Admission (2013)

Tags

Admission, Comedy, Drama, Lily Tomlin, Movie, Paul Rudd, Romance, Tina Fey

i’d hang up, but they said my call is very important to them…

This is one of those movies that just passes through your brain without really having any effect at all.

It’s not particularly funny (doesn’t even really try to be actually), and the emotional moments are all really low-key.  No characters or scenes have enough energy to be annoying, so you just drift through it with ease.

I will say, though, that the ending is actually somewhat depressing.  Tina Fey’s character is left a bit adrift and sad at the end in some regards, and it gives the movie an overall downer feel.

It seems like this movie should have been an indie drama but somebody decided to morph it into a romantic comedy.  It doesn’t work as either.

But it’s easy to sit through…so it has that going for it…

5.5/10

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Date Night (2010)

Tags

Action, Comedy, Common, Date Night, Jimmi Simpson, Mark Wahlberg, Movie, Ray Liotta, Romance, Steve Carrell, Taraji P. Henson, Tina Fey

 

Dwight! I need your help!

PG-13

Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, Taraji P. Henson, Jimmi Simpson, Common, Ray Liotta

Claire: If we’re going to pay this much for crab, it better sing and dance and introduce us to the Little Mermaid!

While out on a date night, a married couple gets mistaken for two people who are trying to blackmail a politician.  They have to go on the run from crooked police officers as well as some mafia guys, all the while trying to figure out why they’re being chased.

This could have been…better.

The pairing of Steve Carell and Tina Fey actually worked pretty well in the quieter moments where the two were just engaging in some banter over dinner.  The problem is, the movie feels like it has to ramp up the action and adventure because lord knows we wouldn’t want to watch two funny people actually getting the chance to be funny.  No, we would rather watch them drive cars in high speed chases or get in fights or shoot guns.  The more adventurous a scene tries to be, the more it just grinds the movie to a stop.

I’m not sure why they had Fey’s character be kind of dumb so often, but at least she played it for a few a laughs.  Especially when she’s confused over what exactly a flash drive (aka a “computer sticky thing”) is.

Going back to my previous point, though, what is this obsession Hollywood has with taking everything way over the top?  Is it just lazy writing?  Instead of having to write a few pages of dialogue, they just throw in a totally unrealistic and unnecessary car chase?  Where’s the effort??  I know, old news…

Okay, moving on.  Mark Wahlberg shows up a little ways in, always shirtless, and gets a few laughs, but not as many as it seems like he should.  And that’s pretty much the story of the whole film.  It seems like it should be funnier than it is, but often it just lays there spinning its wheels while it tries to top itself in ridiculousness or awkwardness.

You have two funny people in your movie.  Let them be funny!

Don’t steal other people’s reservations at restaurants.

10 – 2 for not being as funny as it should/could be – 1.8 for too many silly, over-the-top sequences = 6.2