When in Rome

This movie was every bit as stupid as I expected it to be, but I will admit I laughed out loud a few times. ("What are you doing in my apartment?" "Blowing your mind!" No? Guess you had to be there.) And I really liked seeing the scenery in Rome again (although it would have been nice to see more than, say, thirty seconds of it). And I enjoyed Pedro's cameo as Juan. But, other than that, yeah--it was just stupid.

I'm not really sure what compelled me to watch this movie (I swear it wasn't Josh Duhamel. Really!) but at least now I've gotten it out of my system.

New in Town

My friend Carole told me this movie was really cute. Now, Carole and I are about as different as tapioca and crème brûlée (no, I won't tell you who is who), so I wasn't really sure whether I believed her or not. But it turns out she was right. This movie was cute! As is Harry Connick, Jr, of course, even though he left his shirt on AND had a fuzzy little beard throughout the entire movie. Total chick flick, to be sure, but it made me smile. I give it two thumbs up, but you probably shouldn't bother trying to get your husband to watch it with you.

Easy Virtue

How not to get my husband to watch a movie: when he asks what it's about, tell him, "I think it's about an American girl in the 1800s who marries an Englishman and they have problems and smoke a lot." Of course, as it turns out, it's actually set in the 20th century (maybe the 1920s or 30s?), but I don't think that would have made a difference to Hud.

At least it was far more light-hearted than I expected. I thought this movie was going to be all serious and dramatic and angst-ridden. I figured it was much in the same vein as last night's The Age of Innocence, but I couldn't have been more wrong. The couples switcheroo at the end was entirely predictable, but that is acceptable in a movie that Mandy warned I should go into with very, very low expectations.

By the way, I'm not doing so well in carrying out Fright Month, am I. In case you were especially worried about that, let me reassure you that I plan to get on with the scary stuff next week.

Letters to Juliet

This movie was just gag-me sappy. And yet, against my will, I loved it right from the very first song (Colbie Caillat singing "You Got Me," one which I hadn't heard previously, but I was so proud that I recognized Caillat's voice. I had to download it because it's just impossibly happy.) Too bad that was the only good song. Most of the rest of the soundtrack consisted of pop Italian love songs and Disney-fied orchestral pieces, though I think I recognized Caillat in another song or two.

I'm sure my approval of this movie was largely due to its setting in Italy, which is just too perfect, but even for a predictable chick flick I really enjoyed it. The presence of handsome Christopher Egan didn't hurt either.

Valentine's Day

Do you ever judge a movie by its previews? I don't mean by its own trailers--I mean by those they show at the beginning of the DVD. Let's see. Valentine's Day showed previews for Dr. Zhivago and Gone With the Wind, but I was not fooled into thinking this would be an epic love story. And then . . . a preview for Sex and the City 2. Uh oh. But wait . . . there's more! An advertisement for The Bachelor: The Video Game! It was not looking good. Just who is in this movie's demographic anyway? Besides, um, not me?

Well, fortunately it wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting from the previews. It was actually pretty cute. Or at least it wasn't completely stupid. It certainly had its annoyingly inane parts, but happily they were outnumbered by the parts that made me smile. I was actually even surprised by two little parts that I might even dare to call heartwarming. The rest of it was predictable, but sweet. Except for the stupid annoying narrator. Best part: the clips during the end credits.

I can't help but wonder if Patrick Dempsey works juggling into all of his movies. OK, so maybe this was only the second time I've seen him juggling, but it may also be only the second time I've seen Patrick Dempsey in a movie. It wasn't anything as impressive as plates this time, but it was still way more impressive than anything I could have done.

She's the Man

After such a nice surprise with the previous movie, I got exactly what I expected with this one. It may be nostalgia talking, but I think they did a better job with Just One of the Guys back in the 80s.

