De père en flic 2 (Father and Guns 2). A 2017 Québec comedy in which the concept of the first film is fully recycled: Michel Côté and Louis-José Houde play father and son cops who go undercover at a retreat to try and turn an important criminal into a witness against his organization. This time, it's a couples retreat, where the dad acts as an assistant leader (who has to stand in for the psychologist leading the retreat when he gets injured), and the son is a couple in theory together with his (ex-)girlfriend, played by Karine Vanasse.
This is a lot like the first film, but better. That one was a bit hit and miss, this one is mostly hit. I had some trouble following the dialogues some time (Houde goes so fast all the time), but it was overall quite funny and they managed to keep up the tone and quality throughout. Nothing deep, just fun. 3/5
The Other Guys. A 2010 Hollywood buddy cop action comedy by Adam McKay starring Will Ferrelll and Mark Wahlberg. Their characters are a desk guy by choice and by suspension, respectively, and don't fit together at all. So, hilarity ensues when they end up going out on the streets together to solve a complicated case.
I was surprised to see this was received well, cause I thought it's not very good. You can see exactly what's supposed to be funny (a lot of absurd dialogues and situations), but often it's just weird and not actually funny. That's awkward. There are also genuinely funny bits, and as a whole, the film is watchable. But I wouldn't consider this a success. 2/5
(Also: I didn't know McKay was behind a lot of comedies (including Anchorman) before he turned serious (well, at least in his subject matter) with The Big Short. Funnily, while The Other Guys as a film has absolutely nothing to say about anything (or only extremely superficially, its closing credits are accompanied by a long list of factoids and graphics demonstrating issues with the US financial sector, wage structures, equity, and government support for banks - basically summarizing the general criticism of The Big Short. It creates interesting kind of transition between both films.)
Spy Kids: All The Time In The World. A 2011 Hollywood action comedy for kids and part 4 in the series. The main characters of the first three parts are all grown up, so we get a new family of spies, this time including a spy mom (Jessica Alba). It's OK. As with the other Spy Kids films, the plot is uneven and the special effects look cheap (although better here), but my kids liked it and laughed a lot. Not a film I'd mind as much rewatching. (Given that my kids rewatch a lot of them and there is definitely worse stuff out there. I mean, we were rewatching Fe@rless the other day...)
This is a lot like the first film, but better. That one was a bit hit and miss, this one is mostly hit. I had some trouble following the dialogues some time (Houde goes so fast all the time), but it was overall quite funny and they managed to keep up the tone and quality throughout. Nothing deep, just fun. 3/5
The Other Guys. A 2010 Hollywood buddy cop action comedy by Adam McKay starring Will Ferrelll and Mark Wahlberg. Their characters are a desk guy by choice and by suspension, respectively, and don't fit together at all. So, hilarity ensues when they end up going out on the streets together to solve a complicated case.
I was surprised to see this was received well, cause I thought it's not very good. You can see exactly what's supposed to be funny (a lot of absurd dialogues and situations), but often it's just weird and not actually funny. That's awkward. There are also genuinely funny bits, and as a whole, the film is watchable. But I wouldn't consider this a success. 2/5
(Also: I didn't know McKay was behind a lot of comedies (including Anchorman) before he turned serious (well, at least in his subject matter) with The Big Short. Funnily, while The Other Guys as a film has absolutely nothing to say about anything (or only extremely superficially, its closing credits are accompanied by a long list of factoids and graphics demonstrating issues with the US financial sector, wage structures, equity, and government support for banks - basically summarizing the general criticism of The Big Short. It creates interesting kind of transition between both films.)
Spy Kids: All The Time In The World. A 2011 Hollywood action comedy for kids and part 4 in the series. The main characters of the first three parts are all grown up, so we get a new family of spies, this time including a spy mom (Jessica Alba). It's OK. As with the other Spy Kids films, the plot is uneven and the special effects look cheap (although better here), but my kids liked it and laughed a lot. Not a film I'd mind as much rewatching. (Given that my kids rewatch a lot of them and there is definitely worse stuff out there. I mean, we were rewatching Fe@rless the other day...)
