Tag Archives: Comedy

The Fall Guy – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It’s a wonderful romp, full of pomp and circumstance, and a desperate need for an extra edit.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a sequence in the credits and a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of the film.

Filming a car chase.

The Fall Guy Review –

Today, I am looking at a film that is genuinely quite odd. It is an Action-Adventure, Romantic-Comedy, Mystery, Adaption of an Old TV Show, that is also making a meta-commentary on how Hollywood treats people who work on the stunt team. Yet with all of that, they made it work, and a blast of fun at that.

So to set the scene, Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is a suave and super-confident stuntman who knows how to take a fall while on fire and thrown into a rock. When he is not being blown up, he is flirting with the very professional camera operator, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). However, when his incompetent actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who could not do his own stunts in his dreams, wanted a stunt done again because they saw ‘too much face’. But the stunt goes wrong, and Colt breaks his back. Eighteen months later, Tom’s Producer, Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), calls Colt, who is now a valet. She needs him to come back to Sydney because Jody has her first director role, and they need his stunt prowess. But did anyone ask Jody?

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Drive-Away Dolls – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is a wild but somewhat inconsistent ride that will bring the laughs but probably does not have the lasting effect they were going for.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Love is a sleigh ride to HELL.

Drive-Away Dolls Review –

The early 200s was a wild time for the raunchy road trip film, with gems like Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and EuroTrip. For a while, they had fallen out of fashion, maybe because the old focus of those films no longer ran true for modern audiences. However, in the last few years, we have started to see a resurgence in this genre, and it is just such a film that we are looking at today.  

So to set the scene, we opened in Philadelphia in 1999 on the cusp of the new Millennium or, as it was known at the time, the Willennium. Here, there are two good friends, Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), who could not be more different. But when Jamie breaks up with her girlfriend Sukie (Beanie Feldstein), well more, she gets dumped after multiple cheating incidents. Jamie decides to tag along on Marian’s trip to Tallahassee, Florida, to help Marian get some. The only problem is that Jamie persuades Marian to use a service to cut down on the cost by driving a car down there for free (a drive-away). The only problem is that something else might be taking the trip with them, a something that many people want.

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Kill Me If You Dare (Zabij Mnie, Kochanie) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is an incredibly silly film, but if that is the vibe you are after, then it nails it.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

A knife falls to the floor.

Kill Me If You Dare Review –

I think there is one thing that is almost universal across most cultures: what would you do if you won the lottery, or as we call it here, the lotto? Just asking that question probably provoked a number of thoughts as to what you would do with such a large amount of money. But what would you do if you were married and things were not as good as they could be?

So to set the scene, we open in this grand romantic gesture as Piotr (Mateusz Banasiuk) races to catch Natalia (Weronika Ksiązkiewicz) before she leaves on the train. But while he misses the train, he does not miss the love of his life, and he instantly proposes. Five years later, the love is not as strong as it once was, but maybe a shock lotto win might change that. Well, perhaps not if each other thinks the other wants to murder them and take the money for themselves.

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Argylle – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A film that makes one of the worst mistakes it can: constantly remind you of better films you could be watching.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film

Agent Argylle is captured.

Argylle Review –

Today is a bit of an awkward review because I am exploring a work from people both in front of and behind the camera who I have deeply loved before. However, today, I am looking at a film that fails at almost every single step. It failed so badly that I had moved from frustration to disappointment, to wholly checked out by the time I rolled my eyes at the mid-credit scene. With that in mind, we will explore just what went wrong because, like many things, it was not just one road bump that led to this.

