Cedar Rapids (2011)

Masterful Movie

Just perfect...

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Cedar Rapids is a small-town American comedy that is quite funny and sweet. Based on the actors resume, I expected something a little more raucous, but I'm okay with only a few off-color jokes. The plot revolves around selling insurance, so the film may take awhile to get used to. Some people may find the film boring, but I found it quite intriguing. The film is about people and trying to find a way in life and in that department, this film succeeds.Miguel Arteta's film is about an insurance salesman named Tim Lippe who is going nowhere and is in the midst of being "pre-engaged" with his 7th-grade teacher. But due to an unfortunate accident, Tim is sent to an insurance convention which will change his life forever as he meets the suspicious Dean and the seductive Joan.The acting is actually pretty good. Ed Helms is decent as the man who has not experienced much in the way of life. John C. Reilly put on a show as the crazy, party-goer Dean. Anne Heche is good as Joan. Isaiah Whitlock Jr. is also good as the other friend of the group, Ronald.Overall, Cedar Rapids is a small film but I enjoyed it because of the kind of American film it is. It's really short and often pretty funny. There are no blockbuster goodness here, but for this kind of film it would be unacceptable. It is a movie about bonding as well as the opening of the eyes of a man so he can see the world for the first time. I rate this film 8/10.

Tim Lippe (Helms) has been living in über-sleepy Brown Valley and still "pre-engaged", while selling insurance to protect other people's dreams. But now he's headed to a "major" metropolis - Cedar Rapids, Iowa - where he must try to save his company at a do-or-die insurance convention…..The movie goes for the cheap and easy laugh but don't delivers. There are some funny scenes in this movie. Overall it's just mediocre, to over the top and not funny at all. There were several parts in the movie that really didn't need to either be in the movie, or made sense.Ed Helms falls in this film violently by the basket. Like the rest of the cast. The only one that remains is Anne Heche. But she can't keep this film out of trash on her own.The movie could have been hilarious, but it certainly wasn't.

The poster for Cedar Rapids made me expect a hijinks-away-from-home movie with plenty of physical, gross-out and fish-out-of-water humor. There's certainly some of that - especially the last one - but the pleasant surprise is that it's not the focus of the movie. The humor, actually, is surprisingly dry and sardonic, and for the most part dark satire takes precedence over physical gags, which are there just enough to keep it funny. This works thanks to an excellent, sharp script and great characters - Ed Helms is aided by solid performances from John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, Isiah Whitlock Jr. (The Wire), Stephen Root (NewsRadio) and Kurtwood Smith (That 70's Show). A very solid comedy, not particularly memorable but very much worth a watch.

The indie comedy "Cedar Rapids" goes by pretty rapid with its 89 minute running time, and that is somewhat a good thing but it's mostly not such a bad thing. The film stars Ed Helms as Tim Lippe, a small-town insurance salesman who is sent out by his Brownstone Insurance Company to Cedar Rapids for an annual insurance convention. Bill Krogstad (Stephen Root), the owner of Brownstone Insurance, instructs naïve Ed to brownnose the Insurance Convention President so Brownstone can once again receive a prestigious Insurance Award. Tim meets three convention regulars in: the insurance entrepreneur workaholic Ronald Wilkes who is a devotee to the HBO Show "The Wire", the foxy middle-age insurance rep Joan Ostrowski-Fox who looks forward to the convention on annual basis for a little escapism, and the spirit-fueled (in more ways than one, and more drinks than one) vociferous insurance rep Dean Ziegler who is the Dean of Convention Partying. I will keep my lips sealed on what happens to Lippe so I don't spoil the fun for you, but let's say it is the time for Tim to unwind. Director Miguel Arteta's effort is not close to being a work of art with its semi-muddled style, and Screenwriter Phil Johnston did not phil up the scribe with a mesmeric narrative; but what Arteta & Johnston (sounds like a law firm) were able to pull out in their filmmaking were magnificent supporting characters to the picture. Ed Helms was pretty much taking off the same characterization of his infamous Stu in "The Hangover" franchise with his leading work here as Lippe; so yea, it was adequate but it did not hungover with freshness for too long since we have seen it before. However, it was the two amigos and one amiga of Lippe what sold me on "Cedar Rapids". I was wired in to Isiah Whitlock's performance as Ronald Wilkes; and that voice of Whitlock is one of the best in the business, might even surpass the Freeman. Anne Heche was captivating as Joan Ostrowski-Fox, and I was joanzing for Joan every time she appeared on screen. And definitely the apex of "Cedar Rapids" was the scene-stealing performance of John C. Reilly as Dean Ziegler, one of the funniest comedic performances of 2011; and his R2D2 impression while intoxicated in a pool could just be the funniest moment I have seen in a 2011 movie. I cannot insure you that you will love "Cedar Rapids" because it is for an acquired taste. But for the most part, like a decent comedy, "Cedar Rapids" is there. **** Good