"The Revenant" Review

The Revenant is a survival drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, and is the latest bold filmmaking venture from Alejandro G. Innaritu.  Set in the early 1800's American wildnerness, DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, a fur trapper who is betrayed and left for dead by his confidant John Fitzgerald, played by Tom Hardy, after being viciously mauled by a bear.  Left to his own devices in the harsh environment, Glass embarks on an epic journey for vengeance, and exemplifies the power of the human spirit in epic cinematic fashion.  

Hot off of his Oscar winning hit Birdman, Innaritu once again directs a bold piece of storytelling, and teams up with oscar-winning director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki to bring to life a beautiful yet brutal movie.  The Revenant has some of the most truly gorgeous shots I've seen in a long time, and provides a rewarding visual experience, despite the violence. The Revenant is a film that tests the endurance of the audience, as some truly grisly images are shown throughout the movie, but you can't ignore the achievements in this movie.  The scene in which Glass is attacked by a mother grizzly bear is mesmerizing, not that watching DiCaprio get torn to shreds is mesmerizing, but the fact that the bear was brought to life so perfectly is truly spectacular.  It is a landmark scene in terms of film technicality and special effects, I can't emphasize that enough.  This film was also shot entirely in natural light, which is no small feat.  Shooting for 90 minutes a day to maintain continuity within a scene is a big deal, and very difficult.  The lack of artificial lighting provides more authenticity, and further immerses the viewers into the cold, and harsh environment.  The Wilderness itself is seemingly characterized in this movie.  It plays a pivotal role in developing the characters, while perhaps also being the films largest antagonist.  Glass is hell-bent on avenging his son's death, but his biggest obstacle is not the selfish Fitzgerald, but the brutal nature that stands in his way.  Making inanimate objects characters is not easy, but Innaritu succeeded in bringing the wilderness to life.  

One of the most talked about aspects of this movie is the acting, namely from the prolific Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy.  The two face off as rivals in this adventure drama, pushing both of their limits as actors from a physical standpoint.  The entire crew had to endure harsh winters and unforgiving conditions while making this film, while DiCaprio went to great lengths to ensure the authenticity of his performance.  While he was fantastic, he was a groaning mute for a large portion of this movie, and this performance will unlikely be considered one of his best, which really isn't and insult if you look at his filmography.  However, a long overdue oscar seems like it is heading his way, whether he deserves it or not is another matter entirely, but we know the academy likes to right its previous wrongs with "pity oscars". Hardy played a great villain, but was also very hard to understand at times, as his thick southern accent proved go be indecipherable at times.  My only real gripes with this movie were its tendency to drag and become tedious at times, coupled with an underdeveloped father-son relationship that lacked real emotional heft.  The imagery was a little pretentious at times, and this movie, while brutal, suffered from minor self indulgence.  Aside from some minor narrative flaws, The Revenant was a genuinely great thrill ride.  

A-

"The Big Short" Review

The Big Short stars Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carrell and Brad Pitt.  Adam McKay, Anchorman, directs a funny and significant drama that documents the 2008 collapse of the housing market, and the corruption that was going on behind the scenes. With several people able to catch on to the cracks in the porcelain, The Big Short is a very interesting film which sheds light on the financial cunning of these people, but still respects the severity of the financial collapse. The Big Short is a solid film that succeeds based on the performances of Christian Bale and Steve Carrell and some very slick writing.  However it is not without its flaws, as its direction is hit or miss. 

