‘Romance’ Archives
Four Christmases
Romantic comedy, Vince Vaughn, Reese Whitherspoon. Do I need to say anything else? Nothing special about this one, just a typical romantic comedy. It's fine to watch with your partner, it won't stick in your memory for too long. Rating: 2 Stars
The Answer Man
The only reason I watched this movie is the presence of Lauren Graham. I hadn't seen her since the end of the Gilmore Girls show, so I just wanted to check out a recent film of hers. Too bad it was this bad, clichéd story. Jeff Daniels tries his best to bring this character to life, a know-it-all snobbish man who wants to date an innocent [...]
Gigantic
This is a quirky little romantic comedy, that dabbles in surrealism. The story is focused on Brian's dream to adopt a Chinese baby and his relationship with Happy. But there's also a surrealism added in the form of a homeless man who keeps beating Brian on the street. It's never explained if he is real or not, and if not what he represents. [...]
(500) Days of Summer
This is probably my favorite romantic comedy of the year. It's just a very different movie that keeps surprising me. First of all the story is not told linearly, it jumps back and forth between the beginning and after the break up. But that's not just a gimmick, there's a reason for it: Tom is trying to figure out why it didn't work out, and he [...]
The Proposal
Wow, another rom-com with two actors that I don't really care for!! Sandra Bullock's humor is a bit too physical to me, I just don't find her too funny. For some reason I never liked Ryan Johnson, can't really tell why exactly. Is it realistic that the immigration office would go those lengths just to catch a fake marriage? He seemed like a bad [...]
The Ugly Truth
Here's another rom-com, this time the concept is... what is the concept? Let's try: controlling woman finds the perfect man, but changes herself in order to get him. Then realizes that she doesn't want him, she wants someone who loves her for what she is!! Ok, that was long and stupid. That's pretty much what this movie is, stupid. I admit I did [...]
My Life In Ruins
Since I had a week of holiday, I found some romantic movies to watch with my wife. Here's the first one, which was pleasant but very light-hearted. This is actually more of a comedy than a romance, though that element is always present. Nia Vardalos is cute and funny, so I did have a good time with her. I also like Richard Dreyfuss in general, [...]
The Brothers Bloom
Ryan Johnson's first movie (Brick) is one of my favorite little movies of the past few years, so I went into this follow up with high expectations. Luckily I was rewarded (or maybe I'm just too biased). This is a con movie, but more importantly it's a movie about con movies. The difference here is that the con is all about the characters and [...]
Duplicity
This is a nice spy-thriller/romance movie, light but at the same time clever. The two leads are very charismatic ones, so I think they did a good job in casting this movie. The spy plot is very interesting and has many twists and turns. First we think that Ray (Clive Owen) and Claire (Julia Roberts) meet by chance a few years after their first [...]
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
This is a twist on the Christmas Carol story, adapting it to a hopeless playboy who doesn't believe in marriage. I must say the idea is interesting, but the execution is nothing too special. I never liked Matthew McConaughey, though I guess we're not supposed to like him here at first. Jennifer Garner on the other hand is a favorite of mine, [...]
Sophie’s Choice
I've been wanting to check out this film for a very long time, so I finally did. It's not really what I expected, as the majority of it is about 3 friends in Brooklyn and it's happy and dramatic at times. The scenes in the concentration camp were actually few, though very powerful. The "happy scenes" were actually uplifting, just as Stingo [...]
Management
As romantic comedies goes, this one was funny at times. That's due in large part to Steve Zahn's performance as Mike the loser. I've liked Jennifer Aniston since her days in Friends, but I don't see her broadening her acting beyond these romantic comedies. The scene in her hotel room where Sue lets Mike touch her butt is funny and odd. There [...]
He’s just not that into you
I only watched this because of the cast. There were many actors that I enjoyed in the past, so if nothing else I would enjoy their performances. But this movie is just a mess. There are many different storylines, that are supposed to cross into each other and have the same theme of women dating men. They do cross into each other, but in the [...]
All the Real Girls
This is an atypical romantic movie. It's clearly very indy looking, but the romance starts normally, with two people (Paul and Noel) crazily in love with each other. There is the mandatory tension, brought on by Tip, Noel's brother, who is also Paul's best friend. Tip doesn't approve because Paul is a womanizer, however Paul seems to be very [...]
The Reader
The first part of this movie is all about the scandalous relationship between a teenager boy (Michael, played by David Kross) with an older woman (Hanna, played by Kate Winslet). For some reason Hanna is fascinated by this boy who reads books to her. It is not clear exactly why, but this is one of the main points of the movie. Of course we [...]
The Last Mistress
I only watched this for 2 reasons: Roger Ebert recommended it, and Asia Argento stars in it. I am not a huge fan of her, but he is one of the few international Italian actresses. This was a well constructed costumed love story, which focused on the tormented and passionate love between Ryno and La Vellini. I could clearly see why they loved [...]
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
David Fincher is another of my favorite directors and after his amazing Zodiac in 2007, I was surprised to see that he had another movie coming out only 1 year later. This movie marks a definite departure for Fincher in terms of content. This story is a very mainstream and "nice" movie, that appeals to a very wide audience. It's not a serial [...]
Slumdog Millionaire
This seems to be the favorite film for the Oscars and I agree that it's a very good movie. However I don't see this in the top 5 movies of the year at all. I like the structure of the movie, Jamal explains each of his answers on Who Wants to be a Millionaire by narrating events in his life. At first I thought it was too coincidental, that [...]
Wall-E
Pixar is always synonymous of quality, but after the masterpiece that was The Incredibles, I had a tough time comparing anything else to it. Until Wall-E. This is a great film, both from the filmmaking perspective and story wise. Wall-E is a great character, he's just a small robot and he barely says 2 words in the movie, but he is a full [...]
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2
The first movie was interesting enough for me and my wife, so it felt natural to watch the sequel as well. Plus we were looking for something lighter to watch. This movie follows the format of the original, having the four friends in separate places of the world, sending the "magic pants" to each other. Each have their own "adventures". The [...]