1914 - The Heat

I really wanted to see this film when it was in theatres as Bridesmaids was easily one of my favorite films of that year.  It was a no brainer for Paul Feig to reunite with McCarthy and vice versa following the success of their previous joint-outing - and this time they go after the buddy cop genre.  It feels at times very much like those kinds of films that I grew up on.  I like Bullock and McCarthy quite a bit here and the pairing is amazing casting.  That said.... I don't know... I kind of started to feel like the film laboured on a bit - there were some entire scenes that were there just for the funny and didn't move the story along at all, and felt like that.  The film, sadly, is hit or miss - but when it's hitting - it's hitting hard.  There's some belly laughs here with the chemistry of the two leads, but the story beats and everything else feels a bit on the safe and predictable side of things.  Although it could very well be that I just walked into this with unfair and unrealistic expectations.  Please don't let me persuade you from checking it out, as I said - I liked it, but I was just hopping I'd LOVE it.

1795 - This is 40

I'm a big fan of Judd Apatow - I like how much he throws himself into and this little empire and network of people that he's created - it's quite something.  Throw that and Paul Rudd into the mix and I'm a happy camper.  This is by no means a perfect film.  And it's not for everyone - if you like slice-of-life family drama that connects pretty deeply, you'll dig it - but if you like big stakes then I imagine a film about middle class white people not being able to afford their amazing lifestyle isn't going to quite do it for you.  And that's fine too.
The Apatow "method" of improv heavy films has never been quite so obvious as it is here - and I'm not passing judgement or suggesting that it doesn't largely work, but at the same time I find it difficult to justify the running time for this sort of film.  There's no need for a 2hr, 14 minute film about a mid-life crisis comedy.  Good for Judd for getting away with it, but I think that this is a film that could benefit from a good deal of pruning.  As it is I like it, but I probably could have loved it.
If you've liked his previous films, this one is worth checking out - although I feel like it's his less heart-filled film.  At the end I don't know if I felt like Pete and Debbie so much resolved their issues as they just stopped bitching at each other about their current problems.  I sound like I didn't like the film, but I swear I did.  Can't wait for the special features that'll be loaded to the tits on the BluRay.

1673 - Bridesmaids

I caught this when it was in the cinema, but I was happy to find the bluray in a discount bin (WTF?!) at the grocery story.  The bottom really is falling out of the home video market when a film like this ends up going on sale for $10 just a few months after it's release.  Bizarre.
I don't think I need to regurgitate the storyline of this film since it was a pretty massive hit when it came out, and rightfully so.  It's a damn funny film.  It's got a great cast, but the story and the writing is pretty stellar as well, and I think that a lot of that comes from the mentorship of Judd Apatow.  I think I mentioned this in my first little review of this film, but I think that anyone looking to study comedy writing really needs to study this film, in particular the first part of the second half of the film.  Once things start going poorly for Annie they go really poorly.  The film carefully sets up her life and then absolutely crushes it in one massive sweep - that is how to deal with a character in a comedy - you punish the shit out of them, and all the while you keep the audience smiling.  I think that has a lot to do with why this film is such a success - sure it's funny and a tad raunchy, but as with most Apatow projects, the story is pretty damn solid.  He understands that your first job as a writer is to punish your characters as much as you can - put them through a shit-storm.
I look forward to watching the special features on the disc - the line-o-rama features on Apatow's discs are a really great insight into how they work the comedy and come up with some fantastic alternate material.  (helps to cast really funny, smart people :) ).
So if you still haven't see this, and you aren't a stick in the mud, do yourself a favor and get on it!