This movie is quite entertaining, but has a style and feel that can get exhausting.  Some of McKay's decisions as a director were hit or miss.  McKay makes some interesting choices as the director, some of which pay off and others do not.  The camera work in this movie was a genuine flaw, and displays one of McKay's weaknesses in the films direction.  The "documentary" style zooms and cuts and lack of clean cut visuals seemed like a gimmick, and didn't enhance the filmgoing experience so much as it detracted.  However, a clever choice that McKay made which paid off more often than not, was the use of celebrity cameos as a way of breaking the "4th wall" and connecting with the directly.  These cameos featured current celebrities explaining the inner-workings of the complicated U.S. economy through analogies and comedic references, and they were an overall clever idea.  The Big Short is the beneficiary of a fantastic script, rich with snappy dialogue that is nearly Aaron Sorkin worthy, and very engrossing.  I myself have no knowledge of the financial string of events that contributed to the housing market crash in 2008, however this movie was still intriguing besides its complicated subject matter. This movie is a lot of fun, and is full of clever quips and solid comedic dialogue that somewhat satirizes the entire situation, yet this film still greatly emphasizes the significance of the corruption and greed which caused this epic collapse.  Being able to make levity of a bad situation, yet also respect its importance and current relevance, is no small feat.  

Christian Bale and Steve Carrell were by far the brightest spots in this film from an acting standpoint.  While these dynamic actors never share a scene, they bring a very unique imagining of their characters, and its their uniqueness but also relatability that makes their performances stand out.  Ryan Gosling is essentially Ryan Gosling in this role, a slick and fun character who lacks depth.  Unlike some of his finer roles, Gosling is basically playing himself from Crazy Stupid Love, which is fine, but nothing we haven't seen before from the immensely talented actor.  Brad Pitt was in it for a moment or two, did just fine.  The smaller, supporting performances were also quite good, and coupled with the great writing, The Big Short is a pretty good movie, but held back by gimmicky camera work and some questionable directing.  

B+

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" Review

After years of waiting, Star Wars has finally made its triumphant return.  After three immensely disapointing prequels, the wildly successful sci-fi epic franchise is coming back to the big screen, with a hype train seemingly bigger than any movie ever.  After nearly a year of massive ad campaigns, rumors, fan pages buzzing and die-hard fans soiling themselves over the very thought of a return to the classic franchise, The Force Awakens is finally here.  And it didn't disappoint. 

 Rarely does a movie receive this much press heading into its release, and it seemed as if the latest Star Wars installment was bound to be a disappointment, even if it was only because the expectations were so lofty.  However, The Force Awakens did not wilt under pressure, but rather thrived, and managed to evoke equal amounts of nostalgia and future excitement.  The Force Awakens follows a scavenger named Rey, and a former storm-trooper named Finn on their quest to try and save the galaxy from the latest threat, The First Order.  An evil institution born out of the Empire's ashes, the First Order is lead by Kylo Ren, who is essentially and updated Darth Vader.  What ensues is an incredibly thrilling action story with some truly magical moments sprinkled in amongst the familiarity.  The parallels between The Force Awakens and the original Star Wars, or A New Hope, are impossible to ignore.  The General plot line is there, the villains, the event that pushes the story into motion, its all there.  But these parallels do not come off looking like a result of lacking creativity, but rather a homage to the franchise's rich heritage.  J.J. Abrams did a marvelous job picking up where the original series left off, not the god-awful prequels.  The Force Awakens is full of practical effects, wide sweeping shots, epic visuals and story-telling intimacy that the prequels lacked, and thought they could make up for with excessive CGI.  George Lucas is the architect behind the entire universe, the creative genius who started off this whole thing in the first place, but Star Wars needed to be taken out of his hands, and now we see why.  Lucas was given creative input, but his ideas were reportedly scrapped in favor of a different approach.  Abrams excelled because he was a Star Wars fan, as he has admitted many times.  It appears as if his fandom of the series was more important than Lucas' inception of the franchise, as Abrams excelled at providing exactly what the fans wanted, not necessarily what Lucas would have wanted.  Abrams' interests aligned beautifully with the fans, resulting in a massive hit.  

