Trainwreck 2015
This is a movie that got pretty good reviews when it came out, but I never saw it. A couple of years later the Blu-ray went on a really good sale at Target, so I bought it based on that reputation. Amy Schumer really hit the bigtime around the time it came out and this movie is part of the package of things you get when you make it. She didn’t just star in the movie, but wrote it as well. However, it feels more like a Judd Apatow movie from start to finish (he directs and produces and Schumer says she made a lot of changes to her original concept to make it more like an Apatow movie): the crude humor, ad-libbed lines, male only nudity, unrealistic setups, strong female characters, and overly sweet story are all right out of his playbook. So much of this movie has been done hundreds of times before. The magazine writer/editor in New York City (does anyone do anything else in New York?). The love story is pretty much by the numbers including the mandatory breakup at the designated marker. Schumer brings a new kind of character, a sexually assertive flawed woman, but it makes her not exactly sympathetic especially when she meets Bill Hader’s mythical prince of a man who she has no business being with. Hader does a better job than Schumer, and his character has better relationships with side characters including some funny stuff with LeBron James and others. Schumer has a relationship with John Cena which is funny but he is trying a little too hard. Her boss, played by Tilda Swinton (who I didn’t recognize) is terrible. There is a fake movie starring Daniel Radcliffe and Marisa Tomei that is also terrible, not the first time a bad movie contains another bad movie so that maybe it will make this movie look better? (see Friends With Benefits) So I cringed a lot of the way through the movie, but there are some funny parts and ultimately the storyline is sweet and unobjectionable. If you don’t mind a movie being raunchy and keep your expectations low, it is probably worth watching.
Written: 10 Dec 2017
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital