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I just want to take the opportunity to thank everyone for their continued readership. It’s been just over a year since I started this site, and it has been more successful than I ever could have hoped.

What I might be most proud of is the fact that I’ve been able to stick with it. Though there have been some slow periods, I’ve still churned out just over 100 posts in that time. By tomorrow we should also reach 17,000 visitors, which I feel is a great start.

In the next year, I’d like to increase subscriptions, comments, and, hopefully, the amount of reviews I write per month. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, please let me know. I’m always open to constructive criticism.

Again, thanks for supporting me here at DavidGHeiser.com. I’m looking forward to another great year.

- DH

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When Did You Last See Your Father?

This is my favorite of the films that I haven’t had a chance to write about. It’s the story of a son (Colin Firth) dealing with the sudden impending loss of his father (Jim Broadbent). It’s about coming to terms with the fact that you might not have time to answer all of the questions and address all of issues that result from a lifetime of conflict. Director Anand Tucker expertly captures the quirks and struggles of the father-son relationship in a way to which many will be able to relate. Firth and Broadbent are both excellent in this story that is heart wrenching without succumbing to melodrama. I highly recommend checking this out.

City of Men

The sequel to the critically acclaimed Brazilian film City of God had a tough act to follow. While it didn’t impress me as much as its predecessor, City of Men was still very enjoyable. The story, which follows two of the younger characters from the first film (with the same actors), is energetic and action packed. The themes of fatherhood and friendship within this impoverished, gang-ridden landscape are explored in a way that delivers more emotional resonance than you might suspect. It’s stylishly shot and draws added realism from true-to-life shooting locations in the slums of Rio de Janiero. If you enjoyed HBO’s excellent series “The Wire,” then this is going to be right up your alley.

Married Life

I went into this film with mixed expectations. I really like Chris Cooper, but Pierce Brosnin has never done much for me (with the exception of The Matador). In the end, however, the story just wasn’t enough to keep me interested. Almost everything unfolds precisely as you would expect, with the exception of the very end, which struck me as totally implausible. Cooper’s performance was solid, but none of the other characters seemed particularly authentic. It’s not awful, but there are much better options currently occupying your local video store’s “New Releases” shelves.


Hellboy II: The Golden Army

I never saw the first Hellboy, but after seeing Pan’s Labyrinth and loving what Guillermo del Toro did with that film, I decided to give The Golden Army a chance. Like Pan’s Labyrinth, this film is visually very cool. The creatures are interesting and the action sequences are entertaining. Unfortunately, the film stars Ron Perlman and Selma Blair, neither of whom are likely to ever draw much attention from the Academy. It’s based on a comic book, however, so I guess a bit of campiness has to be expected. Overall, it’s certainly a better film than Hancock or any of the new Spiderman movies, so if you’re looking for 90 minutes of somewhat low-brow entertainment, go ahead and give it a shot.

Taxi to the Dark Side

If you weren’t already fed up with the current regime, then this stirring documentary is sure to put you over the edge. Taxi to the Dark Side draws its title from the story of a young Afghan man who was wrongfully arrested, without any evidence, and sent to an American prison. There, the young man, who was never charged with a crime, was interrogated for hours, tortured, and eventually dies. The documentary delves into the culprits and causes behind America’s current policy of torture. It’s especially disheartening once you realize that if any other country was doing to Americans what we are doing to Iraqis and Afghanis, we would have charged them with war crimes long ago.


Tropic Thunder

Back when Tropic Thunder was nearing its theatrical release, I really couldn’t see what the big deal was. Ben Stiller has never been one of my favorites. I feel like he plays essentially the same character in almost every movie he does. Jack Black can be funny (e.g., Orange County) but he can be pretty awful too (e.g., Envy). Robert Downey Jr. has talent, but I’m more than a little skeptical of any modern movie that includes the use of black face. Still, it received generally positive reviews so I decided to give it a chance once it was released to DVD. Stiller and Black were as ridiculous as I expected them to be, but the movie is saved by the mind-bogglingly hilarious performance of Tom Cruise. Cruise steals every scene that he’s a part of and single-handedly saves Tropic Thunder from mediocrity. Rent it without too high expectations and you’re in for a treat.

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan

Yes, I actually rented You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. No, I don’t really have a defense for why I did it. Actually, I was lured in by the fact that it received a 75 percent or above from Roger Ebert and seven other critics on MetaCritic. I should have trusted my better judgement, but I can’t say I didn’t laugh. There are some scenes that are so ridiculous that you won’t be able to help yourself. Even still, if I could have the hour and a half of my life that I spent watching Zohan back, you can bet I’d jump at the opportunity. Pass on this one.

