Summer Movies ’10: Ranked and Reviewed

It is certainly not the most memorable summer for well received movies, as we have all come to know, grumble about and lose sleep over. Maybe we were spoiled with 2008’s dark knights, robots and iron clad heroes and 2009’s alien invasion and balloon flying escapades.  So far there have been a few highlights, even if there have been even more dim ones plaguing our expectations and hopes for the summer movie culture. Check out how CyniCritics rated and reviewed some of the top movies released this summer and how our score compares with the consensus on Rotten Tomatoes.

Toy Story 3: A-

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%

Inception: B

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85% Continue reading

REVIEW: Get Him to the Greek

Get Him to the Greek
Directed by: Nicholas Stoller
Written by: Nicholas Stoller & Jason Segel (screenplay)
Starring: Russell Brand, Jonah Hill, Elisabeth Moss, and Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs

A spin-off is a notoriously bad idea when you’re looking for quality.  You get fast cash opening weekend, and then you sink like the Titanic when people realize what you’re selling is crap.  Thankfully, this is not the case with Get Him to the Greek.

What’s great about this movie is not just its perfectly paired comic dream duo (Russell Brand and Jonah Hill), but that it only references Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the “original,” in one obligatory millisecond.  Other than that, it’s allowed to stand on its own comic footing with the funniest character from Sarah Marshall, cocky coke addict Aldous Snow.

Brand became a star partially because of this then-supporting role.  He combined his expert comedic delivery with great material very, very well.  Here he gets to shine even brighter, pulling out all the stops and even finding a soul in a modern comedy character.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say brilliant, but it’s a nice surprise.

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