Trainwreck

27 Replies

Before watching Trainwreck, I did not know who Amy Schumer was (though Jay assures me I have watched some of her standup). Now, after watching Trainwreck on Saturday, we are binge watching all three seasons of Inside Amy Schumer, her Comedy Central show. I feel like the fact we wanted to see more is a ringing endorsement of Ms. Schumer’s brand of comedy, and thus an endorsement of this movie. Because she carries this movie and she is more than up to the task.

She’s not alone though.  There are lots of really good performances here.  Especially LeBron James.  Now as you may know, LeBron is on our shit list because he decided to skip last year’s Cleveland/OKC matchup that happened to be my birthday present (ironically because of a sore knee).  So this praise is very grudgingly given, but his portrayal of himself is probably the second funniest character in the movie.  I wish he had been given more screen time.

Also hilarious is John Cena as Amy’s sort-of boyfriend.  His movie theatre confrontation is probably the funniest scene in the movie.  There are certainly other funny parts but as Jay reminded me, Judd Apatow seems to focus on drawing out funny character stuff rather than trying to cram a scene full of laughs.  And I think that works here.

The only thing that doesn’t work is Amy’s love for Bill Hader’s sports doctor.  We never really see why he’s so awesome, which is a shame.  Especially because it seems the reason we don’t see/feel the connection between the leads is that Bill Hader is so restrained.  He seems to be actually acting, which I kind of feel bad criticizing him for.  It’s not that he’s bad, not at all, but it feels off when John Cena and LeBron James are making me laugh more than Bill Hader.

That’s really my only complaint about the movie.  Trainwreck is not quite great but it’s very good.  It’s been an excellent summer movie season and this is one of the best comedies so far (right up there for me with Spy and Inside Out).  That’s why Trainwreck gets a score of eight athlete cameos out of ten.

 

27 thoughts on “Trainwreck”

  2. Jay

    This one was quite good, wasn’t it?
    I loved Colin Quinn, as I am wont to do. But I thought it was an interesting character that still managed to be his cantakerous specialty.
    Yes, like all Apatows, this one maybe ran a little long, but that said, I’m not sure what I would cut. Not the Lebron stuff, even though I still hate him (and tried to boo him every time he came on, usually ineffectively because the packed (and hot!) theatre was always fielding big laughs).
    In a weird way, Amy and (what was Bill Hader’s name? Aaron maybe?) let’s say Aaron are the two least interesting characters. (I mean, Tilda Swinton!) And while we may not understand at first why Aaron is such a great catch, we definitely know that Amy is not, and yet he seems to fall for her also!

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  3. movieblort

    I love how John Cena has taken a step back from the shitty action movies and threw himself into something a bit more, fun? Odd to think that only a few years ago he was calling out Dwayne Johnson for doing the same type of thing.

    I hope he gets a few more roles off the back of this.

    And yeah, Amy Schumer is brilliant. I didn’t much like Spy, but this one seems right up my street.

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  4. Carrie Rubin

    I wasn’t as enamored with this movie as others were, but I agree, LeBron James was great in it. And given I live near Cleveland, I couldn’t agree with him more when he said, “Cleveland is just like Miami.” It is, isn’t it?… 😉

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  5. Created by RCW

    Funny…we agreed on our appreciation of Amy Schumer (whom I adore), but you definitely thought more highly of the athletes and less of Hader than I did. I was actually hoping for more from Schumer’s first film venture and fearing dramatically worse (comically worse?).

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  6. Brittani

    I agree about the moving confrontation thing. I hate John Cena in the ring. I really do, and I did not expect to laugh at him so much, but God he was good for this role.

    “You know what I do to assholes? I LICK them!”

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  7. elisa ruland

    Funny, I have a love/hate relationship with LeBron, too. Just when I’m ready to hate him again he makes a movie where he can laugh at himself. Haven’t seen it, but now I’m looking forward to it. Good comedies are too few and far between. Have a great week!!

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  9. fragglerocking

    I’m not into comedy movies, but Amy has been promoting this over the pond here in Blighty, and was absolutely funny as fek on The Graham Norton Show so I’d definitely watch her stand up stuff.

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  11. reocochran

    I loved “Spy” and really liked “Train Wreck,” too. I am feeling that Amy will outlive the popularity of Melissa McCarthy. She showed true acting skills, besides great comedic timing in this T. W. film. Women rock lateky, in comedies. “Spy” was classy except some of the crass jokes. For some reason, T. W. “touched” me.

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    1. Jay

      I really like Melissa McCarthy, but I’ve loved her since the 90s. She’s very talented but I don’t like the way she’s being presented in lots of these comedies, so crass and often gross, and I feel offended that they’ve put her into that role because she’s a little above average. I loved it in Spy when they let her shine like the lovely lady she is, and I hope she is guided more and more toward that in her career.

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      1. Sean Post author

        I completely agree. Too many times she is misused. She’s obviously hilarious and charismatic as herself so there’s no need to dumb it down and make her the ugly, stupid one. I hope for more like Spy and more like Trainwreck. Let’s stop making these very talented women the butt of the joke.

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      2. reocochran

        I agree Melissa M. is funny and talented. She was great in “Bridesmaids,” too. I love she met her husband in that film; as he was the airport security guy. That movie had a sweet side story about the maid of honor versus the best friend.
        Remember the best friend has a “breskdown” who really needs to fjnd herself to become a baker of fancy cookies and cupcakes. I tell people that story inside a story is so good. She likes the British or Australian policeman who is a great character actor, too.
        He becomes the manager in the musical movie, “The Sapphires.” Did you ever see that Australian story with aborigines who are female taken to white homes to become house servants and 3 (real life story) girls sing like the Supremes? They risk their lives and the guy from Bridesmaids is their singing career manager. Vietnam war front line dangerous sutuations. Plus great 60’s and 70’s style music.

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