MOVIE - This Is the End

R (1:47)

Released 6/12/2013

Viewed Century Gateway (Kolb) with Sheila 9/24/2013

RT Critic: 84 Audience: 80

2 - it was okay/ crazy/ silly/ stupid/ funny

Directed by Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogen

Sony Pictures

Actors: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill

Rotten Tomato summary: The comedy This Is The End follows six friends trapped in a house after a series of strange and catastrophic events devastate Los Angeles. As the world unravels outside, dwindling supplies and cabin fever threaten to tear apart the friendships inside. Eventually, they are forced to leave the house, facing their fate and the true meaning of friendship and redemption.

My comments:  The actors were "acting" at being themselves, stuck in James Franco's home during the beginning of the apocolypse (complete with hugely-dangling-penised monster).  There were some really funny parts...actually, the whole thing was quite funny, although the whole time I was sitting there I was asking myself, "why?"  Definitely entertainment-only spoof of life in the Hollywood Hills.....

MOVIE - The Guilt Trip

PG-13 (1:35)
Released 12-19-12
on DVD 4/30/13
saw it at the cheap theater on Kolb on 2-15-13
RT Critic:  37% Audience:  49%
cag:  3.5/Lots of good chuckles, very enjoyable
Directed by Anne Fletcher
Paramount Pictures

Barbra Streisand, Seth Rogen (quite a combo!)

From Fandango:  Before embarking on a once-in-a-lifetime road trip, Andy Brewster (Seth Rogen) pays a visit to his overbearing mother, Joyce (Barbra Streisand). That proves to be a big mistake; Andy caves in under pressure to take his mom along for the ride. Early on -- as the miles roll by -- Andy feels nothing but aggravation at her antics. Eventually however, he comes to realize that they have more in common than he first thought and that Joyce's wisdom might be just what he needs.

Barbra Streisand was fun to watch...she tried to be a little shlumpy, but those perfectly manicured French nails belied that.  However, they worked really well together and I was able to chuckle along quite nicely.  Good entertainment.  During the credits, some scenes that had been cut of them traveling in the car were shown, great fun.

MOVIE: Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Rating: Fun, Funny, Sweet - and Tasteless, & Raunchy
Viewed: Opening Night, Oct. 31, 2008
Park Place, Halloween Night
Rotten Tomato Rating: 67%
Mine: About the same
EW: C- cag: B
Genre: Comedy
Released 10-31-08
R (1 hr. 41 min.)
Directed by: Kevin Smith
Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks

I'll try to keep this as PG as possible, because I know a couple of my students read this blog.

I love Seth Rogen's voice. You don't expect it.

Zack and Miri have been friends since first grade, and now live together as platonic friends in a 2nd floor apartment in Pittsburgh, where they grew up. As the movie opens they're preparing to go to their Thanksgiving-Eve 10th High School Reunion. It's snowed, it's freezing, icy and blech-y. They're broke. The water's turned off, then the electricity. They're burning trash in a barrel in the living room to keep warm. So Zack (who works at a small, privately-owned Starbucks look-alike) cooks up an idea to create a home-made porno to make enough money to pay the bills. After interviewing and hunting, they gather around them a small group of quirky people to be actors and begin their endeavor. Zack and Miri, too, will take part in the movie, as actors, and with each other. And, although the two have been only platonic friends through the years, they realize that what they feel for each other is far more than that.

I'm glad I'm a stay-til-the-end credit watcher. Just before the music credits there's a two or three minute segment advertisihg Zack and Miri Brown's (hint hint) video company - they will come into your home and video your most private moments so that you don't need to watch anyone else's born. Nice touch.

Good music track. And Elizabeth Banks wears an assortment of winter scarves that are a blast!