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Played by Will Smith, the walking box office guarantee himself, Hancock is a heavy drinking, socially challenged, bulletproof immortal. He stops criminals and saves lives, but usually does so while he’s three sheets to the wind, leaving millions of dollars in property damage in his wake. Despite his gifts, the city sees him as a nuisance and generally wishes he would go away.

During one of his ham-handed rescues, Hancock saves Ray, a well-intentioned but seemingly unsuccessful PR man, from an oncoming train. Ray (Jason Bateman), in turn, offers his image consulting services to Hancock as a means of repayment. Ray’s wife, Mary (Charlize Theron), doesn’t like the idea. She doesn’t think that Hancock can be trusted and just doesn’t want him around her family. Going against his wife’s wishes, Ray procedes. Though Hancock is initially hesitant, he eventually begins to comply with Ray’s plan. Hancock’s patience is tested when he is asked to go to prison for the damage he has caused, which we are informed he has been asked to do numerous times before. Though they can’t really force him to do anything, Ray thinks that allowing the public to see what life would be like without Hancock patrolling the streets for a few weeks would do wonders for his image. While he is in prison, things start to go a little haywire in the city. Inevitably, Hancock’s services are needed again, but with what results?

This movie frustrated me. I didn’t hate it, but it could have been so much more. Hancock is such a unique character–a seriously flawed superhero–that if they would have gone just a little darker, I think this story could have been great. Instead, as the story progresses the plot twists become more and more predictable. The blend of comedy, action, and drama didn’t connect well with me, and I found myself not really caring during the film’s most emotional moments. The lack of emotional resonance could have also been related to the cast. While Smith does well with what he is given, Theron’s performance is really flat and Bateman’s character is just so weak that he comes off as pathetic.

Overall, Hancock had the potential to be something special, but ended up being a standard Hollywood blockbuster. The film isn’t going to particularly challenge or impress you, but I guess there are worse ways to spend an hour and a half.

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I normally put a good amount of trust into MetaCritic’s composite ratings. After all, they are combining the views of many individuals, so it weeds out the outliers and usually gives a nice fair score. For the life of me, however, I can’t understand how America’s film critics could give Role Models an average rating below 60.

Role Models is the third film directed by Wet Hot American Summer writer/director David Wain. Wain came to the project fairly late in the game (the film’s stars were already in place), but still almost completely rewrote the script with Paul Rudd and Wain’s longtime counterpart Ken Marino.

Like Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Role Models follows a fairly standard plot line. In this case, two immature guys get put into a situation that forces them to take some responsibility for the first time in their lives, but, inevitably, they screw it up, only to eventually learn their lesson so everything turns out ok.

More specifically, Danny and Wheeler (played by Rudd and Scott respectively) spend every day driving a huge, ridiculous company pickup truck to schools, telling kids to get their high from Minotaur brand energy drinks instead of drugs. Things go awry when Danny has a meltdown after a really miserable day and commits a series of misdemeanors that ends with him driving the truck into a statue outside a high school. Wheeler is dragged in by association and they get a 30-day prison sentence reduced to 150 hours of community service with a Big Brothers/Big Sisters-type organization called Sturdy Wings. They get paired with Augie, a role playing nerd, and Ronnie, a trash-talking trouble maker who has scared off the first eight “bigs” he was paired with.

The major surprise of the film is that Seann William Scott (who I’ve never been a fan of) is truly, genuinely funny. He’s not on Rudd’s level, but he was a great fit for this character and displays excellent comedic timing in delivering some of Role Models best lines. The on-screen dynamic between he and Bobb’e J. Thompson (Ronnie), is also fantastic. Their discussion on the finer points of “boobie watching” is ridiculous but also one of the film’s funniest moments. Both Thompson and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Augie), also deserve some serious credit for keeping up with the adults in the cast. Thompson delivers his lines with an authority that I’ve never seen in someone so young (he’s 12). Mintz-Plasse, on the otherhand, proves that his turn as McLovin in Superbad wasn’t the extent of his range. He again plays a nerdy highschooler, but shows significantly greater depth in a role that could have easily been nothing more than a stereotype in lesser hands.

