95 - Step Brothers

Connection To ANCHORMAN 2 - Will Ferrell and Adam McKay (ending the three film adventure for now).

By now (films like Stranger Than Fiction aside among others) Will Ferrell (like Adam Sandler) as settled into what works for him as far as audiences go, he's usually either man-child or buffoon (or both), Step Brothers is arguably him at his most man-childeness (yeah I inverted a word to suit my needs), I mean he acts like a child (as does John C. Reilly) and it's not the fact that they still live at home is that even in their 40s they want and have zero of the responsibility  Ferrell and Reilly co-starring together had already proved an enjoyable thing (Talladega Nights) and the pair as rivals then friends are enjoyable to watch however which way play off of each other.

Like all the Will Ferrell-Adam McKay films (the third in a row covered here) the plot is slight and is an excuse to do gags, which depending on your tolerance of Ferrell is going to factor in how much you will enjoy this movie. Ferrell and Reilly starting off as antagonists before coming friends (or allies or lovers depending on film) is actually quite common in his work when you think about it - Blades Of Glory (two rivals end up teaming up), Anchorman (Veronica and Ron start at each others throats), The Other Guys (cops who don't like each other end up with respect and friendship) are a few that come to mind.

The funniest bits for me juvenile as they are including a ballsack on a drum kit and an attempt by the brothers to turn their beds into bunk heads that doesn't go too well.

Overall, it's important to say this if you love or like Will Ferrell then you are going to like this, hate him: don't waste your time and tut through it.

94 - Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Connection To THE OTHER GUYS - Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.

Sequels that come out along time after the original, there's always a fear isn't there - if you are a fan of the original, the positives of that film have spent years building up in your mind. I think comedy in-particular might just have the hardest time, the upcoming sequel to Dumb & Dumber as been long-waited and the original is much loved and it's been 20 years (which feels unbelievable I remember going to the cinema twice to see it). Anchorman 2 didn't take quite as long though with 9 years, but it's fair to say it's popularity built up over the next few years after it, so yeah it's got a lot to live up to.

To be honest, the best way to perhaps describe it is as a slightly inferior copy of the original, though the story is different, the elements of the original are certainly there - a rival newscaster, even Veronica and Ron's relationship is somewhat reset to the antagonist elements of the first, there's also the newscaster fight (which is bigger with so many surprise cameos, none of them I will list to not give away the surprises) and thankfully Brick is still... well as Brick as you want him to be.

So I did enjoy it... an important element for me at least of a comedy film is that it needs to be funny and it's funny, and it's probably the callbacks to the first movie that perhaps yield the funniest moments - James Marsden echoing Vince Vaughn from the first movie - funny. Brick being Brick - funny... this time he has a love interest in Kristen Wiig... the newscaster war - funny, among other things, but it feels there is slightly less plot going on here then the first time around and it's a film that doesn't have the same quotability factor (I Love Lamp, whales vagina etc.) but maybe time will tell on that front.

I think the returning characters valubility stayed the same for me - Brick is still the MVP, while others just get to be in his shadow but still have their moments. Of new characters not mentioned Meagan Good is a decent new foil/love interest for Burgundy while Harrison Ford honestly doesn't make that much impact.

Overall, yeah a sequel of diminishing returns but there is still enough funny in here to make it worth a watch, if you didn't like the first one don't bother with this but if you did you'll be suitably entertained.

93 - The Other Guys

Connection To LOVELACE - Bobby Cannavale.

By now (fictional readers of this blog) you can see I'm back on a role, I wasn't lying when I said outside forces took me away from a blog that I enjoy doing, and I'm not quite back onto doing obscure titles like I did before, but they'll be starting back with time, I hope to include some more world cinema which I've touched on briefly so far, but bear with me when I do the backlog and starting getting into a different variety of films.

While film haves mocked the buddy cop genre better in the past (and since actually) this is still an enjoyable romp, the lead pair "the other guys" - Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg have decent chemistry I mean it's not Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in 21 Jump Street but it is pretty darn good, there's a fun smaller roles for Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson convincing as the superstar cops. I think I did feel like I got more value out of the smaller roles thinking about it Rob Riggle and Damon Wayans Jr. are entertaining as rival cops as is Michael Keaton as the police chief.

While the story line is not entirely uninteresting, in all honesty it's not that exciting, it's likely just an excuse to get the guys from scene to scene - which there is really no iconic scenes of to mention, there's funny scenes yeah but they'll be nothing that stays in my mind in the years to come.

Overall enjoyable, just don't expect a film that will revolutionize how you see the comedy genre but to repeat myself it's a film of good chemistry all around.

33 - The Ladies Man

Connection To DEATH SPA - Karyn Parsons

Films based on recurring Saturday Night Live characters have been a mixed bag - well that's an understatement - for every Wayne's World or a Blues Brothers there's a It's Pat or a Stuart Saves His Family and it's biggest flurry seemed to come off the back of Wayne's World in 1992 that ended with The Ladies Man in 2000, since then only MacGruber as come to the big screen (though I'd pay good money for a Stefon movie). So did The Ladies Man effectively kill the "SNL Movie" or was it just a last gasp on something that was already on the way out?

It's probably a bit of both, the last few SNL movies - A Night At The Roxbury, Superstar - didn't really set the box-office alight and I imagine this was it's last chance and it's not that it's a bad film it's more there is a funny film in there trying desperately to get out.

Leon Phelps (Tim Meadows) is a radio DJ known as The Ladies Man who gives romance advice and lovemaking tips that let's just say and not all ways the best, who goes to far during a broadcast and is fired. He later recieves a note from a former flame who is willing to support his high style, but they haven't signed their name and must go through his numerous conquests, meanwhile a secret group consisting of angry husbands and boyfriends that their partners have slept with Leon find out it was him and want to get revenge.

I maybe jumping to conclusions but when a film comes in a shade over 80 minutes from a big studio, I always a imagine there was a lot of cutting and the final film is sort of like making do

Karyn Parsons, as his producer Julie and obviously likes him perhaps plays it too well, I've seen a few comedies have this problem where why in a million years they would like this schmuck but the warmth they bring in their relationship to the character feels real entirely because of the actresses performance (Christina Ricci in Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star) was a similar problem).

Some actors who appear are better then the material - Julianne Moore (especially, but boy does she look cute in clown makeup) and Eugene Levy (but those his willingness to appear in the American Pie direct to DVD sequels - quality control isn't exactly his thing). Will Ferrell co-stars among some other SNL alumni (Chris Parnell) as does Lee Evans, whose attempt at American accent (like in There's Something About Mary) is distracting, Billy Dee Williams was also enjoyable as the barman at Leon's regular haunt.

Overall, funny every now and again and at 82 minutes it doesn't take too long of your time, but for a comedy it's just not gut-bustingly funny enough for me.