           The newcomers to the franchise, namely Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, were fantastic with revitalizing the series with energy and freshness.  The fact that these actors were virtually unknown prior to their massive big break makes their performances that much more impressive and pleasantly surprising.  Harrison Ford once again is spot on as Han Solo, as his sizable role in the film helped appeal to the nostalgic fans who grew up with the original franchise.  The only real issue I had with this movie is some of the gaping plot holes.  This movie requires you to suspend your disbelief from a narrative standpoint.  It seems as if "the force", the franchises' almighty and unexplainable spiritual core, is intentionally left unexplainable to be plot convenient.  Like the Eagles in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, it is becoming a bail out, or narrative calling card.  Nonetheless, The Force Awakens is a lot of fun, and pushes the franchise in an exciting new direction.  

A-

"Spotlight" Review

          Spotlight is a drama which details the efforts of the Boston Globe's "Spotlight" journalistic team in exposing the lurid child abuse scandal within the Catholic Church in the early 2000's.  With stars like Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schrieber, Mark Ruffalo and a host of other recognizable faces, Spotlight is a movie oozing with professionalism and poise, as its talented cast and near perfect script make it a must see drama.  Spotlight is a movie with few, if any flaws, and is a cool and calculated exposé that handles its disturbing details with care.  Both subtle and bold, Spotlight excels as a procedural that is both relevant and entertaining, which is a rare blend in Hollywood today, and also what perhaps pushes this movie to be truly great.

       Spotlight is a perfectly paced film, rich with cinematic value that doesn't compromise the story in a flashy or glitzy way.  Meaning, the direction by Tom McCarthy is subtle yet beautiful, and it opens up the stage for the actors to truly shine.  There is a certain art that McCarthy displays in his restraint rather than indulgence, and it pays off in dividends for the cast.  Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo both excelled greatly in their portrayals, particularly Ruffalo, whose character is more passionate than any of his previous roles.  Ruffalo played a man who was a little off-beat, but truly cared about what he was doing and was determined beyond belief.  It was a nice change of pace for Ruffalo, as his career continues to blossom with his taking of riskier roles, a la Foxcatcher, rather than his usual comic book/rom-com schtick.  McAdams also does a fine job in her role as a thoughtful and determined writer. One of Spotlight's many strengths is the way the lurid and dicy details are handled.  Spotlight doesn't pile on the disturbing details about its controversial subject, but provides just enough vile substance to not only level emotionally with the audience, but also emphasize the importance of the crisis within the Catholic Church.  Some of the film's most gripping and heartbreaking moments are the testimonials given by the victims, thus displaying McCarthy's impressive feat of finding cinematic value in some realistic and frightening stories.  Being significant and entertaining is no easy task, but Spotlight weaves through both with relative ease.  

Movies based on true stories these days run the risk of being conventional and tedious.  Biographical films that span decades and give step by step accounts of a significant person's life seem to be a popular genre, serving as a consistent form of Oscar Bait.  However, Spotlight is different in the fact that is follows a little known group of journalists who made a very big impact.  This film doesn't go on and on about how great they were, or end in a cliche fashion.  It is brutally honest and neutral in its portrayal.  Spotlight doesn't make all priests look like sexually depraved monsters, or all of the journalists look like lion crested heroes.  Spotlight is unbiased and fair, and plays out in an entertaining and realistic way.  Spotlight is timely, and really damn good.  

A

"Black Mass" review

Black Mass is a crime drama that details the actions of the notorious James "Whitey" Bulger, played by Johnny Depp, and his crooked relationship with the FBI.  Bulger makes an "alliance" with John Conolly(Joel Egerton), an FBI agent determined to take down the Italian mafia in Boston.  What ensues is a movie masquerading as a crime epic that, while on face value seems to be a solid movie, fails at establishing a true connection with its audience and seems to have something missing.  