While Rudd is excellent as usual, with his trademark brand of acerbic, sarcastic humor, the film’s best moments come when veteran comedienne Jane Lynch is on screen, stealing scene after scene from the film’s big name stars. She is absolutely perfect as the reformed coke addict founder of the Sturdy Wings program, doing her best to keep Rudd and Stiffler in line, constantly making sure they don’t try to “bullshit a bullshitter.”

Though the film’s ending conveniently ties things up just as you’d expect, it surprisingly doesn’t feel forced. Danny and Wheeler’s gradual growth is believeable, so the cringe factor is minimized when they inevitably perform the grand, selfless act necessary to complete the plot. Wain, Marino, and Rudd have written a sharp, funny, yet sensitive story that sends moviegoers home in a good mood. If nudity and vulgarity turn you off, then you may want to pass on Role Models, but otherwise, I feel confident recommending this film to just about anyone looking for a good comedy.

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I never planned on seeing Zack and Miri Make a Porno. After really enjoying most of Seth Rogen’s recent work (only to grow exceptionally tired of it after my friends played it to death on DVD), I felt like I needed a break. From the previews, Zack and Miri looked like the perfect opportunity to do that. The plot looked predictable, the raunchy humor looked like it was just added for shock value, and I’ve never been a fan of Jason Mewes (Jay from Jay & Silent Bob). A couple weeks ago, however, I was listening to the excellent Filmspotting podcast, and they gave it a really glowing review. Trusting their opinion, I decided to give the film a shot.

For those of you who haven’t seen the previews, Zack and Miri are roommates who have been platonic friends since elementary school. Their low-paying jobs and poor spending habits have put them into dire financial straights. Things come to a head when their water and electricity get turned off in rapid succession. After going to the bar to drink away their pain, Zack comes up with the brilliant suggestion to, you guessed it, make a porno. They figure that they can sell it to all the people on the alumni e-mail list from their high school reunion because, come on, who doesn’t want to see two people they went to high school with have sex on camera? From there, a series of largely obviously plot twists occur, throwing wrench after wrench into Zack and Miri’s master plan.

The interesting thing about all of this is that I still liked the movie. The plot may be pretty bad, but by and large, the performances more than make up for it. Rogen is Rogen–and is pretty funny as usual, but it’s the side characters which made Zack and Miri worth my money.

Justin Long has only a brief cameo as a gay porn star who shows up at Zack and Miri’s high school reunion as someone’s unlikely date, but he completely steals the scene, getting the movie’s biggest laughs. Craig Robinson, who really should start getting bigger roles on a more regular basis any day now, is funny as ever as Rogen’s coffee shop co-worker and the porno’s “executive producer.” Even Jason Mewes comes through with some thoroughly brilliant moments (I fully expect the “Dutch rudder” to become as popular as the term “superman” did after Soulja Boy made it famous).

Even though I liked it, I’m sure you’ve gathered by now that Zack and Miri isn’t for everyone. The profanity is way over the top (like most Kevin Smith movies), the nudity is frequent and explicit, and it contains quite possibly the most disgusting moment I’ve ever seen in a mainstream comedy. The fact that the plot contains an almost overwhelmingly sensitive love story doesn’t change the reality that almost anyone over the age of 30 is going to find this too offensive to watch.

I always make a recommendation, but by this point you probably already know whether or not Zack and Miri is something you want to see. If you’re a fan of Kevin Smith’s other work or Judd Apatow’s regular stable of actors, you know this is right up your alley. If you find those sorts of films too low-brow for your taste, then it’s pretty obvious that this one isn’t going to be any different. So, use your best judgement, but if you do decide to see Zack and Miri, be comforted by the fact that even if you don’t really like it, you’ll at least be up to date on all the new catch phrases you’re likely to start hearing drunk people quote all around town.

edit: Make sure you stick around all the way through the credits so you don’t miss a special extra scene.

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Forgetting Sarah Marshall focuses on Peter, a slovenly but reasonably successful composer who is living every guy’s dream, dating Sarah Marshall, the beautiful star of the TV show he writes music for. They’ve been together for five years when we meet Peter at the start of the film. That all changes abruptly when Sarah shows up and tells Peter that she’s leaving him and that there is somebody else. Peter is thrown into a full blown emotional and psychological tailspin and tries to fill the gaping hole that she has left with random one night stands and booze.

After it becomes apparent that this isn’t helping anything, he decides that the best thing to do is to take a vacation to get away from the situation for a while. So, he books his flight and heads to a place in Hawaii that he remembers Sarah always raving about. Trouble arises immediately when he tries to check in to the hotel (he decided not to make a reservation in advance) and discovers that the only room available is $6,000 per night. As if that isn’t enough, in walks Sarah with the “other man,” Aldous Snow, the exceedingly famous British ladies’ man and lead singer of the band Infant Sorrow.

Luckily for Peter, Rachel, the cute girl behind the counter, quickly recognizes the situation and, rather than letting Peter face the embarrassment of having to leave the hotel without a room, offers Peter the $6,000 suite free of charge, until somebody else books it. What follows is a logically awkward set of interactions between Peter, Sarah Marshall, and Aldous, for the length of the trip as Peter tries to get over Sarah, enjoy his trip, and explore the new opportunities that are presented to him.

The first thing that sticks out to me about this movie is that I don’t think there is much, if any, difference in skill between Seth Rogen and Jason Segel. Despite my initial apprehensions, I don’t think that this movie would have been significantly better or worse if they had replaced Segel with the bigger name. Like Rogen, Segel gives off the lovable loser vibe that audiences can’t help but root for. I felt like the writers did a great job of making Peter a very human character that many people will be able to relate to, a hallmark of Rogen’s roles in Knocked Up and Pineapple Express.

Some of the best aspects of all the recent Apatow movies are the brilliant supporting characters. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is filled with more of the great small roles we’ve come to expect. The most notable of these are Jonah Hill as the resort’s overbearing waiter, Paul Rudd as Peter’s burnt out surfing instructor, and Jack McBrayer (who you may recognize as Kenneth the page from NBC’s 30 Rock) as Darald, a Mormon newlywed who is struggling with the, ahem, “mechanics” of consummating his marriage.

Russel Brand is also tremendous as Aldous and, interestingly, will reportedly be reprising this role for Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nicholas Stoller’s next picture, Get Him to the Greek. Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis are both serviceable in their roles as Sarah Marshall and Rachel, but let us not kid ourselves, they’re mainly cast to serve as eye candy, not win Oscars.

As for weaknesses, I thought the film really did a good job of getting better as it went along. The beginning features an excess of unncessary male nudity, dick jokes, and generally sophomoric humor. That isn’t to say that the rest of the movie is going to remind you of an episode of Frasier, but it at least achieved the level of maturity of Knocked Up.

Overall, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a solid addition to Judd Apatow’s recent litany of successes. It offers us believeable characters, well-timed humor, and is really just a pleasure to watch. It’s mainly aimed at the 18-29 demographic, so I wouldn’t recommend watching it with your mom, but, if you missed it in theaters, it is definitely worth checking out.

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I’m a sucker for Morgan Freeman movies. Ever since I saw The Shawshank Redemption (which immediately became one of my all-time favorites), essentially everything with his name attached ends up in my hands at one point or another. I know I’m just basing this on the characters that he’s played, but I doubt I’m alone in thinking that Freeman just gives off the vibe that he’d be the world’s greatest grandfather. Maybe it’s his voice that makes everything he says sound like it is some sort of great wisdom passed down through the ages, or maybe it’s the fact his cool, calm characters always seem to know more than everyone else in the film. Whatever the reason, even though The Bucket List got decidedly mediocre reviews and I’m not a particularly big Jack Nicholson fan, I knew I’d end up seeing this movie soon enough.

In Bucket List, Freeman and Nicholson play Carter Chambers and Edward Cole, an auto mechanic and a hospital tycoon, who find themselves, first, stuck next to each other in the same hospital room and, next, in the same situation, as they are both diagnosed with cancer and given only months to live. Apart from their obvious income disparities (it is, in fact, in Edward’s own hospital where the two men are receiving treatment), the two men’s lives couldn’t have been any more different. Freeman’s character, Carter, had been forced to drop out of college and take what work he could find when his young wife informed him that she was expecting a rather unexpected child. Forty-some years later, Carter is still working under the hood of a car and may not have an abundance of material wealth, but has a loving and healthy family to show for his work. Edward Cole, on the other hand, has built a billion dollar hospital empire, but has four failed marriages and one estranged relationship with his only daughter laying in its wake. In fact, at one point Cole says, “The only successful marriage I’ve ever had is with work.”

When, one day, Edward notices Carter scribbling what Carter describes as a “bucket list”, something inspired by an assignment a teacher once gave him in college, which asked the students to make a list of things they wanted to do before they died, he decides that, with his money, this list is something the men can accomplish together. While Carter initially balks at the idea of two terminally ill old men setting out on a wild adventure to accomplish the to-do list of a lifetime, Edward eventually manages to convince him, and, after Carter passes this decision along to his furious wife, the pair set out on their way. What follows is a series of comical and awkward scenes in which this odd couple participate in activities clearly directed at men half their age (I kept expecting them to be randomly replaced by Danny Glover and Mel Gibson, just so they could bust out a Lethal Weapon style “We’re gettin‘ too old for this shit!”)

