Jay Roach

Sisters Review

Good

From their inspired pairing on Saturday Night Live and their hysterical 2008 comedy Baby Mama to their riotous hosting of the Golden Globes, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are one of the funniest double-acts in recent memory. So even if they make a film as limp as this one, it's still packed with plenty of laughs. With a simplistic premise and obvious gags, the film isn't nearly as clever as they are. But they make it watchable.

As the title suggests, they play siblings: Kate (Fey) is a single mother with no job and nowhere to live, while Maura (Poehler) has never quite recovered from her divorce. Then their parents (Dianne Wiest and James Brolin) announce that they're selling the family home in Orlando, so Kate and Maura return to clean out their childhood bedrooms. And they're inspired to throw one last epic house party, inviting all of their old high school friends (including John Leguizamo), their school arch-nemesis (Maya Rudolph), a beefy drug dealer (John Cena) and a cute new neighbour (Ike Barinholtz).

Unsurprisingly, once the alcohol starts flowing, things get way out of hand.

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Trumbo - Trailer Trailer

'Dalton Trumbo had gone from novelist to a successful career as a Hollywood screenwriter which saw him become one of the town's highest paid writers and even earn an Academy Award nomination. But his bright career came to a crushing end in 1947 after he was one of nine people who refused to testify in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. This led to Trumbo being blacklisted from Hollywood and effectively ending his movie career. But despite being blacklisted Trumbo refused to give up and instead continued to write, often under pseudonyms, working on films such as Oscar winner Roman Holiday. His fight against the U.S. government and studio bosses over his freedom to write and work entangled everyone in Hollywood from gossip writer Hedda Hopper to Kirk Douglas who would call on Trumbo to pen the scrip for his epic drama 'Spartacus' and help bring about the end of the Hollywood blacklist.

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Jay Roach - Writers Guild Awards (WGA) - Los Angeles, California, United States - Sunday 17th February 2013

Ben Affleck Scoops Up Yet Another Director Award For Argo At DGAs

By Joe Wilde in Movies / TV / Theatre on 03 February 2013

Ben Affleck George Clooney Grant Heslov Jay Roach Lena Dunham

The awards just keep on coming for Ben Affleck and his CIA drama Argo, as the actor/director/producer/writer and all-round Renaissance man picked up the award for Best Director at the Director's Guild of America Awards last night.

This makes six awards given to Affleck for directing alone, including a Golden Globe, and the DGA one might not even be his last. The latest award also seems to suggest even more strongly that Affleck will pick up the Best Picture Oscar at the end of the month alongside his fellow producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov, but something tells us that after his latest success Affleck might still be ruing his snub from the director category.

During his acceptance speech, Affleck admitted that he may still have some way to go before he can call himself a director, with Argo being only his third film behind the lens (after the critically acclaimed Gone Baby Gone and The Town) he said, "I don't think that this makes me a real director, but I think it means I'm on my way." Backstage he addressed the Oscar snub too, modestly saying, "you're not entitled to anything."

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The Campaign Review

By Rich Cline

Very Good

Will Ferrell's funniest movie in years, this is a silly comedy with a terrible sentimental streak, but the political satire running through it is dead on. In fact, the film's opening act is razor-sharp as it lampoons election campaigning with knowing jabs at corporate sponsorship, incumbent laziness and the difficulty of being an honest candidate. So it's disappointing when the film becomes soppy and stupid.

Ferrell creates a memorable comical character in Cam Brady, a five-term North Carolina congressman up for re-election. He's sure he will coast his way back into office, and is only mildly worried when naive local goofball Marty Huggins (Galifianakis) runs against him. Marty certainly isn't ready for the slick attacks orchestrated by Cam's campaign manager (Sudeikis). But two wealthy brothers (the underused Lithgow and Aykroyd) are bankrolling Marty's campaign in the hopes of turning the district into a Chinese sweatshop, so they hire a ruthless press officer (McDermott) to whip Marty into shape. And the game is on.

Even though the characters are cartoonish, what they do is eerily authentic. Cam is a smooth operator with strong hair and a womanising streak. He also believes he can do whatever he wants as long as he mentions "America, Jesus and freedom" in every speech. By contrast, Marty is camp and silly, with a plump wife (Baker) and kids, plus a pair of pet pugs that Cam instantly labels as "Communist Chinese dogs!" Their clashes are a riot of parody and slapstick, some of which is sharply pointed (neither says anything substantial) and some is just ridiculous (including a hilarious cameo from Uggy, the dog from The Artist).

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The Campaign Trailer

Prior to the unopposed congressman Cam Brady's fifth term election, two affluent CEOs decide enough is enough after Brady commits a major public faux pas. They bring in a second candidate to rival Brady and allow them to gain control over North Carolina. Their candidate, Marty Huggins, though less charismatic than Brady but equally as much of an intellectual vacuum, is the na<ve local Tourism Center director who, with the help of his new supporters and a ruthless campaign manager, quickly becomes a genuine competitor incurring many more of Brady's public indiscretions.

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Dinner for Schmucks Trailer

Tim loves his job, and he knows that any employee who wishes to climb the executive ladder may have to do things that they're not morally comfortable with; when Tim is invited to dinner by his boss he's elated but when it's revealed his dining partner won't be his fiancé Julie, he must find a 'remarkable' person to take to dinner, the person with the most impressive guest is rewarded with work benefits. After speaking with Julie, Tim decides he's going to take the moral highroad and give dinner a miss but when he accidentally hits a man in his Porsche, he can't believe how perfect this guy would be for the meal.

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Jay Roach - Thursday 8th January 2009 at Critics' Choice Awards Santa Monica, California