From an acting standpoint Black Mass is a terrific movie.  It allows Johnny Depp to truly showcase his method-acting prowess for the first time in what feels like 20 Tim Burton collaborations ago.  Kevin Bacon is very convincing in his role, while Egerton is also solid, though can sometimes go over-the-top with the Southie mouth gesticulations. This movie is also impeccably well shot and has a very sleek look despite the its rugged subject matter and setting.  Overall, Black Mass is scene for scene a pretty solid flick, but this movie is so much less than the sum of its parts.  Johnny Depp is clearly the driving force behind this movie but he is not a character you can even remotely root for.  This made me look around and realize that no one in this movie is really worth rooting for.  Egerton's character abandons his moral compass in the name of childhood bonds, Bulger's younger brother, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, hides his brother's transgressions to further his political agenda, and most of the other characters are Bulger's uninteresting henchman.  There isn't one character the audience has any emotional stock in really.  Granted, "good-guys" might be hard to come by in a gangster movie, but at least in movies like The Godfather or Goodfellas the audience is actually invested in the main character's story arc.  Henry Hill and Michael Corleone are bad people, as shown by their violent crimes, but they maintain a sense of relatability and humanity that makes their characters truly interesting, and supportable by audiences.  The same cannot be said for Depp's Bulger, who is cold, distant, and heartless, just like this movie really.  Depp's performance was fantastic, but his character couldn't rescue the movie from its spotty storytelling and lack of an emotional core.  

Black Mass wasn't even that eventful.  There were a lot of wackings, and a lot of "business" deals but the movie was generally void of action.  This is sad considering the material it had to work with.  A large part of the story was the Feds' use of Bulger to eradicate the Italian mob, and this was barley fleshed out.  Gang wars or espionage or other story lines could have sprung from this, but nothing materialized.  Black Mass decided to focus on the relationship between Bulger and Conolly, characters who seemingly lacked chemistry and didn't really connect with the audience on an emotional level.  Conolly could have been the movie's protagonist, but instead validated his spiral into corruption by repeatedly sharing the anecdote about how Bulger was nice to him as a kid... or something...  It isn't really an interesting moral dilemma to be quite honest, and failed to make me care about Conolly at all.  For all of its storytelling gaffes, the worst offense was by far the movie's tacked on ending.  Black Mass decided to go the "this happened, then this happened and then this happened" route, typing out the story's resolution in typewriter font rather than making each character's demise a crucial part of the story, and actually on screen.  

At its core, Black Mass empty and lacks a real punch.  Each scene was well crafted, but the combined effort failed to make me care much about the story.  This movie is void of characters that an audience can latch onto, and makes for a disappointing ride.  As far as historical dramas go, priority no. 1 should be to make the story matter. By the end of Black Mass, I couldn't find really find the moral message behind it, I just kept wondering why it all mattered, and why it was all significant.  These questions are still unanswered, and as a result Black Mass didn't leave a lasting impression, and was somewhat forgettable.  Unlike great gangster movies, this one doesn't make you think, it doesn't linger in your brain and seemingly improve the more you think about its moral implications.  This is likely because Black Mass doesn't have moral implications for audiences to analyze, and simply put, lacks heart. 

C+

"Ricki and the Flash" Review

Ricki and the Flash is a comedy/drama, that's neither funny or riveting, and stars Meryl Streep playing a washed up, wannabe rock-star named Ricki.  She abandoned her family years ago to pursue her dream of becoming a rock n roll superstar, but when her family, and her musical career are failing miserably, she is forced to put her life back together.  

