Episode 61: Cameron Diaz

This week we finally reached our Cameron Diaz episode - I say finally because she's been on the schedule for months and kept getting shuffled.  But once she was on the schedule we'd both started watching her movies so this week she was an easy choice.  We have a discussion of new movies, Jane Eyre and Priest, and then future movies coming this fall, with a little controversy of course.  Then on to Ms. Diaz.  And stay tuned for big announcements during the episode.

New movies seen with Cameron Diaz this week:

Vanilla Sky - I had avoided this one for ages.  It was the beginning of Cruise/Cruz and the trailers made it very confusing and more than a little creepy looking.  What it actually is probably did defy the trailer experience, so they did the best they could.  But I have a lot of trouble seeing what people didn't like about the movie.  I really really dug it.  It's a romance at heart - what will we do to try to stay with the love of your life?  But thrown in with that is a strange crime drama where Cruise, in a Phantom of the Opera mask, is in prison telling his story to Kurt Russell's psychologist and trying to get to the bottom of what happened.  It's a good mystery with a terrific arc for Cruise.  I actually can't wait to see it again.  4.5 of 5 stars/lambs

Any Given Sunday - Another movie I'd avoided due to its length and the Oliver Stone factor.  But the cast wasn't something to be denied during Cameron week.  Al Pacino as the coach, James Woods and Matthew Modine as the team doctors, and Dennis Quaid as the older Favre-esque quarterback being replaced by Jamie Foxx's young rookie.  Then Diaz as the team owner with her mom Ann-Margaret.   It's more about the business of football than you'd ever need to know, but still a fairly compelling story.  3 of 5 stars/lambs

A Life Less Ordinary - Another terrific director (Danny Boyle) and I just missed this one.  I blame it on Ewan McGregor's hair. He's a janitor about to be replaced by a robot and kidnaps the boss' daughter (Diaz).  However, he's not really a criminal mastermind, and Diaz helps him along as she was kidnapped as a kid.  Meanwhile, two angels (Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo) have been tasked with ensuring they fall in love and stay that way.  It's a big more complicated than it needs to be, but overall was a lot of fun with depth and humor (if terrible hair).  

Feeling Minnesota - This impressively awful.  Keanu Reeves has just been released from jail and is attending his brother's wedding (outdoors in Minnesota in winter?) of Vincent D'Onfrio and his "prize" Diaz.  He found out some accounting snafus for the mob and they rewarded him with Diaz.  She doesn't like him and screws around with Reeves, a lot.  Then of course there's a long drawn out mob-like mystery trying to get her back and find the money the mob lost.  Ridiculous.  She almost won me over after she dies and comes back to life (Camille did), but sadly it didn't help.  1.5 of 5 stars/lambs

Very Bad Things - I'm convinced movie titles can be a bit prophetic.  This was really really really bad.  Staring Jon Favreau as a man engaged to Diaz and on his way to Vegas for his bachelor weekend with Daniel Stern, Christian Slater, Jeremy Piven, and Leland Orser.  While there Piven accidentally kills a prostitute while having sex with her.  When a security guard comes to investigate they kill him too.  Eventually they start killing each other, and Diaz gets in on the action in a Bridezilla attempt at the perfect wedding.  Don't watch this.  1 of 5 stars/lambs

The Green Hornet - Seth Rogan wrote this, and it's pretty easy to tell because he DOESN'T STOP TALKING! As a comic book/super hero movie it's pretty interesting, but no super hero is better because he talks criminals to death.  Kato is not a bad side-kick given his ability to develop interesting weapons, but that's about it.  As part of the love triangle between the two, Diaz does a good job holding up her part of the equation.  Basically fairly blah.  2.5 of 5 stars/lambs