1.STEPBROTHERS (2008)
Directed By: Adam McKay
Starring: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Mary Steenburgen, Richard Jenkins, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn.
Brennan Huff and Dale Doback just became stepbrothers.
From the moment they met, they both knew it was hate at first sight, but for all they know, they are more alike that they could have ever imagined…
Brennan is an occasionally employed 39-year-old living at home with his divorced mother Nancy, while Dale is a terminally unemployed 40-year-old who still lives with his widowed father, Dr. Robert Doback.
After falling madly in love, Nancy and Robert decide to get married and start a life together.
When Brennan and Nancy move in with the Dobacks, the two stepbrothers have to temporary share a room together since Dale refuses to give up his office, which is actually his drum set room.
Childish Pranks…Arguments…Death Threats…Just a glimpse of the everyday living hell those two made for each other…
Soon enough things started to get way worse, when they almost tried to kill each other.
Leaving them no choice, Nancy and Robert agree that they can no longer be living all together in the same house, so they decide to give them 1 month to find jobs, move out and finally start living on their own like real adults.
2.HORRIBLE BOSSES (2011)
Directed By: Seth Gordon
Starring: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx.
Nick, Dale and Kurt have had it with their abusive bosses, and wished if only they were no longer around…in other words they wished their bosses were somehow…DEAD
Nick Hendricks is an executive at a financial firm, who has been working day and night for the past 8 years to get a promotion that his boss never intended to give him.
His name is David Harken – SELF-OBSESSED MANIPULATIVE SADIST
Dale Arbus is a dental assistant, having been constantly sexually harassed by his boss, who also threatens to tell his fiancée that they had sex unless they actually do it.
Her name is Dr. Julia Harris – EVIL CRAZY NYMPOMANIAC
Kurt Buckman is an account manager at a chemical company, whose beloved boss recently died, allowing his worthless son to take over the business.
His name is Bobby Pellit – INCOMPETENT COKEHEAD RACIST
The three friends hire a hustling ex-convict to execute the killings, but refuses to after receiving the payment, offering only his murder consultation for the crimes that the three of them would now have to commit without leaving any traces behind…How? By killing each other’s’ bosses…
3. I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY (2007)
Directed By: Dennis Dugan
Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Dan Aykroyd, John Farley.
Chuck and Larry just got married, and they are both…TOTALLY STRAIGHT!
Chuck Levine and Larry Valentine are best friends and Brooklyn firefighter partners.
Chuck has always been a bachelor and a womanizer by nature, while Larry is a recent widower who must now look after his two kids on his own.
Being so close to death every day, Larry wants to secure his children’s future by changing his beneficiary on his insurance policy, from his wife’s name to his children’s. Since the process requires time, he is told that the quickest way to make the change would be if he was to find himself a new partner…
Larry saves Chuck’s life while on duty, owing him a big one.
Inspired by a newspaper article on gay rights and domestic partnerships, Larry asks Chuck if he is willing to form a partnership with him, signing as a gay couple on paper, so that he can be the one responsible for the kids in case he dies unexpectedly.
Despite his initial hesitations, Chuck agrees to do the paperwork to reciprocate the favor.
Soon, they are informed by a lawyer about the occurrence of regular investigations on suspected fraud partnerships, which forces them to have an official wedding ceremony and move in together as a married couple.
4. DUE DATE (2010)
Directed By: Todd Phillips
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis, Michelle Monoghan, Juliette Lewis, Jamie Foxx.
Two strangers, successful architect Peter Highman and aspiring actor Ethan Trembley accidentally meet at Atlanta’s airport, and that was only the beginning for these two…
Peter is traveling to Los Angeles to visit his wife who is about to give birth to their first child.
Ethan seeks a career in Hollywood as an actor on television, and on his way to Los Angeles he is planning to scatter the ashes of his recently deceased father to the Grand Canyon.
To their surprise, the two men find themselves on the same flight.
