Billed as a couples movie about Pete and Debbie (remember the adorably dysfunctional in-laws from Knocked Up?), this holiday gift is yet another Middle Aged Loser Movie. And it's no American Beauty.
On a bright side it's classic Apatow: unknown secondary comic characters riffing, pot smoking, F-Bombing, Jew joking and so on. Those are the best parts. The thin plot is about the so-called storm of 40: bad or no sex, teenagers, parents, and other somewhat predictable 40-something problems. While ostensibly a continuation of Knocked Up, it has much more in common with Funny People, which was somewhat underrated. Another Mid Life Crisis movie, but that one had some meat to it.
Ultimately this is a star vehicle for Apatow's family, his real-life wife and kids. But the icy twig and and the annoying kids can only travel so far without some supporting characters. In this case, the supporting characters are the highlight.
* * 1/2 of 4
No comments:
Post a Comment