Friends with Kids (2011)

Starring: Adam Scott, Jennifer Westfeldt, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wigg, Maya Rudolph, Chris O'Dowd, Megan Fox, Edward Burns

Director: Jennifer Westfeldt

Genre: Comedy

Rating: B+

What do you do when you know you want kids, and the significant other, and all that comes with it, but see how miserable all of that has made your closest friends?  This is the problem that two best friends, Jason (Scott) and Julie (Westfeldt) come across.  In their mid-30s they've always been somewhat unsuccessful at dating and have watched as their married friends - the placid Alex (O'Dowd) and Lesliee (Rudolph) and the sex-obsessed Ben (Hamm) and Missy (Wigg) - settle down, have kids, and then appear to become completely miserable.  So Jason and Julie come to a conclusion - the trick is to first have a baby, then find love, and decide that they should have a child.

What I think really helps make this movie so great is the fact that the cast are all friends - or more - and thus the chemistry between the group is really easy and fun - even when the shit is hitting the fan.  The film feels real, although I could have done without the mentioning of Jason and Julie's parents as that awkwardness didn't really add anything (still felt real, just didn't feel necessary).  I actually really loved how none of the characters seem to really have it together, even when they think they do, and each set of couples goes through a point when they think that they're better than their friends - and consequently find out that no, they really aren't.  The one thing that I would have wanted from this film in terms of the cast is a bit more development into the two not-core couples; the dynamics between Rudolph and O'Dowd and Hamm and Wigg are great, and you just kind of want more of them at times.  I also didn't really think that Edward Burns' character needed to be so perfect, it kind of made him out to be a bit of a Mary Sue which was disappointing given how great the rest of the cast was.

I do have to admit, though, that I wasn't a huge fan of the ending.  To me, it kind of felt as though this film was trying to do something different - which I loved - but in the end caved into pressure and went the route that you expected.  It was kind of a cop out, which was just disappointing.  It's not that the ending was bad, per say, just that it wasn't what fit with the tone of the rest of the movie.

Bachelorette (2012)

Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Lizzy Caplan, James Marsden, Kyle Bornheimer, Rebel Wilson, Adam Scott

Director: Leslye Headland

Genre: Comedy

Rating: B

What do you do when your "fat friend" gets married before you?  This is the problem presented in Bachelorette, as three friends, Regan (Dunst), Gena (Caplan), and Katie (Fisher) come to terms with the impending marriage of their "fat friend," Becky (Wilson).  Regan, the maid of honour, has always thought that she would be the first to marry, and is particularly devastated.  Gena, is insecure in her life, possibly addicted to drugs, and not yet over her ex-boyfriend, Clyde (Scott), who will be at the wedding.  Gena, really, is just a bitch.  After a fight with the bride the night before the wedding the trio get drunk and do cocaine, lament about their lives and the wedding, and decide to play with the wedding dres.  This all goes horribly wrong when they manage to rip the dress in two, and the night is spent in a mad scramble to try to fix it.

Going into this, I wasn't particularly sure about the film.  The three leads aren't exactly likeable, and I found the humour to be more offensive than funny.  Then the dress rips and the mad scramble starts and things really start to fall into place.  I really enjoyed the mad scramble and I found that with a goal in mind the characters all really seemed to become more likeable.  I never really wanted to embrace Isla Fisher's Gena - at the end, she was still really just a bitch, although I must say I didn't outright hate her or anything.  I loved Lizzy Caplan, though.  At the start she was the only character who I thought I might like, then I didn't, then I absolutely loved her.  Hers was the journey that made the most sense and was the most fun - but then, anything that includes "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers is awesome.  In the end, though, I found Dunst's character to be the most intriguing. It's really your typical story of a girl who appears to have everything, but really has nothing, but I still like what they did with it.

This movie gets a lot of comparison to The Hangover and Bridesmaids.  In my opinion it's a far better female equivalent of The Hangover than Bridesmaids ever was.  Where Bridesmaids is about women hating each other and fighting over whose the best bridesmaid, The Hangover series is about guys getting drunk and having an adventure before a wedding, with hilarious results - while Bachelorette does have a good amount of infighting among the bridesmaids and with the bride, the key element here is the pre-wedding adventure, with hilarious results.  It's a movie centred around a wedding, but also not centred around the wedding, and that's really why I enjoyed it.  It was fun.