Movie Review Monday #2

When I reviewed King's Speech last week, I briefly mentioned that I am a movie prude. To clarify, I don't like nudity, graphic sexual language or excessive, unnecessary use of F-bombs in films. I'm totally cool with people's heads being blown off or other words being flung about though, so I guess I'm picky in my prudishness. I do go so far as to look at www.kids-in-mind.com, where they intricately document every bit of questionable content, sometimes to a laughable extent. (For example, in their review of Toy Story 3, they include this under "Sex & Nudity": "A male and a female doll rub noses together and hold hands. A female doll jumps onto a male doll's lap. A female doll kisses a male toy on the cheek multiple times in a row." Yeah, that's a detailed description of Ken and Barbie's flirtations. Scandalous. Consider yourselves warned.)


Anyway, all that to say, Bridesmaids put the toe on my prude line. It danced on that line by opening with a sex scene which ended up too silly to offend me. It flirted with that line by throwing out multiple F-bombs, but I was usually laughing too hard to soak those in, which is really my main reason for avoiding them. (I'm the kind of person who can get that stuff in my head so thoroughly that I could be telling customers at work to F off the next week if I'm not careful. I have the same problem with stupid, catchy songs. They come in my head and out my mouth. Partyin', Partyin', YEAH!)

Okay, now that I've disclaimered the crap out of this post already, on to the actual review:


Bridesmaids was the funniest film I've seen in recent memory. Top five things I liked:
1. Kristen Wiig, who played Annie, was her usual spazzy self, but she also had moments of normalcy and natural emotion to balance the crazy. She's not going to be nominated for an Oscar or anything, but I was surprised at her versatility. 
2. This is one of those movies where everything goes wrong for the main character. That usually annoys me like whoa (see any of the Meet the Parents films for an understanding of this phenomenon), but somehow this film pulled it off. You root for Annie, but it's not exasperating when she falls.
3. The friendship between Annie and Lillian (Maya Rudolph's character) is completely believable. Friends since childhood, you see that they have changed and don't technically have a lot in common anymore. But their friendship is still something they rely on heavily. It's nice. Plus Kristen and Maya are freaking awesome.
4. Golden retriever puppies wearing pink berets. Yep.
5. Melissa McCarthy. Wow. Look, I'm partial because I'm slightly obsessed with Gilmore Girls, but she was not playing Sookie St. James in this film. She was playing an icky, kind of manly, oddly kind, super bendy bridesmaid who willingly wore some of the least flattering clothing ever. It was bold. She also had an incredible monologue about falling off a boat and a dolphin that spoke to her soul. Or something. I don't know, but whatever she said made my eyes water from funny. 


In conclusion, I give this film a claw and a half up because I'd feel a little dirty giving it two full claws up. See it if you dare.