There is honestly not much to like in this movie.  While Meryl Streep's performance was proficient, as per usual, the rest of the cast was weak.  Kevin Kline wasn't given much to do as Ricki's ex-husband, and Mamie Gummer was genuinely irritating as their depressed daughter, Julie.  Her issues are at the forefront of this movies plot, rather than focusing on Ricki's musical exploits.   Julie is heartbroken over her husband leaving her for another woman, then proceeds to mope, whine and over-act all over the movie.  The writing as a whole probably contributed to this.  Both the dialogue and the overall story arc were lacking.  Nothing really happened in this movie.  Streep's character is shown playing various songs at a run-down local bar, then hanging out with her annoying daughter for a bit, then reconnecting with her sons and ironing out some issues with her ex and then she goes to a wedding.  Along the way she falls in love with her co-bandmember Greg, played by Bruce Springfield.  He accepts her for who she is and  doesn't judge her for her mistakes like her family, and basically everyone else in the movie.  Its pretty cliche, well charted waters and isn't remotely interesting.  The two have decent chemistry I suppose, unlike anyone else in this movie, but can't really anchor the story.  This movie can't decide whether it wants to be about Ricki re-connecting with her estranged family or her relationship with her lead guitarist.  As a result, it's all over the place from a narrative standpoint. A lot of things happen but they don't coalesce into one defining moment, even if it tries to very hard during one performance in the end. Ricki doesn't necessarily have a goal in mind, and the audience doesn't exactly know what they're rooting for, they just know they are rooting for her.  We are supposed to think that singing at her son's wedding wins over the respect of the family she abandoned, and this puzzled me.  The whole time I was wondering what I wanted from this movie.  Usually movies have a direction or a purpose, even if there are twists and turns along the way.  Streep's character didn't really develop over the course of the movie, she just became less sorry for herself at the end.  Ricki and the Flash lacked both purpose and spontaneity, making for an awfully drab "ride".  The whole experience was just so forgettable, the plot was nonsensical and conventional and the acting was pretty spotty.  Streep was solid and her actual singing voice lent a bit of authenticity to this dull movie.  

The music was pretty good, the movie wasn't. Poor writing, too many weak performances, and a bland story= bad movie, it's simple math.  Sorry Meryl, you might miss on the oscar nod this year.  

D

"Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation" review

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is the latest installment in the wildly successful Mission Impossible series and sees Tom Cruise return again as the super-agent Ethan Hunt.  Once again he is tasked with completing another "impossible" mission, and the ride is just as fun as we all hoped.  Rogue Nation is filled to the brim with brilliant action sequences and thrilling stunts, and swiftly weaves together a story balanced with both light humor and stressful moments of peril.  Hunt is aided by his crack team of loyal  agents on a mission to prove the existence of a crime syndicate, capable of geopolitical terrorism and espionage.  With the entire IMF disbanded, Hunt must take down the syndicate while also avoiding capture from the CIA, who consider him a fugitive and consider his heroics instances of extreme luck and recklessness.  

Simon Pegg co-stars as Benji, the tech expert, and Ving Rhames and Jeremy Renner reprise their roles as  Luther Stickell and William Brandt.  A new addition to the team sees Rebecca Ferguson play Ilsa Faust, a double agent who helps Ethan and infiltrates the Syndicate, while being an MI6 agent.  So I guess that would make her a triple agent... Ferguson's character is very interesting, the audience doesn't know whether to trust her or not and she is very convincing in her playing of both sides.  Simon Pegg is hilarious and benefits from a larger spotlight in this latest installment, Jeremy Renner's character is less vital to the plot but still is an interesting character and a valuable member to the team, but it is Ferguson who really shines.  Her performance is right on the money and her vulnerability contrasted with her bad-ass nature makes her a compelling character, and a welcome addition to the franchise.  Tom Cruise proves once again that he is his generation's defining action star, and continues to anchor the exhilarating series.  Cruise performs a large amount of his own stunts, which not only allows for smoother camera work and less cuts trying to hide the stuntman, but also makes the movie just that much cooler, knowing that the lead actor is actually risking is life to some degree and not just acting.  

Such is the case in the movie's opening scene, where Hunt must hang onto the side of a plane in flight.  Rogue Nation has some of the best action sequences of the entire Mission Impossible franchise.  The previous movie may have set the bar with Cruise scaling the Burj Dubai, but some of Rogue Nation's action scenes do not fall far behind.  This movie mights perhaps contain the best motorcycle chase scene of all time, as well as an incredibly daring underwater heist, and loads of well choreographed fight scenes.  With snappy dialogue and thrilling action, Rogue Nation is almost everything you could ask for in a fun summer-blockbuster, but like most movies, it isn't perfect.  This franchise has had trouble with creating a menacing villain, except Philip Seymour Hoffman in M-I-III, to fight Ethan Hunt, and this year it was no different.  The leader of the Syndicate is a small mouse-looking man with a voice that is not scary, but actually really annoying.  He isn't remotely menacing and is barely understandable, but luckily he is the films only real weakness.  