The strengths of Bucket List can, to a certain degree, also fall under the category of weaknesses. There are a lot of the scenes in the film that are pretty funny and entertaining, but, at the same time, are obviously rather predictable and formulaic. The “old guys doing things they shouldn’t” angle isn’t breaking any new ground, and the stories of their personal lives, while somewhat touching, are archetypes that have been drawn from countless stories throughout history. Freeman and Nicholson inhabit their roles well; both actors’ personalities were good pairings with their characters’, although I’m not sure I could ever believe someone like Morgan Freeman would be an auto-mechanic. If I was re-writing the script I would at least have made him a poorly paid high school English teacher or some other profession that was a better match for his intellect.

Overall, The Bucket List is the kind of movie that makes a great pick for a family movie night. No one is going to dislike it enough to protest and there are enough laughs and warm moments to keep your attention throughout. If you don’t have a family, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend dropping $4 at the Blockbuster to rent it, but you could find much worse ways to kill an hour and a half on a slow weeknight at home when Bucket List inevitably ends up in regular rotation on HBO.

Side note: Apparently I’ve been out of the loop. For those that didn’t hear, Freeman was recently in a very serious car crash in which he lost control of the car, veered off the highway, and flipped the vehicle, breaking several bones in the process. After a few days in the hospital earlier this month receiving treatment, he was released and says he is doing very well. Best wishes to him in his recovery.

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There’s no doubt about it, Seth Rogen is Hollywood’s new comedy golden boy, and he’s got the rapidly growing resume to prove it. Since bursting into the spotlight last summer with the hugely successful Knocked Up and Superbad, he has been in six films and has five more due out between now and 2010. Given that quantity of work, it isn’t a huge stretch to assume that the quality of these films might start to deteriorate, but, if action-comedy Pineapple Express is any indication of what is to come, then Rogen’s stoner persona and portly physique must belie some truly impressive mental and physical stamina.

In Pineapple Express, Rogen plays Dale Denton, a pot-smoking process server who unexpectedly witnesses a drug kingpin and a cop commit a murder and finds himself running for his life after he leaves behind a joint of an exceptionally rare strain of weed as he flees the scene in a panic. His clueless, and oddly sensitive, dealer, Saul, played by James Franco, gets dragged into the fray when the pair realize that it was Saul’s supplier, Ted Jones, who committed the murder, and that he is the only person in town who is currently selling this particular strain. Disoriented and paranoid by their continuous reefer intake, Dale and Saul find themselves in a series of absurd situations and close calls as they run for their lives, trying to evade both Ted’s thugs and crooked police.

The film’s finest moments are those where Rogen and Franco are paired together on screen and allowed to work the semi-improvised magic that Judd Apatow’s films have become famous for. Although it has been almost ten years since they last appeared on screen together in the short-lived, also Judd Apatow produced TV series Freaks and Geeks, the duo display a chemistry that approaches the level of Chris Farley and David Spade’s heyday in the mid-90s.

While Rogen is unquestionably the film’s star, it is Franco who I feel gives the more impressive overall performance. Pineapple Express represents a massive departure from the stream of cookie cutter Hollywood blockbusters and chick-flicks that he has appeared in over the past several years and Franco handles the transition with ease. The role of Saul just seemed to fit him perfectly in a way that reminded me of how well Matthew McConaughey fit as Wooderson in Dazed and Confused.

In addition to Rogen and Franco, the film features an array of hilarious supporting characters. The best of these performances are turned in by fellow Apatow favorites, Craig Robinson and Kevin Corrigan, who play Jones’s henchmen, Matheson and Budlofsky. Danny McBride also gets in a few of the film’s best lines (“You just got killed by a Daewoo Lanos, motherfucker!”) as Red, one of Jones’s distributors.

One of the best compliments I can pay to Pineapple Express is that of the few weaknesses that come to mind, most are just a matter of personal preference. I have never cared for Rosie Perez (who plays the crooked cop) or Gary Cole (Ted Jones), and neither of their performances did anything to change that opinion. I also thought the side plot surrounding Dale’s girlfriend should have either been paid more attention or been removed all together and had that screen time directed elsewhere. These were really only minor issues, however.

