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I've noticed that most of the movie threads lately have been about guy movies. I just saw a chick flick with the wife last night, and I thought it was worth mentioning, so here you go.
Good Points:
--The screenplay was written by Richard Curtis, who can be one of the funniest people alive. The density of laughs in this movie wasn't as great as, say School of Rock, but it had five or six of the funniest lines since When Harry Met Sally. I just about wet myself. And the rest of the movie kept me entertained, even between the big laughs.
--The cast was brilliant. The stars proved why they're stars, and the people I'd never seen convinced me that they should be stars. We went mainly because my wife is a rabid fan of Alan Rickman and Liam Neeson, and pretty keen on Colin Firth. I also like Rickman, and Emma Thompson, and any movie with Rowan Atkinson has me sold already. They were all great, the people I'd never heard of were great, and there were a few surprise cameos that completely caught me off guard.
--The stories themselves were all very interesting. My favorite was the Liam Neeson storyline, in which his character, a recent widower raising his late wife's child, goes to ridiculous lengths to show his love and respect for his step-son (who, by the way, could have made a great Ender if the movie was made a couple years ago). And the old hippie rocker who finds a platonic love more meaningful than his sex-and-drugs lifestyle was a close second. It helped that he had most of the funniest lines in the movie, too. All the stories were interesting, though. Even Hugh Grant's story, which was the weakest and cheesiest of the lot, kept me involved.
Bad Points:
--First off, there was way too much in here. Richard Curtis had so many ideas, he could have made anywhere from 3 to 5 really good movies out of all of them. Of course, I know why he put them all in the same movie. He was trying to compare all possible types of love. But it spread itself way too thin. Once you get involved in a story, it will leave off and not come back for 20 minutes. And by the end I was checking my watch, unsure of how he was going to resolve all the stories in the 10 minutes remaining. Most of these interesting plot lines had to be resolved in hurried and trite ways, if at all, in order to keep the film under 5 hours, and it's sad, as they each had so much potential. I felt a little cheated.
--It does get a little sappy at times. But if you're not ready for that, you're at the wrong movie.
--There was some significant gratuitous shock value that I didn't feel added to the movie. I had assumed that it was PG-13 until I saw an R on the ticket stub. And the R is well deserved. There's somewhere around 20 f-words, and a surprising amount of nudity, particularly around one especially extraneous plot line. Be prepared, and don't go see this with your parents, or your new conservative girlfriend.
Conclusion:
If you can handle the shock value, it's worth seeing. The script is as good as anything Curtis has ever written, and he gets some amazing performances from the cast. Even with the weak points, you'll probably find more good than bad in the movie, and I doubt you'll feel cheated for the money spent.
There, hopefully this will redeem me for all the time I've spent talking about Kill Bill and The Matrix. Hope you're happy, girls.
posted
I had a free pass to see an advance screening of this movie, and Ron and I didn't go. We saw the last Matrix instead.
Speed, your wife has great taste. Liam Neeson and Alan Rickman are two of my faves, too.
Only, now that I don't have my free pass excuse, I don't think I'll get Ron to go see it. Because, "It's just wrong to play Motown music on a Brittish romantic comedy trailer. There's nothing less Brittish than Motown." I love my hubby, but his tastes still puzzle me.
Same thing with Big Fish. I said I wanted to see it, even though I wasn't sure Ewan McGregor can do a southern accent without embarrassing himself. Ron said he was afraid to see it because he didn't want to risk seeing Ewan's willie again. As if there'd be any reason for a nude scene...
I think he just doesn't want ME to see Ewan's willie again.
Anyway, I wanna see Love Actually.
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posted
Just went and saw Love Actually and I thought it was pretty funny. I suggest it to everybody. It had great actors in it like: Liam Neeson and Alan Rickman and of course Colin Firth(who was seen in great movies like Pride and Predjudice and in bad movies like The importance of being Ernest thou he was the only good thing in that movie). Hope you enjoy the movie
posted
Ron took me to see Intolerable Cruelty last night. We generally enjoy the Coen brothers, and this movie didn't disappoint. I laughed until my belly hurt. It was a lot like other Coen movies, in that the characters were laughableand the situations absurd. I really enjoyed it, but if you don't like the Coen's previous work, well, it doesn't FEEL like a romantic comedy, in the traditional sense.
Which is prolly why I liked it.
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I guess I should explain. I laughed a lot during School of Rock. If you didn't, insert the title of a movie that had you laughing constantly. Perhaps The Big Lebowski or MST3K-The Movie would have been better examples.
Speaking of the Cohen Bros, thanks for the word on Intolerable Cruelty. I dig them, and I think they're hilarious, but I was nervous about seeing them make a romantic comedy with Catherine ZJ. I was afraid the mysique would be ruined. If it's as good as that, I'll check it out.
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Ew. I hate Hugh Grant. He's so insufferably dorky and obnoxious. He's got that whipped dog expression.
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I want to see Hugh Grant in a movie where he gets to be an evil dictator/mad scientist. I'd go and see that.
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My friend described Intolerable Cruelty as a 2 hour long make up commercial, and I found she was right on the mark. However, it was ALOT of fun, don't go if you want to think, but if you just want to go to a movie for a good time, it's perfect.
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Well, speaking of intolerable cruelty, Uncle Orson mentioned it unfavorably in his review on rhinotimes this week. As much respect as I have for him, we've had an extraordinarily bad record for agreeing on movies. So when you combine his bad review with Olivet's good review, now it's a double imperative that I see it as soon as possible. When I find a theatre that's playing it, I'll let you know how it went.
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I liked Love Actually, but if we're listing problems with it, there were serious continuity problems throughout the movie, and I really would have liked to see the different plotlines woven together more skillfully. Additionally, two of the threads ended in a way that was totally incongruous with the otherwise optimistic tone of the film.
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That's really disappointing. I was all excited when I heard about a movie with Alan Rickman and Colin Firth - why'd they have to go and make it all icky and shocking?
It's really not OK, though, that they're mixing Jane Austen actors again. Mr. Darcy, Colonel Brandon, and Edmund Farrars all in the same movie? Not ok. It was bad enough when Mr. Darcy and Fanny Price hooked up in The Importance of Being Earnest (fabulous, by the way) or when Mr. Darcy was engaged to Mary Crawford in Bridget Jones's Nasty Movie.
Sigh. *goes back to watching Bollywood*
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Speed, *snort* Yeah, I have begun to take the "If Uncle Orson doesn't like it, I might have to see it" course, too. LOL
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We went to go see intolerable cruelty, and we laughed a lot at the funny points-it really did have some very funny parts. But overall, we concluded the movie was rotten. Great bits of humor, but the plot....no. And it kept going back and forth too much. But there were some really FUNNY parts
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It had maybe as much plot as the Hudsucker Proxy, maybe less. I dunno. It certainly wasn't a 'romantic comedy' as such. But it WAS funny, even if it didn't make sense.
PS I just LOVE Geoffrey Rush and I hardly know why... Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Nice detailed review.
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