This is 40

ROMANTIC DRAMEDY

Life Goes On

★ ★ 1/2 out of 5 | Movie - DVD - Rental

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Rated: R Pervasive language, crude humor, sexual content and some drug use.
Release Date: December 21, 2012
Runtime: 2 hours 14 minutes

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Director: Judd Apatow
Writers: Judd Apatow
Cast: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Jason Segel, Robert Smigel, Megan Fox, Graham Parker, John Lithgow, Albert Brooks

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SYNOPSIS: Pete and Debbie reach their 40th birthdays which occur a week apart. As they reach this milestone in their lives, they realize that their lives aren't as perfect as they thought they would be.

REVIEW: Writer/director Judd Apatow hit the big screen running with the 2005 The 40 Year Old Virgin and his 2007 follow-up Knocked Up. He has since created funny situations with his writing and with direction of short films. Now, Apatow returns with his self-proclaimed "sort-of" sequel to Knocked Up in the form of a peek into the continued lives of Pete, Debbie, and their two slightly older kids in This Is 40.

Pete (Paul Rudd, Wanderlust) and Debbie (Leslie Mann, The Change-Up) are both approaching their 40th birthdays that take place a week apart. Debbie runs a fashion boutique and Pete had quit his job as a Sony executive to start his own record label. As Debbie pronounces that she is turning 38 years old again, Pete can't understand why his beautiful wife is so concerned about it. They deal with the angst of raising a budding teenager Sadie (Maude Apatow, Funny People) and younger sister Charlotte (Iris Apatow, Funny People), while dealing with financial worries at both of their businesses. As the birthday party looms closer, the family dynamic worsens as teenage Facebook threads, mooching father Larry (Albert Brooks, Drive), absentee father Oliver (John Lithgow, The Campaign), financial worries, and a fracturing marriage all add to the dread of actually turning 40.

This is 40 is Judd Apatow's way of immortalizing the sometimes bitter milestone of venturing into the start of the fifth decade of one's journey in life. Instead of creating brand new characters, Apatow revisits old friends we already have history with. Pete and Debbie were there for Ben Stone (Seth Rogen, For a Good Time, Call...) and Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl, One for the Money) when their initial drunk encounter resulted in an unexpected pregnancy and birth. Now, a few years later, we return to Pete and Debbie's home to watch both start a spiraled descent into a form of mid-life crisis as they both reach 40.

Apatow was smart to self-promote This is 40 as of the 'sort-of' sequel to Knocked Up. This new film is not as sophomoric humorous as Rogen's blundering and Heigl's stammering in the face of an unexpected birth. But if you watched Pete and Debbie in Knocked Up, their lives take on a similar tone in this return to their lives. This comedy is more dramatic than comedic, but still has a few moments that you will snicker or chuckle at. Heavyweight comedian Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) comes to bat the humor out of the park as a disgruntled schoolboy mother who confronts both Pete and Debbie with hilarious results. Stay for the end credit blooper reel of a principal/parent conference that is the actual highlight of the film.

There are other sequences meant to be funny, but they don't live up to what Apatow has created on screen in the past. Several subplot lines seem unnecessary and only serve as fodder for possible hit-and-miss laughs. Debbie's employees Desi (Megan Fox, Jonah Hex) and Jodi (Charlyne Yi, Semi-Pro) are at the center of misplaced money at Debbie's store. Pete's Unfiltered Records employee Ronnie (Chris O'Dowd, Bridesmaids) seems unable or unwilling to market Pete's passion artist Graham Parker, at the risk of the label going under. Jason Segel (The Five-Year Engagement), playing trainer/spiritual guide/life coach Jason, tightens Debbie's buns and offers a few silly lines and smirks but didn't seem crucial to the story. A lot of things are happening, as is the case in most of our lives, but most don't seem necessary to an audience's review. Boil down some of that 134 minutes and Apatow may have had a quicker paced and tighter film.

