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Showing posts with label Romantic Comedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Romantic Comedy. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Thursday, January 31, 2019
Monday, November 19, 2018
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Friday, March 18, 2016
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Friday, February 20, 2015
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Drinking Buddies
Directed by Joe Swanberg.
2013. Rated R, 90 minutes.
Cast:
Kate (Wilde) and Luke (Johnson) work at the local brewery. After a long, but usually fun day at work, they tend to head down to the nearest bar with a number of their other co-workers and drink lots of their own product. It is painfully obvious the two have a thing for each other. The issue here is two-fold: 1) Each is involved in a serious relationship with someone else, and 2) Neither of them will own up to how they feel about the other. Instead, they flirt endlessly. They do it that way people do when they have a really strong connection. Of course, they think it is mere friendship. So Kate thinks it's no big deal to invite Luke and his girlfriend Jill (Kendrick) up to her boyfriend Chris' (Livingston) beach house for the weekend. They accept. Life rolls on from there.
When I say 'life rolls on,' that's probably the best compliment I can give this movie. It's a true slice-of-life flick in every sense of the term. There really is no plot. Everything about our leads are just the facts of who they are, not set ups for some grand character arc. Finally, Drinking Buddies doesn't end so much as it just stops. When it does, I wouldn't blame anyone who throws their arms up and says "WTF!" when the final credits roll. I suspect that's what's behind the disparity between how critics view this movie and how normal folks see it. Critics have praised it while audiences are rather lukewarm toward it. The things it doesn't have are the things we've been trained to expect from our films. Without those things we're left with a feeling of uncertainty about what we just watched. A movie lacking a definitive beginning, middle, and end might not immediately make sense to us.
I feel like I've rambled quite a bit without saying much about the actual film. There really are reasons to enjoy it as it goes along. Right away, it positions itself as a dramedy. It makes us laugh, but that's not necessarily it's aim. It's more about exploring the relationship between Kate and Luke. Whatever drama or humor that comes out of this is organic to the human experience, not gags or overly contrived melodrama. To their credit, our stars are an immense help in this area. Both Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson deliver completely natural performances. Wilde is particularly good. Her best acting is done by her eyes during pauses in dialogue. When she speaks, she feels like a woman we might know. The same is true for Johnson. Well, he sounds like a man we might know, not a woman. You understand. Through the two of them, we sense these are people who are aware of their feelings, but struggling mightily not to act upon them. Immediately, we start wondering "will they," or "won't they." This uncertainty drives the movie. Our curiosity happily rides along on this train. I like where it drops us off. I'm not sure you will.
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Best Man Holiday
Directed by Malcolm D. Lee.
2013. Rated R, 123 minutes.
Cast:
Melissa De Sousa
Monica Calhoun
When last we saw our gang of friends, way back in 1999, things culminated
in a beautiful wedding for Lance (Chestnut) and Mia (Calhoun). All these years
later, they've all moved on to bigger and better things. We pick up the story
with Lance and Mia inviting the whole crew over to their place for the week of
Christmas. Everyone is on board, no problem, except Harper (Diggs). It turns
out things between he and Lance haven't been so good in the intervening years.
The events of The Best Man, seems to have irreparably
damaged their friendship. Nonetheless, he agrees to go because he has an
ulterior motive. His last few books have flopped. His next one may not see the
light of day. He has also lost his teaching job at NYU, his wife Robin (Lathan)
is pregnant with their first child, and the bills are piling up. At the urging
of his agent, he plans on writing a biography on Lance, the football hero. One
slight problem. He hasn't actually mentioned this to Lance. The playing out of
this situation and a number of others ensues.
In case you were wondering, the entire cast does indeed reprise their roles
from the original. Julian (Perrineau) really did marry Candy (Hall), the
stripper. Though she no longer does that sort of thing, her past comes back to
haunt them in a big way. Jordan (Long) is a media mogul of sorts, still
incredibly driven and beautiful. I just had to mention the beautiful part. I
mean, it is Nia Long, dammit. I digress. She is also still single, but dating
Brian (Cibrian), the only newcomer and only Caucasian. Both of these matter for
at least a few minutes. Quentin (Howard) is a successful ad man and still a
mischevious button pusher. Finally, Shelby (De Sousa) is a reality TV star more
concerned with building her brand than anything else. In true sequel fashion,
each person plays a bigger, badder version of themselves. Their most memorable
traits take center stage and never leave. In general, this works. The one issue
is that leves the characters with a flatter feel to them.
