The Hangover, 2009 - Movie Review

Director: Todd Phillips
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Mike Tyson, Jeffrey Tambor
Running Time: 100 minutes
Score: 7 / 10

This review by C-Younkin

"The Hangover" is the work of Todd Phillips. You know him. He made "Road Trip". He also made "Old School." Getting a bunch of buddies together and throwing in sex, drugs, beer, and all kinds of frat-boy hi-jinx is a formula that's served him well in the past and it does the same here. At the outset the movie is simple. One wild night followed by a couple days of trying to figure out what happened. It's a buddy comedy and mystery, reminiscent of "Dude, Where's My Car", except this movie happens to be funny.

The cast is mostly unknown but Phillips has worked with that before. Comedy is about chemistry, not big stars commanding big paychecks. Bradley Cooper (last seen in "He's Just Not that Into You"), Ed Helms ("The Daily Show") and Zach Galifianakis (idk, "This") play Phil, Stew, and Alan, three guys taking their buddy Doug (Justin Bartha) out to Vegas for his bachelor party. Phil and Stew are the best buddies, Alan is Doug's mentally-askew soon-to-be-brother in-law. After a wild night, the three guys wake up the next day to a trashed hotel room and several odd, unexplained phenoms. They find a baby in the closet, a tiger in the bathroom, and Doug is nowhere to be found. Other mysteries include why did Stew marry a stripper (Heather Graham), why are Asian mobsters after them, and dude, where's the car? The guys must retrace their steps to figure out the night and also find Doug.

Fresh surprises keep coming as the story moves along. Some, like the baby and the marriage to the stripper are missed opportunities, but for the most part they're pretty hilarious. The tiger is a great bit, as are the Asian mobsters. What happens to be lying in the trunk of the car is another good one. What powers it all is that the guys remember nothing of the night before. The movie is like a fish-out-of water tale, just replace the water with Jagermeister and roofies. Phillips ties it all together with crude laughs that nonetheless come off very funny. Masturbation, sex, drugs, stun-guns, f-words, condoms, and a couple of baby gags that I'm pretty sure will cement his place in hell but still make people laugh pretty hard are just a few things in his comic arsenal.

The three guys are great together. Allan is awkwardly clueless, unpredictable, and a little crazy. His speech, inviting the guys into his "wolf pack of one", is fantastic, as is what comes after that. The chubby and fully-bearded Zach Galifianakis is a scene stealer. Stew is the opposite, a guy so whipped into submission by his girlfriend that they might as well share brains. He's a nervous nerd prone to unraveling at the first sign of pressure. And Phil is the cool, clear-headed straight-man to the other two who get most of the laughs. Cooper, Helms, and Galifianakis know their roles well and convince that these three very different guys could actually be friends. The supporting cast, which includes Rob Riggle, Rachel Harris, Mike Epps, and Mike Tyson (in a very funny cameo) help out as well, but the best one comes from Ken Jeong, playing Mr. Chow, leader of the Asian mob. His flamboyance and exaggerated speech make him a ridiculously quirky villain.

"The Hangover" is a comic adventure well worth taking and when it finishes, don't leave yet cause you'll miss the hilarious trip photos playing over the closing credits. The movie is fresh, lively, fast-paced, and the cast is all game. Drink it up. It's a lot of fun.

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Odette Yustman to star in Rogue's Gallery - a comedy about Assassins

Odette Yustman (Cloverfield, The Unborn) talked to ComingSoon about her next film, "a small, dry-wit, dark comedy about a group of assassins, they're all based on Tarot card names." It is called Rogue's Gallery and also stars Adam Scott, Ving Rhames, Ellen Barkin, Maggie Q, and comedians Jeffrey Tambor, Zach Galifianakis and Rob Corddry. "It's funny in that way that it's kind've gory, but hilarious in the way the situations come about because I get to work with great comedic actors," Yustman explains. Which, to me, sounds like it could be very embarrasing to watch.

Yustman's character in the film is named Temperence, "and each of us have different functions and things we have to do," she explains. "We're hired by the government, we're this underground society, and we're basically sent to kill whoever we have to kill. And one day this new hire comes in and we wind up having to kill each other. I got to do some fight training and some of my own stunts. That was my dream role. I get to kick ass, be funny, kill people with a paper cutter blade."

The script was written by two newcomers, Brian Watanabe and Abe Levy, and it's being directed by another first-timer, Fouad Mikati.

Comedy film about assassins with a supernatural tint to it - good or bad?