As Apatow moves on to more personally important, more comedic/dramatic fare, he may be leaving behind that part of his audience fan base that thrived on his sophomoric palette of humor. Sure, there are a few fart jokes, potty humor, a close inspection of a planetary constellation orbiting around Paul Rudd's bottom, and everything that Melissa McCarthy pulls from her arsenal. But as the message of parental regrets, hormonal teenagers, financial uncertainty, and the fears of facing the future takes center stage, the drama of real life didn't seem as funny as it used to be.

Apatow is known for clever, witty, and funny looks at life's situations. From middle-aged virgins to expecting fathers, from agents turned hairdressers to pot smokers at the wrong place at the wrong time, Apatow ramps up the absurdity of most situations. With vulgarity, potty humor, or drug and sexual references, he still captures and relays a tender message of hope. This time, his film is more on point and dramatic, sometimes missing the opportunity to capitalize further on the silly. Unhappy spouses, risk of financial ruin, and the angst of raising children in a preservative-filled digital age needs a bigger injection of laughs.

This is 40 is a worthwhile movie in the sense that it takes a slice of 'real life' and deals with relationships and responsibilities across several generations. There could have been less clutter to make the film better. There could have been lighter tones to make it better. You will enjoy it if you know what you should prepare for.

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The Five-Year Engagement

Four Funerals and a Wedding

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Rated: R Sexual content and language throughout
Release Date: April 27, 2012
Runtime:  2 hrs 4 mins

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Director: Nicolas Stoller
Writers: Jason Segel, Nicolas Stoller
Cast: Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Chris Pratt, Allison Brie, Mimi Kennedy, David Payer, Rhys Ifans, Kevin Hart

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SYNOPSIS: A year after they met, Tom Solomon proposes marriage to Violet Barnes. As they try to prepare for their wedding, obstacles keep getting the way of their engagement.

REVIEW: Nicolas Stoller has been busy as of late, directing films like Get Him to the Greek and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and performing writing duties for films including Yes Man and The Muppets. Partnering again with writer and actor Jason Segel (The Muppets), they both share writing credits for The Five-Year Engagement, while Stoller helms the film behind the monitors. 

In San Francisco in New Year's Eve, one year after they first met, sous chef Tom Solomon (Jason Segel, The Muppets) clumsily proposes to his academic girlfriend Violet Barnes (Emily Blunt, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen). Now engaged, they start to plan their wedding. When Violet gets a 2-year post doc position at the University of Michigan Psychology Department run by Winton Childs (Rhys Ifans, Anonymous), Tom gives up his promising career to be with her near campus in Ann Arbor, as well as agreeing to postpone the wedding date until they get settled. One thing after another gets in the way of their wedding plans, forcing them to reschedule their reservations and reevaluate their relationship.

The Five-Year Engagement is a hilarious film with a sweet story along with it. Jason Segel has proven he can hang with the big boys with his comedy chops and writing skills. With The Muppets and Get Him to the Greek under his belt for his writing resume and CBS's How I Met Your Mother to hone his comedy chops, Segel is perched on the edge of romantic comedy stardom if The Five-Year Engagement does well. Emily Blunt, fresh off her romantic turn as Harriet in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Matt Damon's muse in The Adjustment Bureau, brings a gorgeous smile, a fine British accent, and her own sense of comedy and romance to her role as Violet. Segel and Blunt are center stage with all of the angst that wedding preparations can cause, but they are helped along the way by a  cadre of supporting cast that fill in the story nicely.Chris Pratt (Moneyball) plays Tom's goofball chef friend Alex who manages to say all the wrong and most inappropriate things in support of his friend. Violet's sister Suzie (Alison Brie, Scream 4) manages to beat Violet to the punch in most respects with funny results, and also manages to prepare a memorable engagement speech. Violet's post doc friends include masturbation obsessed Doug (Kevin Hart, Think Like A Man), gossipy Vaneetha (Mindy Kaling, No Strings Attached), and off-beat Ming (Randall Park, Larry Crowne) round out Violet's psychology ring under the tuteluge of Dr. Childs. Tom also has his own group of U of M friends, including sweater knitting Bill (Chris Parnell, 21 Jump Street) and sandwich shop pickle expert Tarquin (Brian Posehn, Sex Drive). Hart is a little understated compared to his Cedric role in Think Like A Man, Kaling is a clone of The Office's Kelly Kapoor, Parnell is a montage of several roles he has played in skits or other comedies, and Posehn is always a little weird. The real break-outs are Parks and Recreation's Chris Pratt recreating his moron role with great success, and Alison Brie tacking on an accent and adding great timing to her sisterly character. I guess Mad Men and Community have has a positive effect on her. And play special attention to her and Blunt's rendition of a coupe of Sesame Street characters.

