Willkommen in Cedar Rapids

Deciding to watch this was totally based on the IMDb reviews so I wasn't sure what to expect. Happily after watching this twice in a few days I can say it really hit the spot.

Not being a huge fan of any of the leads and not having seen anything of Ed Helms prior I was not expecting anything brilliant here, but I really enjoyed this both times watching. I would regard this as a feel good comedy rather than a straight out comedy. Some of the humour would not be appreciated by everyone and will probably be regarded as quite silly, but I think it suited the movie.

John C. Reilly's movies can be a bit hit and miss, as his humour tends toward toilet humour in many cases and if you are not into that it can be a bit of a turn off. While some of the humour is a bit lowbrow, if you can get over that you will enjoy this movie.

I gave it a 7 out of 10 and will be watching it again.

Greetings again from the darkness. I have said many times that comedies are the most difficult of all film genres since no two people have the same sense of humor. While many people laughed til they cried during "The Hangover", others walked out of the theatre or simply had no interest at all. The same can be said for just about any Mel Brooks movie, as well as his contemporary, Judd Apatow. What we do know, is that a comedy's chance for success comes down to its characters, and in this area, "Cedar Rapids" works like a charm.

Ed Helms (Andy in "The Office") stars as Tim Lippe, the most sheltered, naive mid-western insurance agent ever captured on film. Lippe lives and works in Brown Valley, Wisconsin ... the most sheltered, naive mid-western town ever captured on film. His only real excitement is found through his "pre-engagement" to his 7th grade teacher played very well by Sigourney Weaver (probably the most worldly person in Brown Valley). When an embarrassing accident claims the life of the hot shot agent in Lippe's firm, the owner (Stephen Root) sends Lippe to the annual convention in Cedar Rapids. His mission is to win the coveted 2-Diamond Award presented by industry legend Orin Helgesson (a snippy Kurtwood Smith).

Since a lone character can't generate many laughs, circumstances at the convention cause Lippe to find himself roommates with a very noble Ronald Wilkes (Isiah Whitlock, Jr from "The Wire") and fast-talking poacher Dean Ziegler (John C Riley). These 3 are joined together by Nebraska agent Joan Ostrowski-Fox (Anne Heche). Lippe is quickly introduced to the "real world" by his new friends and after the first 20 minutes of set-up, the lines and settings get funnier and funnier.

As with most comedies these days, the trailer gives away much more than it should; but, unlike most, it leaves plenty of laughs and situations for the film. What really makes this work is that all characters are actually pretty nice people ... they are just a bit exaggerated in their traits. Lippe is a bit too naive. Wilkes is a bit too uptight. Ziegler is a bit too obnoxious, and Fox is just a little too lonely and adventurous. Still, their earnestness is what keeps the film grounded.

Mr. Helms is really a comic force. He has the extraordinary ability to never hold back or worry how that he might not look cool. Even as the lead character, he knows when scene-stealer John C Riley should have the spotlight. This is a tremendous asset for a comic.

I won't give away much, but will warn that some of the humor is crude ... especially some of Riley's rapid-fire one-liners. If you prefer your humor to be grounded with real people, then you might want to check this one out. I have only previously known this director, Miguel Arteta, as the guy responsible for Jennifer Aniston's best screen performance ("The Good Girl"). Now I look forward to his next project.

This film got reasonable reviews so I decided to make the effort to check it out, not least of which because of the cast that features quite a few names and faces that I know from either being instantly recognizable (Weaver, Reilly, Heche) or from their work on other projects that I like a great deal (The Office, Arrested Development, The Wire etc). The plot here is fairly straightforward, a small-town insurance salesman has to replace a colleague at a regional conference in Cedar Rapids and win the prestigious award that his company has won many years running. It is a simple idea and much of the comedy will come from the sweetly naïve Tim having his eyes opened to a wider world while also trying to keep his principles in place. Like I say, a basic plot and it very much depends on what the script does within that frame.

There are plenty of ideas here and plenty of set-pieces but the problem is that the film doesn't really deliver any of them really well. On one hand we have aspects of it that are the rather awkward naïve comedy that Helms does with his character in The Office. This manifests itself in his relationship with an older woman (she is having fun, he is deeply in love) or his inability to know a prostitute when he sees one. On the other hand we have the more exaggerated adventures he gets drawn into, these involving sex, drink and drugs. Neither of these two aspects is particularly strong either individually or together and, at best, they produce amusing moments and the occasionally laugh but nothing particularly engaging nor particularly funny. Instead what we get is plenty going on in terms of noise and activity and perhaps this is enough to distract and, for me, mostly it was. The actual plot is quite obvious and heads to a sort of solid ending but I was quite surprised by how lackluster much of it was.