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Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, 2008 - Movie Review

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Seth MacFarlane, Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Jeffrey Tambor, John Hurt, Brian Steele

Running Time: 120 Minutes

Score: 10/10

This review from Topher-Liam Froehlich

In April 2004, the original Hellboy film took in a modest $23 million during its opening weekend, going on in the course of its run in theaters to gross a not so impressive $69 million estimate. The studio felt it was not in their best interest to make a sequel. Universal thought differently, and bought the rights. In the meantime, the B film became a hit on DVD and cable re-runs and its director, Guillermo del Toro, achieved auteur status (aka, A-list director) with his success making the acclaimed "Pan's Labyrnth". Now in 2008, against all odds, and in a rare risk for a studio, comes the sequel to this cult film sensation.

And in the tradition of small-budget features getting the big Hollywood treatment (ala "Terminator 2" and "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" two films that benefited from larger budgets and the expanded visions of grade-A filmmakers James Cameron and George Miller), "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army" bests its predecessor. It takes the setup, makes it bigger, better and louder. The film, to be sure--an eclectic medley of self-aware humor, an over-dose of dazzling visual monsters, sets and thrilling action, cheesy-yet-fun movie-making--is not for everyone. It's an acquired taste; a film to either be completely loved or entirely deplored varying on the viewer.

For anyone interested in a bizarre, unique, visual stunner of gleeful monster madness (like me) I'd say catch this flick. For anyone else...I might suggest you stay away.

In the first creature-feature, the story was a near laughable plot involving Rasputin, a couple of regenerating hell-hounds, and some other forgettable nonsense. What made "Hellboy" succeed, was the director's visual panache and enriching vision, Ron Perlman's insta' classic turn as the titular character, a bizarre yet beautiful set and monster design, and a superb, hilarious dose of self-aware humor. Take all those ingredients, and add some elements that better it, and you have the upgraded, perfected version of what del Toro attempted to achieve in round 1.

This time the story is better centered in its own rules and universe. A vengeful Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) seeks three pieces to a crown that will grant him control of the mechanized, unstoppable, indestructible Golden Army (big, round, blade-equipped, gear-moving robots). Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is dispatched by our government, with his usual good humor, to protect the third piece (held by Nuada's sister, played by Anna Walton) and hunt down the bad-guy before he completes his mission.

This works better for several reasons as a story. Nuada (played with icy style by Goss) is a formidable villain to our hero, not the barely glimpsed and hardly personified mere image Rasputin was. He has a plan, a motive, and skill to be feared. Secondly, the main players Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and Abe Sapien (the indispensable Doug Jones, who also does other characters) are treated more as members of Hellboy's team; they work and operate together. This allows for more personality to be revealed in each of them, such as a love interest for Abe in Princess Nuada, or the domestic issues (hilarious) between Hellboy and Liz.

Mostly though, the plot serves to offer a more enriched universe created by Guillermo del Toro. Here is a man who turned down job offers on "I am Legend", "Harry Potter 6" and "Wanted" (all good flicks, and well paying jobs I imagine). He's committed to the material, and knows what he's doing. Del Toro's precision is felt in every frame; his perfect visual eye, sense of composition, brilliant art direction (the film definitely gains from perfect, eye popping sets and lighting), and engaging, well-choreographed action scenes. Pulling out all the stops, scene-for-scene are eyes are tantalizingly overwhelmed with interestingly created beasts and locales.

Ron Perlman still enchants as Hellboy; piercing through all those prosthetics to deliver a performance balanced with humor, machismo, heart ache, charm, and swagger. He fits into the character even more comfortably than in film one. Selma Blair, who in her last outing seemed kinda dour and flat in my opinion, gets to play up on Liz's fury (and flames) and emotions. Doug Jones is as priceless as ever, and given much more screen time as Abe.

Early on in the movie, Hellboy reveals his cover to the public; letting all the world know of his existence and the existence of his fellow 'freaks'. He expects to be treated as a hero, yet is rejected for having the appearance of a horrendous monster. The movie takes advantage of this notion and plays out Hellboy's potential choice to either save us all or join in with his own kind (as Nuada constantly says he should, ala very Darth Vader, 'join the dark side'). Throw in a hilarious drunken rendition of Barry Manelow's "I can't Smile Without You" sung by Abe and Hellboy, and a competition for team leadership in the form of gas-based character Johan Krauss (pricelessly voiced by Seth Macfarlane), and you have an admirable perspective shown on Hellboy's character: the nature, up's and down's, of being a hero. One who does not look traditional and suffers for it.

I rate this film a 10/10, not in the same way I would rate "The Godfather" a 10/10. I give it a perfect score for achieving what it set out to, and being no more than what I expected: a fun, bizarre, visually gorgeous, summer blast. 10/10

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