In this tale, the comedy is better then the romance. Jason Segel knows how to work his way around the funny bone. Strange settings and props, including many parts of venison and the beast it comes from, make for silly situations. On the romantic side, Segel is indeed a capable actor but Blunt rules the roost with her smiles and skills. Segel and writer/director Stolling balance the dramatics and the funny digs in perfect harmony, with a slight leaning toward the gut-busting versus the eye-gushing.

The Five-Year Engagement is an obvious title for the Segel and Blunt film. It could have been called Four Funerals and a Wedding but I think that parody title was already taken. You will laugh out loud quite a bit, but may not shed the tear you want to for the typical romantic comedy. Overall, the story works, the actors excel at their craft, and the audience will be engaged for the 124 minute film. The time will not feel as long as a five-year engagement, but you wonder how it will ever work out in the end, if at all.

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WORTH: Matinee or Rental

Jeff, Who Lives At Home

Looking for Kevin

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Rated: R  Language, some drug use and sexual references
Release Date: March 16, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 23 mins

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Director:  Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass

Writers: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
Cast:  Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon, Judy Greer, Rae Dawn Chong, Steve Zissis

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SYNOPSIS: When 30-year-old Jeff is told to got out of the house to buy wood glue for a broken pantry door shutter, he ventures out of the basement letting the universe guide his path throughout the day.

REVIEW: Jay and Mark Duplass, writers and directors of the 2005 Sundance breakout hit The Puffy Chair, as well as Baghead and Cyrus, combine their collective writing and vision again for another off-beat semi-comedic drama Jeff, Who Lives at Home. Don't let the title fool you, hardly any of the film takes place inside the Jeff's home.

30-year-old slacker pothead Jeff (Jason Segel, The Muppets) resides in his widowed mother Sharon (Susan Sarandon, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) basement. Letting the cosmos guide his life, Jeff sits and waits for his destiny to reveal itself. On his mother's birthday, Jeff's mother calls to demand that Jeff get out of the house, onto a bus, and to the local Home Depot to pick up wood glue for a broken pantry door shutter before she comes home from work. When a mis-dialed call asking for Kevin comes in, Jeff sees the call as a sign that guides him throughout the day. What starts as a bus ride, soon becomes stalking as Jeff follows a ball player with the name Kevin stitched on the back of his jersey. Enter Jeff's brother Pat (Ed Helms, The Hangover Part II) who starts the day revealing to his wife Linda (Judy Greer, The Descendants) he has bought a Porsche and ends up running into the cosmically guided Jeff who assists Pat in following Linda when it appears that his wife may be cheating on him. Meanwhile, Sharon becomes the focus of a secret admirer who sends her a picture of a flower and converses with her through the office's instant chat interface. As Sharon tries to uncover the man who is either interested in her or playing a practical joke on her, she confides her findings with close coworker Carol (Rae Dawn Chong, Cyrus).

