Grown Ups 2 Review

Last night the whole family went out to the movies. We don't usually get out to the theatre, mainly because the movie-going experience is often so poor. Luckily, there is a playhouse near us that runs new movies and we were 3 out of about 12 people at the show. Great seats, no lines and only $8.50 a person. Why we went also had to do with the movie playing, Grown Ups 2.

We loved Grown Ups when it came out in 2010 and own a digital copy we rewatch on occasion. It is the story of 5 friends (played by Adam Sandler, Chris Jock, Kevin James, David Spade and Rob Schneider) getting together with their families to say goodbye to their basketball coach and reconnect with their youth. Laughs and hilarity ensue. Grown Ups was billed as a slapstick comedy and delivered on that well.

Some of our '80s favorites all in one backyard

Grown Ups 2 takes place after Lenny (Sandler) has moved his family from Hollywood back to his home town and shows the events of the last day of school before Summer break. The day is spent with four of the friends (Rock, James, Sandler and Spade) doing various insane things they are probably too old for and enjoying being together again.

Nothing wrong with a good ol' tire roll

Grown Ups 2, which has been panned by critics, is silly, outrageous and over the top. However, it is fun and provides laugh-out-loud comedy. At one point, my wife couldn't breathe she was laughing so hard. We all had a good time and probably the best comment (again from my wife) after the movie was, "They should just keep making these and stream them right to my house, I'll watch them." There really isn't any major tensions in the movie, they are all lightened by the antics and humor. It is just a family, partially gross-out, coming-of-age, reconnecting with your youth comedy and, if you can suspend your disbelief and aren't expecting a take-itself-seriously type movie, Grown Ups 2 is well worth your time.

Wait, is that Shaquille O'Neal?

One of our favorite characters is Kurt Mackenzie's (Rock) son Ronnie played by Kaleo Elam. Ronnie is cute and fun and scrappy and steals most of the scenes he is in. Taylor Lautner is also in the film, playing a college frat boy who is one of the main antagonists for Sandler and crew. Grown Ups 2 has plenty of innuendo, fart jokes (including the burp-snart) and too tight clothing shots (on men and women) but delivers exactly what it advertises: silly humor that is fun without being serious. A popcorn movie worth seeing. I give Grown Ups 2 four Mick Happies. We will see it again and again in the coming years when we need a fun laugh.

The official movie trailer

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Movie Reviews

You can figure that someone has made it in Hollywood when they are in just about every movie you see. Three movies in the past week have demonstrated this to me about Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  Here are their mini-reviews:

The Dark Knight Rises

I have watched the previous two Christian Bale/Christopher Nolan Batman movies and enjoyed them both. This one continues the Batman’s story eight years later with us seeing an older Bruce Wayne who hasn’t been the Batman in a while. We are also introduced to a new villain: Bane. Along the way we meet an idealistic police officer, John Blake played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Selina Kyle (Catwoman) played by Anne Hathaway.

The best parts of the movie included Blake and Kyle (separately as they don’t share screen time). They really delivered on their roles and the result left me wanting an Anne Hathaway Catwoman movie and a sequel for Blake’s character. The Dark Knight Rises does run on a little long and you are annoyed with some of the plot twists as everything has to go wrong before they can start going right again. I give Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anne Hathaway four Mick Happies and The Dark Knight Rises 3.5.

Movie Trailer

Premium Rush

This is the story of a bike messenger in New York, Wilee, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who picks up a letter to deliver. The letter happens to be of interest to a particularly nasty crooked police officer that spends the movie trying to get it from Wilee. This is high adrenaline chase through New York with thrills and spills. I fast forwarded a couple of the chase scenes, but particularly liked the bicycle police office (not the crooked one) who runs across Wilee several times and tries to catch him for causing an accident. It gives some of the few comedic moments of the film.

Premium Rush is fun and will have you on the edge of your seat at times. Michael Shannon, who plays the bad guy, is particularly nasty at times (in a well acted way). Premium Rush gets 3 Mick Happies.

Movie Trailer

Looper

I like Time Travel movies. Looper is a Time Travel movie where (in the future) some people are hired by seedy underworld types to be Loopers. Loopers are assassins who kill people sent back in time from the future by organized crime bosses. Since time travel is outlawed, the Loopers eventually have to kill themselves when their future selves are sent back in time to maintain the secret that time travel is being used. The pay-off for doing it is a lot of money to live on for the next 30 years until they catch you and send you back in time to die. With me so far?

This somewhat interesting premise eventually devolves into Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character Joe meeting his future self and not closing the loop (killing him). This leads to a must kill someone in the past to save people in the future plot that is the second half of the movie. There are some interesting questions posed by the film: would you take a rich life now knowing you have to die in 30 years? If you met yourself from the future – would you care more about your current needs or listen to your future self about what is the best thing to do?

I would have liked a different plot to the second half of the movie and thus a different ending, but the movie is okay as is. Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a really good impersonation of a younger Bruce Willis including some of the right facial quirks. The movie also stars Emily Blunt. Looper gets 3 Mick Happies.

Movie Trailer