Even if the players aren't as well-rounded as they once were, they are
still a fun bunch to be around. They make us laugh on a fairly consistent basis
as each member of the ensembl, usually two at a time, takes turns in the
spotlight. When their turn is done, they fade into the background just enough
to still be seen until they are either tasked to give counsel to one of the
others, or take over the proceedings once more. It essentially becomes a game
of hot potato with the cast quickly passing our attention our their circle.
All of that tossing us around is where the movie gets into a bit of
trouble. Director Malcolm D. Lee might be a world class juggler. However, even
the best have limits. At times, it feels as if he's reached his, but threw one
more ball in the air anyway. To his credit, he ties the stoires together
organically and in a manner that is never confusing. It can just feel as if the
system is dangerously close to overloading. Thankfully, a cast which is more
than game makes it all a joy to watch. They are uniformly excellent. Even so,
Terrence Howard and Melissa De Sousa stand out as doing particularly nice work.
They help maintain a sense of fun, even as things start to get heavy during the
final act.
This last portion of Best Man Holiday is where it might
lose some of you. Though what's going on with Mia is telegraphed practically
from the moment people start arriving at her house, the movie still shifts hard
into tear-jerker mode. It pulls mightily at our heartstrings. Judging by the
crowd I watched with, including my wife and a cousin of hers, it's effective.
If, like me, you're not prone to crying over movies, it can start to feel very
manipulative. What was a fun, occasionally raunchy ensemble comedy devolves
into a profit driver for Kleenex. I say this fully realizing that people who do
cry over movies are much more inclined to love the films that move them to
tears. Personally, I like it a good deal. I just don't love it.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Baggage Claim
Directed by David E. Talbert.
2013. Rated PG-13, 96 minutes.
Cast:
Adam Brody
Taye Diggs
Jennifer Lewis
Boris Kodjoe
Djimon Hounsou
Christina Milian
La La Anthony
When Montana (Patton) learns that her younger sister Sheree
(London) is getting married soon, and before she is, her world is sent spiraling
out of control. Not only is Montana not married, she doesn’t have any
prospects. This is a big problem. She’s been raised to believe that she simply
is not a lady if she’s not married by thirty. That her sister will tie the knot
first is a travesty of epic proportions. At the very least she wants to find
Mr. Right in time to escort her to the wedding which is a mere thirty days
away. Obviously, this is a daunting task, but it helps that she is an airline
stewardess. However, rather than meeting men as she normally would in her
profession, her work buddies talk her into what they think is a genius plan.
They will track down her ex-boyfriends as they travel to see if any of them has
developed into the man of her dreams since they broke up.
Let’s just get this out of the way, first. That is an
astonishingly dumb idea. Setting aside the fact that these are guys that she’s
already found out were not “the one” for one reason or another, the execution
of this plan is idiotic, at best. It involves her dropping everything the
second her pals call her to let her know one of these guys is on a flight, high-tailing it to the airport to
make said flight, and trying to instantly rekindle the flames. Yes, she always
makes it to the plane just in time, but as you might imagine, these guys have
the same problems that caused their break-up the first time around.
In the midst of all the chaos that is her life, she has one
stable relationship with a straight man. She grew up with the guy who lives
across the hall. In fact, they are best friends. His name is William Wright
(Luke). Hey, wait a sec…let me just repeat his name in case you somehow dodged
that sledgehammer. William Wright. WRIGHT. Uh-huh.
The overwhelming majority of romantic comedies are inane, predictable
affairs. This is certainly no exception. The next moment is always precisely
what you think it’s going to be. It simply runs down the rom-com checklist in
order and on time. This strict adherence to the formula drains the life out of
most jokes. It’s hard to laugh when you already know the punchline.
