Trailer Hitch

By Eric Hughes

February 17, 2010

He's going to regret this so much. She's not one to anger.

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As much as I dug Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek looks pretty exhausting. I wasn't a huge fan of Aldous to begin with, so to sit through an entire movie with him at the forefront won't be something that interests me come June. He's brash, loud and not unlike Brand himself. No matter what the people at the VMAs tell you, I don't find Russell Brand funny. Alternatively, Jonah Hill appears to be in this movie solely to get pushed around. And stabbed with a needle. And to put drugs up his ass. And to throw up on his person. His comedy in Get Him to the Greek is purely physical, so if that's your bag you'll enjoy his performance.

One thing Get Him to the Greek does have going for it is a stellar cast. Sean "Diddy" Combs and Elizabeth Moss (and the aforementioned Brand, Hill and Byrne) are the leads. Aziz Ansari has a small role as Hill's co-worker, and folks like Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, Pink and Meredith Viera cameo as themselves.

Grade: C

Leaves of Grass – Opens April 2nd

Leaves of Grass stars Edward Norton as Ivy League professor Bill Kincaid, who travels to his hometown in Oklahoma upon learning that his twin brother was murdered in a drug deal gone bad. (In a stroke of genius, Richard Dreyfuss plays the drug kingpin). Like Nic Cage in Adaptation, Norton performs double duty in the film, playing both Bill and his identical twin brother, Brady. The movie, a comedy, looks like fun. I generally like Edward Norton movies, and Leaves of Grass is no different. Susan Sarandon and Keri Russell are in this one too as Norton's eccentric mother and gentle love interest, respectively.




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So far, Norton is poised to have an excellent 2010. Along with Leaves of Grass, I'm also looking forward to his adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn. Along with writing and directing the adaptation, Norton will star as the lead character, Lionel Essrog, a man with Tourette syndrome who investigates the murder of Frank Minna, his former employer.

A more accomplished actor than he is a filmmaker, Leaves of Grass' writer-director Tim Blake Nelson, who also has an acting role in the film, is probably best known for that 2001 high school drama-thriller, O. Essentially a modernized take on Shakespeare's Othello, the flick starred big names for its day – Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett, Andrew Keegan and Julia Stiles. Of course, god only knows what any of them are up to these days.

Grade: B+

Killers – Opens June 4th

Hollywood continues to serve up movies with ridiculous scenarios, and I continue to be disinterested in them. The latest in a recent surge of stupid (following Date Night, The Bounty Hunter, and, why not, Furry Vengeance) is Killers. In it, Katherine Heigl plays a woman who believes while on a family vacation she meets the man of her dreams (Ashton Kutcher) – until he turns out to be an assassin for the CIA. When they're back in the States, Kutcher goes back to playing his dangerous games, leaving Heigl with the decision to go big or go home.

My attitude towards the action comedy is more favorable than a movie like Date Night, but not by much. I've taken a liking to Heigl and Kutcher, who appear to have some chemistry. Heigl also couldn't be more awkward holding a gun, and that situation is ripe for comedy.

Grade: D+


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