The cast are perhaps part of me being disappointed in the outcome but all of them are capable of more. I liked Helms and he played the lead role well, just the material didn't play to his strengths as well as it suggested – it is like it put him between the awkwardness of The Office and the crude slapstick of The Hangover and he didn't sit comfortably between them. Reilly appears to offer the more boisterous side of things but again the film doesn't follow through on what he brings. Heche is a nice touch in casting and works well but Whitlock is wasted; his only contribution of note is to make a great little in-joke where he does an impression of The Wire's Omar (a TV show he was in) – it is funny but it is ruined within seconds since the film feels the need to explain the reference to the viewer. Various other faces do solid work without ever having too much to do, so while some are good, the overall feel is that a great cast don't have much to do. This feeling covers Smith, Shawat Corddry, Root and others.

In the end Cedar Rapids is an OK film that never gets close to delivering on anything it puts on the table. It has an odd mix of styles but it doesn't do any of them really well, which leaves a film loaded with recognizable faces and names, none of whom really excel because the script doesn't either. A solid so-so but no more than that.

My first 2011 film. It's a pretty unambitious comedy, but it survives because of a fantastic cast. Too fantastic, really. I have to wonder what drew them to this rather middling material. Ed Helms (of The Office and The Daily Show) stars as a sheltered insurance salesman from a small town in northern Wisconsin who is drafted by his boss (Stephen Root) to go to an insurance conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He's pretty inexperienced with life outside his own little bubble, and he gets led astray by troublemaker John C. Reilly. The film also co-stars Isaiah Whitlock, Jr. (who co-starred in HBO's The Wire, a series for which the character espouses a lot of love), Anne Heche (extremely good - probably the only good thing I've ever seen her done), Sigourney Weaver, Alia Shawkat (of the TV series (not the rap group) Arrested Development) and Kurtwood Smith (of That 70s Show and RoboCop). I wanted to see this one because of its Midwestern setting. Part of me was afraid that it would be Hollywood making fun of Midwesterners, but it's pretty gentle. Helms may play a sheltered small-town guy, but it's just him (Reilly's character is from Steven's Point, WI, and he's not a rube; he is a drunk, though). The film actually has a lot of affection for the Midwest, and it has a lot of heart.

In all fairness I've never seen any other coming-of-age films for 40 somethings, so it's not much of a competition. But if this movie is any indication, there should be more.

"Cedar Rapids" is the story of a 40 something small town insurance salesman "Lippe" (Ed Helms) who leaves his small town for the first time. He travels to Cedar Rapids for an insurance convention in what turns out to be sort of a spring break for grown ups. And amidst all the hijinks he realizes some startling realizations about the real world which you & I might take for granted, but as seen through the eyes of a sheltered overgrown boyscout like Lippe, these realizations take on new meaning.

Yes, it's a comedy, but don't expect a raucous madcap misadventure like your standard teen coming-of-age flick. Instead what sets this apart is its level of maturity while being wacky. Lippe isn't stupid, he's just sheltered. So he learns quickly, and that's the power of this story. A plot like this could've easily been played for cheap laughs, but instead it forsakes the predictable cartoonish gags in lieu of something more like real life. That's not saying it's boring or dry (Lippe has his first exposure to alcohol, skinny dipping, prostitutes, drugs and fights, not to mention his hilariously awkward first time meeting a black man) so there's plenty going on. But it's all handled very tastefully--almost charmingly--rather than silly. And yet you still laugh because it's just so bizarre.

At the heart of the film is a timeless revelation we all can appreciate: what happens when the protected bubble you've lived in suddenly pops? Whether you're a kid learning there's no Santa Claus, or an adult learning that your idealistic view of the world was naïve, the feeling is the same, and this movie captures that feeling in a great way.

The entire cast is spectacular with a stand out performance by John C Reilly (you might recognize as "Dewey Cox" in Walk Hard) who plays a despicable cheeseball "Ziegler" whom you come to love. Isiah Whitlock Jr plays "Ronimal", Lippe's first black friend, who is almost as clueless as Lippe but stay tuned as he does an awesome parody of the gritty tv show "The Wire" (which Whitlock starred in). Rounding out Lippe's circle of new misfit friends is Anne Heche who plays "O-Fox", sort of the convention slut.

"Cedar Rapids" is a really clever and entertaining story that doesn't sink to crass humor to make its point (ok maybe there's 1 fart joke during the end credits). In a weird way it reminded me of "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" or maybe the hilarious indie real estate comedy "Open House". I never thought I'd sit through a 90 min movie about an insurance convention, but this one really surprised me.