Nice effects though.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

A few great actors were roped into what can only be described as the WORST movie Jack Black has ever made. Lacking a coherent plot, and failing with every laugh this movie is about as devoid of comedy as a holocaust documentary. I tried to like it and give it a chance, but it just got worse and worse as it went on.By the end I was sure they were using this film in Guantanamo to extract information from terrorists. Just avoid.

Words escape me. The awkward/creepiness of the storyline has left be a bit unnerved....have fun!

This is a comedy that is quite funny then things twist to a more serious mode but it's still incisively funny when it's dark.A small town is planning a high school reunion. Jack Black plays a guy who wants to get the popular kid from high school to attend. James Marsden plays the actor who made a national commercial on TV. Jack Black plays an annoying character but only he can make it acceptable and funny in a Shallow Hal kind of way. Could easily have been painful but somehow it isn't. James Marsden is very good - he plays strung out and washed out very well. It is good to see how actors can act beyond the action superhero or rom com roles.Some commentary about the small town guy making big but not really making it, high school vs adult hood, marriage and forgiveness. Things work out quite well and there is a proper wedding unlike some other indie movies.Different enough to be watchable.

My first viewing of this film had some scenes marred by digital glitches, but I saw enough to want to see it again, without the glitches. It was even better the second time, with a crucial line of Dan's now revealed. But I'm getting ahead of myself.This film is actually very funny, just watching Dan go about the details of his life in exacting precision. (Note how he moves an olive atop the crudité tray for a better visual presentation.) The way Dan's personality bounces off the many supporting characters is just amazing: some mock him, some abide him, and very few actually like him. Even his wife chastises him at the dinner table with a sharp "Dan" when he tells his 14-year old son that a popular girl asked him out just to humiliate him. I could probably evaluate each and every scene in depth over the interplay of the characters. Well done, writer/directors and actors. This movie has deeply felt and spot-on performances from every single actor.The dialog that I missed the fist time around was a particularly poignant remark that Dan makes to Oliver: that his appearance at the high school reunion will be something they will remember for the rest of their pathetic lives. Substitute "my" for "their" and this scene says it all.I have to say I hated the last 10-minutes of the film. But I can't let that ruin what I really enjoyed about it.