Movie Review: Cedar Rapids - Page 2

Having never been outside of Brown Valley before, he checks his small town worldview of naïveté in his bag (he’s literally terrified of credit card imprints used for room incidentals and boasts a fanny pack hiding his insured traveler’s checks) where he meets his first African-American, Ronald “Ronimal” Wilkes (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) who uses way too many acronyms and the one man he was sworn by Krogstad to avoid, Dean “Deansie” Ziegler (Reilly). Along the way he also finds his way through Bree (Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat) playing a drug swindling prostitute loitering around the hotel and Joan Ostrowski-Fox (Anne Heche) who just might be the key to opening up little Lippe’s eyes to the big bad world that lies outside his comfort zone.

Here’s hoping that for every awful movie to come about from the Hollywood Blacklist (Cop Out) comes a movie like Cedar Rapids. With spitfire hilariously quotable dialogue to sure-handed comedic direction and a cast that knows how to take their characters to the next level while staying believable (even if Reilly seems to be warming up for Step Brothers 2), it’ll be hard to find another comedy anytime soon that keeps the laughs coming from beginning to end. And at a scant 86 minutes, you couldn’t ask for a more wham bam thank you ma’am good time.

Photos courtesy Fox Searchlight

Article Author: Cinenerd

A Utah based writer, born and raised in Salt Lake City, UT for better and worse. Cinenerd has had an obsession with film his entire life, finally able to write about them since 2009, and the only thing he loves more are his wife and their two wiener dogs (Beatrix Kiddo and Pixar Animation). …

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