What seems to be a series of random, unrelated events (as written above) is actually a closely wound story. Jeff's way of thinking about his life and the purpose of his life is akin to how he views M. Night Shyamalan's film Signs. When he is confronted by the first Kevin (Evan Ross, Pride) of the day, he tries to impress upon the young basketball player that the reason why he was following the young man was because life is like the movie. Even at the beginning of the film, Jeff actually dictates into a recording device how important and decisive the elements of Signs is in terms of how he sees the world.

Although a family, Jeff, his brother Pat and his wife Linda, and their mother Sharon are a broken family even though living in the same town. Pat doesn't understand why Jeff is the way he is. Sharon wonders why her wonderful cute sons have grown up to be so different than what she remembers them as they were growing up. Pat and Linda live with blinders on and are so passive aggressive in their relationship with each other, the bonds of their marriage are disintegrating even as they sit together at the kitchen table.

As Jeff's day is shaped by signs comprised primarily with references to people and things designated with the name Kevin, Jeff finds himself joining up with his brother at points, then forced to abandon Pat as another 'Kevin' sign comes into view. The journey that starts off as an earnest effort to get to the supply store for wood glue becomes a funny and touching adventure.

Jason Segel brings his brand of Knocked Up stoner sensibility and open faith to the role of Jeff. Ed Helms dials down his Andy Bernard (The Office) stamina without losing the kinetic nervousness that Pat has sitting just under the surface. Sarandon and Dawn Chong, both still beautiful, prove that talent and grace will shape actresses throughout entire careers.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home is a surprisingly touching and real look at life with a bit of light humor thrown in. The situations that Jeff gets into or that Pat gets Jeff into offer a down to earth story that draws the audience in for a fine movie going experience. Jeff, Who Lives at Home will never be considered George Clooney's The Descendants, but it covers similar ground in an off-beat Louisiana sort of way.

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WORTH: Matinee or Rental

The Muppets

It's Time to Play the Music

Director: James Bobin

Writers: Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller, from characters of Jim Henson
Cast: Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, Rashida Jones, Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, Dave Goelz, Bill Barretta, David Rudman, Matt Vogel

SYNOPSIS: Years after the height of the Muppets popularity, a young fan goes to Los Angeles to visit the deteriorating Muppets Studios. While there he learns of an evil plot to tear down the location and begs Kermit to come out of retirement for one last bid to get the gang back together for a studio-saving telethon.

REVIEW: The Flight of the Conchords and Da Ali G Show director James Bobin takes a turn to direct not only actors, but the famed Muppets themselves. Although I hear that some of the furry puppets with an M are divas and hard to work with, the rest seemed to quickly get back into the groove for their return to the big screen. Aided by a script from one of the film's own Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother) and established screenwriter Nicholas Stoller (Get Him to the Greek), we are treated with a reverent, relevant story with all of the charm of the original The Muppet Movie.

What happens when the light of your show business career dims and no one can really remember where they have seen it cast its glow? The Muppets takes a look at what happened to Kermit and his crew from the perspective of a Muppet-like young man named Walter. Knowing that he was different from the other kids and from his always supportive brother Gary (Jason Segel), Walter became glued to the television series with Kermit, Miss Piggy and the others, watching the show religiously while it airs and on VHS tape when it went off the air. Walter collected a Kermit watch and other memorabilia over the years, always hoping to make the trip out to the Muppets Studio lot. But, but the time Walter, Gary and Gary's girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams, The Fighter) make a trip out to Hollywood, Walter finds the Muppets Studios essentially shut down and in disrepair. While on the studio tour, Walter breaks off from the group to take a look at Kermit's office. When Statler and Waldorf come into the office with businessman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper, The Town) who looking to buy the property to convert it into a museum, Walter hides and overhears Mr. Richman's secret plans to demolish the site and start drilling for oil. Desperate to save the landmark studios, Walter gets Gary and Mary to help him to hunt down Kermit in an attempt to get all of the Muppets back together again for a telethon to raise $10 million dollars in order to buy back the studio.

