Baghead is a story of four struggling actors who take a trip out to a forested cabin to write a screenplay that is sure to rocket them into the realm of movie stardom. They decide to write a story about a group of friends who are tormented and stalked by a creep in a bag mask. Well, it just so happens that their fictional tale is brought to life when a an actual person in a bag mask starts to terrorize them.

Baghead is the perfect mix of the ...]]> It’s nice to find a horror movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Baghead is a story of four struggling actors who take a trip out to a forested cabin to write a screenplay that is sure to rocket them into the realm of movie stardom. They decide to write a story about a group of friends who are tormented and stalked by a creep in a bag mask. Well, it just so happens that their fictional tale is brought to life when a an actual person in a bag mask starts to terrorize them.

Baghead is the perfect mix of the less chauvinistic and sexually-driven moments from The League and the creepier action from The Strangers. It’s as if the Duplass brother, in some sort of mad and backward science experiment, took the digital copies of that TV show and movie and melded them together in such a way that the mildest elements of each film were conjoined into two, high functioning and socially adept Siamese twins, each with a specific and unique skill set that the other could only understand, but never fully acquire. By this, I mean that you will be equal parts frightened, amused, unnerved, and hysterical throughout the majority of the movie. As one twin psychologically deconstructs any confidence you have ever had, the other twin is there to pat you on the back and tickle you in all the right places.

Like any other horror movie that takes place in a setting defined by natural beauty and geographical isolation, there are some elements to this film that will feel more than familiar. Everything goes perfectly and to plan upon arriving to the cabin. Of course, there is a turning point about halfway through—some drama amongst friends, sexual tension, a murderous villain with a bag over his head. And then, the movie really peaks at the end; however, not at all in the way that you might expect.

Baghead unravels slowly and, in the end, reveals itself to be a true mystery. Instead of relying on gore and the exposed navels of barely legal college coeds to entice its audience, Baghead utilizes wit and adult fun to captivate whoever dares to watch it.

There is nothing new or groundbreaking about The Inbetweeners. If you’ve ever seen American Pie, American Pie 2, American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile, American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, American Pie Presents: Band Camp, National Lampoons, Van Wilder, Road Trip, Euro Trip, or any other movie where a group of guys sets out to get wasted and laid, then you are likely ...]]> This is not necessarily a man’s movie at all. It just so happens to be a movie that many women might not find funny, or humorous, or even remotely comical. Still, I had a pretty good laugh.

There is nothing new or groundbreaking about The Inbetweeners. If you’ve ever seen American Pie, American Pie 2, American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile, American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, American Pie Presents: Band Camp, National Lampoons, Van Wilder, Road Trip, Euro Trip, or any other movie where a group of guys sets out to get wasted and laid, then you are likely familiar with the genre. Still, though this movie does not rely on British wit or charm to bring the funny, you can’t help but have a good time with four of the most clueless guys to ever hit the screen.

Basically, a group of four friends have just graduated high school and decide to take a trip to Malia to go crazy and become men. You have Will McKenzie (Simon Bird), who happens to be teetering on the extreme end of social awkwardness just enough to nab the hottest girl in the movie. You have Jay Cartwright (James Buckley), who imagines such delusions of sexual grandeur, promiscuity, and mastery, that he is accepted by none other than the girl he has spent his entire life (at least, post-puberty) denouncing. There is also Simon Cooper (Joe Thomas), who is perhaps one of the only good looking members of the troublesome and sexually inexperienced foursome, yet is so heartbroken and gullible that he scares away any potential female mate. And finally, there is Neil Sutherland (Blake Harrison), the dimwitted and lanky goofball who holds no real sexual standards or reasonable intelligence, but has a good time regardless. There you have it: The “Pussay Patrol.”

If full frontal and auto fellatio are not enough to win you over, perhaps you can relate to the all too common, adolescent quest for sex, beer, hard liquor, and unadulterated adventure. As I said before, most of this material has been recycled from many similar movies that have come before it. However, The Inbetweeners still has its own original flavor. After all, movies like this continue to keep thriving on cheap laughs because the stories behind the jokes are often appallingly true, and therefore, relatable.

It never ceases to amaze me: how four, seemingly incompetent blowhards can all manage to not be dead by the end of a movie like this, let alone get laid by beautiful women who are leagues our of their league. Still, I enjoy being amazed and am always rooting for guys like these, no matter how repulsive and awkward they seem to be.

Ryan Gosling plays a stuntman and criminal getaway driver. After a robbery ...]]> When the credits rolled, I either thought this movie was too short or too long. I can’t be certain; however, I know that I liked it. It’s just one of those movies where the intensity was so great at some moments, so contained, and then so rampant and wild at other times, that I couldn’t even remember the names of the characters. I think I watched the entire thing with my head cocked to the side and eyes widened in preemptive amazement—I mean this in the best possible sense.

Ryan Gosling plays a stuntman and criminal getaway driver. After a robbery goes bad, a bounty is put on his head by a number of bad, tracksuit wearing, paunch-bellied dudes. And so, the violence ensues. Carey Mulligan also gets mixed up in all of this as a sort of love interest for Ryan Gosling, but her part just sort of drifted into the background for me. As soon as the first shotgun shell was fired into the face of a woman, my mind went into survival mode and I could only pay keen attention to busted lips, busted heads, and criminal badasses.

