Category: Movie Reviews
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The Apology King (2013): Turning Japan’s Apology Rituals into Comedy
The Apology King turns a familiar social act into an entire profession. Yuzuru Kuroshima is a professional apologist who uses carefully designed apologies to settle disputes for his clients. The cases range…
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We’re the Millers (2013): From Strangers to Something Like a Family
The title We’re the Millers suggests a family, and that gives it a warm, comforting feeling. The four people at the center of the movie, however, are not really a family at…
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The Internship (2013): An Optimistic Story About Success and Effort
The Internship is set largely in the world of Google. That setting provides the background for a story mainly concerned with success and with the effort people make in order to achieve…
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The Watch (2012): A Decent Comedy with a Touch of Sci-Fi
The Watch is a decent comedy overall. It has enough humorous moments to make you laugh from time to time. The humor gives the film a clearly comedic character and supports the…
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Key of Life (2012): A Romantic Comedy with a Darker Japanese Edge
Key of Life begins with a premise that sounds almost like a crime thriller. A struggling actor switches locker keys with a man who loses his memory after an accident at a…
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You’re Being Summoned, Azazel-san (2011): Demons Turned into Adult Comedy
You’re Being Summoned, Azazel-san is the kind of anime that earns its appeal by being consistently ridiculous. Its crude humor and adult content will not suit everyone, but both are central to…
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Zookeeper (2011): Choosing the Work That Truly Suits You
Zookeeper is a light romantic comedy built around two choices: whom to love and what kind of life to pursue. Griffin spends much of the film trying to win back Stephanie, the…
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Meet Dave (2008): A Comedy Built on a Wonderfully Strange Idea
This is a genuinely entertaining comedy. Some comedy films, especially more recent ones, can become surprisingly serious or feel more like dramas. But a comedy should, above all, be fun—and this movie…
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I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007): A Straightforward Comedy That Delivers Plenty of Laughs
This is another straightforward comedy that is clearly designed to make the audience laugh. By a straightforward comedy, I mean the kind of movie that does not need to be complicated or…
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Vacation (2015): The Kind of Comedy That Actually Makes You Laugh
Vacation is the kind of comedy that commits fully to making its audience laugh. The story follows Rusty Griswold as he takes his wife and two sons on a cross-country journey to…