Cedar Rapids 2011 Directed Miguel Arteta Ed Helms, John C Reilly and Anne Heche 87 min 4,16 GB Comedy

Cedar Rapids 2011
Languages: English, Spanish  Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
 87 min 4,16 GB
Comedy USA

IMDB: 6.7/10 (4,477 votes)
Directed Miguel Arteta
Ed Helms, John C. Reilly and Anne Heche

 

 A comedy about a group of insurance salesmen who use the opportunity to attend an annual convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as a way to escape their doleful existence... like Vegas but with corn. Tim Lippe has been living in a small town his whole life and gets a rude awakening when he arrives in the "giant" metropolis of Cedar Rapids. However, his boyish charm and innocence eventually win over his fellow conventioneers, but he becomes disheartened when he uncovers corporate corruption. When it seems his life - and chances to succeed - are completely topsy-turvy, he finds his own unjaded way to turn things around.

 

Download links:

http://www.filesonic.com/folder/7221181

http://www.wupload.com/folder/117878

http://www.uploadstation.com/list/tdsxYhr

http://fileserve.com/list/5qEfwjU 

Helms is Tim Lippe, an inexperienced thirtysomething who's never been outside Minnesota, and rarely even ventures beyond the sleepy hamlet of Brown Valley, where he's lived his entire life. At the beginning of the film, Tim's narrow view of the world is on the verge of being rocked. He starts his first sexual relationship with - get this - one of his former middle school teachers, Marcy Vanderhei (Sigourney Weaver), and though she's just a recent divorcee-cum-cougar looking for a casual fling, Tim thinks he's finally found true love. (We realize exactly how naпve he is when he presents her with a "promise" ring, a token that they're engaged to be engaged.) A bigger shock is when Tim's idol, Roger - a supposedly clean-cut fellow agent at the hilariously named BrownStar Insurance office - dies in a freak auto-erotic asphyxiation accident. With Roger permanently out of commission, Tim is asked to attend the ASMI insurance broker convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where pious industry bigwig Orin Helgesson presents the coveted "Two Diamond" award each year to whichever agency best demonstrates a "commitment to community, country, and God." (Yes, there's a bit of satire here about about conservative Midwestern jingoism and religious hypocrisy.) Tim's boss gives him two directives: 1.) Bring home the trophy, and 2.) stay as far away as possible from the bad influence of Dean Ziegler (John C. Reilly), a foul-mouthed good-time-Charlie party boy and client poacher.

Of course - of course - Tim ends up being roommates with Ziegler, who begins their friendship by inviting Tim to the local sports bar, promising an "all-you-care-to-eat pussy buffet." Ziegler is an easy read - he's divorced, bitter about being divorced, and seemingly unaware of why he's divorced - and beneath his life-of-the-party exterior is a sad clown of a man who just wants to be liked. John C. Reilly is perfect in these kinds of roles; he might be the only actor in Hollywood who can manage to be filthily crass and lovably vulnerable at the same time. When he gets to let loose and improvise - and his best lines are unfit to print here, unfortunately - Cedar Rapids is at its best.

Also sharing their hotel room is Ronald Wilkes (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), an ambiguously maybe-gay insurance agent who likes community theater and antiquing, and who does a mean impersonation of gangster Omar Little from HBO's The Wire. (The joke here is that Isiah Whitlock Jr. was actually on The Wire; he played Clay Davis, the corrupt senator known for the distinctly prolonged way he pronounced "shit" whenever expressing incredulity.) The three men pal around with Joan Ostrowski-Fox (Anne Heche) - or, O-Fox, as they call her - a foxy female agent who sees the convention as "a little vacation from who she really is," namely, a wife and mother of three. Obviously, between Ziegler's horn-dogging and O- Fox's flirty come-ons, the sweater vest-wearing Lippe is going to find his innocence tested. And I haven't even mentioned Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat, who plays a friendly prostitute who introduces Lippe to crack cocaine, amongst other illicit activities.

While there are quite a few scenes that fall flat, this is a mostly effective comedy in the Mike Judge/Judd Apatow mold, one that undercuts its more vulgar elements with likeable characters and a soft-peddled moral message about growing up without selling your soul or convictions. The plot really takes off when Lippe discovers the straight-laced Orin has been accepting bribes for the "Two Diamonds" award, and Tim is put in a position where he has to choose between being a sham success or a loser who's at least true to himself. We've all been there, and that's what makes Cedar Rapids so relatable. Director Miguel Arteta (Youth in Revolt) and screenwriter Phil Johnston poke fun at Tim's golly-gee-whiz naivety and simultaneous fear/awe of the world at large - "There's an Afro-American man in my room," Tim whispers to Marcy on the phone, mildly terrified when he first spots Ronald - but they're never condescending toward him or any of the other characters. What they absolutely nail is the hokey, faux-motivational (fauxtivational?) atmosphere of corporate conventions, where the participants are forced to play silly games - wait until you see the "ASMI-azing Race" - and fraternize during conference room meet-n-greet sessions. Of course, everyone really wants to just get drunk, get laid, and par-tay. We half expect to see Helms' Office boss, Michael Scott, in a nearby room with the door open, mixing cocktails for no one while a strobe light flashes to the rhythm of "Who Let the Dogs Out?"

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater