Nine Perfect Strangers

 Nine Perfect Strangers (2021)

Starring Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, Luke Evans, Samara Weaving, Asher Keddie, Melvin Gregg, Tiffany Boone, Manny Jacinto, Grace Van Patten, Regina Hall, and Bobby Cannavale

Directed by Jonathan Levine

Written by David E. Kelley

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Thunder Force

 Thunder Force (2021)

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Octavia Spencer, Bobby Cannavale, Pom Klementieff, Melissa Leo, and Jason Bateman

Directed by Ben Falcone

Written by Ben Falcone

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

The Kitchen

The Kitchen (2019)

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, Elisabeth Moss, Domhnall Gleeson, James Badge Dale, Brian D'Arcy James, Margo Martindale, Bill Camp, Annabella Sciorra, and Common

Directed by Andrea Berloff

Written by Andrea Berloff

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C-

The Happytime Murders

The Happytime Murders (2018)

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Bill Barretta, Maya Rudolph, Joel McHale, and Elizabeth Banks

Directed by Brian Henson

Written by Todd Berger

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B 

Life of the Party

Life of the Party (2018)

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Molly Gordon, Gillian Jacobs, Jessie Ennis, Adria Arjona, Luke Benward, Heidi Gardner, Maya Rudolph, Matt Walsh, Julie Bowen, Stephen Root, Jacki Weaver, and Debby Ryan

Directed by Ben Falcone

Written by Ben Falcone and Melissa McCarthy

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Dolly Wells, Anna Deavere Smith, and Jane Curtin

Directed by Marielle Heller

Written by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty

Summary (in 500 words or less):  The true story of biographer Lee Israel who, despite having a best-selling book, is no longer able to get her old-school-styled works published.  In 1991, desperate to make a living, she turns to a life of literary crime, creating letters in the voices of famous writers -- like Noel Coward and Dorothy Parker -- forging their signatures, and passing these fakes off as the real deal in an attempt to get money. 

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

Movie Review - Central Intelligence

Central Intelligence (2016)

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Amy Ryan, Danielle Nicolet, Jason Bateman, and Aaron Paul

Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber

***This film is currently available via HBO Now/Go***

Central Intelligence is more enjoyable than it has any right to be thanks to the natural charm and comedic buddy repartee of its two stars Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart.  It's a shame that a better, less generic story couldn't have surrounded the two elevating their chemistry.  Still, they try to make the most of things with a script that has formerly popular high school student Calvin Joyner (Hart) meeting up with formerly unpopular Bob Stone (Johnson) the weekend before their twentieth high school reunion after not having seen each other in those two decades.  Although they weren't close friends, Calvin had helped Bob through a difficult and embarrassing moment and Bob always looked fondly on Calvin because of that.  Through social media, Bob reconnects with Calvin but Calvin soon discovers that the seemingly timid and meek Bob is actually an undercover CIA agent who needs a bit of Calvin's help in solving his latest crime.

Ultimately, the "comedy" aspect of Central Intelligence falls a bit short...and the action side doesn't really do much to buoy it either.  The film works best during its first act as it sets up the relationship between Calvin and Bob with Hart and Johnson playing well off one another in these opening scenes.  Unfortunately, the film doesn't really succeed in creating tension as it progresses so the "superspy" intrigue it tries to muster never really comes to fruition.  However, despite all this, the two stars make this surprisingly watchable and actually end up doing enough to boost this one to slightly above average in the RyMickey rankings.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters (2016)

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Andy Garcia, Neil Casey, and Chris Hemsworth

Directed by Paul Feig

There was much brouhaha over the fact that 2016's iteration of the classic Ghostbusters was being fronted by a quartet of women instead of a quartet of men.  Internet taunts and nasty comments were bandied about by anonymous individuals behind computer screens about how women aren't funny and couldn't possibly headline of film of this ilk.  While that's all certainly uncalled for, what's really unfortunate is that this version of Ghostbusters isn't good -- those initial trailers which were ridiculed across the World Wide Web were justly criticized because director and co-writer Paul Feig has crafted a numbingly painful supernatural action comedy that starts off incredibly promising and then begins to fail set piece by set piece until it makes its way to its disappointingly dull finale.  And the worst part of it is that it's not the fault of the quartet of actresses onscreen, yet the foursome shouldered much of the criticism lodged at the film.

Quite frankly, a plot summary isn't really necessary here -- four gals get together and eventually try and hunt down some ghosts before the supernatural beings take over the city of New York.  Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy take center stage during the film's initial scenes as a dueling duo who once worked together before drifting apart and I must admit that I found myself laughing out loud more than once as they tossed one-liners back and forth at each other.  Thirty minutes in and I was wondering why in the world this flick was so lambasted upon its release.  Gradually, Kate McKinnon works her way into the mix as a kooky mechanic of sorts (her role was praised the most, yet I found it a bit one-note and reminiscent of many an SNL character of hers) and Leslie Jones gets added as an NYC subway operator who calls upon the ghostbusting gang to investigate an occult occurrence on a subway track.  McKinnon and Jones are both fine, but they begin to take away from the more successful camaraderie of Wiig and McCarthy.

And then writers Paul Feig and Katie Dippold just throw everything down the drain with attempts at creating a variety of set pieces in which our female quartet fights ghosts and the whole movie falls apart.  The action aspects are a jumbled mess.  The comedy bits become tired.  Worst of all, the whole film becomes dreadfully boring.  Feig (as a director) has had his share of hits and misses in my book, and this falls on the miss side.  While I would've loved to have seen a resurrection of the Ghostbusters franchise, this female-fronted flick just doesn't fit the bill as the ladies here aren't helped by the behind-the-scenes team.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - The Boss

The Boss (2016)

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage, Ella Anderson, and Kathy Bates

Directed by Ben Falcone

Oh, Melissa McCarthy...such promise after Bridesmaids has just been squashed by subsequently poor comedic film choices and The Boss is no exception.  McCarthy co-wrote the film with her husband Ben Falcone (who also directed the piece) and while her no-nonsense, brashness fits the character of self-made business tycoon Michelle Darnell, the character and the movie itself feel like a stretched-out sketch comedy routine as opposed to a fully realized piece.

Loved by millions for her eccentric approach to making money, Michelle is a self-help guru who seemingly has it all.  However, an insider trading deal gone awry sends Michelle to jail, causing her to lose her iconic status and the respect of her fans.  Upon release from prison, Michelle finds her previous earnings confiscated by the government, so with nowhere to go she lands on the doorstep of her former assistant Claire (Kristen Bell).  Claire is reluctant to help her former boss, but she eventually obliges after Michelle agrees to help watch Claire's tween daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson) which leads Michelle to her new business venture -- a cookie-selling industry set up as competition to a Girl Scout-esque group.

Writing the above summary took me over a month to type out not because of any confusion regarding what The Boss is about, but because it's so unexciting.  This is a short skit waiting to happen and stretching this out to a 100-minute length grows aggravatingly dull.  McCarthy herself is actually okay here.  Although her character is grating, the actress is able to tap in to the absurdity in a way that at least makes the film watchable.  Unfortunately, when the film attempts to highlight its other characters - a bland Kristen Bell, a laughably and ludicrously villainous Peter Dinklage - it fails miserably.  While there are worse comedies out there, The Boss simply isn't worth your time.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Spy

Spy (2015)

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, Rose Byrne, Miranda Hart, Bobby Cannavale, Allison Janney, and Jude Law

Directed by Paul Feig

Lately, Melissa McCarthy's comedic ventures have been weak, attempting to recapture the brash persona that brought her an Oscar nomination for Bridesmaids, but only feeling like cheap carbon copies.  Fortunately, Spy changes things around a little bit as McCarthy stars as Susan Cooper, a rather humble CIA agent who spends her day behind a desk helping the dashing and debonair field agent Bradley Fine (Jude Law).  During a mission in which Fine is raiding the home of Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne), a nasty criminal who perhaps knows the location of a nuclear bomb, Rayna shoots Fine dead, but not before stating that she knows the names and identities of many CIA field agents and will kill them just like she did Fine if they try and hunt her down.  With the knowledge that many of their agents may now be compromised, CIA director Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney) agrees to send Susan undercover to try and get information about Rayna and the location of the nuke.  Needless to say, the somewhat timid Susan finds herself needing to showcase her strength and machismo as she tries to take down Rayna.

McCarthy is certainly more of an actress than just her admittedly hilarious Bridesmaids character and I am more than pleased that the comedienne is able to show a different set of comedic chops in Spy.  Here, she's absolutely charming to watch onscreen and more than holds the audience's attention.  I can only hope that this type of character finds her more in the future.  Pairing McCarthy with the hardened Jason Statham as a CIA agent angered that Cooper is out in the field provides many a humorous moment as does McCarthy's repartee with the evilly snarky Rose Byrne who continues to showcase her talent in the comedy world.

I laughed out loud quite a bit during Spy, but the film doesn't quite find the balance in terms of teaming comedy with action.  I enjoyed the flick, but there are certainly more than a few dull moments that do little to move the story forward or provide laughs or excitement.  I'd certainly be game for another go-around with the characters in the film so there's definitely something to be said for that.  With a bit more editing (as is needed in nearly all comedies that come out of today's cinematic landscape), Spy would've been the tauter flick it needed to be to really succeed.  As it stands now, it's a solid vehicle for Melissa McCarthy who's finally given a chance to shine after several years of shoddy films.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Tammy

Tammy (2014)

Starring Melissa McCarthy, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Allison Janney, Dan Aykroyd, Mark Duplass, Gary Cole, Nat Faxon, Toni Collette, Sandra Oh, and Ben Falcone

Directed by Ben Falcone

What an unfunny mess Tammy is.  Melissa McCarthy stars as the title character, a foul-mouthed, bellowing, and brash woman who comes home after being fired from her job at a fast food joint only to find her husband (Nat Faxon) canoodling with the next door neighbor (Toni Collette).  Obviously upset, Tammy leaves and heads two doors down to her mom's house where she demands to take her mom's car and drive far away.  While her mother (Allison Janney) understands her pain, she dismisses Tammy's dreams of starting anew, but her grandmother Pearl (Susan Sarandon) also wants to get out of Dodge and agrees to let Tammy take her car as long as she can tag along.  Tammy agrees and the two set out on a cross-country journey of discovery.

I think I mention this in every review of her films, but my introduction to Melissa McCarthy occurred when I watched the first few seasons of Gilmore Girls on tv.  I'm rewatching the show via Netflix and it makes me appreciate the sweet and charming persona that McCarthy can inhabit should she so choose.  So why does she choose motion picture vehicles in which she plays completely reprehensible, vile, vulgar, unappealing characters?  If she's trying to recapture the Bridesmaids magic that earned her a deserved Academy Award nomination, she's failing miserably.  There's nothing about the character of Tammy that makes you want to watch her.  She's slovenly sloppy, obnoxiously dimwitted, and ignorant to nearly everyone that crosses her path.  Spending ninety minutes with this woman is eighty-nine minutes too much.

McCarthy needs to seriously take a look at her choices and shake things up a bit.  She attempted that with an admirable turn in 2014's St. Vincent, but Tammy is an utter failure.  Written by McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone, Tammy is one to avoid at all costs.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - St. Vincent

St. Vincent (2014)

Starring Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O'Dowd, Terrence Howard, and Jaeden Lieberher 

Directed by Theodore Melfi

St. Vincent treads familiar territory.  There's nothing that happens at the end of director-screenwriter Theodore Melfi's flick that you couldn't have telescoped from the first fifteen minutes.  However, the familiar story of a curmudgeonly old man who befriends an ostracized young kid only to have both their lives changed for the better is buoyed by some great performances and a charmingly funny script.

Bill Murray is the Vincent of the title, but the saint moniker is certainly questionable.  He's a cantankerous old man addicted to alcohol and gambling with a penchant for a certain Russian "lady of the night" named Daka (Naomi Watts) whom he just so happens to have currently knocked up.  Recently divorced nurse Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) moves in next door to Vincent with her young son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher) and Vincent reluctantly agrees to babysit the kid after an incident at school leaves Oliver stranded without his keys to the house.  Oliver clicks with the no-nonsense Vincent, and Maggie agrees to allow Vincent to continue to watch her son.  Needless to say, Vincent gets Oliver into some crazy situations while Oliver begins to soften Vincent's hardened exterior.

