t-dog8

IMDb member since April 2010
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    IMDb Member
    14 years

Reviews

Date Night
(2010)

A Hit Or Miss Comedy
I had huge expectations for this movie. Steve Carell and Tina Fey, two of the arguably best comedy actors today, starring in one film together! Awesome! I thought. Apparently I thought wrong. Date Night turns into a wildly misfired comedy with more misses than hits.

Carell and Fey are an ordinary married couple in New York City. One evening, on their weekly date night, they decide to try and dine in one of the city's fanciest restaurants. They are turned away at the door, then decide to take another couple's reservation. This leads into one zany event after another throughout the city and a cast of supporting characters that includes James Franco, Ray Liotta, and Mark Whalberg.

Director Shaun Levy, whose credits include the Night at the Museum films, offers enough fluid pace and direction to keep the film moving in a timely manner, but many of the best scenes in the film occur before the wild night on the town. Just Carell and Fey being their comedic selves in ordinary situations would have been more entertaining than a would-be, disappointing action comedy.

Snow Buddies
(2008)

Just Another Entry In a Dying Franchise
In film history, there have been several franchises in which the first film was great or decent, and the next five, six, or seven installments made no sense and were absolutely dreadful. Walt Disney's Snow Buddies falls into this category. Another spin-off of the Air Bud films, this is one film your dog-loving daughter may enjoy, but will give you torture.

The story involves Air Bud's five pups as they sneak into an ice cream delivery truck and are shipped to Alaska. The pups meet an Alaskan pup, which leads to a sub-plot, then back to the story, then the sub-plot, until that sub-plot is intertwined into the main story. By then you'll have no interest whatsoever about what happens to these pups and will constantly be checking the time, waiting for an end.

Looking at the cast, I was surprised to see talents Whoopi Goldberg and James Belushi were wasted in such a time-killer. Snow Buddies lacks the humor and charm that make family films enjoyable, or at least bearable to watch. All Snow Buddies does is pile on the clichés, cheap jokes, and laughably bad performances to make you wish you had 90 minutes of your life back.

The Office
(2005)

A Highly Unique, Original Series
With so many jobs taking place in office buildings, this television series that is based on the Ricky Gervais created BBC series, takes aim at that and other aspects of the modern American workplace. Steve Carrell leads a large cast of talented actors that succeed in creating a smart, silly comedy that works.

Carrell is Michael Scott, the dim-witted boss of paper company Dunder Mifflin's Scranton, Pennsylvania branch. Rainn Wilson is Scott's odd second in command Dwight Shrute, a man who prides himself on knowledge of survival techniques and bears. Jim Krasinski is Jim Halpert, a salesman who has a crush on Pam(Jenna Schafer), the receptionist. These are only a few of the major characters in the ongoing, hilarious saga of Scranton at work.

Several story lines can take place in the course of a single episode, giving the show more chances at laughs. In one episode, for example, there are conflicts between members of the Party Planning Committee, Michael's usual antics of procrastination, and the secrets of two characters's affair. These just make the show more original than ones that have a single narrative.

Funny and intelligent, The Office is one brilliant spoof you should not miss.

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