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Coming Soon:Bad Teacher starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel & Justin Timberlake

Posted on March 13, 2011 Written by ripitup

Bad Teacher starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel & Justin Timberlake. Coming in June.

Bad Teacher is a summer comedy that will start hitting the theaters at the end of June. So let’s see what it’s all about:

Cameron Diaz is in fact a ridiculously inappropriate junior high teacher who values only herself and money. She believes she’s too good for the school’s gym teacher Jason Segel and when she begins her man hunt, she goes after the new instructor Justin Timberlake. Of course judging by his ex, she believes that she can only get him after a major boob surgery. So she decides to go after the bonus too, a reward given to the best teacher. But she now has to win over Lucy Punch, who is.. well, a better teacher.

Can she win the money and the guy?

Bad Teacher looks entertaining but I’m not sure it is funny enough. It’s a fun premise but a movie has to be really, really funny when it’s centered on characters that you don’t care about at all. And while gorgeous, Cameron Diaz doesn’t play a likable character.

I really enjoyed Jason Segel in Forgettting Sarah Marshall and I love you, Man but he doesn’t seem to have enough punch lines here. He only made me giggle when he called his student “Hey, Twilight” . Well, the kid’s hair is very Twilight’s Edward Cullen-ish.

Oh, and I am not ready to embrace Justin Timberlake as a leading actor yet. Yes, he is an OK actor and his acting hurts less than his music, but the lead? I guess the writers thought it would be a fun touch casting him as the guy Cameron strives to get, as Cameron already got Justin – from 2003 to 2006. They dated for 3 years. The attraction to Justin is something I’ll never get, as I like my men (and my male celebrities) tall, well-built & manly.

Directed by Lawrence Kasdan’s son Jake Kasdan. Written by Gene Stupnitsky, Lee & Eisenberg, whose credits writing credits include (American) The Office series and the Jack Black comedy Year One.

Let’s see if this is a good movie with a mediocre trailer. The trailer is available on imdb.com

Other Cameron Diaz Movies & Posts:

Knight and Day starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz

The Box starring Cameron Diaz, James Marsden and Frank Langella

My Sister’s Keeper starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Patrick & Abigail Breslin

4 Good Movies with Awesome Soundtracks: Shoot ‘em up, Jerry Maguire, Reality Bites and Vanilla Sky

10 FUNNIEST MOVIES EVER: Laugh Till Your Ribs Hurt

Cameron Diaz Trivia

Other Jason Segel Movies & Series:

Forgetting Sarah Marshall starring (&written by Jason Segel)

How I Met Your Mother – Comedy Series

I Love You Man starring Jason Segel & Paul Rudd

Other Justin Timberlake Movies:
The Social Network starring Jesse Eisenberg. Featuring Justin Timberlake

How I Met Your Mother starring Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan, Neil Patrick Harris and Cobie Smulders

Posted on September 17, 2010 Written by ripitup

How I Met Your Mother starring Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders and Neil Patrick Harris — How I Met Your Mother starring (from left) Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders and Josh Radnor.

How I Met Your Mother starts a couple of decades from now, as Ted decides to tell his teenage son and daughter how he met their mother. We go back to 2005, when Ted is hanging around with his best friends Lily (Alyson Hannigan) and Marshall (Jason Segel). He knows both of them from college and they are a couple. When Lily and Marshall get engaged, Ted (Josh Radnor) realizes that he might be ready for the long term commitment too. But his other good friend Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) has no intentions of settling down and he loves having Ted as a wingman and involves him in ridiculous situations to pick up girls. While his methods mostly work for Barney and his one night stands, Ted wants more. It is then he meets Robin (Cobie Smulders)- a Canadian news reporter who is currently living and working in the States. . He thinks it is pretty much love at first sight (and love after first date, to be exact) but Robin isn’t after anything serious.

The first episode ends by Ted (weirdly, Ted’s narrations aren’t done by Josh Radnor but Bob Saget); telling his kids that Robin isn’t the mother.

