Bad Romantic Comedies, not much worse

I've been re-reading some of my oldest posts to see if what I suspected was true: I like most movies. What I found out was that I usually just don't review movies I really dislike. They don't make enough of an impact if they're less than 2 stars or so. Also, I don't tend to go to movies that don't interest me - most horror movies and almost all scary thrillers (I won't be seeing Shutter Island in the theater). So like most bloggers, my opinion of movies is not always based on their intrinsic or historical value to cinema, but whether or not I enjoyed them. Usually I wouldn't bother reviewing either of these movies, but since I saw them so close together, I'll go ahead and add them to my list at the low end of the scale. I'm sure no one will be surprised that these weren't particularly good movies, one was a romantic comedy release in January and the other is a straight to DVD romantic comedy. I guess it also proves I'm a sucker for my favorite actors and a romantic comedy.
Leap Year stars Amy Adams and Matthew Goode. Amy plays a real estate stager (she arranges apartments to improve their sellability) dating a doctor who hasn't bothered to propose after several years. He goes to Ireland for a conference, and she meets up with her dad (a disappointingly underused John Lithgow) who reminds her how her grandparents got engaged: On February 29, there's an Irish tradition that allows women to propose to their boyfriends. This was the first place the movie went off the rails for me - what is stopping women from proposing any day they want if that's what it takes. It's not like men aren't allowed to say no on Leap Day any more than other day so the pressure is the same. So Adams goes running off to Dublin, but is diverted to Wales, and takes a boat across to Dingle in Ireland. Second place this movie lost me - Dingle is on the opposite side of Ireland from Wales. Dublin is close to Wales, so how the heck did she end up in Dingle? Then she tries to get someone to drive her to Dublin, which is crazy. There's a huge airport in Shannon that would have been an hour drive rather than driving across the country to Dublin. I've been to Ireland and driven myself across it - less than 6 hours. It takes them 3 days! Anyway, Matthew Goode owns what looks like the ONLY building in Dingle and is losing it to a money collector so he agrees to drive Adams in exchange for a lot of money. The rest of Leap Year follows the standard path of most romantic comedies. Their personalities clash, to humorous effect. They lose their transportation and are forced to stay in one room at a hotel and sexual tension increases to humorous effect. And finally, she has to decide between her previous boyfriend and the new guy who has changed her life in just a few days. It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon, but unlikely I'll watch it again. Not worth the $10. 2 stars/5 stars.

An Accidental Husband is a direct to DVD movie with Uma Thurman, Colin Firth and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Thurman plays a radio love doctor who gives advice to Morgan's fiancee that convinces her to stop the wedding. To get back at Thurman, Morgan uses his tech savy friend to create a marriage license so when Thurman and her actual fiancee Firth go to get theirs, she finds out she's already married to Morgan (whom she's never met). Again, the standard fair of romantic comedies ensues. She ends up spending time with Morgan (a fireman from Astoria) trying to get the annulment papers signed and realizes he's a pretty great guy. Morgan meanwhile realizes his prank might have been a good idea as now he's married to a pretty great guy. Hijinks ensue and Firth gets to be the stand up guy (after all he's British) and lets Thurman out of their engagement. The one cliche that always bothers me in movies like these is the woman's hair. It's true in almost every romantic comedy of late - a tightly wound woman also ALWAYS wears her hair tied up, a bun or something that demonstrates visually how uptight she is. After the guy convinces her to relax and fall for the new guy suddenly she's wearing her hair down all the time. Now she's all flowy and relaxed, and so is her hair. Just an odd gimmick that I'm sick of watching. Note the change in the two leap year photos above. 2 stars/5 stars.

DVD Round-Up: District 9, Music Within, The Maiden Heist,

I'm a bit behind in reviewing my DVD viewing, mostly because I haven't seen anything so amazing, I want to shout the news. However, I have seen a few I enjoyed, so here they are.

District 9 came out last summer and is another good version of a short film being extended into a feature film (the best recent example I can think of is Frozen River). It's a documentary-style film for the first 45 or so minutes, following a civil servant, Wikus Van De Merwe, in South Africa whose job is to go get the signatures of aliens who are being moved from their current squalor situation to a different one further from the human population of Johannesburg. The aliens arrived 20 years ago, starving, and unable to space travel any longer. They've been living in South Africa, existing on cat food and garbage, and being exploited, studied, and basically cast into the most subservient roles in society. Then the movie takes it's action movie turn. Our hero becomes infected with a strange liquid while touring the shacks of aliens. He starts changing physically and comes under the jurisdiction of a military-type company who wants to exploit him for the alien weapons. When he escapes, the only place he can find help is in the home of Christopher Johnson, a "prawn" who has been trying to find a way off earth. Lots of action sequences follow as the human military tries to capture Wikus, Johnson tries to get his space ship running, and Wikus tries to become human again. Most of the movie is really interesting, with some extended sequences that go on a bit long. The main character, played by newcomer Sharlto Copley, is compelling enough to keep you interested, and the novelty of the story makes any sci-fi fan come back for more. Overall, good movie, 3 of 5 stars.



