Cedar Rapids definitely provides some good laughs, but don't expect to be laughing throughout. And as with so many recent movies, if you've seen the previews, you've seen about half of the punchlines, anyway. As a former Iowan, I was disappointed that the movie didn't really capture much of the vibe of the state, in my opinion. It might as well have been filmed just about anywhere in the Midwest, with the corresponding title change.
Ed Helms is decent, but he lacks the active style of humor that he brings to The Office. In this movie, it's not so much that he himself is funny as it is that the things that go on around his childlike character are amusing. His Midwestern dialog comes off flatter than I would like, as compared to, say, Fargo, Juno, or Napolean Dynamite, in which the quirkiness of Midwestern dialog really shines through.
But my biggest complaint about the movie is it's cynical morality. By the end, most of the outwardly good people turn out to be jerks, and most of the outwardly amoral people are the good guys. Big surprise. And most of the morally questionable stuff that happens in the meantime turns out to have no real consequence whatsoever; it just happens, we have a few laughs, and then life goes on. Only the main character ever seems to be at all morally conflicted about his decisions, everyone else just does what they do. I'm not saying that movies need to have a message, it's just that this one bypasses any profound moral complexity for its banal approach of simple, inverted morality.
Anyway, I saw the movie because I thought it would be cool to see a movie set in Iowa. If you don't have a similar reason to see it, you won't be missing much if wait to catch it on video--or not at all.
Ed Helms is decent, but he lacks the active style of humor that he brings to The Office. In this movie, it's not so much that he himself is funny as it is that the things that go on around his childlike character are amusing. His Midwestern dialog comes off flatter than I would like, as compared to, say, Fargo, Juno, or Napolean Dynamite, in which the quirkiness of Midwestern dialog really shines through.
But my biggest complaint about the movie is it's cynical morality. By the end, most of the outwardly good people turn out to be jerks, and most of the outwardly amoral people are the good guys. Big surprise. And most of the morally questionable stuff that happens in the meantime turns out to have no real consequence whatsoever; it just happens, we have a few laughs, and then life goes on. Only the main character ever seems to be at all morally conflicted about his decisions, everyone else just does what they do. I'm not saying that movies need to have a message, it's just that this one bypasses any profound moral complexity for its banal approach of simple, inverted morality.
Anyway, I saw the movie because I thought it would be cool to see a movie set in Iowa. If you don't have a similar reason to see it, you won't be missing much if wait to catch it on video--or not at all.