Likewise, it is difficult to get wrapped up in the dilemmas
on the screen when the performances of them are so plastic. Paula Patton
normally does solid work. Here, I can see her ‘acting’ which is empirical
evidence that the performer is doing a bad job. Her voice has the fake quality
of a person trying but failing to prove that they are honest. The rest of the
cast seems to be in a contest to see who can be the most photogenic. They take
turns reciting their lines through the pearly whites of their megawatt smiles, just like in the pic above.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an impressive looking group of people and an
accomplished bunch of actors, but to this particular production they bring all
the depth of a cookie sheet. The only characters with any spunk whatsoever are
Montana’s partners in romantic crime: Sam (Brody), her gay male friend, and
Gail (Scott), her busty and perpetually horny gal pal. Sam is a walking
stereotype, but at least he gets most of the movie’s best lines. Gail gets the
best gestures and is the most interesting person in the movie. Love her or hate
her, she has a zest for life and an independence sorely missing from the
protagonist. A better movie could probably have been made about her.
Everything I’ve mentioned thus far makes Baggage
Claim a bad movie. Regardless of how terribly they go down, all of
these elements are rather innocuous. They are things that render this fit for
the skyward reaching junk pile of rom-coms, all of which are indistinguishable
from the rest. However, right from the start this is a potentially damaging
film. It repeatedly and explicitly pushes the idea that a woman absolutely,
positively must have a husband or she is a failure at life. Sam impotently
tries to dissuade Montana from this notion once or twice. When Montana herself
comes to understand the fallacy of this ideal, the movie’s own finale
completely undermines her. Honestly, it’s baffling that she believed this in
the first place given the fact that marriage hasn’t actually worked for her
own mother (Lewis), the one pushing this whole mindset. Mom’s been married five
times, and even Montana understands she marries simply for the sake of being
married. This is not a model to live by. The entire thing is an exercise in
archaic thought. Sure, we all want someone to grow old with. Branding someone
worthless for having yet found that person is backwards, at best, and
anti-feminist, if not downright misogynist, at worst.
To blame for this atrocity we have writer/director David E.
Talbert, or Tyler Perry 2.0, as I like to call him. He’s taken essentially the
same path to Hollywood as Mr. Madea. Talbert wrote and directed his own plays
which he successfully toured around the nation targeting African-American
female audiences. His work, that I’ve seen anyway, has a similar mix of
Christianity and secularism, is thematically similar, but tends to be a bit
more risqué. This holds true as their work translates to the big screen.
Unfortunately, Talbert fails to realize that the time for labeling single women
near (or in) their thirties as barren old maids has long since past. It’s also
a terrible message for the young ladies in the audience. I’m not normally a
cinematic moralist. I don’t need movies to have positive messages for me to
enjoy them, but I don’t like to be brow-beaten, either. This is so persistent
with its assertions, it galls me to no end.
MY SCORE: 2/10
Monday, December 16, 2013
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Hope Springs
Directed by David Frankel.
2012. Rated PG-13, 100 minutes.
Cast:
Ben Rappaport
Marin Ireland
Brett Rice
Mimi Rogers
Ann Harada
Kay (Streep) has been married to Arnold (Jones) for
thirty-one years. For at least the last four, every day has been exactly the
same. They eat a quick breakfast before going off to their separate jobs, and a
quick dinner when they return home. He then proceeds to fall asleep watching
The Golf Channel while she cleans the dishes. When she’s done, she wakes him
and he retires to the guest room. She sleeps in the master bedroom. Needless to
say, the sparks are no longer flying. In an effort to change this, Kay makes
reservations for the two to spend a week in Maine where they will see Dr. Feld
(Carell), a famous marriage counselor. Even though he doesn't see anything
wrong with their relationship, Arnold reluctantly goes along. By the way, he is
also a grumpy penny-pincher whose favorite activity is complaining. A very
tough week for the couple ensues.
The best thing that can be said about Hope
Springs is that Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones really feel like
two people who have been together for three plus decades. They each inhabit
their characters fully and let us understand who these people are. We get to
know them as thoroughly as they should know each other, but don’t. It helps
that we have all known couple like this. They have been together so long, they
don’t know anything else. Some of us are that couple. In them, we recognize our
own hopes and fears of what marriage will be like once the nest empties.