As soon as he sees Peter, Ethan strikes a conversation and unwittingly mentions the words ‘’terrorists’’ and ‘’bombs’’, raising suspicion that Peter was a terrorist giving signal for a bomb explosion over his phone…
Both men are kicked out of the plane and automatically put in the No-Fly List.
Peter has lost his bags and wallet, being left only with his phone, as he desperately tries to come up with a plan to get himself to Los Angeles. That’s when Ethan re-appears with a rented car and asks Peter whether he wants to ride with him since they are both travelling to the same destination.
As much as it was all Ethan’s fault, Peter has no other option but to take the ride.
5. DEATH AT A FUNERAL (2010)
Directed By: Neil LaBute
Starring: Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Danny Glover, Regina Hall, Peter Dinklage, James Marsden, Tracy Morgan, Loretta Devine, Zoe Saldana, Colombus Short, Luke Wilson, Keith David, Ron Glass, Kevin Hart.
Edward Barnes was an exceptional man…
A funeral service is being held at The Barnes home, carried by his oldest son Aaron, with family members, friends and unexpected guests making appearances.
Aaron is a novelist who has been living at the family house with his wife Michelle, as they are both struggling financially to move into their own home, and repeatedly failing to get pregnant.
To his bad luck, Aaron is also now forced to pay for all the funeral expenses on his own, after his younger brother Ryan, a successful author, claims not to have the money despite flying back home in first class.
Their cousin, Elaine arrives at the funeral with her fiancée Oscar, and her brother Jeff, only to discover that Oscar was accidentally drugged with a powerful hallucinogenic found in a pill bottle labeled as Valium. It’s a matter of time until the drug hits Oscar before the funeral begins…
Things get a lot worse when a stranger named Frank Lovett arrives, who confesses to Aaron that he and his father were romantically involved and threatens to expose inappropriate pictures of the two of them, unless he is given $30.000.
Family Secrets…Hallucinations…Blackmail…all part of every funeral right?
6. FIST FIGHT (2017)
Directed By: Richie Keen
Starring: Ice Cube, Charlie Day, Tracy Morgan, Jillian Bell, Dean Norris, Christina Hendricks, Dennis Haysbert.
PARKING LOT. AFTER SCHOOL. IT’S ON.
On the last day of school, faculty members are struggling to maintain their sanity, having to deal with inappropriate behavior and silly senior pranks.
Rumors on budget cuts and downsizing departments start to go around, causing added stress to the situation.
Andy Campbell is a quiet and mild-mannered English teacher; whose wife is soon to give birth to their second child. Campbell cannot lose his job right now.
Ron Strickland is a tough and quick-tempered History teacher. According to made-up stories by students, Strickland could only had been an ex-gang member, a cop or even a mass murderer before becoming a real high school teacher.
When Strickland asks for Campbell’s assistance with an old AV system that kept switching off during class, they soon discover that it was all part of a prank, with Strickland losing control, ending up smashing the prankster’s desk with an emergency fire axe.
After the incident, both teachers are brought to the principal’s office and are forced to confess who smashed the desk, otherwise they would both get fired. Terrified of losing his job, Campbell sells out Strickland.
Feeling betrayed and disrespected by his co-worker, Strickland now challenges Campbell to a fist fight after school, which in no time becomes the most anticipated event of the day.
7. SEE NO EVIL HEAR NO EVIL (1989)
Directed By: Arthur Hiller
Starring: Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder, Joan Severance, Anthony Zerbe.
David Lyons is deaf, and Wallace Kerew is blind.
The two find themselves in the middle of a murder, which they have not really witnessed but are now accused of…
After reading the ad for the salesman’s position, Wally stops by Dave’s newsstand to convince him about getting the job.
As they start to get to know each other, Dave decides to hire Wally.
One day, while Wally was waiting outside for the daily newspapers’ delivery, a man walks into the newsstand. To the sight of a woman named Eve,he becomes terrified and asks for Dave to read for him out loud the information on a box of some antacid pills. As Dave’s back is turned while reading, the man removes a gold coin from his briefcase and puts it inside a box of coins sitting on the counter. Within no time, Eve is behind that man, and after shooting him, she steals his briefcase and then leaves the shop.
