review by grooveman Pro
Bridesmaids 2011
Watched Feb 17, 2012
grooveman’s review:
Painfully overrated! I really wanted to like this and ended up loathing it. Nothing felt original at all! This felt like a Sex in the City movie to me(unfortunately I've seen both of them). It's funny, my wife wanted to watch this or Tangled. Me being the nice husband I am thought we should watch both.(She watched Drive with me last week so it was the least I could do). I was not looking forward to watching Tangled at all, but had been lokking forward to Bridesmaids for quite a while. I dug Tangled quite a bit. It was pretty charming and an easy watch. Bridesmaids was essentially a really bad Tom Hanks movie with F bombs and toliet humor. In fact I should of watched You Got Mail. The half a star is for Melissa Mccathrty's ok performance. Ok being the keyword. I think she made me smile once.(I wasn't in a bad mood when I watched this by the way. The Disney corporation worked there sappy magic on me with Tangled) The worst film of the year for me so far.
I laughed more at your review then I did while watching Bridesmaids. I agree it is overrated and the further away I get from seeing it the worse it seems. I gave it two stars according to Letterboxd, but I think it would probably be lower if I was willing to give it a rewatch.
The thing is I think most people are giving it a pass simply because it has an all female cast. People (especially some men) don't want to seem like their being sexist by saying this movie is bad. Personally I think all the cast are slumming it in a film like this, as most of them I have found very funny in previous work. Bridesmaids is just a bunch of vignettes held together by a shoestring plot that isn't at all interesting.
2011 was a brutal year for comedies and signaling this film out as the best of the bunch is a bit like calling it the king (or queen I guess in this case) of the crap heap. It may be the queen, but it is still a piece of crap.
Yeah Man! I've never been a Kristen Wiig fan, but Rose Byrne is one of my favorite actresses. I absolutley think they are just mailing in their performances. The fact that Melissa Mccarthy probably has a better chance of picking up an oscar than say Jessica Chastain goes to show why I hate the oscars so much to begin with. I do agree that this gets a pass because of the all female cast and in some way makes it cool to see a bunch of chicks swear and be as vulgar as men in equally shitty comedies like the hangover or Horrible Bosses. I thought Horrible Bosses was masterpiece compared to the Hangover Which I think is maybe the most overrated comedy(especially recently) of any comedy I've seen. I hated Horrible Bosses too by the way. I've pretty much given up on new comedies now. The only time I watch them is with linds. I'll never put one on alone. In my mind the funniest movie of the last 10 years is Bronson which isn't even a comedy,though every time I watch it I laugh 10 times more than any of the so called "comedies' of recent years. The fact that I hate Kritsten Wiig doesn't help my hate for bridesmaids though. It boggles my Fuckin mind that something like Jack and Jill or Bridesmaids can make a shit load of money (Bridesmaids made 170 millon and Jack and Jill made 73 million) and something like the Tree of life with two of the biggest movie stars of the last 20 years makes barely 13 million is crazy. Even my "movie people" friends either a) hated Tree of life or b) haven't even heard of it. I guess crap for the most part always sells but I was so shocked to find out how shitty Bridesmaids was since it had so much hype. Anyway I'll stop rambleing. Later!
Nice rant, and I agree with most of your points. Hard to even comment on the Academy Awards as its just one big joke, but Melissa Mccarthy's nomination is very strange one. I heard that Jessica Chastain wasn't that great in The Help either, especially compared to her other performances last year.
I'm with you on The Hangover and the fact that most comedies now are just ripping off its formula (group of people getting into supposedly funny situations that loosely contribute to the plot) makes me dislike it even more. Horrible Bosses was a rape of my eyes and ears and the sooner I can forget that monstrosity the better.
It's true that non-comedies get me to laugh more than new comedies these days (Bronson is a good example). Modern comedy right now is to based in stereotypes and low-brow humor. So much of the humor in Mellisa Mccarthy's performance in Bridesmaids comes from the fact that she is a full figured woman, and this type of humor doesn't interest me. A lot of the other jokes are based on, like you wrote above, simply the fact that it is a bunch of woman being vulgar. The expectations now for R rated comedies is that they be vulgar, and they often get a pass if they achieve this easy and unimpressive feat.
I think the funniest performance that I have seen in any film in the past year or so is Sara Paxton in The Innkeepers. Her character is likeable, but awkward, and humor comes from her simply interacting with people. The ghost hunting scene after they drink all the beer in the film is hilarious. Like you said though, garbage like Bridesmaids and Jack & Jill make money while decent films go unnoticed.
I want to say that people are stupid for not liking good movies, but I think that would be unfair. The general public just needs to be more willing to give things a chance rather than just taking what is force fed to them. Everyone that I have shown Tree of Life to aren't people that would go out of there way to see the film, but after seeing it they all were happy they did. Some of the best conversations I have had about Tree of Life have been with people who don't really care about films, but were willing to at least give it a try.
Great Reply. I agree completely with Sara Paxton in the Innkeepers and will hopefully be revisting that film soon. That's interesting about your conversations about The Tree of life as most people I know who have seen it thought it was one of the worst films ever made. maybe I just need new friends. Lol!