Right away, Kay is established as the more sympathetic
figure. It is easy to see that her frustrations are not only born of her
husband’s cluelessness, but of his comfortableness with the way things are. For
him, sleeping in separate beds and barely talking to his wife beyond greetings
and salutations are merely facts of life. That’s simply the way it is. Of
course she desires a deeper connection, both physically and emotionally. She
just needs help communicating this. We feel her pain.
To the movie’s credit, it doesn't just attack the problem
from one angle. Eventually, we get into why things have gotten this way from
Arnold’s point of view. It’s fitting that it takes a good portion of the movie to
get to this because he is not a guy given to expressing any feelings that make
him appear vulnerable. He’s the proverbial turnip we’re trying to draw blood
from. This works wonderfully as we begin to sympathize with him more and more
as the film progresses.
Though billed as a rom-com, Hope
Springs is much more “dramedy” than anything else. There is lots of
angst, some hurt feelings and tears shed. The focus is really on this authentic
feeling marriage and whether it can be fixed, not on a succession of jokes. We
do get some laughs. Most of them come from Arnold’s incessant grumbling. He is
our dad, or grand-dad, and nothing is ever quite good enough or cheap enough
for him. Kay is our mother, or grandmother. She’s sweet as pie and struggles to
keep it together when she’s upset. We love her to death, but she rarely makes
us laugh. The only other character of consequence is Dr. Feld. Steve Carell
plays the role surprisingly straight.
This is a movie that hits a lot of right notes and has two
marvelous performances. In the end, it comes across as more lightweight than it
actually is. Therefore, almost no one will rank this among the best from either
actor. That’s a shame because while I don’t think this is a truly great movie, I think they are both great in it. I also fear
there is probably a clear line of demarcation separating those who will enjoy
it and those who will not. I’d set that line at about age thirty-five and
having been in at least one long-term monogamous relationship. In other words,
use another Meryl Streep vehicle, It’s Complicated, as a
guide. If that’s not your cup of tea, don’t sip from this one, either.
MY SCORE: 7/10
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Just Go with It
Directed by Dennis Dugan.
2011. Rated PG-13, 117 minutes.
Cast:
Dave Matthews
Griffin Gluck
Kevin Nealon
Ratchel Dratch
Dan Patrick
Keegan-Michael Key
Ever since he was jilted at the altar twenty some odd years
ago, Danny (Sandler) has been an unrepentant womanizer. He still wears the
engagement ring he bought way back when as a decoy. When the woman he’s talking
to notice it, he tells them how miserable his marriage is to gain sympathy
points and to get in their pants. It usually works. When he meets Palmer
(Decker), he thinks his days as a ladies’ man is done because she is the one.
However, she actually wants to meet his wife to verify the two are actually
getting a divorce. This is where Katherine (Aniston) comes in. Danny happens to
be a top notch plastic surgeon and Katherine is his assistant. She agrees to
pose as his soon-to-be-ex-wife during a lunch. When it slips that she has two
children, Palmer naturally assumes they are also Danny’s kids. One thing leads
to another and the whole gang of them, plus Danny’s cousin Eddie (Swardson),
are off to Hawaii for a week of bonding that our hero hopes will end with he
and Palmer living happily ever after.
If you want to know how this is going to play out, you only
have to tap into your memory banks and do a little tweaking. Let me help. If
these characters were in high school, Brooklyn Decker would be playing the hot
and popular cheerleader while Jennifer Aniston play’s Sandler’s platonic best
friend, hiding her beauty beneath a pony tail and glasses. Aniston really does
sport that look, at least in the beginning. If that doesn’t help you, I don’t
know what will.
Therein lies the rub. Ms. Decker is both the best and worst
part of Just Go with It. As implied, her performance is
entirely forgettable. Nothing she does suggests she is more than just a pretty
face. She’s since failed to change my mind on that with her less than stellar
work in Battleship and What to Expect When
You’re Expecting. On the other hand, for pigs like me, the scene of
her emerging from the ocean in a yellow bikini is indelible. It’s probably one
of the best bikini scenes of any movie ever made. It completely overshadows a
similar, less bombastic but still impressive moment featuring Aniston. Then
again, what does it say about this film that these are by far the two best
scenes? Other than causing envy in lots of viewers wishing that their own
sexual dilemma is having to choose between these two ladies, it doesn't speak
well. The only thing I clearly heard the movie say is Adam Sandler has lots of
money and will spend any amount of it for a piece of ass.
