Dealing with a reality for many relationships today, one couple Erin (Drew Barrymore) and Garrett (Justin Long) date just long enough to fall in love before fate sends one to San Francisco, while the other one pines away in New York. Quite a lot of emphasis is placed on the lack of jobs available everywhere. Particularly in Erin and Garrett’s industries. Garrett has a low level position at a record label, and Erin is finishing up her graduate degree at Stanford in reporting, and desperately seeking employment in dying industries. Their situation is, indeed, a little stark. And travel is so cost prohibitive, the couple rarely gets to even see each other.

Director Nanette Burstein keeps the film tight the majority of the time. She navigates the dreariness of the situation, infusing it with an awful lot of funny parts. And it’s not nearly as crass as you might have heard. Yes, there is a very awkward phone sex moment, but the saucy moments are more funny than offensive (I promise this is true, it’s not like Get Him to the Greek). The writing, and Ms. Burstein manage to make the viewer care about this couple who would be hipsters if they weren’t just so darn likable. It may not be as funny as it’s peers. It may be a bit generic. But it does exactly what it sets out to do. Make you chuckle and go ‘ah’.

3 out of 4 stars

If you’ve seen the trailer, you get the plot.  Pretty blonde girl with a good life gets cursed by an evil gypsy woman with two different colored eyes (she’s supposed to be a gypsy, but she’s Russian).  Pretty girl spends three days tortured by a demon that’s preparing to drag her to Hell.  Literally.

What I wasn’t expecting was the campiness of the film.  There were more laugh-out-loud moments then there were made-you-jump moments.  The comedic timing of Raimi and his actors far outweighs their ability to make you scared.  In fact, there wasn’t much about the film that was scary at all.  Sure, there were a whole lot of those moments where something jumps onto screen accompanied by a really loud noise, but if you’re older than twelve, this doesn’t do much.

Alison Lohman plays pretty blonde girl.  Her near-perfect boyfriend is played by Justin Long who, along with several Mac computers and iPhones, seems to be put there as part of Apple product placement.  Not-so-scary Russian/Gypsy lady is played by Lorna Raver.  All the acting is decent.  Lohman seemed to catch perfectly the tone Raimi intended and was actually quite hilarious.  Although she spends most of her screen time having her mouth filled up with disgusting things, including: eyeballs, Gypsy dentures, maggots, used embalming fluid (the list goes on and on).  The graphics are alternately terrific, and horrible.  Raimi wrote the script with older broth Ivan Raimi.

I’ve been told that if you enjoy the tone of earlier Raimi horror movies, you’ll enjoy this as well.  And I’ll admit that Drag Me To Hell is light years ahead of films like The Grudge, Prom Night, or The Ring, but the scariest thing about this movie is how forgettable it is.

2 out of 4 stars

The story follows two BFFs, Zack (played by garbly voiced Seth Rogan) and Miri (played by the wicked hot Elizabeth Banks).  The two can’t seem to make ends meet, and find their bills piling up so far, it’s hopeless to try and pay them back on their meager salaries.  They devise a plan to make a porno called Star Whores. Their plan is thwarted when their costumes and equipment (purchased with the last of their money) are destroyed in a building demolition.  It’s then they decide to make Swallow My Cockachino, conveniently set at the coffee shop where Zack works.  The rest of the movie is a mix between a romantic comedy and all the half-naked sex scenes they could fit in.

Perhaps the movie would have been more hilarious if their situation wasn’t so sad.  This is emphasized when the two go back to their high school reunion and it’s made clear, they’re the saddest, least successful of their graduating class.  This scene does provide a hilarious interaction between Superman‘s Brandon Routh and Accepted‘s Justin Long, who carry on a flaming, homosexual affair, despite being married.  There isn’t much redeeming about Zack and Miri, and the prospect that they finally find their true love for each other while doing it (literally, while they’re doing it) for a low budget porno in the kitchen of a coffee house, really just isn’t that great.  The emotional climax of the film happens while Zack is shouting through a bathroom door, while Miri is seated on a toilet, going number 2. This, to me, isn’t funny.  Seth Rogan should stick with Judd Apatow.  Zack and Miri is good for a few cheap laughs, but more often than not, illicits a smile, and not a laugh-out-loud chuckle.

1 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 65% – Cream of the Crop: 48%