Bad Words

Expectations:
You show me a funny child actor, and I will probably watch your movie... You show me a funny, Indian child actor, and I will probably long for you movie! Before I even watched Bad Words, I knew that Rohan Chand's role as Jason Bateman's 10 year old best friend would probably keep me laughing. If you haven't seen the trailer for Bad Words, watch it here, and take note of the hilarity of Chand's Chaitanya. Nevertheless, the idea behind the film is just so clever, and I hoped that Jason Bateman's directorial debut would deliver on the clever story. In my opinion, Bateman is one of those unfunny funny-guys, who always picks perfect roles for their talents (also see: Paul Rudd, John Stewart). I love Bateman films, but I just don't think he is that funny. Hopefully I'm not the only one who sees him in this way, but, if I am, just trust me...

Plot:
Unfortunately, the potentially clever storyline was quite scattered, and the film couldn't quite figure out which direction to go. At times, there was a lot of emotion and father-drama. At times, there was a lot of goofy, PG-13ish comedy. At times, Bateman was cursing like a sailor, which felt more R-rated, for sure. If only they had focused in on one type of comedy, then the film probably would have been great. Thankfully, Chand and Bateman were still able to deliver a number of laughs and, somehow, salvage what could have been a disastrous film. Hopefully, in the future, Bateman will get a little more organized. The screenplay involved a large number of hilarious moments, but they were just thrown together, which really hurt the film. From beginning to end, everything felt so random, and some scenes felt quite useless.

Characters:
As I said above, Jason Bateman is in a unique realm of comedy (to me at least), and, in Bad Words, he didn't shift away from his typical performance. He was good for the role, and the role was funny. However, he contributed very little to the funny. He just read his lines in his normal way and BOOM! he got paid!

Negatives:
I first fell in love with Kathryn Hahn in the very underappreciated Wanderlust, where she showed just how crazy she could be. Throw in her performances in We're the Millers, The Dictator, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and you have someone who could quickly become the next Melissa McCarthy, in my opinion. Unfortunately, considering she didn't make me laugh not a single time in Bad Words, she's going to have to wait a little while longer before garnering that Melissa McCarthy award. I know her character, Jenny Widgeon, wasn't designed to be as goofily funny as a typical Hahn character, but there were times when she was trying to be funny and the laughs did not come. On top of the Hahn disappointment were two big disappointments from Allison Janney, who's Dr. Deagan was forced into the film, and Ben Falcone, who's Pete Fowler was never given the opportunity to make me laugh. So much talent was wasted on this film! It is just sad!

Positives:
Rohan Chand's Chaitanya Chopra made me want to go out and adopt a random Indian kid, immediately. He had to be the cutest kid ever, and his dorkiness just made everything even better, since I aspire to have dorky children. Without Chand, Bad Words fails miserably, and, when I say miserably, I mean it. Bateman may have been the lead, but Chand carries the film further than Bateman has ever carried anything.

Conclusion:
While Jason Bateman's directorial debut did struggle along a good bit, it was a great film for him to give it a try. However, if the scattered nature of Bad Words is not improved upon greatly, Bateman should probably just stick with acting. Thankfully, we do get Horrible Bosses 2 this year! If you haven't seen Horrible Bosses, please go watch it immediately! If you want random laughter, you might really enjoy Bad Words. I just prefer a good, organized storyline, and Bad Words has nothing even close to that. Regardless, kudos are much deserved for Rohan Chand, and I certainly hope that the youngster continues to shine in the future. I give Bad Words 2.03 out of 5 stars.

What to Expect When You're Expecting

Expectations:
Honestly, I thought this movie was going to be one of the funniest of the summer. There are a ton of hilarious jokes and happenings that can revolve around pregnancy, and we all know it. As I said with The Avengers, it was obvious that there were going to be many, many major characters, which is a huge risk to take with any movie. While all of these characters had potential, I was truly looking forward to seeing the dads group (led by Chris Rock). The previews, obviously meant to suck men into an otherwise female-led comedy, were quite funny when the dads group was present. What to Expect was a great idea with a lot of potential, but there was also a lot of potential for FAILURE...

Plot:
Let's just call it "lacking," for lack of a better negative adjective. There was absolutely NOOOO flow to the film at all, which really led to a bunch of confusing, emotional moments that made me want to kill myself. One second we would be laughing and carrying on, then, suddenly, it was like the saddest movie you could ever watch. On top of the confusion, there was really very little to tie the various storylines together. Usually movies with many stars will bring those stars together in some way, but that wasn't the case with this film. Everybody did have some connection; however, the connection was usually completely pointless and small. There just wasn't any clear plot, which usually means that the whole movie just sucks.

Characters:
This is the segment of this review where I have to be very careful. While I have hated a fair amount on the movie so far, I do believe that there were some very funny and great characters in this film. If you would have taken any one or two of the thousands of pregnancy stories that made up this film and made a separate movie with only those stories, the movie would have been much funnier and successful. You just couldn't really enjoy the time given to one couple, because you knew that the time would soon run out. However, I don't have much criticism for the actors in this film (except for Cameron Diaz, who I just can't stand in general). The dads group was hilarious. The relationship between Ramsey (Dennis Quaid) and Gary (Ben Falcone) made for many laughs and an emotional moment. Elizabeth Banks was rather funny just by herself. The problem lied in the fact that there was just too much going on.

Best Character: Craig, played by Thomas Lennon, was undoubtedly my favorite character. It may be because the character was great, but it very well could be because I think that Thomas Lennon is one of the funniest men on the planet. Also, a shoutout to Rebel Wilson for being so dern funny/ugly!

Worst Character: Move on over Cameron Diaz! She should be ashamed that she wasn't the worst. I have to, unfortunately, give the worst honor to Anna Kendrick's Rosie, who was just bad. Normally Kendrick is one of my favorite actresses, but she just didn't have it for this one.

Conclusion:
It's fairly simple: DON'T GO!!! I can see where some girls might enjoy the sappy sad parts of the film, but, other than that, there isn't much to it. If I were you and I really wanted to see the movie, I would rent it at the Redbox and fast forward to the dads' club scenes. Those really are the only memorably good scenes of the film. Particularly when Chris Rock's kid is getting kicked in the head with a ball or something. This was just one of those star-studded films with no storyline, and I must admit that I get excited when said films struggle at the box office like this movie did. Stars don't deserve to be paid billions for acting for a day and a half just so their name can be thrown in the hat. Movies like these hold back the future of Hollywood, and that disappoints me. I give What to Expect When You're Expecting 2.01 out of 5 stars.