Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

Foul-mouthed comedies can be a bit hit and miss. There is a very delicate balance act going on where too much can make it unbearable (case in point; 2013's Movie 43) and not enough makes it just bland. But Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates benefits not only from a strong script of non-stop jokes that all work really well, it also has a cast made up entirely of comic performers that all know how comedy works.

Mike (Adam DeVine) and Dave Stangle (Zac Efron) are two brothers who think they are the life of every party. But in reality, it is a very different story. The antics they think they get up to in their heads is very different to the chaos and destruction that actually happens, which is why their father Burt (Stephen Root) has adamantly put his foot down and demanded they bring dates to their younger sister's wedding in Hawaii. Thinking it's the classiest thing to do, they put an ad up on the website Craigslist (generally not a good idea for anything) and soon become a viral hit. This gets the attention of friends Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) and Alice (Anna Kendrick), who decide to act respectable in an attempt to impress the guys, but this doesn't last long.

Now I know what you're probably thinking, you've seen the trailer, so you already know what's going to happen. And yes the plot of the movie is very basic, but that's a good thing in this case because there's no complex plot to distract from the jokes. Those are what you're going to see Mike and Dave for and there are a lot of them, with all of them landing. However, these jokes range from walking in on your little sister having an unorthodox orgasm to getting high in front of family members, so if those aren't up your alley, it's probably not for you.

The strongest part of the movie is it's experienced comic cast. Adam DeVine and Zac Efron have an amazing chemistry together and Efron is really benefitting from his recent turn into comedy. DeVine is getting really strong at his loveable goofball too. Aubrey Plaza plays the same dry, acerbic character and at first I found her a bit grating, but she definitely has her moments. The most amazing casting I thought was of Anna Kendrick. She's been in comedies before, but never as a wacky and desperate character and she pulled it off. The standouts in the supporting cast were Stephen Root, who is never as you've seen him before as Mike and Dave's extremely obscene father, and Lavell Crawford, but I'll laugh at him no matter what.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is a shorter movie than you realise, but the whole time it's non-stop laughter, despite the low-brow nature of the jokes. The best thing about it though, is that you can just switch off and have a good time while watching, which is something that not a lot of movies allow you to do these days.

Trumbo

Since the end of Breaking Bad in 2013, audiences have been quietly anticipating a performance from Bryan Cranston that lives up to his role of Walter White. Now with his turn as Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, that wait is over. But the film is not just an impressive performance from Cranston, it also touches on a period of film history that is often forgotten in the larger context.

Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) is a successful screenwriter who is among the elite of Hollywood. He is also a member of the Communist Party, something that makes him and fellow writers somewhat of a target in post-war America, especially for staunch anti-Communists like former actress Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren). Because of his involvement, Trumbo soon has to testify before a hearing by the House Commitee on Un-American Activities. Because he refuses to answer any of the questions, he is charged with contempt of Congress and is sent to prison with ten other writers, including Arlen Hird (Louis C.K.). On the outside world, Trumbo's family are struggling with not having him around and his friend Eddie Robinson (Michael Stuhlbarg) leaves him high and dry when he names Trumbo as a communist. When Trumbo is released from prison, he and his fellow writers decide to sell scripts written under pseudonyms.

Bryan Cranston really steals every scene he's in and understandably too. With this performance he delves completely into the character, more so than any character he's ever done before (in real life I imagine him to be a mix of Tim Whatley from Seinfeld and Hal from Malcolm in the Middle). There was even a part where I had to force myself to see Bryan Cranston in the character. Not only is this a testament to the committed performance by him, but it is also glorious praise of Dalton Trumbo. The real man had an intoxicating and humourous quality to him and all the existing footage we have of him is fantastic to watch because he was such a larger than life figure.

Praise must also be heaped upon director Jay Roach's approach to this film. He comes mainly from a background of making comedy movies, namely the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents series of films. While this film has a large amount of comedy, it is at its heart a serious story about the hysteria that surrounded the spread of communism in 1950s America. It was crazy to watch Hedda Hopper to get up in a stir about reasons that are not at all apparent. The look of this film is also amazing, but primarily because it has the look of being shot on a set. Now normally that would seem quite out of place in any other film, but here it works fantastically, especially since it is about a period in film where sets were used prolifically.