So to set the scene, we open with Agent Argylle (Henry Cavill) infiltrating the lair of Lagrange (Dua Lipa) and initiating a pretty intense dance-off. However, Lagrange knew he was coming and what he looked like because someone in his organisation was a mole. In fact, it could be one of his teammates, Keira (Ariana DeBose) or Wyatt (John Cena). However, just as the big reveal happens, we discover that this story is not real. It is a novel written by noted author Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), whose Argylle series of spy novels are best sellers. However, as Elly takes a train ride with her cat Alfie (Chip) to her mother Ruth (Catherine O’Hara), she is interrupted by the unkempt Aidan Wilde (Sam Rockwell), who might be leading her into a world she wrote about in fiction, that just might be real.

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Role Play – Movie Review

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TL;DR – There are some moments when the film shines. However, there is a lot of space in between those moments filled with missed opportunities.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film.  

Role Play Review –

In the Spy and Spy-adjacent world, one of the core narratives that we see is when a spy’s family does not know what they do for a day job. The most famous is probably True Lies, but we see a lot of them moving from the more comical to the more serious, depending on the vibe that they want. That is if you can choose a vibe.  

So to set the scene, on the surface, the Brackett family is your perfectly normal middle-American suburban unit. The father, Dave (David Oyelowo), is an architect. They have two wonderful kids, Caroline (Lucia Aliu) & Wyatt (Regan Bryan-Gudgeon), and oh, by the way, when Emma (Kaley Cuoco) says she is going out of town to work cooperate management, she actually is a very successful assassin. Emma wants to have some time at home, but her handler, Raj (Rudi Dharmalingam), wants her back out in the field. After Emma forgets their anniversary, they decide to have a fun night out where they pretend to be two strangers meeting in a bar. One long ride stuck in the tunnel and the poor advances of Bob (Bill Nighy), and it looks like the night might be a bit of a mess. It would be the wrong time for someone’s cover to get blown.   

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Joy Ride – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A film that is both crass, hilarious, and heartfelt, all in equal measure.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film.

The gang on a motorbike.

Joy Ride Review –

In the last run, before we do our best of 2023 lists, I wanted to try films that I knew I would enjoy and just missed, but also those that don’t fit into his category. There was a point in the year when it looked like everyone was putting out mature comedies again. Some were great, others not so much. So, I didn’t give much thought to Joy Ride during its short theatrical ride in Australia, and I think that might have been a mistake.

So to set the scene, it is 1998, and the Chen family has just moved into a new and very white neighbourhood called White Hills. But when Lolo Chen (Ashley Park) found Audrey Sullivan (Sherry Cola), there was an instant connection, a best friend connection that stayed with them all their lives, well up to this point. Audrey is going back to China for the first time, and she is taking Lolo with her as a translator. Lolo wants to see if they can find Audrey’s birth mother while they are there, but Audrey is just focused on her job because if she nails it, she will be moving out of White Hills. But throw in the complications of Lolo’s cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), Audrey’s college roommate Kat Huang (Stephanie Hsu), and her business meeting with Chao (Ronny Chieng) happening in a club, and things soon start falling apart.  

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Letterkenny: Season 12 – TV review

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TL;DR – Like all endings, it is bittersweet, with moments of longing, frustration, and sadness, all there with the joy of seeing people being able to stick the landing.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I watched these episodes on SBS.

Katy talks in front of the Letterkenny sign.

Letterkenny Review –

Well, like death and taxes, all things have to come to an end at some point, and today, we are looking at a series that made it to twelve seasons, a rarity in this day and age. If you want to have a look at the series as a whole, you can read our review HERE. But today, we are going to jump into that final season. One of familiarity and change.  

So to set the scene, there are a couple of stand-up comedians in town, and that has the whole gang thinking that they could take a swing at it. Wayne (Jared Keeso) is not that great at crowd work, Dan (K. Trevor Wilson) is as funny as ever, Daryl (Nathan Dales) is the big surprise of the evening, but when Katy (Michelle Mylett) comes out to roast the town, she brings a flamethrower. This creates a vibe that has people thinking about their place in the world and if they are stuck. Some flirt with moving, others explore new life choices, but then others find new friends and pull at the fabric of the town. We will be looking at the series as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Anyone But You – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This is a film that is based entirely on the chemistry of the two leading cast members. Thank goodness they have some.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Sydney.