A-

"Ant-Man" Review

"Ant-Man" is the latest installment in Marvel's connected superhero universe, and features the unorthodox new hero, Ant-Man, played by Paul Rudd.  The face behind the mask is a skilled thief named Scott Lang, who is viewed as a hero in his young daughters eyes, but has proven to be anything but that in the beginning of the film.  He is a convict who lost his family, and when he is released from prison, he is determined to change his ways and make a positive difference in the world.  Enter Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas, a brilliant scientist who has been voted out of his company by his greedy protege Daren Cross, and his daughter Hope Pym, played by Corey Stoll and Evangeline Lilly, respectively.  Pym enlists Lang to help him stop Cross from using the powerful Pym particle and selling it off to criminal organizations.  Lang becomes the Ant-Man, using ant like strength (and size) along with his god-given talents for theft for good. 

"Ant-Man" had a lot of controversy surrounding production.  The film had been in development for years until Edgar Wright, known for "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz", was tabbed as the director.  Ultimately creative differences or what have you led to a divorce, and Peyton Reed was Wright's replacement.  Directorial switches in the middle of production aren't a good sign, as they point to dysfunction behind the camera and lack of cohesion, but the final result was a film that ran without a hitch.  "Ant-Man" was genuinely entertaining, despite its comical plot.  This was due in large part to the movies overall tone, one that was very self aware and didn't take itself too seriously.  Had "Ant-Man" tried to be a brooding Batman-like crime drama, it would have failed miserably.  However the entire movie was witty and funny, even during intense scenes.  "Ant-Man" knew what it was, and embraced it.  The comedic charm of Paul Rudd and Michael Pena was what truly made "Ant-Man" hilarious, but it was also the well felt influence of its original director, Edgar Wright.  With films such as "Hot Fuzz" and "Shaun of the Dead" in particular, Wright introduced his style of filmmaking, which was one filled with quick cuts and snappy dialogue.  His movies are all fast paced and feature slews of montage like comedic bits.  "Ant-Man" also featured situations like this with Michael Pena, whose character was reportedly created just for him by Wright in the film's early development.  Wright was named in the credits as one of the screenwriters, and deservingly so, as his presence was truly felt.  

The only real gripes I had with "Ant-Man" were a couple of the characters, namely Evangeline Lilly's and Corey Stoll's.  Lilly plays Hank Pym's daughter, Hope.  The two had a backstory that was somewhat interesting, but also drawn out a bit.  Hope was annoying at times but eventually came around towards the end, becoming a less whiny and boring character.  Stoll portrays Darren Cross, who was once Pym's protagee has since become the main protagonist of the movie.  His motives aren't really justified and Stoll is caught overacting several times.  He's just cruel for the heck of it and the viewers are not shown any method to his madness, making him a one dimensional villain.  But aside from minor flaws, this movie was pretty solid.  I especially enjoyed how unlike most superhero movies, there wasn't a forced romance shoved down our throats.  The movie acknowledged the romantic tension between Hope and Scott, but didn't make it into a cliche and boring plot line.  "Ant-Man" is shot gorgeously, especially in the moments where Scott turns small and becomes the Ant-Man.  Having the camera blur the larger objects around Scott and sharply focus on the things his size was a brilliant touch that made the action sequences more exciting and fresh.  