At the helm both directorially and script-wise, Theodore Melfi is perfectly adequate.  His script is sweet and gentle with three well-rounded main characters in Vincent, Maggie, and Oliver.  While the rest of the cast (the aforementioned Watts and Terrence Howard as a bookie, to name a few) are left to make the most out of more caricaturish characters (Chris O'Dowd succeeds the best at this as Oliver's schoolteacher who happens to be a hilarious priest), Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, and Jaeden Lieberher get some nice plot lines to build their acting around.

Don't get me wrong -- I truly enjoyed Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, but every role she's tackled in movies since then seems like a rehash of that same character.  Here, she's kind, sweet, and still funny as a good mom who's finding it difficult to transition to being husband-less.  I've recently been re-watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix and that show along with this role in St. Vincent remind me that McCarthy has what it takes to bring more than just hilarious raunch to the table.

Making his debut, young Jaeden Lieberher has the comic chops to stand opposite comedic heavyweights like Murray and McCarthy.  In his debut performance, Lieberher's Oliver gives a believable performance and is hopefully racking up additional roles in the future.

But St. Vincent is Bill Murray's movie.  While Murray's Vincent isn't necessarily an unknown character to anyone who's seen films like this, Murray brings a good amount of heart to the role that makes the title character into a more well-rounded individual.  His character goes through quite a few ups and downs (the "downs" of which get much more serious as the film progresses), but Murray does a great job of keeping that tinge of humor always believably present.  It's a nice role in a nice movie.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - The Heat

The Heat (2013)

Starring Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Demian Bichir, Marlon Wayans, Michael Rappaport, Jane Curtin, Spoken Reasons, Dan Bakkedahl, Michael McDonald, and Taran Killam

Directed by Paul Feig

I think I may be the one critic that thinks The Heat is worse than Identity Thief.  I compare the two simply because they were both released in 2013 and have Melissa McCarthy playing similarly tough broads.  Then again, does McCarthy ever play any other movie characters other than a tough broad?  The shtick is getting old and I'm not buying into it anymore.  Her characters from This Is 40, Identity Thief, and now The Heat are really indistinguishable and, quite frankly, she's ruined any good will she earned from the film that put her on the map -- Bridesmaids.  (I will note, however, that her Identity Thief character at least was given an opportunity to have a bit of an emotional heart at its core...if only that could continue carrying over...)

Here, McCarthy's Bridesmaids director Paul Feig returns to direct his newfound star who plays a Boston cop named Mullins who is forced to partner up with a more polished and well-mannered FBI agent named Ashburn (played by Sandra Bullock) in order to hunt down a drug kingpin.  With not much of a story stretched out to nearly two hours, The Heat wears out its welcome pretty quickly with seemingly every other joke gleaning its laughs from a curse word -- there's really only so many times the F-word can be used as a punchline before it becomes irritating.  There's also a tendency by McCarthy here to repeat something over and over again in order to emphasis to the audience that "This is supposed to be funny, so you better all be laughing!  Oh, you're not?  Let me say it again and maybe you will this time.  Still not?  Let's give it one more try!"  Ugh.

Honestly, it pained me to sit through this one and it pains me even more to try and come to grips with how this was a success.  Personally, I'm saying it was because of Sandra Bullock's charms because beyond her presence, there's nothing positive to say about this one.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Identity Thief

Identity Thief (2013)

Starring Jason Bateman, Melissa McCarthy, Jon Favreau, Amanda Peet, Tip "T.I." Arris, Genesis Rodriguez, Morris Chestnut, John Cho, Robert Patrick, and Eric Stonestreet

Directed by Seth Gordon

Maybe it's because I was bracing myself for something horrid based off reviews, but Identity Thief isn't half bad.  I laughed a few times (not nearly enough, however), but this one seemed to have much vitriol headed its way.  Admittedly, I had grown tired of Melissa McCarthy's supposed shtick -- I loved her in Bridesmaids, but thought she was phoning it in for her bit role in This Is 40 -- and the previews for Identity Thief depicted her as being much of the same old-same old.  However, her role as Diana, a Florida gal who steals peoples' identities, actually was a bit more well-rounded than I expected, stepping beyond the brashness we've come to expect from her movie characters.

Don't mistake this praise for something fantastic, though.  Identity Thief is a comedy with not enough laughs and a subplot that's simply horrid involving two sets of criminals chasing after Diana for payback for wrongdoings she's enacted upon them.  If the film was smart, it would have had the nerve to simply make itself focus on Diana and Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman), the schmuck whom Diana took advantage of by stealing nearly everything he had.  When Sandy is faced with losing his job because of Diana's dirty thievery, he leaves Colorado to track her down in Florida and force her to return to Colorado to tell his boss that he isn't involved in the crimes she's committed.  (He's told by police that they essentially can't do anything which conveniently allows for this set-up to happen.)  On their cross country trek, they bond and become emotionally attached all the while avoiding the bad guys who are trying to hunt down Diana.

I'm sure many critics lambasted the mushiness of the film's final act, but I must admit that I found it welcoming and that it shed a decent light on Ms. McCarthy.  There are moments here that prove she's more than just a raucous buffoon and that she may have more to offer the movie industry than what she's given us prior.  Of course, I say this and can't help but think that The Heat is simply a return to what we've seen from her before...but maybe like Identity Thief the trailers were a poor indication of what was to come.

Jason Bateman is fine here and perfectly watchable, and I really do wish the film had the courage to have simply made this a movie about two people and their interactions with one another.  The extraneous plots of both a bounty hunter (Robert Patrick) and a two criminals sold faulty credit cards (Genesis Rodriguez and T.I.) were horribly underwritten and seemingly shoe-horned into things without any rhyme or reason.  Less is more in comedy and, as I always say, we can thank Judd Apatow  (who I don't think was involved in this at all) for the modern notion that comedies must be as lengthy as possible to have "substance."  Still, while I'm well aware lowered expectations helped this one, Identity Thief wasn't nearly as bad as other critics would have you think.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - This Is 40

This Is 40 (2012)

Starring Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Megan Fox, Jason Segel, Chris O'Dowd, Lena Dunham, Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, and Melissa McCarthy

Directed by Judd Apatow

While he sometimes succeeds as a producer (see Bridesmaids, Step Brothers, and The Five-Year Engagement), Judd Apatow has never been a favorite of mine when he gets behind the camera or puts pen to paper.  He can't seem to edit himself and he's the single biggest contributor to the notion that began in the 2000s that comedies must be longer than two hours in order to "feel important."  This Is 40 is typical Apatow in that these same problems exist -- seriously, can't this guy afford an editor at this point -- but I found the film overall quite humorous and, ultimately, worth a watch despite the fact that there is hardly any story to sustain itself over its 135-minute running time.

This Is 40 is apparently the quasi-sequel to Knocked Up in that Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann are reprising their roles of married couple Pete and Debbie, but there's nary a mention of that former movie and you certainly do not need to be even remotely familiar with it in order to understand the goings-on here.  As the film opens, Debbie is celebrating her fortieth birthday -- a milestone she refuses to accept which is why the birthday cake her two daughters Sadie and Charlotte (Maude and Iris Apatow) present her with has a giant "38" on it.  Pete is also celebrating his fourth decade on Earth in a few weeks and the couple finds themselves in a bit of a rut after having been together so long.  With a teenage daughter who always fights with her younger sister, a nagging Jewish father (Albert Brooks) who is constantly guilting Pete into giving him money, and a failing business leading to less income, life is difficult for the couple which leads to bickering around every corner.

The issue with This Is 40 lies in the fact that it doesn't bring anything new to the table and it feels like a dinner guest that just refuses to leave when he should.  There's simply not enough story presented to warrant its length and despite attempts at creating tangents -- Debbie is worried that a worker (Megan Fox) at her clothing shop is stealing, Debbie's estranged father (John Lithgow) tries to return into her life, an angry mom (Melissa McCarthy) accuses Pete and Debbie of harassing her son at school -- they're simply tangents that don't add anything to the overall story.  Granted, they're funny and they often caused me to laugh out loud, but in the end, it amounts to a whole lot of nothing.  And let's not even get started on the Judd Apatow reliance on something dramatically "important" happening that turns out not to be all that critical to the plot by the film's end.  There's several of those moments here, but I'm preferring to forget about them.

Still, despite these qualms, I wasn't ever bored by This Is 40 and the biggest credit for that probably should go to Rudd and Mann who work well together and are each more than capable of carrying out their own moments of required humor.  There's some nice cameos by folks like Jason Segel and Chris O'Dowd as well, but I can honestly say that I'm over the Melissa McCarthy craze.  This lady needs to stretch a bit as she's chosen the same exact role in every film she's undertaken.  For someone who burst onto the scene in an overwhelmingly strong way in Bridesmaids just two years ago, she's worn out her welcome very quickly.

I've never been a fan of Judd Apatow so I will admit that I came into this biased from the get-go and This Is 40 contains all of the typical Apatow-isms that I despise, but this one still manages to end on a good note for me.  There's probably something to be said in the fact that this is Apatow's lowest-rated film on RottenTomatoes and my favorite film of his, but I laughed enough to recommend it.

The RyMickey Rating: C+

Movie Review - Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids (2011)

Starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper, Chris O'Dowd, and Jill Clayburgh

Directed by Paul Feig

Somehow, Bridesmaids contains all the well-known aspects of your typical Hollywood rom-coms (including that ever-so-popular favorite of female-centric flicks -- the need to dance at film's end), but twists them in such a way that they feel new, refreshing, and sometimes raunchily dirty.  Still, at the center of the flick -- and what makes it work as well as it does -- is heart.  And, corny as that may sound, in spite of the dirty jokes (or perhaps even because of the contrast they provide), the surprising amount of warmth is what makes this hilarious comedy a huge success.

When her best friend since childhood Lilian (Maya Rudolph) tells her she's engaged, thirtysomething Annie (Kristen Wiig) is quite happy for her...however, it also sets into motion thoughts that thanks to the facts that her bakery business has shut down and that she's yet to settle down in a meaningful relationship she's somehow failed in her life.  Still, Annie takes on the task of being maid of honor with gusto only to find herself in a somewhat self-imposed competition with Helen (Rose Byrne), the wife of Lilian's husband's boss.  Helen has gobs of money and, unknown to Annie up until this point, has apparently formed a wonderful friendship with Lilian over the past year.

This rivalry with Helen is where Bridesmaids gets both its humor and its heart as a skittishly nervous Annie does what she can in order to constantly try and one-up everything Helen puts in her way.  The film succeeds because Annie's insecurities feel real and natural and Kristen Wiig (who also is credited as co-writer) excels at presenting both the comedy and Annie's sense of angst and worry that she is in danger of losing her best friend.  Wiig sometimes takes things over-the-top on Saturday Night Live, but the humor in Bridesmaids arises from the growth and development of the characters and her Annie is a joy with whom to spend two hours.  Yes, Wiig carries over some of her typical SNL mannerisms, but she gives herself a substantial character to wrap her idiosyncrasies around as opposed to just a two-dimensional person from a six-minute skit.  Plain and simple, the movie works because Wiig makes Annie a character who is entirely believable as both the funny easygoing gal and the panicked maid of honor desperate to maintain her relationship with her best friend.

Wiig is joined by a very funny group of ladies making up the bridal party including the Emmy-winning Melissa McCarthy who got quite a bit of buzz (and is even being bandied about as a possible Oscar nominee) for her role as the uncouth Megan.  While McCarthy is hilarious, my initial reaction is that Rose Byrne has maybe the most difficult role here yet still manages to mine the character for all the comedy it can provide.  Byrne's Helen starts off as the stereotypical rich bitch (which provides many a laugh), but Wiig and her co-writer Annie Mumolo give Helen a bit of a backstory that changes our view of her character by film's end in a pleasant and totally believable way.  Also great is Maya Rudolph who I always liked on SNL.  It's wonderful to see her given a role that, while maybe not the most developed in the film, places her at the center of the action.

Like typical Judd Apatow-produced comedies (as this one is), there are moments where the film feels like it runs a tiny bit too long, but those moments never last long.  I haven't belly-laughed this much in a movie in a long time.  Perhaps even more important, though, and what makes Bridesmaids work is that the incredibly successful adult humor is evenly matched with a warm sentimentality that never feels cloying or preachy.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-