From then on, it is all about the adventures and mishaps of this group of 5 and Ted’s constant efforts in finding the woman of his dream while they hang at their favorite bar, crack jokes and analyze relationships .

I have to admit that had I been a producer, I’d never have thought this concept would catch up. The show first aired in 2005 and Ted has been telling the story ever since. The movie Definitely, Maybe has a somewhat similar concept, as Ryan Reynolds’ character tells his young daughter (Abigail Breslin) his romantic past, involving three different women – and one of them is her mother. I was frankly not that impressed with Definitely, Maybe as I found it a little slow, boring and not that interesting. While How I Met Your Mother is definitely funnier and more entertaining (and it was an instant hit among my Friends and Coupling-worshipping group of friends), I never quite got addicted to this show.

Now, don’t get me wrong. How I Met Your Mother has a great cast and the characters are not that hard to empathize with. But my problem is that the episodes aren’t quite as hilarious as I’d expect a sitcom to be. And the whole close friends dating thing has been done too many times. Oh, don’t give me that ”but you also love Friends (1994-2004) and Coupling (of course the UK version: 2000-2004)” look. I do. But you see, Friends characters had so much originality – with their characters occupations and back stories, jokes and use of the English language for cracking jokes, the characters’ eccentricities, guest appearances by your favorite actors (Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts, Tom Selleck, Sean Penn, Reese Witherspoon, Michael Vartan….) and the perfect sitcom combination of both funny one-liners, on-going inside jokes, hilarious events and wonderful use of physical comedy. Coupling had great original characters (Jane and Jeff), wonderful observations and shameless, original & hilarious jokes about sex (which wouldn’t disappear even at a funeral scene!) which was combined brilliantly by physical comedy (especially by characters Jeff and Steve).

And because those two were immensely hilarious, I overlooked the storylines that resembled all those soap operas (Dawson’s Creek, Grey’s Anatomy…) where friends dated all of their friends. I mean look at Friends: Ross dated Rachel and made out with Phoebe (one episode). Monica was his sister. Monica dated Chandler, but her “official” first choice was Joey. Rachel dated Ross and Joey. Thankfully Phoebe never exactly dated any of them. They all hung out together.

In Coupling: Susan slept with/dated Steve and Patrick – dated Jeff but couldn’t sleep with him because he got nervous. Jane dated Steve and attempted to sleep with Patrick and Jeff. Sally dated Patrick.

While as far as I know Lily never dated Ted or Barney, but Robin dated Ted and Barney. And then there is other thing getting old: the womanizer character who is certainly not all that good-looking and charming, but for some reason every girl on the show loved (doing) them. Friends had Joey, Coupling had Patrick and How I Met Your Mother has Barney.

Did I get too much into comparison mode? Whoops. Sorry about that. But if you look at the end dates of these two shows and the beginning of How I Met Your Mother, you see that it came out a time when two of the most hilarious sitcoms around ended. So I needed an instant substitute. While this show is might be a placebo, it really isn’t the real deal (pardon the metaphor). It is funny, but not constantly hilarious and it is not funny enough to send me to the floor laughing or cause me stomach pains. I realize that the part of the intended charm is that the characters are everyday people, but for me it is a turn off. I know a couple of Teds, Marshalls, Robins, Lilys and even Barneys (or who want to be Barneys or who kid themselves about being a Barney) in real life. So why should I follow events and characters I see on a regular basis?

When it is on TV and I am eating, it is a perfect show. But it is too ordinary to be addictive.

For Friends and Coupling (only the first three seasons), my vote is a 10/10.