Pineapple Express, while not rising to the level of Knocked Up or Superbad, is a genuine success in its own right. Rogen and Franco are hilarious and the supporting cast backs up the stars so capably that any pro-sports team would kill to have a bench this deep. The action scenes are skillfully blended with the comedy, leaving the perfect degree of absurdity to match the film’s overall tone. Apatow has another hit on his hands and Rogen is cementing himself as someone the studio big-wigs will be turning to for years to come, so long as he eventually shows that he is able to succeed in a role that doesn’t involve him repeatedly smoking blunts. I’d recommend Pineapple Express to just about everyone with a sense of humor under the age of 30.

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Well it looks like someone at the studio has been spending some time spinning the old “Will Ferrell Movie Generator” again. In the same vein as Talladega Nights, Blades of Glory, and Kicking & Screaming, Ferrell‘s newest sports related offering delivers more of what we’ve come to expect. Semi-Pro certainly has its moments. I laughed several times, but there is nothing here we all haven’t seen before. I’m not going to bother doing a full review of this, but if you’re looking for a cheap laugh and like Ferrell’s other work this is worth checking out, just don’t go into it with too high of expectations.

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I was really disappointed I missed Juno in theaters. It got all kinds of great reviews and everyone raved about the witty dialogue. I liked Superbad and was interested to see another performance by Michael Cera. Needless to say, I went into Juno with some pretty high expectations. I left feeling satisfied, but not as impressed as I had hoped.

Juno is story of the fast talking, slightly off beat 16-year-old girl for whom the movie is named, who sleeps with her pseudo-boyfriend and gets pregnant. After some brief thoughts of getting an abortion she decides to have the baby and find a couple who’s looking to adopt. That couple comes in the form of Jason Bateman, a former rocker and current commercial jingle composer, and Jennifer Garner, a baby crazed homemaker. As her pregnancy progresses reality sets in and we are reminded that nothing is truly perfect and, as in most teen pregnancies, some issues will arise.

I’ll start with the film’s weaknesses since they are apparent pretty early on. The first thing that got on my nerves was what was supposed to be one of Juno‘s big strengths, the dialogue. I’m all for movies using the hip lingo that all the kids are using these days, but I don’t want them to shove it down my throat. They crammed so much ridiculous slang that I have never heard anyone use (keep in mind I’m a 21-year-old college student, so if I haven’t heard it then it’s pretty likely that most of the audience hasn’t either). This movie tried so hard to show me how witty it was that the only comparison I can make would be to a really jacked guy trying to show everyone how strong he was by wearing sleeveless t-shirts and lifting stuff every chance he gets. I laughed at the dialogue a few times, but there were a lot of groaners too.

The second thing that bothered me was that we aren’t offered nearly enough time on the Page and Cera’s relationship, and what we were was pretty shallow. A friend reminded me of how much they played this aspect up in the previews, which leads me to believe that they knew that is what people were going to come to the movie wanting to see. Cera also needs to switch his game up a little bit. He acts using almost EXACTLY the same mannerisms as he did during Superbad. The hyper awkward bit, got a little old for me by the end of the movie because it really just seemed like his character from the other movie had just transferred schools.

Thirdly, Jennifer Garner sucks. It’s just a fact, she brings down every movie she’s in and I don’t know why anybody keeps giving her roles. She’s less bad in this than some other movies, but still not good.

As for strengths, Juno had a few really hilarious supporting characters, most notably her father, played by J.K. Simmons who most notably was the newspaper editor in the Spider-Man movies and the psychologist they always brought in on Law & Order, and her step-mother, played by Allison Janney who has had a million small but familiar roles. Simmons does a superb job of mixing comedy with believable paternal compassion and Lanney offers some of the best lines in the entire film. Jason Bateman also does a great job as Garner’s husband and really captures the essence of the character.

While some of the emotional resonance of Juno is lost amidst the cheap attempts to be witty, the film still manages to pull on your heartstrings on several occasions. Page’s character is just naïve enough about the realities of her world and current situation that, when things don’t go the way she would like them to, we are able to empathize with her character.

All-in-all, this review may sound much more negative than I really mean it to be. If you erased my memory but told me how much I was going to enjoy this movie and I had to make the decision on whether or not to rent it again, then Juno is still something I would check out. There is a reason that this film was given so much praise by the critics, even though I believe that a lot of them slightly overstated how great it was. So go ahead and rent Juno if you missed it in theaters and enjoy a fun comedy-drama that is just slightly less successful than its older sibling, Knocked Up.

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