the audience applauded

It is a performances centric movie

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I Love butter on toast!.. Wait… wait... what? A movie about butter carving competitions? That sounds so dumb, but brilliant, fresh, new if it's done right and with the correct group of people. But it sounds so weird when you say it out loud! How did they pitch this!?Jack "The Film Lover" says... We always complain about remakes, redos, reimagenings, sequels, prequels, shmequels. But that's all we have, so we keep going and we keep watching them. When something new and original comes into the mix, we fear it, we don't know how to take it in until we actually give an original thought a chance and get something magical like "BUTTER". This movie was fresh and fun and had everything a movie lover would want; emotion, heart, comedy, story, characters who have character. This is another movie I had fun watching. It delivered great entertainment and escapism. There are seven celebrities on the "BUTTER" poster and the most important character of them all is not one of them. Yara Shahidi made the movie! This little girl has some chops and held her own. She showed you comedy and tragedy all in one small package of sassiness and tenderness. I really hope to see more of her in different roles and more movies.Jack "The Filmmaker" says… You don't need seven celebrities to make a great movie great, you need a great story involving complex characters portrayed by talented actors. It just so happens that the actors in this movie are recognizable celebrities, but these celebrities have challenged themselves. They all play roles that are very different from what we are accustomed to and they do a marvelous job at it. Director Jim Field Smith has great timing and a smooth rhythm of filmmaking. The story develops quick and you are hooked. Jennifer Garner's character was very multi-layered. You hate her, you pity her, you don't understand her. You want to ask her "What is wrong with you?!" many times throughout the film. And as always she delivers. Olivia Wilde stole the show for me. She was completely comfortable in her own skin,she was fun to watch and it seems she had fun playing the role. If there is anyone who can make being trashy classy it's her. Rob Corddry who is always hilarious actually showed a lot of heart, being partnered with Alicia Silverstone was a bit weird for me until I saw them together and got use to it.Jack "The Parent" says… Take your teen, no kids and no tweens. Unless you have already seen the movie and have memorized the correct scenes where to cover their eyes on a sex scene or have them well trained in the art of ear muffs. The sex scenes are mostly silhouettes and nothing is really shown there is a make out session and some other suggestive things as well as occasional curse word. Not really a movie made for the little ones.

Butter is a moderately enjoyable movie that suffers from one major problem. It doesn't know what type of movie it is, or what type of audience its trying to appeal to. The movie feels torn between being a dark comedy and a heart-warming family movie.When Butter focuses on being a feel good movie, it pulls it off relatively well. The little girl (Yara Shahidi) and her foster parents (Corddry and Silverstone) all put in enjoyable performances, and there's a cute little message about loving and caring for others.Where I feel this movie fails is as a dark or black comedy. Its really not very funny, and the offensive/rude humour that randomly pops up feels almost out of place in this movie. Plus the performances for this side fall flat as well. Hugh Jackman is essentially wasted as a stupid car salesman, Ty Burrell just plays a weaker version of his character from Modern Family, and Jennifer Garner's character comes across as an awkward jab at Sarah Palin (who was popular at the time). There's also a meaningless and pointless side story with a stripper that sees basically no resolution in any of the characters it affects.If Butter had focused a little more on the heart-warming side and added a little substance, it could've been pretty good...but instead it tries too hard to be something its not really that good at.

I'm not exactly a fan of butter. The actual one, you can eat (fry or sculpture or whatever else might come to mind). But the movie I watched was really funny. I didn't expect it to be so good. Of course it does have clichés and you know where this is going without me having to tell you, but the way it takes to reach its goal is really noteworthy! Especially the fact that it goes all out and got an "R"-rating in America! All that with a kid in a main role.But what a kid! She is really good and I defy anyone not seeing her talent (also apparent in the blooper reel that is included on the disc). It doesn't stop there though: You have Olivia Wilde (who makes good on her last name), Jennifer Garner really going for it. Especially when it comes to combining a sexual encounter with light humor (not the only scene that handles that combination though). If you can dig that ... eat it

just saw this, and it was pretty damn funny. Butter revolves around the participants in a butter carving contest in a white-washed suburban area. It's sweet, it's funny, it's holding itself back trying not to be too pottymouthed, and did I mention it's about butter? Jennifer Garner and Yada Shahidi both do great jobs; while Shahidi's character Destiny is the underdog and therefore the obvious choice to root for, Garner brings a certain vulnerability and nervousness to her straight-laced character Laura that makes her a lead that you can bear to watch. All the cast pull their weight, and special credit has to be given to show-stealer, Olivia Wilde, who brings a free-spirited intelligence to her ridiculous character Brooke, as only Wilde can, and is probably the movie's funniest character.The one complaint I had with the otherwise great movie, is that the direction seems to jump back and forth between being an edgy, witty comedy for adults and a warmhearted feel-good for the family. While I can see they were trying to be funny, and at the same time, touching - I felt the mixing could have been smoother.But that aside, Butter takes the overdone, unoriginal underdog-in-a-competition plot line, and manages to turn it into a pretty decent film by injecting with quirky subject matter and diverse, great characters. Easily recommended.