News Taffy

Well friends, I’d love to introduce this week’s column with something sharp, witty, and completely unrelated to the movie review, but I’m going to be honest, my mind is on nothing but HEAT. HEAT HEAT HEAT. In the months spanning between September – December and April-May, I’m the first one to tell you what a wonderful place Northeast Arkansas is to call home, but I am telling you this business of psychotic humidity scorching leaves much to be desired!! And you can forget mojitos, the only drinks we’re all having this summer are MOSQUITO cocktails with melted ice! YECH! How much longer til football season???? Speaking of which, I happened to check out the Red Wolves lineup for the fall and I must say I am EXCITED about this year!! Memphis and UCA at home, HOWL YEAH! Maybe they’ll let me review football games this fall instead of movies….any takers?

Movie time. This week I took a little field trip to Little Rock and happened to watch Horrible Bosses. Click here to watch the trailer. It took a lot to pass up the new Transformers flick in IMAX to watch this, but the Horrible Bosses trailer has literally been part of the preview selections for every single movie I’ve reviewed this year soooo here we go. Plus my date had been counting down to the release date for five weeks – it would have been cruel to dangle it in his face!

Anyway…there are two kinds of actors in this movie: ones you’ll know and ones you won’t. The ones you know: Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey and Colin Farrell. Ones you won’t know: Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day. Bateman, Sudeikis, and Day work for three different versions of evil in this movie, and eventually the straw breaks enough camels’ backs to send them into a plot to kill all three of them one by one. Can’t tell you any more than that! The movie starts off on the slow side…not very funny and not very original. But somewhere in between Jason Bateman shooting scotch at 8:00 in the morning and Sudeikis firing fat people from his chemical company, a legitimate comedy arrives!

I give it an A+++++ in the storyline originality department. There’s a good bit of suspense while you wonder who’s going to end up killing who (or if anyone’s going to die at all) and most of the humor is not what you’d expect (in a good way). The language is foul of course, but that didn’t stop you from watching both Hangover movies, so don’t let it sway you here. A few things. This is just about the ODDEST role I think anyone will ever see Jennifer Aniston play – an obscenely perverse dentist that would send any HR department into fits of rage! She’s also a brunette in this movie…not her best color. But yes (guys), she still looks amazing and her body gives me hope that we CAN be hot after 40 (with a few minor medical enhancements).

Bottom line – Horrible Bosses is anything but horrible! I give it 4 happy stars for superb originality, LOL funny-ness, and 10 to 15 movie quotes added to my arsenal. Great movie for a date or a night out with friends who might be on borderline boss-killing watch. HA.

Finally, I leave you with a fun way to take a break from Facebook and waste some time. Go to YouTube and search “sweetteafilms.” It’s Blue Collar Comedy Tour meets Joe Dirt, and I swear it’s the funniest stuff I’ve ever seen. Watch them all and think about how many family reunions you’ve been to (if you’re from Arkansas) that sound just like these videos. HILARITY. I can’t take credit though – my aforementioned movie date has a comedic love that reaches far beyond my own, and that combined with a finesse for finding cool stuff on YouTube can only lead to the homemade video jackpot. ENJOY!

Lacey

P.S. Oh my goodness. I can’t believe I went this far without mentioning the absolute BEST thing about this week. Do you know what Friday is? I think you do. It’s the end of all endings, the FINALE of the great Harry Potter saga!!!!! (Anyone want to guess what we’re reviewing next week??) This means you have but four days to finish re-watching 1 through 7! Brilliant!