Friday, September 13, 2013
This is 40
Directed by Judd Apatow.
2012. Rated R, 134 minutes.
Cast:
Maude Apatow
Iris Apatow
Graham Parker
Tatum O’Neal
Whether she admits or not, Debbie (Mann) has just turned 40.
Even more disconcerting than her age is that her entire life seems to be
falling apart. Nearly every conversation with her husband Pete (Rudd)
disintegrates into argument. His fledgling record label is about to go under
while her clothing store is treading water, at best. On top of all this, their
oldest daughter is in full-blown crazy teen mode, looking for a shouting match
with anyone in the house, anytime. By the way, both of this couple’s daughters
are played by the directors real life daughters, Maude and Iris Apatow. Much of
This is 40 consists of the couple in question dealing with
the above problems. They must also contend with a host of periphery issues that
do nothing but throw lighter fluid on an already raging fire.
The movie gives us a fairly honest look at the relationship
of a long-married couple. Many of their concerns and conversations ring true.
It feels like we’re watching a real family, albeit a dysfunctional one on the
verge of imploding. Both Mann and Rudd feel natural in their roles and have a
nice chemistry with one another. We understand that they care deeply for one
another, are entirely too familiar with each other, and are going through a
rough patch. We get that they love their kids and would do anything for them,
but there are also times when they can’t stand them.
In typical Judd Apatow fashion, there are also plenty of
over-the-top moments. A number of these work, giving us some memorable scenes.
A few of them involve our two leads. Others feature Albert Brooks as Pete’s
forever mooching dad. Later, John Lithgow gets in on the fun as Debbie’s father
and even Megan Fox has some unforgettable moments. Granted, hers are due less
to her acting than her looks, but you take what you can get. Most indelible is
the extended cameo of Melissa McCarthy. She plays the parent of a boy that’s
been bothering Pete and Debbie’s older daughter. Her face-to-face with Pete and
the ensuing meeting in the principal’s office with both Pete and Debbie present
are the high points of the movie.
Also in usual Apatow style, the movie goes on for far too
long. It becomes too on the nose in the sense that we begin to feel as if we’re
really living every single day with these people, and not in a good way. Things
are stretched way too thin as the time between laughs keeps getting bigger
while the plot just drones on and on…and on. We’re ready for the conclusion
long before we finally get it. I’m no movie director, and have no expertise to
speak of when it comes to creating cinema so take the next sentence with a
grain of salt. In my viewing experience an hour and forty to forty-five minutes
is a good rule of thumb for comedies. Most don’t have enough funny material to
sustain more than that. This is 40 is no exception and it
runs thirty minutes past that point. Much could be cut, it seems, just from the
subplots of supporting players without altering or detracting from the main plot
one bit. There are probably fifteen or twenty minutes wasted on superfluous
storylines that didn't need to be introduced in the first place. All of this
extra time serves to wear us down and makes the final act a chore to sit
through. Our hare that bolted out of the starting gates morphs into the
tortoise ever so slowly creeping across the finish line.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Directed by Lorene Scafaria.
2012. Rated PG-13, 101 minutes.
Cast:
Connie Britton
T.J. Miller
Mark Moses
Nancy Carell
What would you do if you knew for certain the world were
going to end in three weeks? That’s the question facing us all in Seeking
a Friend for the End of the World as a seventy mile wide asteroid is
on a collision course with Earth and all attempts to stop it have failed.
More specifically, it’s the question facing Dodge (Carrell). It’s also become
exponentially more difficult to answer now that his wife has decided this would
be the perfect time to leave him. Everyone around him is truly living each day
like it’s the last, engaging in whatever activity their hearts desire while
Dodge sits around and mopes. He finds someone to commiserate with in the
flighty Penny (Knightley). She’s similarly distraught, having broken up with
her boyfriend. Eventually, the two decide to help each other do the one thing
they each must before it’s too late. An apocalyptic adventure ensues.
