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Cyrus (I) (2010)
7/10
A little deceptive from what the trailers showed...
7 July 2010
http://reelpopcorn.blogspot.com/

Cyrus, is a comedic drama that focuses on a divorced man, John (John C. Reilly), meeting the woman of his dreams, Molly (Marisa Tomei), and falling hard for her at a party, subsequently later meeting her grown up son, Cyrus, played by Jonah Hill. The movie was produced by Scott Free Productions, Ridley Scott's production company, and distributed domestically by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Jay and Mark Duplass are the creative minds behind the writing and directing of the picture, and Jas Shelton is the guy responsible for the shaky camera work prevalent throughout the movie. So, now that your familiarized with some of the players lets get down to brass tax.

This movie isn't what many will expect from the trailers, it's a semi- dark, dramedy that examines an unhealthy co-dependency between a mother and her twenty-something year old son, Cyrus. The trailers might have you believe you'll be watching a combination of Step Brothers and The Forty Year Old Virgin, but that isn't really the case. It's definitely much lighter in laughs than I expected, but it exposes some compelling emotional acting from Reilly and Hill that will certainly have critics applauding the "heart" of the film.

Jonah Hill adds further evidence to the case that he wants to break away from being typecast as the chubby, silly, practical joker, and delivers a much more serious performance in this film (Although, I wasn't so easily convinced by his more serious role in this movie, and found myself laughing out loud at times when that was definitely not the intended audience reaction). Reilly is near perfect at bringing vulnerability and desperation to his character, and he further demonstrates his prowess of making an audience laugh on several occasions. Tomei, also gives a memorable performance blending the ability to blindly see no wrong in her son while showing the desire to balance multiple relationships in order to make things work for a forty- something year old single mom (My apologies for how garbled that sounds, but it took too long to get out, so it stays). Catherine Keener turns in a good performance as a supportive ex-wife, that maybe should do better at creating borders between former partners. Matt Walsh, who plays her husband, gave a perfectly sarcastic depiction of the fiancé, who loves his future wife enough to put up with her sometimes idiotic, overly needy ex-husbands constant needs.

Overall, Cyrus, is a funny movie that might not be what moviegoers are expecting to see going into it, but it's emotional ups and downs, interesting subject material, clever improvisation, and great acting are enough to satisfy.
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6/10
http://reelpopcorn.blogspot.com/
28 March 2010
I saw the movie, She's Out of My League, a couple days ago and to be honest it did not disappoint. It's from the production company, Mosaic Media, the same people who brought us, The Breakup and Talladega Nights:The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. My expectations for it weren't sky high, but I did expect to laugh out loud a few times based on television spots I'd been seeing for a couple weeks.

The movie's tagline is, "How can a 10 go for a 5?" and the way that this happens in the movie isn't too far fetched, but certainly doesn't happen often in the real world. Jay Baruchel plays the leading role as, Kirk Kettner, a dorky looking airport security worker who somehow finds his way into Alice Eve's character, Molly's good graces.

The movie had a bunch of really funny scenes, especially the pool scene where Molly meets Kirk's brother and ex-girlfriend, also, a scene on an airplane where Kirk gives his family a piece of his mind and probably the funniest scene involving Kirk and Molly and an untimely drop-in from her family. The dialogue between Kirk and his TSA buddies is basically what makes this movie enjoyable and T.J. Miller's acting as, Stainer, Kirk's best friend, pretty much steals the show. I could've gone for a bit more screen interaction between Stainer and Patty, Molly's best friend acted by Krysten Ritter, their on-screen hate for each other was outstanding.

A lot of people have called this movie a romantic comedy or a "RomCom" as one of my friends cleverly calls them. But, I think it weighs much heavier on the comedy side, there are romantic scenes, I'm just not sure how well it would go over as a date movie. I say see it while it's still in theaters, but to all of you "5's" and below out there don't let it give you false hope about landing a "10", this is Hollywood.
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