from New Jersey with two kids and a pretty dull life. After they find out that their friends, a similarly bored couple, plan to divorce, Phil and Claire decide to put some excitement back into their relationship. Instead of the local run-of-the-mill place they normally eat at on their nights out, they head for Manhattan and a hot new seafood restaurant. Without reservations and having no hope of getting seated, Phil claims the reservation of a couple who didn't show up, the Tripplehorns. They get more than they bargained for when a pair of hoods shows up looking for the Tripplehorns. The ensuing action is mostly fast-paced and the comedy flows throughout, including a fun turn by Mark Wahlberg as an acquaintance of Claire's who provides some help to the couple while remaining shirtless throughout. Carell and Fey are excellent together. "Date Night" is a great date movie, and is still great even if you don't have a date and have to go to a morning show for the matinee ticket price to save money...not that I ever have to do that...why are you looking at me with that quizzical look? My grade: A-minus.