Movies opening this week

No podcast this week thanks to a scheduling mishap and a general lack of interesting things to discuss. There is, however, much wackiness in this week's video (possibly a little too much). Next week will probably be a little more straightforward.

Observe and Report (Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Ray Liotta, dir. Jody Hill)
This movie seems to be pretty divisive; the Weekly's own Mike D'Angelo professes a mix of respect and annoyance in his review, and I felt a little bit the same way, although I'm not quite as taken with Hill's integrity as Mike is. I had a similar reaction to this as I did to Eastbound & Down, which Hill created along with Danny McBride and Ben Best (both of whom appear in Observe). It's a bunch of assholes doing terrible things to each other for 90 minutes, and while it does have an uncompromising tone, it's unpleasant to watch and not funny. The narrative was also very limp; it felt episodic, like it could have been divided in thirds and functioned as an Eastbound spinoff. I give Rogen credit for playing against type and being willing to come off as completely unlikable, but I don't think the gamble really works out for him here. Wide release