How I Met Your Mother is a 7/10. I prefer Jason Segel’s movies for the time being.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall starring Jason Segel, Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis

Posted on July 26, 2010 Written by ripitup

Forgetting Sarah Marshall starring Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis and Russell Brand. Written by Jason Segel and directed by Nicholas Stoller. 2008. Image via 3.bp.blogspot.com

Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) is a musician working on the music of a popular crime TV series, starring Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). Peter also has been dating Sarah for 5.5 years and he is still very much in love with her. That’s why he is devastated when she dumps her for another guy. Peter gets seriously depressed and despite the common sense his stepbrother Brian (Bill Hader) tries to talk into him, he tries to get over Sarah by going to bed with any woman he meets. When he realizes this is not the cure, he decides to go to Hawaii, thinking that maybe an exotic vacation might help him cheer up.

However what he finds in Hawaii is his ultimate nightmare, as Sarah and her new boyfriend, obnoxious but extremely popular British rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) are there on vacation. Sarah is uncomfortable but Aldous couldn’t care less whether Peter was there or not. So Peter’s vacation is off to a terrible start, except for the one fact. The hotel desk clerk/guest manager Rachel (Mila Kunis) is nice, gorgeous, fun and has a good sense of humor. So in between trying to get over Sarah, meeting the weird but funny hotel workers (stoned surfer Chuck, the Aldous-obsessed waiter, sea turtles and fish-loving bartender, gentle but gigantic food server and the even weirder hotel guest- the newly married, devout Christian who is having sexual problems with his wife and sharing them all with them) and romancing Rachel, Peter’s Hawaii vacation gets crazier and much more complicated than he ever envisioned.

If I had to use one word to describe Forgetting Sarah Marshall, that word would be hilarious. This movie is one of the best comedies I have seen. It is original, funny, cute, entertaining and romantic all at the same time. While this is not your typical romcom, it is definitely not your typical crude comedy etiher. The writer of the film is How I Met Your Mother and I Love You, Man star Jason Segel. While the comedy series How I met your mother never hit home with me, I knew Jason Segel had comedic talent when I watched I Love You, Man. However as it turns out, Jason can also write marvelous comedy as the writing credits of this hilarious film are his.

Yes, the movie does contain some typical romcom elements: Such as the guy tries to get over a girl and then meets another girl and we root for him to get the second girl. But this movie is never all about Peter trying to hook up or end up with Rachel as the supporting characters are always ready in the background to make you laugh. I had a laugh out of every single character in the film.

And while the humor includes male nudity, sex, awkward sex attempts, mentions and implications of blow jobs , sex pointers on the beach and more, Jason Segel has managed to make everything funny and not disgusting.

The Cast:

It is also fun to see a cast you are familiar with. There is a big chance the actors will look very familiar to you.

*Chuck the surf instructor is played by Paul Rudd who you may have known from his movie roles in Clueless, The 40-Year-Old-Virgin, Knocked Up, Role Models, “I Love You, Man”, I Could Never Be Your Woman or his co-starring role in Friends as Mike Hannigan. Paul Rudd is charming and can be funny in any role. While he is not exactly what you can call a diverse actor, he does pull off comedy well.

*Jason Segel stars as Marshall on the hit comedy How I Met Your Mother and has been Marshall since 2005. And he does share some movies with Paul Rudd.

* This is the first time I see Mila Kunis in a movie as I am more familiar with her as Jackie from That 70’s Show. She is playing a pretty different character here and she really is good.

*Sarah Marshall is brilliantly played by Kristen Bell, who I had never seen her play a “bitch” before. She is famous for her title role in the detective TV show Veronica Mars that went on for 3 seasons. She is also the voice on Gossip Girl. While she is never seen, her voice is present in every episode. She also starred in movies When in Rome, Couples Retreat and the sort of spin-off of Forgetting Sarah Marshall- Get Him to The Greek. Get Him to The Greek is a comedy written and directed by Nicholas Stoller, who also directed Sarah Marshall. It features Russell Brand as Aldous Snow one more time. While Russell hit the target here, I am not sure I can take him through another movie. But I guess Nicholas Stoller deserves a chance as he wrote the scripts of Yes Man and Fun with Dick & Jane, two of my favorite Jim Carrey movies.