Overall, "Ant-Man" has a pretty basic plot, one that isn't very grand or sprawling, but provides a good starting point for what is definitely going to be a profitable franchise.  There is beauty in simplicity, and "Ant-Man" kept things just small enough to complement the humor and wit of its ant sized hero and his hilarious accomplices.  The stakes are just big enough to make the audience feel suspense, but not big enough to suspend our belief.  "Ant-Man" was fun, and it made the most of its cast with good writing and a fresh, if unorthodox, concept.  

B+  

"Trainwreck" review

"Trainwreck" is a comedy starring comedy central's breakout star Amy Schumer, former SNL cast-memeber Bill Hader, and NBA megastar Lebron James, along with a slew of other athletes, as it pertains to the sports related plot. Schumer plays a woman, named Amy, who works at a sleezy tabloid magazine and partakes in numerous "one night stands".  She is an alcoholic party animal and shows little to no class, making her character somewhat of a "trainwreck". When she was young, Amy's father convinced her that monogamous relationships are unrealistic, and when her job forces her to interview a sophisticated sports doctor, Aaron (played by Bill Hader), who she actually begins to care for, her warped values are put to the test.  The result: a funny movie that is sometimes clever but mostly raunchy and ultimately falls into the cliche rom-com trap that it was seemingly trying to avoid.  "Trainwreck" gave me the impression that it would be different.  Granted I knew that this movie would be a romantic comedy, but I figured it would be with an original twist on the tired genre.  To an extent, and by extent I mean most of the movie, it was, but a painfully predictable and disappointing ending derailed this train, resulting in a...

With all these trainwreck puns, I'm probably being a little hypocritical by calling this movie predictable, but come on you had to see this coming.  I'm sure every critic who has reviewed this movie made at least one.  Sorry I'm losing my train of thought here... Back to the movie. "Trainwreck" is not exactly a trainwreck per see, but this movie is riddled with narrative flaws and lame comedic bits.  The cameos got old and some were just not really funny at all.  A good example is the whole John Cena storyline.  He and Amy are "dating" for a small portion of time near the beginning of the movie, and the movie feels the need to magnify the details of their physical relationship, this results in a gross, unfunny, and unnecessary bit that looked as if it had just been thrown in there to be funny, which it wasn't.  This was the case with a lot of the jokes, they didn't pertain to the plot.  Too many jokes were irrelevant to what was going on in the movie.  The bits should add to what is happening in the story, as it makes scenes and the movie as whole funnier.  Believe it or not, when jokes have an importance to the grand scheme of things, they hit harder and raise the stakes, rather than fall flat.  "Trainwreck" was full of funny ideas but had  no idea what to do with them, throwing them together into a mixed bag of in cohesive bits that didn't contribute to the story, and maybe the story is to blame.  The plot follows an arc that most romance movies follow, they meet, they fall in love, they have a montage or two, they fight/breakup, there is a tragedy of sorts, they get back together, the end... There are a few original and funny twists along the way, but in a nutshell, that's it.  "Trainwreck" was very inconsistent, it had long stretches of very clever dialogue and humor, then experienced long bouts of boring, depressing, and unfunny movie time far too long for a comedy.  When "Trainwreck" shined it really shined, Amy Schumer is extremely funny, she can deliver a horrible line and still make me chuckle, but writing, a crucial part of any movie, is where this one lost track.

Bill Hader is a hilarious actor, but wow was he not given a chance to shine.  I understand with Schumer's antics and LeBron's priceless deadpan, more on him later, the movie needed a straightman to keep everyone levelheaded, but he deserved more time to show off his comedic chops.  The storylines with Amy's family, namely her father and sister, were not very entertaining and didn't really contribute to the main plot, between Amy and Bill Hader.  If anything it distracted from it.  LeBron James was surprisingly good in this movie, he's a better actor than Shaq that's for sure.  If you don't know what I'm referring to, watch "Kazaam". Or don't...you probably shouldn't... its awful. 

Overall, "Trainwreck" made me laugh, and as a comedy it succeeded in that regard, but it wasted its potential as a result of narrative flaws and serious comedic dry spells.  

C