This is 40 (2012)

While Jack watched the Rose Bowl Mary Ellen and I laughed our asses off at Judd Apatow's "sort-of sequel to Knocked Up" (2007) with Leslie Mann (real-life Mrs. Apatow for over 15 years, she is best known for working on his movies, most recently Funny People) and Paul Rudd (last blogged in both Wanderlust and The Perks of Being a Wallflower) as a couple on the verge of freaking out over the aging process. Mann's and Apatow's daughters Maude (15) and Iris (10), who played their mother's daughters in Knocked Up and Funny People as well, steal every scene they are in, and they're all the more entertaining because we've heard/read that they wrote or inspired a lot of their own dialogue. Jason Segal (last in Jeff, Who Lives at Home), Chris O'Dowd (profiled in Bridesmaids, which was co-produced by Apatow, and mentioned in Friends with Kids), Megan Fox (also in Friends with Kids), and Charlyne Yi (after starring in Paper Heart she was in 21 episodes of the final season of House) have some funny bits (Yi's final scene still has me giggling two days later). You may notice the Oscar-nominated co-writer of Bridesmaids Annie Mumolo (she had a cameo in that one as a nervous airplane passenger) as Mann's best friend. Albert Brooks is funny, too, and there are tons of cameos, including Melissa McCarthy (Oscar-nominated for Bridesmaids), Lena Dunham (before Girls was on HBO she made Tiny Furniture), musician Graham Parker (see below), and more.

The lush sets are beautifully shot by Phedon Papamichael (covered in The Descendants). Locations aren't given on imdb but I suspect they're supposed to be living in Bel Air or Brentwood (west of L.A.), where there are some high end homes.

This holiday season I wanted to see three comedies and did so in ratings order from worst to best, ending with this one, the clear winner. None of the three was rated "fresh" on rottentomatoes. You already know how I felt about Parental Guidance and The Guilt Trip (this one got 51% from critics and 57 from from audiences). Each has family conflict and resolution, accompanied in Guilt Trip by confounded violins. Although you probably won't notice the music by Jon Brion (profiled in The Future), you can listen to it on the movie's website--just pause the trailer in the middle of the page and activate the soundtrack music player at the upper right corner of the screen. No violins, but lots of guitars and possibly a cello. What you will notice when you see the movie are the pop songs on the soundtrack (here's an article about the 16 songs and here's the amazon page where you can listen to clips).

You can see this on the big screen or you can wait for the DVD estimated to drop in March, and I think you'll have some good laughs, especially if you're anywhere north of 35 years old (I say that only because Mary Ellen's son said he thought he was too young at 21 to enjoy it). Oh, and there are some outtakes at the end that are the icing on the cake.