There is a general hierarchy of mob men in this movie that are after Ryan Gosling, each one more cunning, foulmouthed, and criminally insane than the last. At first, I thought that Nino (Ron Perlman) was the leader of the pack. However, after you’ve seen Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) plow a fork into someone’s neck like it was a honeyed ham that just refused to thaw, you soon realize who is in charge.

Aside from the violence, Drive had some other great features. There aren’t exactly any Ronin-like car chase scenes, but you definitely get the sense that Gosling knows his way around a car. Also, I can’t really say that Gosling is a likeable character, but he seems like an honest and unflinchingly brave guy. Plus, how much do you really need to like a guy’s personality after you’ve seen him stomp in some guys head in an elevator? Forget about it.

Drive is a  man’s movie. Even though the chief perpetrator of all things violent and badass is baby-faced and mute for the majority of the film, Gosling still does a great job of making revenge look sexy and grotesque all at the same time. Plus, the soundtrack has a few great songs that really seem to jazz up the brutality and blood.

John C. Reilly stars as John, a divorced, depressed, freelance editor who feels ...]]> We attended the screening of Cyrus with high hopes but low expectations.  We’re pretty big fans of the film’s stars John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill, but the trailer left us with the feeling of “this movie looks like Step Brothers Part 2.” Luckily, we were way off.  Everything we thought we knew about the movie and everything that we expected (stupid one liners and an over-the-top prank war) was wide off the mark. As far as CFR is concerned, Cyrus is the sleeper hit of the summer.

John C. Reilly stars as John, a divorced, depressed, freelance editor who feels like he has no purpose left in life.  Early on in the film he meets the woman of his dreams, Molly (Marisa Tomei).  Then he meets her son… Cyrus.

Cyrus, played by Jonah Hill (who is also currently in Get Him To The Greek), is an awkward 21-year-old musician; he’s been home schooled his whole life and doesn’t have any friends outside of Molly. When he meets John, he starts some very uncomfortable (and very funny) conversations. John does his best to persevere through the conversations to show his appreciation for Molly and to not offend Cyrus.  That night, John sleeps over at Molly’s and in the morning his shoes are missing.  The film continues with more and more awkwardly funny scenarios to the point John knows Cyrus is trying to sabotage his relationship with Molly, but he can’t prove it… until he calls Cyrus out.

Personally, I love this type of humor. The more awkward something gets, the funnier it is.  Like I said above, we were blindsided by Cyrus.  The film just keeps getting better as it goes on. For the most part, the story is nothing more than an exploration of human relationships and how we, as humans, do some very messed up things for very stupid or selfish reasons.

The screening we attended also had a Q&A afterward with John C. Reilly. He said that although the film was scripted, they improvised every scene.  They really only used the script to get from point A to point B. When I say the film was improvised, I don’t mean joke by joke.  There is a lot of drama in Cyrus, and the improvisation adds to the deepness of the film. All of the emotions put forth in the film felt very raw and real.

Overall, Cyrus has made my list of favorite films and I cannot wait to see it in the theater again. If you have the chance to check it out, I highly recommend you do.  Cyrus opened in theaters yesterday, June 18.

Kevin Smith’s “Cop Out” is a full out slap you in the face comedy. If you add Tracy Morgan to anything it’s going to be hilarious, guaranteed. I couldn’t stop laughing whenever he was on the screen. I think the last movie I saw with Bruce Willis was “The Sixth Sense” and that was quite some time ago. I forgot how much I like Bruce Willis and you can’t go wrong with a Kevin Smith movie, am I right or am I right?

This movie was funny from start to finish. It opens with such a ...]]> Rock out with your glock out!

Kevin Smith’s “Cop Out” is a full out slap you in the face comedy. If you add Tracy Morgan to anything it’s going to be hilarious, guaranteed. I couldn’t stop laughing whenever he was on the screen. I think the last movie I saw with Bruce Willis was “The Sixth Sense” and that was quite some time ago. I forgot how much I like Bruce Willis and you can’t go wrong with a Kevin Smith movie, am I right or am I right?

This movie was funny from start to finish. It opens with such a funny interrogation scene that I can’t stop laughing about. That’s right, I’m laughing about it right now. This was a great way to open up the movie.

As you can see, Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) are tag team cops and have been partners for 9 years. What seems to be a normal day on the job turns into one big clustercuss when Jimmy’s rare baseball card is stolen. Jimmy wanted to sell this baseball card to pay for his daughter’s wedding, that’s just how rare of a card it was.

From then on the movie turns into a game of cat and mouse. The two partners are working as hard as they can to get the card back from an obsessed Latino memorabilia collector and his gang. Jimmy Monroe is clearly the lead cop but he can’t seem to do without Paul by his side for some reason. The two find themselves getting into quite a few sticky situations that end up causing them more and more problems.

This film has a really strong cast including Sean William Scott as a friendly thief, Adam Brody and Kevin Pollak as the other “by the book” cops, Rashida Jones as Paul’s wife, and of course… Jason Lee had to be in there somewhere.

This movie is definitely worth paying for in theaters and is easily guy/girl friendly. If you don’t like Tracy Morgan than I think something is wrong with you… cough cough Bri cough Jenna cough cough. This is a really good pick me up movie. I’m only giving it 4 stars because I feel like most comedies aren’t worthy of 5 stars because of the main plot. This film had sort of a weak plot but it was just flat out hilarious and I will definitely own it when it comes out. Cop Out is right up there with the likes of Superbad, Role Models, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, Clerks, etc..

COP OUT hits theaters tomorrow! Bring your man or he will bring you, and if not, dump him.