Hangover: Rauncheriffic

It pains me to admit that The Hangover was really funny. The humor and the characters were fairly unique, which I liked. It was strangely suspenseful and not at all dark, which I somehow expected. This movie also managed to have a lot of physical comedy without it being slapstick or cheesy.

Premise
Four very different guys leave for a bachelor weekend in Las Vegas. Someone slipped them drugs and they can't remember anything from the night before. They wake up with a missing groom, a missing tooth, a baby and a tiger. The movie takes you along a mystery tour trying to figure out what the heck happened.

This movie was really raunchy. I leaned over and covered my husband's eyes at least three times, and he gets much less offended than I do. There's one brief moment of female nudity in the context of breastfeeding, and one full-frontal of a Chinese gangster.

THEN comes the finale. Once the loose ends have been tied up, the guys go through their digital camera to look through all the photos. That's when the real adventure becomes clear, and the REAL offensive stuff comes out. I'm talking jaw-dropping horrible photos. If you can walk out during the credits and skip this part, go for it. But I'm a realist and I get that people who go to see that movie know what they're in for and would laugh at my suggestion to leave.

Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian

This latest Night at the Museum was just what I expected: entertaining, cute, and with great visual effects. And it was about a battle at the Smithsonian.

What I loved:
I thought Amy Adams was so great as Amelia Earhart! Just shows that you can have really great acting in a kids' movie. If I were a member of the Academy, I'd fight for her nod. But I doubt this movie is on their radar.

I loved the other dimensions that came to life in the Smithsonian. In the Museum of Natural History (movie #1), T-Rex bones, miniature action figures and stuffed monkeys came to life at night. In this one, the paintings, movies and even bobble heads come to life! And it's all done in a really entertaining and, if I may, logical way.

I loved the story. It managed to make complete sense as a sequel to the original. It had a great moral but didn't get preachy.

For those of you who like The Office, there were three actors from that show who make cameos. I don't know if you can call it a cameo when they're not really famous... but anyway, they make appearances.

Now, parents please don't take my word for it, but I didn't notice stuff that would be inappropriate for kids. I really do try to pay attention to language and innuendos in kid movies like this. I do remember some questionable things in the original, but really didn't catch anything here.


What I didn't love:
As with the original Night at the Museum, I wanted to fast-forward through the climax of the movie, but the theater has no FF button. I don't know, I guess I feel the same way about any action-y movies.

I have mixed feelings about Hank Azaria as a power-hungry pharaoh with feminine tendencies. On one hand, he's a hilarious actor, but on the other hand, WHY do most foreign characters have to have British accents?! Napoleon had a french accent, Ivan the Terrible had a Russian accent, but Egyptian dude was annoyingly British. Whatever! He did make me laugh out loud, though.