There's Lots of Well-Done Fun To Be Had With Ant-Man and the Wasp

As the great mid-20th century philosopher The Cat In The Hat once proclaimed "It is fun to have fun, but you have to know how." That's oh so true under any circumstance, but it's especially relevant when talking about making movies that are supposed to be just light-hearted fun. If you make these kinds of films well, they can be oh so enjoyable, but if you make them in a rushed or otherwise subpar manner, you end up with something empty that's grating rather than entertaining. Just compare the best Will Ferrell comedy vehicle like The Other Guys to his worst comedy vehicle like Daddy's Home, both movies are aiming to be entertaining yukfests, but one shows craftsmanship in creating its comedy, whereas the other is a lazily constructed cash-grab that just bores rather than delights you. Both are aiming for fun, but only the one that's actually well-made hits that target.

The Character-centric Drama of The 40-Year-Old Virgin Tends To Be More Consistently Successful Than Its Comedy

There was a time when Steve Carell wasn't a movie star. Prior to August 2005, Carell, who had previously appeared in a number of scene-stealing roles in movies as well as starred in a handful of episodes of the American version of The Office, had never headlined a major feature film prior to The 40-Year-Old Virgin while writer/director Judd Apatow had been cutting his teeth on an assortment of cult classic TV shows up to this point. But with this raunchy comedy, both of them managed to spring to the very top of the A-list and proved to be one of the most influential forces in early 21st century American cinematic comedy, with their impact still being felt in movies made to this very day.

Mute Silences All of It's Potential

In their 28 month long period of doing feature films, Netflix has released a bunch of high-quality smaller-scale films like The 13th, Blue Jay and Mudbound that show the streaming service is quite capable of putting out some top-notch cinema. If only such quality extended to their attempts to release more high-profile blockbuster fare, as those (admittedly few) attempts have fared quite poorly. Bright was, of course, a disaster and now comes another subpar bigger-budgeted effort from the studio in the form of Mute, which hails from director Duncan Jones, a man responsible for two of the best science-fiction films (Moon and Source Code) of the last decade.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story Hits A High Note For Outlandish Satire

In 2007, Judd Apatow seemed to have garnered the Midas Touch in that every comedic project he touched as a producer was generating massive box office. Most notably, Knocked Up and Superbad had been back-to-back box office hits in the summer of 2007 that ushered in a new age of American comedy and he would follow those two up with more box office hits like Step Brothers and Pineapple Express the subsequent year. But even in a year as golden as 2007, not everything can be a hit and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story ended up being the Judd Apatow produced comedy to be a box office dud despite opening just a few months after Superbad.

Wet Hot American Summer Knows Teen Comedies And Hillarious Absurdist Comedy Super Well

So, this past weekend I watched Wet Hot American Summer for the first time.

I cannot tell you my thoughts on the movie right here and right now.

However, if you meet me back here at this picnic table in 10 seconds, I'll tell you everything.

(Ten seconds pass)

OK, so...

"Ya Got Me Clueless, Look Into Your Eyes And The Skies The Limit..."

My disdain for John Hughes High School fare like The Breakfast Club (especially The Breakfast Club) is well-known but there's no denying, no matter how I felt about such projects, that they left a massive impact on pop culture. In the years following the 1980's, when such movies were released, a swath of High School set comedies came out and tried to replicate the identity of those John Hughes directed features only to come off as derivative and fade off into the oblivion. It was only those High School set movies that tried to be something different that managed to create their own impact on pop culture.

The Little Prince Beautifully Contemplates Mortality, Friendship And The Nature Of Growing Up

When we're kids, we know, even if it's just subconsciously, that we'll all one day become the very grown-ups, the ones that seem to have to have all answers and tower over us at such a young age. As one grows older and the days and years fly by, it begins to slowly dawn on you that, as the years go by, the inevitable is occurring...you've grown up. It's not an automatic thing, but a gradual one. And you quickly learn that adults, well, they don't have all the answers, no one does. In the words of the father from Calvin & Hobbes: "I don't think I'd have been in such a hurry to reach adulthood if I'd known this whole thing was going to be ad-libbed".

