Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates

I avoided this movie at first because I loathe Adam DeVine. I ultimately broke down and watched it because I love Anna Kendrick. I figured the one would cancel out the other--and for long portions of this movie, it works out that way. The revelations here are Aubrey Plaza and Zac Efron. The latter is charming and an oddly effortless fit for such ridiculous humor; and if I'd known how funny and cute Plaza could be, I might have checked in on this one much sooner. As for the movie as a whole, it works, up to a point. For a long stretch of its relatively short running time, the film is fearlessly funny, making plenty of comedic hay with healthy doses of crude but not gross humor. Unfortunately, it pulls its punches towards the end, going for the sap instead of sticking to its guns. Plus DeVine eventually goes over the top and makes an ass out of himself instead of letting the comedy do the work for him. Not even the delightful Ms. Kendrick can redeem that act. There are certainly enough laughs to make this one worth a look, if you've got spare time to kill; but it could have been a lot better, with either more or less restraint (depending), and perhaps slightly better casting.

Monsters University

I watched this flick with little enthusiasm at first--I have an established bias against these later Pixar movies, for various reasons--but gradually I warmed up to this one. The story hit every college movie cliche imaginable, but the movie eventually comes out on top despite its deficiencies, mostly because of plenty of good gags and jokes, and one fairly unexpected twist towards the end that redeems a lot of the triteness.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

After five minutes, I really wanted to hate this movie. It seemed determined to prove that video games really do make you stupid. Plus it seems to declare, in giant flaming letters, the end of the "Michael Cera era"--you get the worn out feeling of watching the same guy playing the same character in the same kind of movie...And yet, somehow, the movie finds away, through all of its visual hokum, its all-too-clever hipster/millenial street cred, and all of the reworked Matrix and Kill Bill moves, to rise above and deliver enough wit, good cheer and fun times to make for a movie that's impossible not to enjoy. A neat trick, and worthy of our appreciation.