Old fans and newcomers alike will enjoy the arm flailing antics of Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear, and the rest of the gang. Although wrought with contemporary personal issues, the characters do not ever change from what we remember. Kermit and Piggy are still have relationship issues, even after all of this years. Gonzo finds success in the plumbing and plumbing accessories business but still longs for the adrenaline rush of the limelight. Fozzie still tries to kill it with his jokes that die onstage in a Reno hotel lounge backed by a Muppet tribute group, the Moopets. Even beloved drummer Animal finds himself walking away from the drumsticks in favor of anger management sessions. Looking at times like a Behind the Music or Where Are They Now? episode, the situations breed silliness and self-discovery.

On the human side, Jason Segel and Amy Adams are perfect as the sweethearts in love ready to provide a helping hand to Walter as they leave their small town of... well,...Smalltown on the start of their own adventure to the big lights of Hollywood. Neither Segel or Adams are strangers to comedic singing and dancing. Adams is well-versed in boisterous theatrics from her stint as Giselle in the real-life fairy tale Enchanted, and Segel from at least one show tune episode of How I Met Your Mother.
The music is toe-tapping with a collection of classic tracks like "We Built This City" and "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard", Muppet-sung charters like Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by the Muppets Barbershop Quartet and Ceelo Green's "Forget You" by Camilla and the Chickens, movie originals like "Man or Muppet", "Party of One", "Pictures in my Head", and "Life's a Happy Song", and the always touching "Rainbow Connection".

Filled with zany characters adults have grown to love and children will come to love, The Muppets continues to be a beloved puppetry institution originally from the mind of Jim Henson. Guest star cameos abound from Neil Patrick Harris to Whoopi Goldberg to Emily Blunt, each and all clamoring for screen time with the Muppets. And with waka waka humor not much more rude than Fozzie's fart shoes (patent pending), The Muppets is fun for the entire family.

WORTH: Matinee and DVD

Bad Teacher

Doing The Minimum Effort

Director: Jake Kasdan
Writers: Gene Stupnitsky, Lee Eisenberg
Stars: Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake, Lucy Punch, Phyllis Smith, John Michael Higgins


SYNOPSIS: When a disinterested junior high teacher Elizabeth Halsey gets dumped by her rich fiancee, she sets her sights on a wealthy substitute teacher to make end meet, much to the chagrin of a well-loved teacher.

REVIEW: Director Jake Kasdan, best known for helming Orange County and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, takes a script from Year One and television's The Office scribe team Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg to bring a raunchy, randy look at junior high school life - this time from the point of view of the overworked and underpaid staff.

What happens when you team Cameron Diaz, How I Met Your Mother's Jason Segel and the always watchable, in demand and busy Justin Timberlake? How about an adult sexy school comedy is part adult Mean Girls and School of Rock.

Where School of Rock takes a desperate broke musician and thrusts him into a private school substitute teacher role with an ulterior motive to try and win the Battle of the Bands competition using the kids in his class, Bad Teacher takes a desperate full-time public school junior high teacher Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) found out by her fiancee to be a gold digger, forcing her to return to the school system she just left to make the rent. Along the way, she attempts to woo a wealthy substitute teacher Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake), clashes with the goody-goody, super chipper fellow teacher Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch), and shields against the advances of the gym teacher Russell Gettis (Jason Segel) while trying to raise money for a boob job in an attempt to make herself feel better about herself.

Cameron Diaz is sultry cool as Halsey, her piercing blue eyes, wicked mouth and golden blonde curls eating up her scenes. She wears her character's distain, displeasure and disinterest like a tight, curvy well-loved T-shirt. Fellow educator Amy Squirrel played by Lucy Punch provides a perfect ticky, twitchy foil to Diaz, a teacher with goofy methods and a dedication to the children of her class and a threadbare sunny deposition ready to crack at any moment - like what happened back in 2008, according to dolphin-loving Principal Wally Snur, played by John Michael Higgins. The real scene-stealers, though, are Jason Segel's gym teacher Russell Gettis with his laid back,"ah shucks", water down a duck's back tireless pursuit of Halsey, Phyllis Smith's quirky, timid teacher Lynn Davies who always follows the rule, and sub teacher Scott Delacorte (Timberlake) who seems to have all the wrong moves with his singing and dancing but still draws all of the attention of the lady teachers.