Anyone But You Review –

There is a considerable risk when you base the entire foundation of your film on the charisma of your two leads. There are multiple examples, like Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, where that mistake has caused the film to fall flat on its face. It is a dangerous proposition … but what happens when you get it right?

So to set the scene, it is a typical day in a coffee shop when Bea (Sydney Sweeney) runs into Ben (Glen Powell) while trying to get the key to the bathroom. Some shenanigans occur but sparks fly, and soon they are spending the night together. But the following day contrives a situation where both parties think the other was in the wrong, and they part ways with an odd story of a creep to tell their respective friend groups. Until we discover that those respective friend groups are the same because Bea’s sister Claudia (Alexandra Shipp) is the new finance of Halle (Hadley Robinson), whose brother Pete (GaTa) is best friends with Ben. That animosity gets heightened when both of them end up on a plane to Sydney, Australia, to attend the wedding, only to find both of their exes are there. So they fake being in a relationship. What is the worst that could happen?

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Letterkenny – An Exploration of a Uniquely Canadian Romp

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TL;DR – This is a delightful insight into a part of Canadian life.

Disclosure – I watched these episodes on SBS.

There are 5000 people in Letterkenny. These are their problems.

Letterkenny Review –

As Christmas Day approaches (or if you are outside of Canada, you will get it on Boxing Day), it means that a Canadian institution is drawing to a close. It’s a show I discovered once by seeing a GIF on Imgur about kids falling off bikes, which is an odd entry point into a deeply amusing series. We have explored Letterkenny previously, but before we dived into the final season later this week, I thought it would be an excellent time to examine just what makes Letterkenny work as well as it does.

So to set the scene, welcome to Letterkenny, a town of 5,000 in rural Canada, and these are their problems. In this small town, we have several distinct groups. The Jocks, which given this is Canada, are the Hockey Bros Reilly (Dylan Playfair) and Jonesy (Andrew Herr). Who is into getting Ws, takedowns, snipes, and billet sisters. You have the Skids, led by Stewart (Tyler Johnston) and Roald (Evan Stern), who spend most of their time in their parent’s basement consuming illicit material and playing video games. Then there are the Christians with pastor Glen (Jacob Tierney) and his complicated relationship with who he is, oh and the local Mennonites Noah (Jonathan Torrens) and Anita Dyck (Sarah Wayne Callies). The Natives from the local reservation are led by the infamous and illusive Aunty Tanis (Tiio Horn), who oscillates between an ally and an enemy. But of course, no discussion about Letterkenny can be made without the contribution of The Hicks, Wayne (Jared Keeso), Katy (Michelle Mylett), Daryl (Nathan Dales), Dan (K. Trevor Wilson), and of course, the McMurray’s (Dan Petronijevic & Melanie Scrofano), and Gail (Lisa Codrington) who runs the bar. They are the heart of the town and also, sometimes, its fists.

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The Family Plan – Movie Review

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TL;DR – An interesting idea and solid family dynamics, that unfortunately gets dragged out past its strong point.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There are mid-credit scenes.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this film.

The back of the minivan with family stickers.

The Family Plan Review –

There are some actors that play themselves in every film they are in, which can be a good or a bad thing, depending on the movie. If there is a perfect example of this, it is Mark Wahlberg, who I can keep or take depending on the outing. Today’s film looks like it will be something right my alley, but I have been burnt before.    

So to set the scene, Dan Morgan (Mark Wahlberg) is a mild-mannered family man who is friends with the whole neighbourhood, does a good job selling cars, has a slightly dysfunctional family life, and does not like his photo taken. Which makes it most surprising when he is at the shops, an assassin attacks because it looks like someone has been burnt, and a whole world of pain is about to come to suburban Buffalo.

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