Movie Comedies

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Review: She’s Out Of My League

Earns a zero for originality
Can TSA employees really be as bad at screening travelers as the ones in Jim Field Smith's comedy?
By BRETT MICHEL | March 17, 2010

Review: Youth In Revolt

Michael Cera hardly revolutionary
Juno continues to poison American independent cinema.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 06, 2010

Drew Barrymore's directorial debut falls flat
Add a dash of the sad beauty contests and kooky, dysfunctional family of Little Miss Sunshine to a helping of the bogus hipness and overexposed star of Juno and whip it good and you get an idea of why Drew Barrymore's directorial debut falls flat as a sappy soufflé.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 30, 2009

Review: Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself

Tyler Perry's latest is not so bad at all, really
Tyler Perry's latest crackles with electricity, thanks to heaps of boffo acting talent, high-octane musical interludes, and the most easy-to-root-for electrocution scene since Ernest Goes to Jail.
By SHAULA CLARK | September 16, 2009

Review: Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself

Review: Jennifer's Body

Diablo Cody's exquisite corpse
You are no doubt approaching Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody's new venture into horror comedy with gritted teeth, expecting the cinematic equivalent of being bludgeoned into a bloody pulp by an adorable novelty hamburger phone spewing snappy quips out of its receiver.
By SHAULA CLARK | September 16, 2009

Bottle rocket

Charlyne Yi is a hot date
Who exactly is Charlyne Yi? Two years ago, she appeared — seemingly from out of nowhere — in a brief but memorable turn in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up. A closer look at Apatow's new Funny People , however, might provide a clue as to where he discovered her.
By BRETT MICHEL | August 07, 2009

Review: Funny People

Judd Apatow pulls no punchlines
What if Terms of Endearment had had more dick jokes?
By LANCE GOULD | July 29, 2009

Interview: Judd Apatow

On the making of his Citizen Kane
Behind every successful comedian, there's . . . a personal assistant. Who, given how egomaniacal and utterly misanthropic the funnyman in question is, is probably his best friend, too.
By LANCE GOULD | July 29, 2009

Review: (500) Days of Summer

An odd romantic comedy, but a romantic comedy nonetheless
"This is not a love story," (500) Days of Summer 's disembodied narrator tells us. That's mostly a lie.
By SHAULA CLARK | July 15, 2009

Review: Year One

Not everything Judd Apatow touches is gold.
Mel Brooks and the lads from Monty Python stormed through this territory with fierce farce. Here there's little farce, just a fusillade of flaccid dick jokes.
By TOM MEEK | June 23, 2009

Review: Imagine That

Forces you to follow its eponymous directive
Eddie Murphy proves he doesn't need a fat suit to play soft in Karey Kirkpatrick's surprisingly nuanced family comedy.
By ALICIA POTTER | June 10, 2009

Review: World's Greatest Dad

Bobcat Goldthwait gets dark and deep
Robin Williams is Will Hunting good in Bobcat Goldthwait's dark comedy about a failed novelist whose fantasy of becoming a literary lion comes true in a way that's just plain wrong.
By BETSY SHERMAN | September 04, 2009

Review: Observe and Report

Seth Rogen calls security
Jody Hill's ambiguous and unsettling film is a comedy about law enforcement in much the same way that Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy is a comedy about comedy.
By PETER KEOUGH | April 08, 2009

Observe and distort

Jody Hill on the King of Comedy and Seth Rogen
Great filmmaker though he is, Martin Scorsese isn't the first name that comes to mind when you think about comedy genius. But Jody Hill, traces his inspiration in part back to his first viewing of Taxi Driver .
By PETER KEOUGH | April 08, 2009

After The Daytrippers . . .

Mottola explains
Greg Mottola didn't make a film for 11 years after his 1997 debut feature, The Daytrippers, caused a small ripple in the indie world.
By PETER KEOUGH | March 31, 2009

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Full of raunch and snappy dialogue
Kevin Smith’s ear for raunch is as piquant as ever, but he’s moved beyond his usual unconvincing leads to Judd Apatow regulars Rogen and Craig Robinson.
By BRETT MICHEL | October 28, 2008

Brief fling

Carole Lombard’s nine years of stardom
Carole Lombard rose to stardom in 1934 and was dead by 1942, killed in a plane crash on her way back from selling war bonds; her last picture, Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be or Not To Be , was released posthumously.
By STEVE VINEBERG | October 08, 2008

How To Lose Friends & Alienate People

Lesson learned, but no laughs
British comics Rich Gervais and Simon Pegg have attempted the jump to Hollywood, opting to squeeze their eccentric personae into a standard romantic comedy.
By PETER KEOUGH | October 01, 2008

Pot luck

No guilt trips in Pineapple Express
Pineapple Express is the movie Knocked Up might have been had it not copped out.
By PETER KEOUGH | August 11, 2008

Elsa y Fred | Elsa + Fred

Geriatric hijinks abound
Set in modern-day Madrid, Marco Carnevale’s gentle romantic comedy slaps two touchstone images from Italian cinema on the screen.
By BETSY SHERMAN | July 16, 2008

Beyond therapy

The Wackness looks back in languor
This is the stoner comedy that might make people take adolescence — and getting stoned — seriously again.
By PETER KEOUGH | July 09, 2008

The awful truth

Leo McCarey was better in the ’30s
Among the signal directors of 1930s comedies — one thinks of Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, Ernst Lubitsch, and George Cukor — Leo McCarey’s name has been largely forgotten.
By STEVE VINEBERG | June 02, 2008

Tuya's Marriage

An unforgettable heroine
Although it begins and ends with a tragically ambiguous image, Wang Quan’an’s film might be the closest thing that Mongolian cinema will ever get to a romantic comedy.
By PETER KEOUGH | May 28, 2008

Son of Rambow

A pint-sized Be Kind Rewind
Funnier than anything in this vaguely dark comedy is the thought of Stallone sitting through it.
By ROB NELSON | May 07, 2008

Made of Honor

Scottish-related gags and other dumb stuff
Paul Weiland’s Made of Honor is not your usual formulaic romantic comedy: it’s stupid, its leading man is unlikable, and its jokes are unfunny and sometimes cruel.
By ELIZABETH FLOCK | May 07, 2008

Baby Mama

Largely laugh-barren
Not even SNL’s whipsmart Tina Fey and Amy Poehler can save writer/director Michael McCuller’s pregnancy comedy from its fate as another condescending, self-congratulatory fantasy of maternal bliss.
By ALICIA POTTER | April 23, 2008

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

A limp comedic effort
Judd Apatow gave the dick joke a shot of Viagra in Knocked Up and Superbad .
By TOM MEEK | April 16, 2008

Spring brakes

Spring Arts Preview: Some diversions before the summer onslaught
Funny how spring movies can mirror the options of spring break.
By PETER KEOUGH | March 10, 2008