Want Funny? THE OTHER WOMAN Should Be Your First Choice.

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Hello, WORLD!!!

Yep, Smokkee here, again, after what feels like forever, right? Every since I caught pneumonia in January, I've been waiting until the weather here in Chicago started to warm up before I started attending screenings again. Finally, it has and finally I'm back to doing what I love: watching movies on the big screen.

The first appearance of Amber (Kate Upton).

I thought I was gonna kick off my 2014 prescreening with a thud. Seriously. The plot of THE OTHER WOMAN screams made-for-TV/straight-to-DVD/standard TVsitcom plot. A man's loves (his wife, his mistress, and his OTHER mistress) find out about each other and plot revenge. Nothing new, right? While I can't think of what movie or when, I'm sure this has been done before. If I'm wrong, hit me up.

From left: Kate Upton, Cameron Diaz, and Leslie Mann

Nicki Minaj plays Carly's (Cameron Diaz) Assistant.

Anyway, this movie was refreshingly funny. Not because of the star Cameron Diaz. She's here mostly as the straight woman. (SN: It's hard to believe that this is the same woman we met 20 years ago in THE MASK but she's clearly still a master of the slapstick that made her starmaking role in THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY such a hit and still fresh faced to boot!) Here she plays Carly, a hot-shot lawyer who's falling for one of her clients, Mark (Game of Throne's Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) only to discover that he's already married in possible the most awkward way imaginable. Yep, she shows up at his home and meets his wife Kate (Leslie Mann). When Kate shows up at her job the next day, Carly lets the truth be known resulting in some of the most hilarious scenes in the movie. Through a series of misadventures the two women who should be enemies wind up being friends only to discover there is a third mistress Amber (Kate Upton) and maybe more mistresses they haven't discovered yet. After Carly's ego, in another funny scene, helps these three ladies connect, they decide to get revenge on Mark.

Taylor Kinney plays Kate's brother Phil.

As I said, the movie is funny. I laughed out loud, something I try my hardest not to do ever, and making me laugh does take a little work. It's not the funniest movie I've seen but it's adequate. The main reason you wanna watch this movie is Leslie Mann. The funniest character on the screen, she almost steals ever scene she's in from the straight-woman star of the show. And I was a little excited to see my hip-hop crush Nicki Minaj stretch her acting chops. She did her thing very well (and I'm not just saying that as one of her Stans) but wasn't in the movie nearly enough for my taste. Well OK, maybe that's just my personal opinion. The rest of the stars include Lady Gaga's boyfriend Taylor Kinney as Kate's down-to-earth brother Phil and Don Johnson makes an appearance as Carly's father Frank.     

Bottom line, director Nick Cassavetes does an admirable job with a cheesy premise. It didn't overstay it's welcome, it delivered laughs, but the cheesiness of the script and the aimlessness of the plotting (At times, this comedy thinks it's a drama. Go figure.) is reason enough for me not to give it a higher grade.

That's it for now, WORLD. Thanks for having me back and letting me back into your world so easy.