Early on, the movie focuses as much on our decaying societal
mores as it does on the lives of our protagonists. Here is where most of its
humor lies. The jokes are largely to be expected, generally revolving around
people getting all the sex and drugs they could possibly want, but still fun to
see play out. There are only two other jokes: the occasional ominous yet loony
newscast and the situations Dodge and Penny find themselves in because of the
outbreak of riots. The violence, and any humor derived from it, ends when a
very odd man takes a bullet to the throat. You’ll have to see for yourself to
understand how and why this could possibly be funny. A short while later, the
sex and drugs part of the movie climaxes with a trip to a chain restaurant.
Unfortunately, we still have half the movie to go.
Immediately upon finishing the very strange dining
experience of our heroes, the movie settles into a string of predictable events
in an effort to create a romance. Problem number one, again, is that the comedy
disappears almost entirely. Instead, we’re stuck in this drama which never
surprises us and will have to either deliver the depressing finale we've been
trudging toward or, concoct some ridiculous BS for the sake of giving us a
happy ending. Problem number two is that we never feel strongly enough about the
couple in question to overcome problem number one. Dodge and Penny aren't two
people we can see together under any circumstances. Making an exception because
people are bound to do things and be with people they normally would not even
consider. However, this just makes things seem even more preordained. This,
combined with the fact that everything happens so perfectly on schedule, our
pulse rate never increases. Our performers give it their all, but their
interactions lack the magic needed to make us ignore these blemishes.
All is not terrible for the second half of the film. First,
there is a wonderful scene, albeit a bit of a painful one, between Dodge and
his dad played by Martin Sheen. It’s the one time we truly sense the emotion
of the two people speaking. Second, the final scene is one of endless
tenderness. It is by far the most enjoyable exchange between Dodge and Penny.
If somehow, you find yourself caring by this point, you might even have to wipe
away a tear or two. Odds are, you won’t.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Directed by Lasse Hallström.
2011. Rated PG-13, 107 minutes.
Cast:
Kristin Scott Thomas
Amr Waked
Tom Mison
Rachael Stirling
Catherine Steadman
Tom Beard
Jill Baker
Yemeni Sheikh Muhammed (Waked) is an avid fisherman and
called a visionary by Harriet (Blunt) who handles his affairs in Britain. She’s
been tasked with helping him introduce salmon fishing to the Yemen. This is
problematic because there are no salmon native to the region and the region
doesn't seem conducive to salmon. For help, she contacts expert Dr. Alfred
Jones (McGregor). He assesses the situation and tells her to go suck an egg,
more or less. However, he’s coerced into helping her by his superiors,
themselves under pressure from Patricia Maxwell (Thomas), the Prime Minister’s
press secretary. She’s desperately trying to find something to show that
British-Yemeni/Islamic relations are improving and this seems to be the most
viable option. To make it work, Dr. Jones and Harriet will have to work closely
together on repeated business trips to the Yemen where they’ll stay at the
Sheikh’s palace as the only two guests. In case you weren't sure where this is
going, the doctor’s marriage is on the rocks and Harriet’s boyfriend, a soldier
who is sent to Afghanistan (“or somewhere”) goes missing-in-action. Cue
romance.
The most striking thing about Salmon Fishing in
the Yemen is its visuals. It’s no special fx extravaganza, but the
area where the Sheikh does his fishing is beautiful. We get to see it from a
number of angles, when it’s quiet and when water is raging through its alleys.
Unfortunately, there’s an entire movie between those shots that isn't nearly as
riveting. It moseys along without any real sizzle until it tries to inject some
late. Before then, McGregor fawns over Blunt because his wife only cares that
he keeps his job so the mortgage will continue being paid. By the way, she’s
got a high-paying jet-setting job herself. Meanwhile, Blunt goes from being
charming to blubbering incessantly about her presumed dead boyfriend. Both
performers turn in solid work, but things never get to the point where it makes
us tell ourselves that we just have to see how this is going to turn out.