The next movie I saw on DVD is Music Within. It originally arrived on my Netflix queue because I like its star, Ron Livingston, and his story seemed compelling from the preview on another disc. Livingston plays Richard Pimental, one of the writers and proponents of what would become the Americans with Disabilities Act. Pimental returns from Vietnam, where he went because he couldn't afford college, with severe hearing loss. He has trouble getting and holding jobs due to his disability. He is able to go to college thanks to the GI Bill, and meets Art, a brilliant man with severe cerebral palsy who also has difficulty getting around a college university in the late 1970s and early 1980s (he's played by the wonderful Michael Sheen). Pimental has learned to read lips, and because of that is able to understand Art better than most hearing people. While they spend a lot of time arguing, and Pimental has to overcome a particularly dysfunctional childhood that led to dysfunctional romantic relationships. It's an inspiring look at a time and situation that few born after 1980 would be really aware of. I grew up aware of the ramps, and the handicapped accessibility, or lack thereof of most buildings. A good family friend was once responsible for helping the NYC transit system become completely handicap accessible (I now know they were complying with the newly passed Americans with Disabilities Act). This movie, while inexpertly written, shows glimpse into how that all came about. 3 of 5 stars/lambs



The last movie I've seen recently was a straight to DVD release that I saw advertised in Entertainment Weekly when it was released. The Maiden Heist would likely have bombed at the box office, but the stars and story make for a very enjoyable Sunday afternoon. It's a simple story of 3 museum security guards (luckily not the same ones as A Night at the Museum), played by William H. Macy, Morgan Freeman, and Christopher Walken, who are each in love with a piece of art at the museum they protect that will be sent away in a new exhibit. Rather than move to Denmark, the site of the new exhibit housing their loves, they decide to steal their pieces. Their inexpert thievery and individual idiosyncrasies (Freeman is gay and lives with lots of cats, Macy likes to pose naked with the object of his affection, and Walken's wife, Marcia Gay Harden is awesome) makes for some very funny scenes and stories. It's almost an over the top farce, but still remarkably enjoyable. It's predictable, but watching four Oscar-worthy actors perform outside their normal roles is lots of fun. 3.5 of 5 stars/lambs

DVD Vacation Extravaganza

I confess, I did not work last week and went on vacation. I saw 3 movies in the theater (as mentioned below), but I also saw 3 movies on DVD, all recent releases too. Two were very good entertainment, and one we actually turned off and didn't finish. First was Death at a Funeral. A British farce that's centered around the death of a patriarch. The two sons have returned to bury their father. The elder, Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen, Mr. Darcy from the recent Pride and Prejudice), lives in the family home with his fiancee, and the other, Robert, is a successful author living in New York. Daniel is distraught and trying to figure out how to eulogize his father, while everyone arriving is disappointed that Robert won't be doing the eulogy. Their cousins arrive, one complainingly bringing Uncle Alfie in his wheelchair, and the other bringing her fiancee (Alan Tudyk - from Firefly) to introduce to her father. They stop to pick up her drug-dealing brother (Kris Marshall from Love Actually) on the way, and a mix-up in drug bottles occurs. Ultimately, Alan Tudyk ends up really high on ecstasy, convinces people the coffin is movie, and then is naked on the roof. and Peter Dinklage shows up to blackmail the brothers with photos of him and their father in compromising positions. They fight with Dinklage, who is hysterical fighting for his rights to the inheritance and he ends up in the coffin. I won't give away the rest, and believe me there's a lot more and it's a constant chase between scenes to figure out who lives, who dies, and who gets away with what. It's terrific, and I highly recommend checking it out. 4 of 5 stars.


Second, I also liked a straight to DVD movie, I Could Never Be Your Woman, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd, and recent Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan as Pfeiffer's daughter. Pfeiffer is a screenwriter for a Saved by the Bell-type TV show, using language her daughter says in the script. She meets Rudd when casting the "geek" character, but because they hit it off so well (and Rudd is a really terrific comedic actor) the character becomes to popular he gets a spin-off. Pfeiffer and Rudd play back and forth, calling it off because of their age difference, getting back together because it doesn't really matter. Jon Lovitz plays Pfeiffer's ex-husband in the least annoying role he's EVER played. He's convincing as the man-child she dumped who's constantly getting plastic surgery, but never actually getting the younger girl he craves. There's a bit where he constantly tries to steal something from her house whenever he picks up their daughter. Anyway, Rudd helps Pfeiffer realize she's not as uptight as she thought, and she helps his career really take off. It's a fun little movie, nothing particularly amazing, but it does show the Hollywood scene with humor. And there's a great scene where they're comparing themselves to Ashton and Demi, and Lovitz walks in and says that would make him Bruce Willis, and everyone turns to stare in disbelief. It's very funny. Oh, and Ronan is a wannabe guitar player and re-writes all the pop songs with stupid lyrics that are infinitely funnier. Good fun, and great entertainment. 4 of 5 stars.


And the movie we turned off, 2 Days in Paris. Perhaps it got a lot better, but I doubt it. Adam Goldberg plays Julie Delpy's American boyfriend. They've just returned from a tour of Italy and are visiting her parents in Paris. Basically he's an idiot, xenophobe who can't be bothered to learn his girlfriend's (of 2 years) first language, so there's lots of misunderstanding of the parents crass behavior and his stupid comments on their lives. He's annoying and the movie didn't suit the entertainment we were looking for. Any comments that prove this was a good movie would be appreciated.