Summer has hit Houston with a vengeance—too hot, too humid, too dry. In other words—it’s officially Movie Marathon Season. Spending hours is a cold dark theater makes you forget the temperatures outside are pushing 100. Be warned, my criteria for a good movie is that it entertains me. For a terrific movie-- it entertains me and I’d see it again. So here are my “reviews” of the flicks I saw over the weekend.
Two of the three actually had a lot in common. They were the misadventures of the wedding party leading up to the wedding. Both were hilarious but not for everyone.
Hangover Part II takes the Hangover guys to Thailand and the gags to a whole new level of bad taste. Just before Stu’s wedding to his Thai-American fiancé, the “wolf pack” and the bride’s younger brother get together for one beer on the beach and wake up in a fleabag hotel in Bangkok to discover the brother is missing. Where Alan was the star of the first Hangover, Chow steals the show in this one. Okay, the monkey’s good, too. Chow—the totally obnoxious gangster from the first film—is responsible for most of the outrageous dialogue and plot twists, and picks up the pace when the plot begins to lag. Alan bonds with a monkey in a Rolling Stones vest, Phil does hot and sweaty very nicely, and Stu…well, Stu provides one of the most hilarious surely-they’re-not-going-THERE moments (and yes, they do!). This is a VERY funny movie. It isn’t for everyone, though. Anyone who finds profanity, insulting language, casual drug use, sexual situations, or nudity (male frontal) offensive—you’ll hate this movie. Go to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Loved it and it’s just as entertaining.
Where Hangover Part II is about men behaving badly, Bridesmaids is about women being real women in the months leading up to their friend’s wedding. What I loved about this flick—besides it being hilarious all the way through—is that the humor didn’t rely on stereotypes or stereotypical behavior. The rivalry between the maid-of-honor and the bride’s new rich friend wasn’t bitchy or mean. Both just wanted to be the bride’s BFF and make the all the rituals leading up to the wedding perfect. Where in the Hangover the bride’s brother, Alan, is a clueless screw-up, the groom’s sister in Bridesmaids is bright and confident in spite of being short, chunky and more than a little inappropriate. She provides a lot of the laughs (and cringes) but ultimately you laugh with her because her heart’s in the right place. Lest you think this is a sweet bride movie—these women get raunchy, too. A very funny “athletic” sex scene, a recount of said sex scene, profanity, a gross potty scene—these girls compete with the boys. What sets them apart is wittier dialogue, some subtle humor and heart. This is one of the year’s best, in my opinion. BUT I’m definitely not taking my mother to see it.