Two characters break up the monotony, but only one does it
in a good way. Our sheikh is burdened with giving the movie depth. Sadly, he
strains to do so before ultimately failing. He plans on using the whole fishing thing
as a grand metaphor. We get it. It’s nothing to spend a lifetime pondering, but
it’s okay on its own. What undermines it is the steady stream of Yoda-isms he
drops in conversations. He sounds like a walking talking fortune cookie. On the
other hand, Kristin Scott Thomas is of greater effect as the relentless brash
press secretary. She’s funny and lively. The movie instantly gets better when
she’s on the screen.
Eventually, Dr. Jones and Harriet’s relationship goes
through some typical rom-com contrivances we see coming from miles away and the
local, unapologetically Muslim contingent provides some opposition to the sheikh.
The issue with the former is predictability. To be fair, suddenly going in an
unexpected direction probably wouldn't work for this movie so we can let this
slide. More problematic is the latter. Despite all the lip-service paid to
working on Britain’s relationship with Islamics, it comes across as
hypocritical. It’s because “the other,” Muslims in this case, are painted as
savages. The one who embraces our (western) ideals, the Sheikh, is
automatically assumed to be better than the rest. In short, none of the other
Muslims in the film are actually people, they’re just perpetually agitated
agitators. They show up, grumble about what’s going on, make threats (or make
good on them), and disappear.
That said, many of the movie’s problems would be forgivable,
or at least less noticeable, in a better movie. As currently constructed, we’re
never really enthralled with what’s going on. Worse yet, we’re often bored by
it. The actors do what they can, but are hamstrung by the material. By the end,
we've no choice but to nit-pick all the issues that pop up. Salmon
Fishing is occasionally cute, even funny when Kristin Scott Thomas
is running her mouth. However, it falls apart because we turn to scrutiny in lieu
of the romantic thrills it can’t give us.
Monday, March 11, 2013
This Means War
Directed by McG.
2012. Rated PG-13, 97 minutes.
Cast:
Reese Witherspoon
Chelsea Handler
Til Schweiger
John Paul Ruttan
Rosemary Harris
Tuck (Hardy) and FDR (Pine) are super secret agents for the CIA hot on the trail of international bad guy Heinrich (Schweiger). Even though they're also bestest buds, they have very different love lives. FDR is a ultra smooth ladies' man snapping up any woman he speaks to. Tuck, on the other hand, is stuck in neutral as he repeatedly, and unsuccessfully tries to get back with his baby-mama Katie (Spencer). To break out of his funk, Tuck gives online dating a try. We also meet Lauren (Witherspoon). She's a thirty-something big-wig at a "Consumer's Reports" type company and thus, has no time for a social life. Her besty, Trish (Handler), takes it upon herself to create a profile for Lauren that so happens to be on the same online dating site Tuck uses. See where we're going? Through a minor twist spoiled by every one of this movie's trailers, Lauren ends up dating both men. From there, half the movie is spent on watching Lauren get bad love advice from Trish as she tries to pick between suitors. The other half is spent watching our two would-be heroes misappropriate government funds and violate everyone's code of ethics in order to win their pissing contest for Lauren's love.
No need to beat around the bush, This Means War is a mess of a movie. Cliched dialogue and flat jokes run rampant as the story goes nowhere until it's decided that sex has to be involved. Even then, it only lurches forward a bit until someone remembers there's actually a case these guys are supposed to be working. Seriously, I can't think of a movie where the villain is less important. His only function is to show up near the end and put our damsel in distress.
To their credit, the performers try valiantly to breathe life into this thing. As we all know, reanimating a corpse is impossible. Hardy and Pine play off each other well enough. Witherspoon is generally likable, but annoying during the scenes where she agonizes over which hunk to choose. Thankfully, those scenes are rescued by Chelsea Handler, one of the film's few bright spots. She seems to have been borrowed from a Judd Apatow flick. Her "answer for everything" patter feels improvised, but hampered by the movie's PG-13 rating. Regardless, most of the funny stuff in the film comes out of her mouth. Despite the best efforts of the cast, it never even threatens to become anything worthwhile. I blame the director, McG. Has this guy ever made a decent movie? Maybe, just maybe the first Charlie's Angels qualifies. That was his first and, still, best movie. Ever since, he's been putting out crap like this.
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