Director Ivan Reitman (“Ghostbusters”) will helm the football comedy “Draft Day” which sees the general manager of the Buffalo Bills go to great lengths to ensure his number one pick signs. Reitman most recently directed “No Strings Attached”.
Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.
This year saw a large number of R-rated comedies attempt to find some big success at the box office. How was this year for comedies?
The Good: For the record, I’m going to not include children/family comedies in this genre, especially since I did one on just their films. So, here we go. “Crazy, Stupid Love” which starred Steve Carrel was one of the stronger comedies, and a big surprise for me. All of the performances were great, and I was definitely not expecting the quality. Would have been my pick for best comedy of the summer and the biggest surprise had it not been for “Bridesmaids”. In the vein of “40-Year Old Virgin” it had the dirty humor, heart, a sweetness and a crudeness to it that just worked. It’s what people hoped “The Hangover: Part II” was going to be. “50/50” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen (Man, he really likes these kinds of dramedies doesn’t he) was also a very strong film.
The Bad: Unfortunately, there were a lot more misses for me this year than hits. The year started with one of the more intriguing films for me, “The Dilemma” starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. Unfortunately, I thought it wasted a fun premise, never fully deciding if it wanted to be a dramedy or more silly comedy. “No Strings Attached”, the first of two FWB comedies to be released, was also the weaker of the two films, despite having Natalie Portman in it. That being said, and I know I’m in the minority here, I didn’t enjoy “Friends with Benefits” either. Just didn’t feel it.
The “R-rated” comedy craze fizzled for the most part for me. The second “Hangover” was…ok at times, repetitive and unimaginative at others, and just plain stupidly boring during the rest. “Bad Teacher”, “Horrible Bosses” and “The Change Up” all seemed to have the parts for a great time, but not took advantage of their potentially fun premises. “Tower Heist” was ok, but didn’t taken advantage of the talent involved. “Jack and Jill”…no comment on that Adam Sandler.
I didn’t see “Young Adult” yet, though I have high hopes. But, these are my picks. What do you think?
Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.
Lukas Eggen 