Movies Opening This Week: Funny? and Funny!

I love Everybody Loves Raymond, but for its stars, there's life after it, apparently. Life in 20th Century Fox's consistently hellish movie line-up, that is. After Ray Romano's return in what seems to be the worst Ice Age of the bunch, comes a totally new (but not exactly original) movie with Doris Roberts called:

Aliens in the Attic

Ever been with a grandparent who tries too hard to relate to you by alluding to popular, current stuff but ultimately fails because he/she simply creates an aura of awkwardness? Well, this is the closest you can get to replicating that scenario. It takes notes from various movies and crams in all the hip things you can mention in the side to form what looks like one of the most incoherent family movies ever made. I mean, if you sell a movie based more upon the "grandma kicks ass" scene than the aliens themselves, you'd know there was something wrong with the titular characters.

Hell, even the guy's crotch hitting scene wasn't convincing. Has he ever been hit there? And is there zero-gravity in Halo? Maybe Half-Life would've made the reference more convincing. (Correct me if I'm wrong though.) Damn it, this movie looks so bad that I won't even bother churning out a synopsis.

One thing I'd have to concede is that the "grandma kicks ass" thing works.Why? Well, it's probably because of Doris Roberts herself. What about her? I don't know, she just seems to emit a certain screen presence that will make you laugh. She just makes what would've been a really corny reference to Street Fighter that much less lame.

But do you know what would really be funny? A movie about funny people.

Funny People

A more subdued Judd Apatow movie that still surprisingly brings in some laughs, Funny People seems like it has the potential to become the best Adam Sandler movie. Why? It's genuinely funny but it has heart (and from what I see, I think there won't be as much swearing).

And yes, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Leslie Mann are in the bandwagon, as usual.

It's about a stand-up comedian who experiences a near-death experience. He tries to find the girl he loves and finds out that he already threw her away long ago. Now she's with Eric Bana sans the time travelling, and the comedian wants to get her back with the help of Seth Rogen's character.

It seems to have a really good screenplay, a really nice cast, and most importantly, funny delivery. OK, maybe the Australian accent part was a bit "eh", but the bottom line here is that it's really gearing to become a very, very good comedy. I simply can't wait to see it, and I'm wondering why it even fell off my radar.