Bad Teacher focuses little on the plight of the 7th graders, other than one kid who is head-over-heels with a popular girl who thinks she's too good for him. Instead, we are treated with various money-making schemes by Diaz to raise the up-front money for her chest enhancement appointment, a high noon feud that brews with fellow educator Amy Squirrel, and some weird passions by Timberlake, most notably an original ballad sung to sweetheart Amy or a strange passionate moment with Diaz in a hotel room during a class trip.

Many of the best gags are in the trailers, but there are a few surprises along the way that get a few laughs. We are treated to plenty of breasts and some choice curses throughout the film, some perfectly placed and some simply sprinkled in to spice up the dialogue. The ending is typical romantic comedy fare, but I did feel a little cheated by the lack of "just deserts" - almost like how Halsey gets her hands on the State Aptitude Tests!

WORTH: Matinee or Netflix

Despicable Me

Definitely See

[Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Kristen Wiig]

RANT: It finally happened. Remember the great little kid I enjoyed going to kids movies with? He was having a bad day and finally cracked. About two-thirds into the film he wanted to go home and let his mother know it. She shushed him as best she could and tried to refocus him to what was happening on screen. It all ended well, though, because when asked if he liked the movie, he beamed and said yeah!

SYNOPSIS: Super villain Gru gets upstaged by a young hip villain, Vector, and resorts to adopting three orphan girls in order to get access to Vector's shrinking ray gun for the crime of the century.

With the wave of 3D movies and 3D animation, I wonder when the wave will come crashing down with audience fatigue. There is the element of the additional cost and the younger age of some of the viewers unwilling to keep the glasses on the entire film. At any rate, 3D or not, this animated film carries itself... to the moon!

Steve Carell lends his vocal talents as Gru, a hungarian accented super villain bent on perpetrating amazing crimes and achieving world domination. As an middle-aged doer of evil, he has the adoration of his begoggled diminutive yellow minions and the loyalty of his weapons designer, Dr. Nefario. What he doesn't have is a serious credit to his name. Sure, he has stolen the Times Square Jumbo-Tron and the Statue of Liberty (from New York, New York in Las Vegas), but younger scoundrels are stealing his limelight (and ability to secure a loan to fund his latest world dominating scheme).

Enter three orphan girls, Margo, Edith and Agnes, trying to stay on their keeper's, Miss Hattie's, good side by selling as many mail order cookies as possible. Since Gru's nemesis, Vector, is smitten with the cookies, Gru finds it necessary to adopt the orphan girls to gain access into Vector's fortress.

As you would suspect, the hard-hearted Gru and the girls are at odds from the beginning. I do not need to tell you how it ends up for them all. But knowing the destination does not stop the enjoyment of the journey. Gru's minions are unintelligible and hilarious. The orphan girls are funny, independent and can melt your heart with a droopy stare. Even Gru's dog(?) offers up some levity.

The action is both ACME and 007. The rivalry between Vector and Gru, and their gadgets is over the top. But at the end of the day, their deep-seated issues ultimately stem from their desire to win the approval of their parents. And, I believe, "Despicable Me" will also win the approval of parents and kids alike.

Worth: Matinee and a DVD

I am also trying out a new rating system shown below based on reader reaction to my somewhat complex monetary rating scale. I will give both ratings and see what kind of reaction I muster. A movie can receive up to 5 popcorn buckets. Why popcorn buckets? Because I am a slave to the thousand + calorie delight! Enjoy!