What's Your Number?

          Okay, so first off for all of you that are beginning to read this review. I would like all of you to scroll to the bottom of the page and check out the trailer for this movie first, before you read the rest of this. Go ahead. I'll wait the couple of minutes, I don't mind......................alright you back? Great. So after viewing that what's your first impression of the movie? If you're like me then you must of thought here comes another cheesy romantic comedy with Anna Faris in her typical comedic role. Fortunately, this assumption is not entirely correct.
          What's Your Number? is a romantic comedy with a lot of the same sort of garbage Hollywood has been throwing out at us viewers for years. A girl unlucky in love and down in the dumps goes searching for the man of her dreams all the while missing the guy that's right under her nose. However, I do think the angle this movie takes is a funnier and bit fresher view.
           In this film Anna Faris plays Ally Darling, a girl who just became jobless and single. While depressed already, things get worse when she reads a magazine article stating women who have slept with more than 20 guys have a hard time finding a husband. Since she is already at 20 she decides to sift through her exes and find "the one" thus in order preventing herself from surpassing the magic number of 20. Realizing she can't do it alone she enlists her playboy neighbor, Colin Shea (Chris Evans of Captain America), to help her find all of these men. I give the writer's credit here for not allowing this to be a plot hole and explaining Colin has a knack for digging up dirt thanks to his dad being a cop and taking him on stakeouts. It's not an ideal explanation, but it'll do and who really cares enough to look at that deeper? Anyways, in exchange for his services she allows him to hide out in her apartment whenever he's trying to lose a girl from the previous night without confrontation.  All the while, Ally has to deal with her all too perfect sister who is getting married and her over bearing mother (Blythe Danner of Little Fockers) who wants the exact same thing for her.
           The writing is on the wall the entire movie, though at least with me, I had come to expect that and thus tried to look past it and enjoy what I was watching at the time. Thankfully, I was able to do this at times as this movie did seem to have more to it than others with the same amount of cliche garbage. It was funnier than I had expected to be and Chris Evans was good in his strictly comedic role. Anna Faris, though in a very similar role to the others she has played, seemed more comfortable and natural in this one and thus made her comedic performance better as well. Perhaps the fact she was an executive producer allowed her more freedom. Either way this is much better than her movie "The House Bunny." That was just plain awful.
           Overall, as usual with this type of flick, most girls will enjoy it much more than guys will. It helps there are more jokes generated towards women than men, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. I give this movie a thumb in the middle and a solid 2 out of 4 stars. It's nothing great, but its a fun different take on this cliched plot. Plus, it was just straight better than I expected. It's in theaters now so check it out there or wait for it on DVD. Enjoy!

Editor's Note:  Ok ok, I know I'm a big liar. But once again, I saw a movie in theaters before writing my review for Last Night soooo, therefore it of course gets top priority. Barring this happening again look for Last Night starring Eva Mendes, Sam Worthington, and Kiera Knightley to be next up.

Little Fockers

            As I said in my last review, Hollywood will make a sequel to anything as long as they believe a profit can be made and they don't care how good or bad it turns out. It always comes down to the money. Sometimes though I wish they'd just put the viewer first and decide, "You know what? This isn't needed." Instead that decision, if made, usually comes down to the actors deciding they don't want to play the same character again, and even then the studios sometimes go on without them.
            However, if it seems as if I'm getting all riled up to absolutely trash this movie I'm not. The movie wasn't great though either. The thing when it comes to sequels is that to make them good there are a bunch of things to do and not do. Unfortunately, with Little Fockers they do to many of the don'ts. One of the big don'ts is to not use your predecessors as a crutch and Little Fockers relies on the two movies before it heavily. No thought is put into the plot as it fully relies on continuity from the previous movies.
            In Little Fockers, Greg (Ben Stiller) and Pam (Teri Polo) have twins (little Fockers haha get it?) now. With the twins' birthday approaching the whole family is coming to town to celebrate. From both sets of grandparents to even Pam's ex love Kevin (Owen Wilson). Due to all of these expenses cash strapped Greg begins moonlighting for a pharmaceutical company thanks in large part to the sexy sales rep Andi (Jessica Alba). This causes some familiar problems between Greg and Jack (Robert De Niro), as Jack is looking for a successor to the Byrnes' family legacy. Jack begins to feel he can't trust Greg, thus causing for friction and mayhem between the two.
            As I stated above the plot is weak and relies heavily on the formula from the previous movies, especially the first, just with the necessary upgrades. It is nice they were able to get all of the same actors to come back. Blythe Danner is back as Pam's mom Dina, while Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand reprise their roles as Greg's parents Bernie and Roz. Though that is nice, you don't always have to bring back every single character from previous movies. It gets to crowded trying to fit them all in and that's one of the problems here.
           Overall, with its problems Little Fockers could have been much worse than it was. Though some of its jokes and gags are recycled there's enough fresh or seemingly fresh material throughout to keep you from being terribly upset. In the end, this movie wasn't necessary and they should've stopped after the second one.
           Though through all of my negativity I'm going to give this movie a thumbs down, yet 2 out of 4 stars. I still laughed enough throughout to be able to look past the obvious errors and weak storyline. If you liked the first two movies as I did, I say feel free to give this one a whirl. You'll probably enjoy it enough and if you go to Redbox it's only a buck. You can also get this movie via Netflix or OnDemand on Xfinity. Enjoy!

Editor's Note: Alright I finally got around to Little Fockers. However, now I'm not to sure what to review next so you have any suggestions please feel free to let me know and comment below. I do have one request for the animated movie Surf's Up so that could be next.