Andy Gapin

Too much Cameron Diaz.

Not enough Jason Segel.

After saying that, there isn’t a lot left to say. Bad Teacher isn’t nearly as funny as it would have been if Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz at least shared the screen 50/50. Instead, we get Cameron Diaz as the single main character and Jason Segel with a much more minor role. Hell, Lucy Punch spent the second most amount of time on the screen after Diaz. I’m not complaining about that, I like her, but Jason Segel was completely underutilized. The fact is, Bad Teacher has more than enough talent at its disposal to make for a good movie, but wastes all its time on Cameron Diaz. This is so problematic, it’s not even funny.

Actors aside, Bad Teacher could have also benefited from having more likable characters. I’m pretty sure the only likable character was Jason Segel’s. Justin Timberlake’s and Lucy Punch’s characters are only marginally more likable than Cameron Diaz’s completely awful character. What’s worse, is that while Justin Timberlake and Lucy Punch play characters that are unlikable in a way that works positively for the film, Cameron Diaz’s character just plain sucked all around.

With unlikable characters and focus on the wrong actors, you’d at least hope for a solid script, but holding out for such a thing will just yield disappointment. The film had potential, but it went unfulfilled. There was weren’t jokes where there needed to be and most of the ones that were there fell flat.

Bad Teacher isn’t an entire loss, it does have a few moments, but only so much as to be worth streaming from Netflix. I wouldn’t bother even wasting a DVD rental on it.

Rating: C-

Despicable Me is one of those movies that gets totally over marketed for so long that by the time it finally comes out, you’re mostly just relieved the marketing will die down. I was sold on this movie about 3 seconds into the first trailer I saw for it, but spending the last few months seeing this previewed before every movie I’ve seen got a bit annoying. Lucky for everyone, Despicable Me delivers in a serious way.

Despicable Me is a fun movie that entertains, but doesn’t stray too far from standard ideas. Coming out two weeks after Toy Story 3 hurts it a little, though pretty much any movie would have trouble following that up. Still, Despicable Me is a great movie that I really loved a lot.

I like that things moved along quickly, but throughout the entire film, I felt like I had already seen it and already knew the characters. I even had a nickname for the littlest girl that Gru adopts before even seeing the movie. I had been referring to her as Boo.0 as she reminded me pretty heavily of Boo from Monsters, Inc. She’s super cute.

The minions are pretty entertaining, but I’m still not quite sure what they are and I’m curious as to what they were saying throughout the movie. During the credits, I used the Best Buy Movie Mode app on my iPhone to translate, but sadly, the app doesn’t work throughout the entire movie. That’s probably a good thing though, no one needs a theater full of people holding up their phones during a movie.

If you want to root for an evil villain and not feel bad about it, Despicable Me is for you.

Rating: A-

There are movies that really confuse you sometimes. Get Him to the Greek is one of those movies. And not for any reason other than the fact that I really couldn’t decide if this was a movie I wanted to see at all, much less pay for in the theater. I was definitely back and forth on it. The previews seemed to have some funny clips and there are a couple people I like in it, but there are also a couple people I can’t stand in it that I thought would be way too annoying for me to be able to handle and who would take things that would otherwise be funny and kill them. All that said, my fiancée wanted to see this so I decided to give it a shot.

My fears, while warranted, turned out to non-issues. Those people that I normally can’t stand, Russell Brand and Sean Combs–apparently, he uses his real name when he’s in movies–to be specific were actually exceptional casting choices. It was kind of odd, but I actually enjoyed these two in this flick. Jonah Hill was just as I expected and hoped he’d be, funny, but well-rounded. But Aziz Ansari…well, I could have used quite a bit more of him. Totalled up he was only on screen for about two minutes throughout the movie, that was pretty disappointing.

Get Him to the Greek could have easily gone down a very cheesy road towards being stupid AND not funny, but it steered it’s way clear of that. I probably only laughed out loud a few times, but when I wasn’t laughing, I was still thoroughly engaged and entertained. Even though I had to pee about as badly as I’ve ever had to, I wasn’t waiting for things to end.

Overall, this was pretty solid and there was a really sweet Forgetting Sarah Marshall reference. I’d say check it out.

Rating: B