Paul

The movie Paul is a culmination of science fiction, referencing popular movies, comics, books, nerd conventions, Area 51, and all other such nerdome, as experienced by British travelers Graeme Willy (Simon Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Nick Frost).

After attending the San Diego Comic Con, Graeme and Clive rent an RV (recreational vehicle for all you city-folk) and map out a course of extraterrestrial legends across the desert-Southwest of the United States that they plan to visit. As you would expect anywhere outside of New York City, Boston, and Los Angeles, America is inhabited by lunatic right-wing religious nuts carrying guns, wearing camouflage, and spitting on the floor. Clive and Graeme run into such characters and thus begin their flee from the law.

However, in this dramatic flight, they nearly literally run into Paul, an alien (Seth Rogen), with quite an attitute (like Seth Rogen) and a propensity for some of the finer vices of society, (like Seth Rogen).

What they didn't know is that Paul is also being pursued by Special Agent Lorenzo Zoil (Jason Bateman), Agent Haggard (Bill Hader), and Agent O'Reilly (Joe Lo Trulgio) under the direction of "The Big Guy" (Sigourney Weaver).

Along the way, the Brits run into one-eyed redneck Jesus girl named Ruth (Kristen Wiig) and her father Moses Buggs (John Carroll Lynch), of which Graeme strikes up a love interest (with Ruth, not her father).

All tensions culminate at the end with some good ole' fashion violence. The movie is strung together with some hysterical reference to science fiction pop culture (such as Star Wars). Check out the music being played in the country bar! Or the Han Solo reference, which is more subtle.

There are cameo appearances by Jeffrey Tambor, Bateman's castmate on the hysterically funny show Arrested Development, and the occasionally funny David Koechner.

Paul is Rated R for language, violence, drug use, sexual reference, and at times an inappropriate attack on religion, though interestingly, none of the other reviews mentioned that. But then again the other reviews probably came from liberal atheists out of New York and Los Angeles. The movie is about an hour and 45 minutes long.

I thought Paul was very funny at times, but dragged along at others. I agree with some reviews that the movie had a lot of potential and left it on the drawing board. Paul could have been absolutely hysterical, but unfortunately achieves only moderately funny.

I'll beam down 3.4 stars.

Extract

Jason Bateman seems to be everywhere lately. We all remember him as the brother of Justine Bateman, the hot girl from Family Ties who disappeared from the face of the Earth. He made a name for himself on the show Valerie, which was then renamed Valerie's Family, then subsequently renamed The Hogan Family. But that's a different story.

Jason Bateman didn't really hit it big again until Arrested Development, one of the funniest shows ever and set the tone for his movie characters to follow. Since 2007 he has been in the following movies that I have seen:

The Kingdom

Juno

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Hancock

State of Play

The Invention of Lying

Up in the Air

Extract

Couple's Retreat

This time, he stars as Joel the owner and manager of a company that makes extract, you know - like vanilla-flavored extract used in baking. His company is doing really well, but his wife Suzie (Kristen Wiig) sucks and won't have sex, his employees are disgruntled and think they should be paid millions of dollars, and his best friend Dean (Ben Affleck) is a crazy bartender who's a little free willy with dolling out the drugs. Meanwhile, Joel is about as straight-laced as you can get.

There is hilarious interaction between him and his obnoxious neighbor Nathan (David Koechner) and the lawyer (Gene Simmons) who represents Step (Clifton Collins Jr) who is injured at work. And then there is the gigilo that he hires for his wife so that he can get a divorce.

Joel thinks he may have found something special when he runs into Cindy (Mila Kunis) who joins the company and takes an active interest in him. However, things start going amok at the factory and Joel is about ready to throw in the towel.

Having worked at a factory, I can totally relate to this movie. There is one line by one of the factory workers that I have heard no less than 3.721 million times - "Everyone knows that I'm the hardest working employee here!" I couldn't stop laughing. I even rewound the movie to hear that again.

Extract was directed by Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill. The movie is 92 minutes long and is Rated R for language, sexual references, and drug use. Mila Kunis is totally hot, so look for her in some future movies.

The movie also stars J.K. Simmons, no relation to Gene Simmons, the lead singer of Kiss. You'll remember J.K. as J. Jonah Jameson, the chief of the Daily Bugle from the Spiderman Movies.

I really liked Extract for its quirky dry humor. Jason Bateman is becoming one of my favorite actors and this movie was perfect for him. I give Extract 4 stars.

My One and Only

Based on the true story of actor George Hamilton's childhood, My One and Only follows George's life across the country with his brother and mother after she leaves George's father.

Renee Zellweger is George's mom in this movie set in the late 1950's and rather than finding a job she finds it much classier to just find a nice man to marry. Several marriages and several different cities later they find themselves in California trying to make their life work. Meanwhile, George's father, played by Kevin Bacon, travels the country as the band leader for a big lounge band and occasionally runs into George (played by Logan Lerman).

Starting in New York City,the family trio go from Boston, to Pittsburgh, to St. Louis, and finally to Los Angeles. The movie is fairly funny with George's brother Robbie (Mark Rendall) stealing the show with his flamboyant quips. However, like many people in life, they are always running and never finding happiness. George wants to be a writer and Robbie wants to be an actor, while their mother wants to be married. Life may not turn out like they expect.

Also staring in the movie are David Koechner, Troy Quinn, and newcomer Molly C. Quinn.

My One and Only is Rated PG-13 for some sexuality, which was brief, but funny, and some language.

Directed by Richard Loncraine, who also did Firewall, this movie is an hour and 45 minutes long.

