Fool's Paradise - Charlie Day - 2023

★-Not good. In fact, very bad. It's there with Pootie Tang on the bell-curve of cinema. At least movies like that and Freddy Got Fingered have cult value. “Sepatow!” 

Seems like it's supposed to be an ode to silent film actors as well as a Hollywood satire, but it really doesn't work. The gist is a mute mental patient played by Charlie Day happens to look like this pain in the ass star and gets thrown into stardom after the other guy dies while autoerotic asphyxiating himself. We then follow this still silent, non-actor guy's rise to fame and fortune. 

Movie sort of relies on cameos to provide humor. It feels like one of those, dude calls in every big name he knows, and they come out and phone in a day of shooting. People you'll see in this flick: Jason Bateman, Kate Beckinsale, Adrien Brody, Common, Edie Falco, Glenn Howerton, Ken Jeong, Ray Liotta in his last role, John Malkovich, and Jason Sudeikis, among others. Something like Santa's Slay, for example, which also has cult appeal. 

More than anything, it was an unfunny satire about the type of douche bags that we hear about in these Hollywood inside baseball movies that become hot every few years. These have been coming out forever. Examples off the top of my head: The Player, Mulholland Drive, Sunset Boulevard, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Hail Caesar!, Barton Fink, The Aviator, Bowfinger, Ed Wood, the Eddie Murphy Dolemite movie, The Artist, The Disaster Artist, Movie 43, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (a must-see), Get Shorty, Sullivan's Travels, The Bad and the Beautiful, Singin' in the Rain, Babylon (which I thought was underrated)... All of those movies are infinitely better than Fool's Paradise, which bummed me out. 

So, yeah, unfortunately a shockingly bad movie, Fool's Paradise was pretty much unwatchable. Dull-witted, unfunny, aimless. Avoid. 

We're the Millers - Rawson Marshall Thurber - 2013

★★★-Movie about chosen family, how skeezy boyfriends can fuck your shit up, and how high level drug dealers are funny as shit. Torture, femicide, beheadings, always good for a chuckle. 

Gist is Jason Sudeikis is a small-time pot deal gets his drugs and money stolen and is in some shit with his college buddy (Ed Helms) whose a kingpin. Forces him to go to Mexico to smuggle a couple tons of weed. Turns out he is actually going down to rip off the cartel. This is a comedy, in case you couldn't tell. To minimize suspicious, Sudeikis gets a massive RV and assembles a fake family consisting of his stripper neighbor played by Jennifer Aniston (who has never looked more attractive, goddamn), homeless Emma Roberts, and this nerd played by Will Poulter from Midsommar and the new Guardians movie. Hijinks ensue. They also meet up with DEA agent Nick Offerman and his wife (Kathryn Hahn from Glass Onion and Bad Words) and kid (Molly C. Quinn from the show Castle), which complicates muling drugs, dontcha know. 

Directed by one Rawson Marshall Thurber who also Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (a personal fave), Central Intelligence, and Red Notice. Get cameos from Ken Marino, Luis Guzman, and Thomas Lennon as well. 

Funniest scene is when the nerdy kid is taught how to make out by his fake mom and sister while the fake dad films it when his love interest inevitably walks in, the chick he wanted to impress with his kissing ability. There is also a not unfunny scene that involves what some people think is a baby getting run over by a semi but it's just drugs. 

There is a scene when the fake fam wants to renegotiate with Sudeikis when they find out how much dude is making on the deal. He ends up leaving them at an RV campground. With the cartel on their asses, I thought that was probably the best thing that could have happened to them. Also, lot of cartel humor in this flick. That's something I've always thought of when thinking of the Mexican drug trade, the humor! No. 

All this said, it was alright although somewhat forgettable. Solid cast whom I mostly enjoy in everything, a couple of good laughs, and never boring fun.