Ferrell Takes the Field (2015)

Will Ferrell makes a comedic documentary that might've worked better as a pure mockumentary like 7 Days in Hell.  I understand that there was an actual cause to raise awareness for the charity Cancer for College, but this performance art was kind of lame.  Ferrell plays very briefly with ten different MLB teams, all in different positions. That adds up to about one play, or a third of an inning per team.  It's funny at first when he gets traded away after a single play, but it gets old fast because he does it ten times!  There wasn't enough comedy to make this very entertaining.  To be totally straight, baseball isn't the most exciting sport to begin with.  Even Will Ferrell couldn't save this one.  

Welcome to Me (2014)

This movie was very strange. Just listen to the premise: a woman with borderline personality disorder wins the lottery and uses her winnings to buy a talk show.  She basically aspires to be Oprah. How do you make a personality disorder funny? Leave that to Kristen Wiig.  This movie has the same feel as The Skeleton Twins--it is sort of slow, has its moments, but drags in the middle. Wiig lives in a casino for some reason, has some weird obsession with swans, and she silently, uncomfortably stares into the camera a lot.  Basically, her character is pretty crazy and Wiig just runs with it. It's so ridiculous that it just barely works. This only works because of her, and Joan Cusack is pretty funny too.  

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)

This movie is very uniquely Will Ferrell-style comedy.  He assumes the now iconic character of Ron Burgundy and just runs with the ridiculous nonsense.  It is very fast paced, with jokes in rapid succession.  The jokes are not as memorable as those one-liners from the first film,, but many of them hit the nail right on the head thanks to good execution.  The cast has mastered improv techniques and funny-looking facial expressions.  Aside from jokes, the plot is a relevant, clever, and spot-on satire on cable news.   Burgundy finds work at the thinly veiled 24-hour news network.  What do they do when they don't have 24-hours worth of news? He helms the decline of journalism and the rise of car chases and animal videos.  To quote Will Ferrell, "You're welcome, America."             

The Lego Movie (2014)

This is the best conceived animated film of the year by far.  The level of creativity on this film is at the highest level.  The dreaded super weapon is known as the Kragle, that's Krazy Glue with a few letters scratched out.  The animators have created entire cities out of Lego pieces and the characters quickly construct vehicles out of the beloved children's toys.  It looks like a really good stop motion, but it is in fact just innovative computer animation.  The visuals are just incredible.

The humor is fast-paced, clever, full of cultural references and just pure fun.  The movie is reminiscent of the cut scenes that can be found in Lego's series of video games (which I admit are quite fun).  The jokes are similar, the animation is similar, and the master builders are basically video game characters.  Whereas the video games and Lego sets separate Batman from Star Wars and pirate ships and the wild west, this film melds them all together, much to the benefit of Lego's marketing department.

The voice work is fantastic.  Chris Pratt is having a very good year.  As Emmett Brickowski, he nails the dim-witted, unassuming hero-type.  Morgan Freeman is perfect as usual as the wise mentor-type.  And Will Ferrell makes a surprise appearance in human form towards the end of the film.  Without spoilers, it is his appearance that gives the film its heart.  It was unexpected, but pleasantly thoughtful and wholly welcome.