The Adjustment Bureau, Unknown, and Others on DVD This Week

Mad Men returns 2012. Without Anthony Mackie.

On DVD this week, five films that require a little bit of an introduction. Only because they've seem to slip from the forefront of interest. The Adjustment Bureau, still one of the year's best films, almost seven months in; Cedar Rapids, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules, Unknown,  and The Eagle. Remember those?

No? Okay, well, don't feel bad. I do, and I'm here to help. Hell, I've reviewed two of them. And they're my recommendations for the week. Let's get down to brass tacks, shall we?

More after the cut--

The Hangover Part II

"You're way too hot for me, Lauren."

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have The Hangover Part II, a movie that takes everything clever and amusing about its first part and turns it into something of a retread. We've seen it all before, and we certainly know the story - a few friends get way too drunk, wake up with no memory of anything that happened, and have to go on a fact-finding mission to recover the pieces of the night before. The film falls into the trap of its formula and can't seem to get out. It worked in the first one because there's no reason that any of that stuff should have happened - it wasn't in the nature of those characters. But, now, it is in their nature, we're taught to expect it, and there's no reason it should have happened. Again. Maybe that's funny to some people, but it belies the originality of the characters. Characters I grew to love in the first film. 

More after the cut--

Cedar Rapids

Three guys, a girl, and an insurance company

Most of the time during this film, I thought to myself "This feels like an Alexander Payne movie." Alexander Payne, for those unaware, directed wonderful and heartfelt movies like Sideways and Election. Sure enough, by the time the credits rolled, Payne's name was listed as a producer for the picture. His fingerprints are all over it, though this is a bit more screwball than anything he would normally direct. The actual director here, Miguel Arteta, doesn't have the handle on human sympathy that Payne might, but he certainly hit it pretty close to home. Certainly pretty far from Cedar Rapids, which doesn't seem to hold much sympathy for those who pass through it. 

More after the cut--