My two visits to the movie theaters the past few days couldn’t have been more different.  Last time I was in Vegas, we happened by Caesars where they were filming some movie we had never heard of called the “Hangover”.  Well, that movie came out a few weeks ago, Brian, Christina, and I saw it last Saturday, and it was hilarious — Highly recommend it.   Then last night, Christina and I joined her parents for Earth, an abridged for-film version of the Planet Earth series.  While I loved the James Earl Jones voiceover in the film, do yourself a favor and watch the Planet Earth series, in HD if you can.  Amazing stuff.

The Hangover seems to be the “breakout” comedy of the year.  While I’ve heard good things about Paul Blart: Mall Cop (seriously) and, of course, Up and Monsters vs. Aliens were also hilarious, The Hangover seems to be catching the most people off-guard on how funny it is.  Several of the film sites out there seems shocked that a film could be this funny without any “big names”.  They contrast it with the disappointment/bombs of the “made” comedy stars (Seth Rogen in Observe & Report, Will Ferrell in Land of the Lost, and Jack Black/Michael Cera in Year One) and wonder why it succeeded instead of the others.   I can’t speak for others but I can watch the trailers for Mall Cop and The Hangover and say, hey, those look funny while the others all looked … well, not.

Nor do I understand why the big names like Will Ferrell and Jack Black are supposed to carry more weight than Kevin James and Ed Helms — The latter two are significantly more entertaining.  I can appreciate Will Ferrell & Jack Black but give me Ed Helms on the Office and his Daily Show work anyday of the week.