DailyView: Day 353, Movie 502

Cedar Rapids is a comedy film that matched up Ed Helms with John C. Reilly with a lot of crude humor. Typically, these kind of films, wit lots of drug and sex jokes, are not up my alley. Cedar Rapids, however, has some charm to it and Ed Helms gives a solid lead performance that helps raise the level of film for me.

After a surprising death, Tim Lippe (Ed Helms) is sent to an insurance convention by his boss Bill (Stephen Root) to try and gain another Two-Diamond award for their company. Tim is shy and withdrawn so when he gets matched up with the wild Dean Ziegler (John C. Reilly), things go haywire. After a lot of drugs and alcohol, Tim has to go to see the president (Kurtwood Smith) to keep his job.

As I said, this film has a charm about it, mainly from Ed Helms. John C. Reilly is not as over-the-top as he normally is, probably because he is playing opposite the quieter Ed Helms, so I could handle his performance better than when he plays opposite someone like Will Farrell who is doing the exact same schtick.

Anne Heche played a female agent at the convention who connected with Tim. She was married and had children but she used the convention in Cedar Rapids as her free time.

Sigourney Weaver is in the film as well, but she is grossly underused in a role that could be anyone. If you have Sigourney Weaver, you should really use her more.

The story is fairly typical for this kind of a film and does not miss too many beats. It is predictable as it moves along, but with the enjoyable cast, the film slips by.

Overall, Cedar Rapids is fine for what it is. It can be somewhat offensive at times, but there are some good laughs and Ed Helms does all the heavy lifting to make this a fun film.