Double feature picture show.

Now, I love going to the movies (and that lengthy post explaining why is forthcoming, let me assure you). What I really love, but don't do enough of, is taking in several movies at a time in a day. Most times, I've seen two films in one day (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory & Fantastic Four in July 2005 and Borat & Flushed Away in November 2006, for example) and a rare triple feature in July of 2000 (Chicken Run, Scary Movie & X-Men).

Today, I decided to resurrect this little habit of mine with two comedies. One which has been celebrated by audiences and critics alike, the other I'd really been anticipating since I saw the trailer.

Let me be straight: I hadn't been expecting much from The Hangover. The trailer made me laugh, but the film wasn't a high priority. Feeling I was going to see it eventually, I gave in. Being the only person in the theater (I guess everyone's already seen it), I wasn't too worried about laughing too loudly, as I'm prone to do. The film transcends (but not too much) its Dude, Where's Our Groom? foundation thanks to some solid character dynamics and the chemistry between Bradley Cooper (whom I've long seen as Sack Lodge, but I'm getting over it), Ed Helms and Zach Galifiankis (whose uproarious stand-up act gets a nice reference in the police station scene). If they do make the sequel (which I'm a little surprised at; what, another effed-up morning after?), it'd be nice to see these guys together again. I'm not at all convinced that it deserves a spot on the IMDb's Top 250 list (#130, at last glance), but it's a fitfully funny (if sometimes disturbing; I really could've done without the used condom bit) movie that's fairly deserving of its success.

The trailer for Year One cracked me up, so, naturally, I was psyched to see the film. Honestly, who wouldn't be: Jack Black and Michael Cera together under the aegis of the man who helped bring about some of the funniest movies of the last three decades (Animal House, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day). A can't-miss proposition, right? Right? There were some scattered laughs and a number of familiar faces, but some fundamental problems cut the legs out from under the film: a) the overabundance of pointless grossout gags, like Black's Zed tasting excrement, Cera's Oh pissing on his face and having to rub oil on the hairy chest of the High Priest (Oliver Platt, looking strangely like Divine)...who would've thought that the R-rated comedy would end up less cringe-inducing than the PG-13 comedy?; b) gags getting stretched out long after they've ceased to be funny: the aforementioned shit-tasting, Cain (David Cross) lamenting the death of his brother Abel (Paul Rudd), which he performed several times and making sure that his story's straight with Zed and Oh; c) the artless innuendo, like Eema (Juno Temple) rubbing on the spears. Looking back, the stuff I loved in the trailer lost a lot in the context of the film. There was just a...laziness to the whole thing, like the makers felt that they didn't have to try; the fanbase would eat it up, regardless.

Hold up...scattered laughs, familiar actors in bits, overabundance of grossness, stretched-out gags, artless innuendo, overall laziness, built-in fanbase and two of the leads are a fat, big-mouthed moron and a younger person unnecessarily treated like crap...holy shit, this film was a live-action "Family Guy"! (Incidentally, imagining how Meg is punished on that show for the most minor of transgressions is a pretty strong argument for why I can't imagine seeing, much less enjoying, Drag Me to Hell.) The film wasn't quite Pink Panther 2 bad (and hearing "Yes, we can!" late in the film cracked me up), it ranks as a huge disappointment, the likes of which I hope I can avoid in the future.

(In the film's second half, I noticed the couple behind me getting hot and heavy. Thankfully, they didn't see me. I'm no peeping tom, but I must say that they were more entertaining than the action on screen. Seeing their own action, I definitely felt like I got my money's worth.)