Sunday 22 January 2017

Why Him? (2016)


Directed by: John Hamburg
Screenplay by: John Hamburg & Ian Helfer
Story by: Johnah Hill, John Hamburg & Ian Helfer

A holiday gathering is going badly for Ned Fleming, who is not at all fond of his daughter's new boyfriend. Things get worse when the boyfriend tells Ned about his plans of proposing to his daughter.


I thought I was gonna wait until tomorrow to write this because of the Lego Batman Movie live chat, but it only lasted half an hour and I only saw 10 minutes of it.

I've been looking for a movie to see at the cinema since the holidays, because I got free tickets for my present and I've been worried I won't get to use them all before they expire, so eventually I just chose one, asked a friend to go with me, and that was it. I kept describing this movie as a "stupid comedy", and too many people asked why was I going to see it at all. Hey, stupid comedies can still be funny. It's just that certain type of comedy, because the genre is so large.

The most obvious thing you notice is that the whole story is such a cliche. It has been done million times before and the roles have been reversed and gender swapped and what not. It's a really popular trope, but it's getting really, really boring. Sure, they try to wake it up with different actors, different archetypes and all that.

Most of the humour of this movie is dirty. It's usually sex or bodily fluid related, and that's also something that gets boring easily, but also when you are in a group of people, it's hilarious, unless some of you are really boring.

My friend and I both thought that Laird (the boyfriend, played by the annoying James Franco) seems relatively normal for a man of his generation / possibly my generation, though he is older. I say relatively, because when someone is a millionaire, they can only be relatively normal. Ned (played by Bryan Cranston) acted like Laird was completely weird when he seemed really... okay. Sure, he had no filter and was a bit eccentric, but he wasn't weirder than some of the people I know, apart from what he does for a living of course.

The biggest clash between Ned and Laird was definitely caused because of the differences between the generations, and how the times are changing. Ned's career in printing was being overrun by internet and most of Laird's work was from there. So even if they didn't have the rocky start of Laird's bare ass on the screen during Ned's birthday party, they still would've clashed at some point. Ned was determined to hate Laird from the start, so he did.

This movie is fun and it has the holiday spirit and all that. But my advice is don't watch it alone. Movies like this work when you're in a group of people, because then it seems funnier. My relatively high score comes from the feeling cinema gives to it. If I'd watch it in few weeks alone at home I'd probably give it a lower score, but why would you watch this movie alone?

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
7 / 10

You probably noticed how I mentioned The Lego Batman Movie in the first paragraph. That's probably the movie I'm most excited about. 

My current problem is the local theatre is only showing it in Finnish or Swedish. What the fuck? The cast is like half the reason I want to see it. So I'm seriously considering travelling to another town to see it.

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