The supporting cast are also wonderful, even though Cranston steals the show. Diane Lane plays Trumbo's strong supportive wife remarkably well and even though I'm not a fan of Elle Fanning, she does a good job in this movie. The same can be said of Helen Mirren. Both Louis C.K. and Michael Stuhlbarg show incredible range and in the case of Louis, he shows some incredible dramatic acting because he does not have a single joke in this movie. Also the makeup was fantastic enough to make Dean O'Gorman look exactly like Kirk Douglas.

Trumbo is one man's tribute to another. Cranston gives a performance so authentic, it's easy to hold up footage of the actual man and see how good it is. The supporting cast are also wildly brilliant.

Selma

Ava DuVernay's latest film Selma is probably one of the best movies about the Civil Rights movement of the 60s and probably the most honest in its portrayal of the brutality suffered by African-Americans in the South at this time. It also shows the outright racism that was accepted at the time and even leaders like Governor George Wallace doing nothing to stop it.

After receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) returns to his home in Atlanta, Georgia to find the next step in his Civil Rights movement. He finds it in the town of Selma in Alabama, where black people are still unable to register to vote, despite legally being able to. King is joined by fellow members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to tackle this issue. Meanwhile, President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) is nervous about about the tension King being in Alabama is having with racist governor George Wallace (Tim Roth). King and his followers eventually decide to walk from Selma to Montgomery as a peaceful protest.

DuVernay's film is masterfully created and captures the feeling of the time perfectly. Martin Luther King is such an important figure of the twentieth century and it's movies like this one that help expose certain parts of history to mainstream audiences. One problem I do have (and it's only minor), is that the film overuses brutal violence to get it's point across. Whilst it's not absolutely excessive I felt like you could maybe cut out one or two scenes of this and still get the point across about how terrifying it was to live as a black person during these times.

This movie has a huge cast and all of the performances are so amazing. David Oyelowo is so amazing as King that I forgot about all other movies he had been in and could only focus on him. It is so disappointing that he is not up for Best Actor for this movie because I would have chosen him in an instant. While President Johnson's portrayal is slightly inaccurate (he championed the Civil Rights movement and was not against it), Wilkinson brings his talents to the fore and is wonderfully followed round by Giovanni Ribisi.

Carmen Ojogo is superb as King's weary wife and Oprah Winfrey makes a superb cameo as a woman who just wants to vote and demonstrates a mean right hook. Tim Roth made my skin absolutely crawl as George Wallace, but also backs up his ability as a great dramatic actor. Stephen Root is just as despicable as Major Al Lingo who orchestrated some of the more brutal attacks on the peaceful protestors.

Selma is deserving of all the praise it has received. It isn't just an affirmative action film because it justifies the reasons for the Civil Rights movement. Ava DuVernay and David Oyelowo make a superb team and are supported by a fantastic cast.

Robin Williams Tribute Month: Bicentennial Man (1999)

Bicentennial Man was one of Williams' movies that wasn't that well received when it came out, but there is something about it (like Jack) that struck a chord with me when I first watched it that still resonates with me today.

One day, the Martin family get a delivery of a new serving android, whom they call Andrew (Robin Williams). Over time, they come to realise that Andrew is a special robot, who is able to feel and convey emotions, something which he shouldn't be able to do. Andrew's owner, Richard (Sam Neill), takes Andrew to the company where he was constructed. Instead of taking Andrew to study him, the head of the company suggests that they reprogram him. Time passes and the family grow older. Andrew eventually decides to look for similar robots like him and comes across Rupert Burns (Oliver Platt). Together they work on making Andrew more like a human, both in features and internal workings. After a long time away, Andrew returns and meets Richard's great-granddaughter, Portia Embeth Davidtz), who he falls in love with.

Robin Williams' performance in this movie is really fun. It evolves from an extremely robotic to a regular human being. Watching him misunderstand human emotions is extremely fun. He has incredible chemistry with Embeth Davidtz, who also plays Richard Martin's daughter, Amanda or "Little Miss". Sam Neill is also a pleasure to watch in this movie as a man who is incredibly tolerant of his 'property'.

Thematically this movie is all over the place. It touches on concepts such as humanity, slavery, prejudice, maturity, love, intellectual freedom, conformity and sex. Whilst these all may have worked well in Isaac Asimov's novel, for a film that is a lot to cover, especially a family movie.

The theme of slavery and humanity are probably the most prevalent of themes. Andrew eventually is granted freedom by his master and obtains the right to die. These themes have been and are still important in today's world.

Verdict: A good family film that suffers slightly from having too much content.