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Cedar Rapids
| Released |
29 April 2011 |
| Director |
Miguel Arteta |
Starring
|
Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, Isiah Whitlock Jr. |
| Writer(s) |
Phil Johnston |
Producer(s)
|
Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
87 minutes |
| Genre |
Comedy |
| Rating |
15A |
|
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Weekend in hell.
Given that Cedar Rapids has Ed Helms playing essentially the exact same character he does in The Hangover, I had expected a similarity in the two films as well. Not only does it feature Helms in a dorky, un-cool guy role, it also combines Bradley Cooper’s party animal and Zach Galifanakis’ bumbling idiot in the character of John C. Reilly. But while The Hangover was a pure comedy which never took itself too seriously, Cedar Rapids is far too full of its own importance, and the result is a slow, predictable, mostly uninteresting comedy-drama. And it isn’t very funny either.
The main problem is that while the trailer makes Cedar Rapids appear like a Hangover-esque comedy, the film is actually far more sombre. The story follows small town insurance salesman (Helms) visiting a conference in the “big city” of Cedar Rapids. The fish-out-of-water plot is predictable, but this wouldn’t be a problem if the jokes kept coming to distract the audience. The problem is that the poor plot dominates everything else, and any elements of comedy are few and far between.
Most of the few genuinely funny moments come courtesy of John C. Reilly, the self-styled bad boy of the insurance world, who takes it upon himself to bring Helms out of his shell. Reilly’s hard drinking, foul mouthed performance is pretty much the only good thing about this film, but ultimately not good enough to save it. If you want to hear Reilly’s best lines just watch the trailer– they’re all in there anyway. Anne Heche also puts in a fairly strong performance as the quirky love interest despite having a poor script to work with, while Kurtwood Smith plays the exact same role he does in That '70s Show and pretty much every other film he stars in.
So despite a couple of good jokes (including a pretty good imitation of Omar from The Wire by the film’s only black character) there isn’t much to recommend sitting through the whole film for. Do yourself a favour, avoid this and wait for The Hangover 2 instead.
- Bernard O’Rourke |