I thought this movie was decent. It kept me chuckling throughout and I enjoyed the subtle humor. I give My One and Only 4 stars.

The Goods, Live Hard, Sell Hard

When times get tough in this economy for a car dealership, they call on Don Ready (Jeremy Piven), who's a fast-talking closer who gets the job done. He brings his team of crack commandos with the intention of clearing the lot over the 4th of July weekend.

Ready has his plans in order and everything goes well until he is blindsided by love. Unfortunately, his love interest, Ivy Selleck (Jordana Spiro) is engaged to competing car dealer super dork Paxton Harding (Ed Helms) who is out to destroy the dealership, which is owned by patriarch Ben Selleck (James Brolin).

Don Ready's crew consists of Brent Gage (David Koenchner), Babs Merrick (Kathryn Hahn), and Jibby Newsome (Ving Rhames). Fortunately for Ready, he also has the spirit of McDermott to help guide him in his troubled times. McDermott is a former team member who died in a plane stunt. In the grain of Ron Burgandy, the movie has its totally goofy parts and potty humor.

Also staring in the movie is Alan Thicke as Paxton Harding's father, and Will Ferrell as McDermott. I think you'll get a good kick out of the two of them.

The Goods, Live Hard, Sell Hard is Rated R for sexual situations, language, violence, and nudity, though the nudity, be forwarned, consists of them watching porn on television. The movie is 90 minutes long.

Overall, I had several good laughs, but thought the plot a bit thin and drawn out. If Redbox doesn't have any new releases available, this one's not too bad. I give it 3 stars.

Drillbit Taylor

Though I haven't written a movie review in a while, it doesn't mean that I haven't watched any movies. My movie viewing has slowed somewhat now that we are in the summer, but it hasn't come to a halt. That being said -

Drillbit Taylor is a comedy staring Owen Wilson as Drillbit Taylor, a charming vagrant who relies on the handouts of others, so much like his characters in Wedding Crashers, The Big Bounce, and You, Me, and Dupree. Hey, when you play a roll well, you play it often.

Wilson, easily the ugliest guy in Hollywood, is a funny guy. His quick and verbose responses are hysterical. In this movie, three nerdy kids are being pushed around and harassed by a couple of bullies, one of which is Josh Peck from Drake and Josh. How do you get bullied by Josh? He was the fat and spastic nerdy one. Anyway, these kids get tired of being shoved into lockers, having their lunches smashed, and all other things that bullies do to us regular people.

Which reminds me - there was a guy at Bel Air High School that thought he was the coolest thing ever (he had a real pretty blond mullet) and he stiff-armed everyone in the hall. What a corn cob! He probably still drives a bitchin' Camaro.

So the kids put out a help wanted message on the Internet for a bodyguard. They perform a series of funny interviews with potential candidates, only to have their hopes dashed when they present their price. Finally, Drillbit Taylor comes to their aid. The only problem is that he is in cahoots with other vagrants with the intent to rob these kids' parents houses of everything they are worth. To make matters worse, Drillbit has no real intention of helping these kids. He takes them through Drillbit self-defense classes, which have techniques that he makes up on the fly.

Drillbit then infiltrates the school as becomes a substitute teacher. While on watch patrol, he falls for English teacher Lisa (Leslie Mann - 40 Year old Virgin, Knocked Up) and they love their "planning period".

To make matters worse, Ryan, one of the 3 kids, lives with his overbearing and over-loving mother. Wade, the skinny nerdy kid, lives with his mom, his jackass meathead step-father, and his do-no-wrong football step-brothers. Finally, there's

Finally at the end, Drillbit is fired as their bodyguard and the kids stand up to the bullies themselves with some moderate success. But will that success withstand in their attempt to bring down the bully or will they need Drillbit to come in at the last moment to save them? The movie has guest appearances from David Koechner, who specializes in 30 second roles, and stars Nate Hartley, Troy Gentile (who I think plays Seth Rogan as a child in all of Seth's movies),

The movie has some funny one-liners, none of which I can remember at this point. The movie, released in 2008 and spending more than 6 days in the theatre, is 101 minutes long, Rated PG-13 for some crude sexual humor, violence, bullying, and Owen's naked butt. I give this movie 4 stars. I think it is funnier than most of Owen's movies, so give it a shot!

The Comebacks

The Comebacks is a new comedy staring David Koechner, famous for being in several of Will Ferrell's movies including Talladega Nights and Anchorman, The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The movie was produced by the same producer as "The Wedding Crashers" as advertised on their movie poster.

This movie is soaked in gags and guttural humor. The movie does a good job of spoofing many other movies, so the more movies you have seen, the better understanding you have of the intended humor.

I say intended humor, because a lot of it was mildly funny, not hee-haw funny. For example, his daughter starts dating one of the players on the team. Throughout the movie she keeps refereeing to him as her "black boyfriend". Funny the first time, maybe. Borderline controversial for the other 45 times that she said it throughout the movie.

The first part of the movie was funny enough to keep my interest, even if my response was, "ahhh…ok." There were lots of gags like the ones you would see in Top Secret, Airplane, and Scary Movie (including all 17 sequels). I like a good gag/spoof movie now and then.

However, the second half of the movie put me over the edge. Not funny. I couldn't wait for it to be over. One good thing about the movie is that it was only 97 minutes long. However, the bad thing is that it should have ended about 50 minutes into it.

Overall, I want to give this movie 3 stars, because there were some parts that were funny enough. However, the ending just wouldn't come soon enough as the second half was on the cusp of boring. So I have to give this movie 2 stars, but would give it 2 1/2 if my business rules would have allowed it - but unfortunately they don't.