MovieTalkFest

‘Baby Mama’ Number One at Box Office

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler delivered a great comedy to theaters last Friday. Tongue-in-Cheek laughs mixed with sarcastic humor makes this one of my personal favorites for the year thus far. The two Saturday Night Live alums team up once again; this time holding off another contender for Top Comedy, ‘Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.’

Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey), a single, 37 year old business woman, hears her maternal time clock ticking loud and clear. After failed attempts of in vitro and adoption, Kate decides to pay a ridiculous amount of money ($100,000) to use an agency which finds surrogate mothers with wombs for hire.

Kate is finally paired up with Angie (Amy Poehler), a questionable woman who really has nothing more to offer the world besides her uterus. After a fight with her man, Angie moves into Kate’s sophisticated home and becomes her own personal leach. Their contrasting morals, socioeconomics and wardrobe choices are humorously obvious from the beginning. But, Kate will get her baby, and Angie, $20,000 dollars; so the pro’s seem to outweigh the con’s.

Although the humor never slows throughout the movie, there is a turn of events that is sure to shock the interested, making it seem like not such a “happily ever after” movie after all. Kate also finally finds the perfect man for her, who owns a smoothie shop right down the street from where her new Natural Food’s smoothie shop is going up. Kate also teaches Angie good life lessons, like healthy eating, how to swallow huge “horse” pills, and the all important rule: No peeing in the sink!

With a slew of appearances by known actors, (Sigourney Weaver, Steve Martin, Dax Shepard, and Greg Kinnear) it seems like there will be a enough laughs to make even the most manly-man smirk. There is plently of laugh out loud moments, mixed with a few giggles, “ooohs”, “aaahhs”, and “Oh My God, did that really just happen?’s” that it attracted many different types pf people to the theater.

If you haven’t seen it and are a big fan of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, or are just looking for a terrific girls night out comedy, this is definitely the movie to see! Otherwise, this maybe a movie better seen at home.

Tags: comedy, Reviews

Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay

“Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay” is an uneven and too-long but occasionally hilarious sequel to 2004’s “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.” The new film bounces between the raunchy and the relevant, the profane and the political, like Homer Simpson at a bake sale.

Investment-banker Harold Lee (John Cho) and med-student friend Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) are off to Amsterdam to win the heart of Maria (Paula Garces), the woman on whom Harold was crushing big time in the first film. But the would-be romantic European getaway is hijacked by events, as well as H&K’s dorky stupidity.

The trouble they get into is enough to get them hauled off the plane, branded as terrorists and sent to detention at Guantanamo Bay. They flee, first to South Florida, then to Central Texas, in search of help in getting their reputations back.

As with “White Castle,” much of the humor is about as sophisticated as a college kegger. Within the opening minutes, there’s a brief, sex-related sight gag that no doubt will repulse as many viewers as it entertains. Their pal Neil Patrick Harris, once again playing the Bizarro version of himself, returns with an even bigger sexual appetite. And the whole men-in-prison scenario plays out like “Oz” meets “Beavis and Butt-head.”

Such moments are cheek-by-jowl with a goofball skewering of racial profiling, the Patriot Act, radical Muslim terrorists and life in general in these panicky times. Like with “White Castle,” Cho and Penn’s mere presence as young, Asian-American guys - still a rarity in terms of Hollywood leading men - sets “Guantanamo Bay” apart from other slob comedies.

This film is rated R for sexual content, nudity, strong language, drug use, and crude humor. Running time: 102 minutes.

Tags: comedy, Reviews