The Fundamentals Of Caring Review

Ben (Paul Rudd) could really use some cash. In an effort to get some financial stability in his life, Ben decides to take a six-week course to become a guardian for someone with physical disabilities. The individual he gets paired up with turns out to be Trevor (Craig Roberts), a foul-mouthed British 20 year-old with muscular dystrophy. Trevor has a strict adherence to his routine, which entirely entails him staying in his living room sans a brief weekly trip to the park on Thursdays. In an effort to get him out of his comfort zone and see the greater world, Ben decides to take Trevor to see various tourist attractions (all revolving around the concept of being "The World's Biggest", i.e. The World's Biggest Cow) that the dude is obsessed with.

I Love You, Man Review (Classic Write-Up)

Now That We're Men!

A few minutes into I Love You, Man, I truly felt like I was watching something unprecedented. Here was an R-rated comedy that has its protagonist, Peter (Paul Rudd) be in a committed relationship....and the wife isn't treated as some kind of antagonist! His significant other, Zooey (Rashida Jones), is shown to be a well-rounded, nice person, who has a great dynamic with Peter. To boot, the film doesn't depict Peter as being "whipped" or less for having a healthy relationship with his fiancee.

Captain America: Civil War Cast Grows To Include Ant-Man, War Machine And More!

The cast for Captain America: Civil War is gonna be huge, and so it's no shocker that, even with developments earlier in the week with Martin Freeman and Emily VanCamp entering the film, that more cast members for the gargantuan movie would be announced.

New Ant-Man Trailers Brings The Gags, The Ants And The Trains...Er, Pain

With Age of Ultron on the horizon (only 18 days to go!), Marvel is now turning it's attention to their next big budget blockbuster: Ant-Man. The only promotional material we've seen from the movie are some cool looking images, a funny poster and a decent, if overly serious, teaser. A new trailer has popped up to help put the movie on the map, and hey! It actually does a good job of setting the movie up as, maybe, just maybe, something special. Check it out below!

First Image Revealed of Paul Rudd As Alter-Ego Of Marvels New Superhero Ant-Man

It's been quite a big week for Marvel Studios 2015 film Ant-Man. Filming started on Monday, which prompted a massive casting announcement that brought several big and talented actors to the movie. Now, we've got our first look at Scott Lang, the lead character of the film being played by Paul Rudd. Check out the first picture of the guy below!

Ant-Man Cast Grows With Judy Greer, Bobby Cannavale and Tony Starks Dad

My unwarranted earlier reaction to Peyton Reed being chosen as the director of Ant-Man feels hideously narrow-minded in retrospect. The dude not only has a lot more beloved works under his belt than a forgettable Jim Carry vehicle, and I'm super sorry for saying such poor words way back when. I'm way more confident in the film now, thanks not only to the phenomenal artistic success of Marvel Studios recent movie Guardians, but also Reeds hideous treatment by fans on the internet and at Comic-Con. The movie starts filming today, and already has dynamite cast that includes Paul Rudd playing Scott Lang, who is the titular superhero, Michael Douglas as his mentor, Evangeline Lilly as the mentors daughter, Corey Stall as the anatgonist and Michael Pena.

Marvel Kicks Butt At Comic-Con With Ant-Man and Avengers 2 News PLUS: Official Comic-Con Trailers Mad Max And Kevin Smiths Newest Movie

This is the greatest thing I have ever seen. That is all

Comic-Con is all wrapped up now, but the memories will live on forever, namely the ones that occurred about 24 hours ago, when Marvel Studios took the stage to make another memorable panel in Hall H. The studio is pretty much the king of Comic-Con at this point, and they affirmed such a status by showing off footage from The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man.