Gary Thompson: 'Cedar Rapids,' 'Unknown,' 'The Adjustment Bureau' out on DVD
ED HELMS' "Hangover 2" made 40 times as much money and was about half as funny as his indie comedy "Cedar Rapids," released a few months earlier, now on DVD.
ED HELMS' "Hangover 2" made 40 times as much money and was about half as funny as his indie comedy "Cedar Rapids," released a few months earlier, now on DVD.
Helms stars as an impossibly square guy who attends a regional insurance convention, where he's hazed and ultimately helped by fellow delegates (John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, Isiah Whitlock Jr.).
The movie is offbeat and has a good heart - it's unusually generous to its Midwestern characters, and resolves itself in surprising ways.
Most of the surprises in "The Adjustment Bureau" are of the unpleasant variety. This botched adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story stars Matt Damon as a man told by emissaries of God that if he dates Emily Blunt he'll destroy the country, then pursues her anyway. This movie gives selfishness a bad name.
"Unknown" features Liam Neeson in yet another tired riff on the amnesia premise - he wakes up Berlin, and . . . I can't remember what happens.