Dave has not seen or heard the shooting.
Wally has heard the gunshot and as he walks back into the shop, he trips over the man’s corpse.
The police arrives, only to find Wally and Dave at the crime scene with the lateral holding the gun in shock. Before they get arrested, Dave tells Wally to pick up the coin box at the counter…
Failing to find the gold coin in the briefcase, Eve and her accomplice Kirgo, are convinced that Wally and Dave have it and try to bail them out of prison to get it, by posing as their lawyers.
8. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (2008)
Directed By: David Gordon Green
Starring: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez, Danny McBride.
Dale and Saul run for their lives …Why? Because it was Pineapple Express.
Dale Denton is a process server who likes to get high on some good weed.
One day, he drops by his drug dealer’s house, Saul, to get his casual quarter, when he is introduced to a new strain of marijuana that had just arrived, named Pineapple Express.
Saul is the only one in the city who sells it, and Dale is the first to buy it…
Dale is on his way to hand out some legal documents to a guy named Ted Jones. Slightly shocked after hearing that name, Saul wonders if he is the same Ted Jones that he knows or if that’s just a coincidence.
Ted Jones is the drug lord, from whom Saul’s supplier known as Red, gets his stash from.
Dale parks outside Jones’ house and fires up a Pineapple Express before going in.
When several gunshots are heard coming from the house, Dale freaks out, tosses his roach out the window and starts driving away.
Ted notices the car, finds the roach and identifies the strain.
After arriving at Saul’s all shaken, Dale realizes his reckless mistake that can now lead Ted to Saul, assuming that he was the one who witnessed the murder.
Ted’s hitmen are already on their way to take care of it…
9. 21 JUMP STREET (2012)
Directed By: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggie, Ice Cube.
They must only follow two rules.
1.Not to get expelled or 2. Have sexual relations with students or teachers.
Former high school enemies, Morton Schmidt and Greg Jenko, reunite after 7 years at the same Police Academy.
Jenko has the body while Schmidt has the brains.
Leaving the past behind, they decide to make a fresh start and help each other out achieve the best results during their time at the Academy.
After proudly graduating, they start working together as officer partners.
One day while on duty, they find a couple of One Percenters hanging out at a park, doing drugs.
Despite most of the gang members leaving the scene on time, Jenko manages to arrest their leader, but fails to read him his Miranda rights which results to the department dropping the charges.
A cancelled undercover police program is now being revived, involving the use of young-seeming officers to infiltrate high-schools in order to solve on-going cases.
As a punishment after their failed arrest mission, Jenko and Schmidt are now transferred to 21 Jump Street lead by Captain Dickson, who assigns them to pose as high-school students at Sagan High, to find the dealer and supplier of a new synthetic drug named H.F.S..
10. THIS IS THE END (2013)
Directed By: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg
Starring: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Emma Watson.
‘’ And out of the pit rose a great red dragon, having 7 heads, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, was released onto the Earth…’’
Jay Baruchel visits his old friend and fellow actor Seth Rogen in Los Angeles, to spend a quite weekend of video games, smoking pot and junk food binging.
Plans seem to slightly change, when Seth mentions that he is invited to James Franco’s housewarming party and convinces Jay to go together.
When an earthquake strikes during the party, the crowd starts to run outside in panic, only to witness The Hollywood Hills on fire, a huge sinkhole in Franco’s yard and numerous of people getting killed in the most brutal ways.
Jay survives a near death experience and goes back into the house, where he finds James, Seth, Jonah Hill and Craig Robinson…the only ones who made it.
Could that be the Apocalypse? Is this really the end?
With 12 Bottles of water, 56 beers, 4 whiskeys, milk, eggs, bananas, steaks, pancake mix, a Milky Way, three and a half grams of Grand Master Kush, 15 pills of ecstasy, a porno mag, a functioning revolver from the movie Flyboys…can they survive?
By BCU Intern Emilia Antoniadou for Grapevine Birmingham.