What could be more super awesome than a bag of airplane nuts? Why two bags, of course. This, and other pearls of wisdom, can be learned in the trailer for Cedar Rapids, Miguel Artita's conference comedy starring Ed Helms, John C Reilly, Anne Heche and Isiah Whitlock Jr.
What has Helms done to be rewarded with such peanutty bounty? It involves fighting, drinking, and befriending hookers who aren't that pretty and smell of cigarettes: reprehensible behaviour for some, but an endearing rite of passage for Helms' insurance-nerd Tim Lippe, who's so underexposed to the world that he thinks Cedar Rapids, Iowa is the the Big Time.
Attending his company's annual conference in the titular town, he comes under the collective wings of Reilly, Heche and Whitlock: veterans intent on showing him a good time, even if he insists on drinking sherry.
The nice touch is that, while they're up for partying hard, Helms' impromptu new gang are clearly all as hopeless as he is, which makes them so much more likeable than the animal-house blow-hards they might have been. We enjoyed Reilly's R2-D2 impression too, and there's a cute little joke about The Wire...
Cedar Rapids also features Whip It's Alia Shawkat, Kurtwood Smith and Sigourney Weaver: the latter, according to earlier reports, playing Helms' former seventh-grade school teacher. It'll premiere at the Sundance Festival at the end of January.