*It’s refreshing to see Jonah Hill appear in a movie without Seth Rogen around. While I don’t particularly like him, he doesn’t bother me in small doses. You might remember Jonah from Knocked Up, Funny People or The Invention of Lying.

*The stepbrother Brian is played by Bill Hader, a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live. He has stints on two Saturday Night Live episodes I covered: One stars Jon Bon Jovi and the other Gerard Butler. Trust me, if you see those stints, you will recognize Bill Hader.

There is another SNL cast member on the show: Kristen Wiig. She keeps getting small roles in movies. You can also see her in Whip It and Ghost Town.

7.4 on IMDB, voted by over 70.000 voters. I have no objections.

Trivia: In the fictional tv show that is starring Sarah Marshall co-stars a male detective who is played by William Baldwin, one of Alec Baldwin’s brothers. And there is very little Jason Bateman cameo as well who co-stars with Kristen Bell in Couple’s Retreat.

Buy Forgetting Sarah Marshall on Amazon.com at $ 9.99

I Love You, Man starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel

Posted on July 19, 2010 Written by ripitup

I Love You Man starring Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and Rashida Jones. Image via collider.com

Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) is under the impression that his life is perfect. After all, he enjoys his job as a real estate agent and his girlfriend Zooey (Rahida Jones) said yes to his proposal. But as her friends and his family find about their marriage plans, it becomes painfully obvious that Peter doesn’t have any male friends who can be his best man. Zooey’s friend Denise (Jaime Pressly) tries to get him into the group of her grumpy husband Barry (Jon Favreau)’s poker buddies while his gay brother Robbie (Andy Samberg) and his mother (Jane Curtin) fix him up with man-dates. However all these efforts end in disaster as the men either turn up to be weird, annoying or simply gay.

But soon after Peter meets Sydney Fife (Jason Segel) and it seems like it is a male friendship made in heaven. Sydney is fun, upfront, straight, has a good job, a garage full of guitars, loves the band Rush and he really does enjoy hanging out with Peter. While this newly found friendship makes Zooey at first, it slowly puts a strain on the relationship. After all Sydney is too blunt (his wedding toast suggest Zooey should give Peter “bj”s.), he loves being the ultimate bachelor and questions why Peter is getting married at all and he wants to hang out with him very often. Moreover he seems to have odd ideas on how to make Peter sell more houses- which end up pissing off his boss…

How will Peter manage to balance his problems at work, not losing Zooey and not screwing up his friendship?

A male friend recommended this to me as a very entertaining guy flick and he was right. It is really fun and original. Do not be turned off by the term guy flick because it is a very unisex movie. You may not enjoy watching this with kids or parents, but it is perfect to see alone, with friends or with your date. And you can’t say that for a lot of movies.

I love the whole cast. I always found J. K Simmons (he plays Peter’s father) hilarious, I really crack up every time I see Jane Curtin (a habit from watching the hilarious sitcom 3^rd Rock from the Sun). Jon Favreau (Vince Vaughn’s writing/acting buddy- director of Iron Man films) seems to love characters that are not easy to get along with and talk way too much as he keeps playing them. But it is OK because is made for these roles. You probably know Andy Samberg from Saturday Night Live. You can watch this hilarious SNL stint where Andy keeps punching everyone. Rashida Jones starred in the mini romcom series NY-LON with True Blood’s Bill (Stephen Moyer) that takes place in both London and New York, hence the name.

Don’t expect a laugh-out-loud comedy. As much as I watched the film with a huge grin on my face, I didn’t really get stomach cramps. For more laughter, I will suggest watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It also stars Jason Segel and features Paul Rudd in a small but fun role.

That being said, I have no objection to this film’s high rating 7.3 rating. Written by John Hamburg and Larry Levin, directed by John Hamburg. Made in 2009. Click to watch “I love you, man” trailer on youtube.

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