One Sentence: Male locker room nudity is funny.
Rated: R
Release Date: 18-Feb-2011
Nudity: Some side boob and man butt.
You know what is awkward, slow moving independent comedies are awkward, and I am not sure if I like awkward comedies. Actually I am pretty sure that I feel ashamed that I do not like them, because everyone else seems to love them. I am myself an awkward comedy. Cedar Rapids opens in the trend of many of these types of movies. Repressed sexual innuendo, a simpleton innocent, and a fish out of water. We know what is going to happen and get ready for someone to break out of their shell, someone else to get told, and someone else to learn a lesson, all while doing it in uncomfortable ways. Cedar Rapids does all of these things, and I am not surprised by the flow of the story at all. What surprised me however is that I enjoyed getting there, and it all has to do with the cast.
Cedar Rapids doesn't really do anything new, and for a lot of the movie I was unconvinced I would like this movie. It felt like almost every other one of these types of movies, and wasn't delivering anything new, and then I fell in love with every supporting character in the movie. Alia Swawkat, John C. Reilly, Isiah Whitlock Jr., and Anne Heche who was amazing, really made me fall in love with this movie. They did something as a group together that made you care, and hope for everyone in this movie. You understood them and wanted more for them, and by the end of the movie I loved the characters and the movie itself. I wish it didn't take so long to get to the end however. It just took a bit too long to get to a place where I was interested.
Cedar Rapids might not even be in a theater near you, and you don't have to wrestle with the dilemma of having it see it or not, because that is something you are going to have to figure out for yourself on this one. I am not going to say you should or shouldn't see it. If you like those slow moving independent comedies, then this movie is for you, if you don't then this movie might still be for you if you are willing to give it a shot and let it get there. Either way though, you can just rent it, and do not have to pay the big bucks to catch this one in the theater.
