Silent Humor

By Mr D Stevens

 Movie Reviews this week looks at The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard a riotous comedy produced by Will Ferell (Wedding Crashers)

It stars Jeremy Piven (Entourage) as Don Ready, a car sales man that has been brought in by Ben Selleck played by James Brolin (played Ronald Reagan in The Reagans, and father of Josh, he looks remarkably like an older Christian Bale), to help save his business.

Don brings along his team Ving Rhames (Pulp fiction) as Jibby Newsome, David Koechner (Saturday Night Live) as dependable Brent Gage, the lovely Kathryn Hahn (Revolutionary Road) as Babs Merrick.

In his attempt to improve sales they hire a DJ, and advertise the event, and when the day comes Don and his crew are pretty good at delivering at their promises, using every and anything to “Hard sell” people into buying from Selleck’s cars.

However things are not as easy going as Don first thought, as there is a competing car lot, owned by Stu Harding played by Alan Thicke (The Trial of Red Riding Hood), whose son Paxton Harding played by Ed Helms (The Hangover) is chasing a music career with his group “The Bigups” and is a fiance to Tammy, daughter of Ben Selleck played by the lovely Jordana Spiro (My Boys).

Will Ferell makes an appearance as McDermott ill fated friend during a time in Alberquerque.

Don finds out that he would like to settle down rather than be on the road all the time, as expected he soon starts falling for Ivy, but seeing she is already engaged to Paxton, his chances are pretty slim.

It has some classic funny moments, notably including Will Ferell and a sky diving jump, and Babs seducing a man into buying a car by tapping into his fantasy. The always on edge Dick Lewiston played by Charles Napier (Austin Powers 2) who seems to talk about his dislike of others has some memorable scenes, the prelude prior to all the employees picking up on the sole “Japanese” employee Teddy Dang, played by Ken Jeong (his scenes in the hilarious The Hangover has to be seen) is memorable simply for the way Dick stares at him, as Don tries to encourage them for the big sell.

Mr D Stevens is a reviewer at Movie reviews

Movie review for Zombieland

By Mr D Stevens

 This is a very amusing horror comedy, in the vein of Shaun of the Dead, that focuses on a similar world where everyone or most of the world is a zombie.

We meet Columbus (everyone in the movie calls themselves by places instead of real names) played by Jesse Eisenberg (he has one of those faces you are sure you have seen somewhere but can’t quite identify where) who is one of the last surviving humans in the U.S. and has developed a variety of rules to staying alive such as limbering up before going into any vicinity where zombies may be around, keeping his heart fit, and always taking care when at his most vulnerable i.e. when in the toilet.

We also get flashbacks to unfortunate victims who fell to the zombie plague, all through the opening credits,. It turns out Columbus only survived because he kept to himself, and only found out about the plague, when a lovely girl came knocking at his door, complaining that a tramp had sprinted at her, at first she thought he was chasing someone, but when he reached her he bit her. Columbus was more interested that such a lovely girl would be at his door, and was stroking her hair as she fell asleep when inevitably she turned into a zombie and started lunging at him.

Columbus happens to bump into Tallahassee played by Woody Harrelson (No country for old men), there is a amicable stand-off where the pair think each other is a zombie and wait for any hints at humanity before introducing one another. Together they plan on going to Columbia where Columbus has a faint hope his parents may still be alive, as he puts it, he is a loner who didn’t appreciate those who cared about him or anyone in particular when the world was OK, but now just seeing a familiar face would make things a lot more easier.

On their way to helping Tallahassee find a Twinky, with Tallahassee’s usual antics of antagonising the zombies with loud noises so they come out and get the customary treatment with whatever he happens to have in hand, they bump into two sisters, Wichita played by the gorgeous Emma Stone (The House Bunny) and Little Rock played by the lovely Abigal Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) who luckily are still alive, but trick them into taking their ammunition and their vehicle.

Of course they inevitably meet again, after the car they have stolen from Columbus and Tallahassee breaks down, and are forced on a road trip together, but not before Tallahassee and Columbus find a vehicle containing plenty of ammunition to which Tallahassee says “Thank God for rednecks”.

As they pass by Hollywood, Tallahassee decides to take them to the home of a superstar (as he puts it even bigger than Tom Cruise). There is a lovely cameo by Bill Murray (Ghostbusters) playing himself, he happens to dress up as a zombie to fit around, and he even joins them re-enacting scenes from Ghostbusters.

Columbus meanwhile is beginning to fall for Wichita, who equally has trust issues, and Tallahassee is still after that Twinky.

It is a hilarious horror-comedy, many will like instantly.

Mr D Stevens is a reviewer at Movie reviews

How The Art Of The Unspoken Word Can Be Funny

Movie Reviews Randy and The Mob

By Mr D Stevens

 This is a well made comedy drama, starring Ray McKinnon in two roles as Randy Pearson, a good natured happy go lucky “big shot” who owns a number of businesses, but is currently in a financial mess, and Cecil his twin brother.

Randy happens to borrow money from a loan shark, which unbeknown to him is connected with the Mob. Soon afterwards he starts getting phone calls from a Mob guy, Franco played by Paul Ben-Victor (Tombstone) as to when and how he is going to settle his debt, Randy tries to explain that as hard as he has tried he cannot come up with the money for the debt as well as his increasing debt with the IRS (Internal Revenue Service).

After asking around and finding out that he could be in some serious trouble with the Mafia, Randy contemplates selling one of his businesses to Elmore Culpepper where Burt Reynolds (Boogie Nights) does a short cameo.

Surprisingly Franco has a solution to his financial troubles, and that involves sending Tino Armani played surprisingly well by Walton Goggins (unrecognisable from his character in The Shield), to sort out his financial troubles, even so much as to pay off the IRS. On their first meeting Randy is amazed to find out that Tino has the same country dialect as he does, to which Tino responds he never judges people by the pigment in their skin or their dialect. After a while Randy is even more impressed by how seemingly good natured Tino is, and soon all in the small community are besotted by Tino. He even manages to improve the menu on one of Randy’s restaurant businesses that had so many people queueing to get in when Randy arrived he automatically assumed there was an incident and that the police had been called. At this stage it should be mentioned Randy has an on-going problem with one of the local law enforcement officers Griff Postell, played by Brent Briscoe (Mulholland Drive) who seems to have it in for him at every opportunity, since Griff blames him for a “whooping” he gave him in the third grade, which many witnessed, but Griff subsequently gave Randy a “whooping” in the sixth grade, but unfortunately no one witnessed it.

As well as trying to solve his financial troubles, Randy has to cope with his wife Charlotte, played by the lovely Lisa Blount (The Accountant) newly acquired Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from dancing lessons she has been giving, which has left her a little depressed, and trying to patch the relationship with his gay twin brother and his partner Bill played by Tim DeKay (The Russell Girl). A relationship Randy has never accepted, much to the annoyance of his twin and his partner.

This is a surprisingly genial comedy drama, and it contains some classic scenes, especially where Randy is on the phone to Franco while at a rubbish tip.

Ray McKinnon is effortlessly adept between the two roles, and it is an entertaining movie many will enjoy.

Mr D Stevens is a reviewer at Movie reviews

Your Source For Funny Jokes And Comedy silent humor

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.