I hate to be a hater, but Amanda Bynes was the wrong girl for the part. She may be a cute little girl, but she makes a pretty unattractive male, was completely unbelievable as a boy, and the persona she adopted as Sebastian was so silly that it was un-funny. BUT the presence of Channing Tatum (especially without his shirt) more than made up for her. It was also kind of fun to see Bullet Tooth Tony as a high school soccer coach.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

I assumed this would be a silly and stupid romantic comedy based on Dickens' A Christmas Carol. I figured the most I could hope for was a shot of Matthew McConaughey without his shirt.

Turns out I was right. In fact, I think I can sum this movie up in three words: cute, fun, forgettable.

My Best Friend's Girl

From reading the netflix description of this movie, I kind of got the idea that this would be a retelling of the classic story of Tristan and Isolde, remade into a stupid (not to mention "crude, lewd and rude") comedy. Fortunately, I didn't quite get it right. First of all, it was never part of the classic story that Tristan's greatest talent was acting like a perfect jerk (to put it mildly). Second of all, the movie turned out to be quite a bit more clever than I expected, which is never a bad thing.

Of course, the movie certainly had its rude moments. When I had to watch Tank eating a taco in full-on jerk mode, I'm pretty sure I cringed, probably blushed, and maybe even should have covered my eyes. And I would have been cringing and blushing quite frequently if I had watched this with my mom. I'm sure eventually I would have made her wear earplugs and a blindfold, or at least an eye patch. But since I didn't watch this with my mom (whew!) it was actually pretty funny and cute--and probably all the more so due to low expectations.

By the way, have you ever noticed that Dane Cook looks a bit like a troglodyte? Quite fitting, since his character acted like one.

17 again

This is my first Zac Efron experience (unless you count seeing him in one episode of NCIS). I was surprised to find that he's actually a pretty decent actor. I don't see what all the fuss is over his looks, though. I mean, he's no Brad Pitt. But could you imagine Pitt with Efron's acting skills? Nah, no one should be so blessed.

It annoyed me that Scarlett was the only one who readily recognized that "Mark Gold" looked JUST like Mike O'Donnell looked in high school. I mean, I think if I saw someone who looked just like my best friend in high school, that's the first thing I'd notice. Mark/Mike's high school basketball coach should have noticed (though that wouldn't have added anything to the story) and his best friend from high school should have recognized him right away (although then I would have missed out on the light saber battle). And what, his kids had never seen pictures of him from high school? I know what my parents looked like in high school. On the other hand, I can let it go when I realize that's not the least likely part of this movie.

So: cute, silly, fun movie. Instant classic? No.

Knocked Up

This movie was backwards compared to the usual romantic comedy. The girl and guy are supposed to hate each other until just before the end when they realize they love each other, and then they have a baby. At least this one was unique in that it mixes things up.

This movie was humorous enough, but the only time I laughed out loud (and I'm embarrassed to admit this) is when the gynecologist told Allison, "You do look like your sister!" . . . and he wasn't looking at her face. Although I did inwardly giggle when Pete told Ben, "You look like Babe Ruth's gay brother . . . Gabe Ruth." (You have to say it out loud for it to work.)

It's funny how many of these actors have done movies together before (see Adventureland, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The 40 Year Old Virgin). I must admit this one was much sweeter than I expected it to be, given the other movies this bunch has done together. Honestly, this movie was much better than I thought it would be, mainly because it wasn't near as raunchy or disgusting as I expected. On the other hand, I haven't watched the deleted scenes. I don't plan to. I have a feeling they would change my mind.

Paul Rudd does an awesome DeNiro impression and a terrible Doc Brown impression.

Finally, I just have to mention that I sincerely hope there are not kids out there who believe that a girl can't get pregnant if she's on top just because Jason said so!! You don't have to be Hitler to see that people who are stupid enough to believe things like that are too stupid to be procreating.

Four Christmases

I liked The Proposal better. This movie tried harder to be funny but overdid it a little bit, to the extent that most of it was unrealistic. OK, yeah, movies in general are not realistic, but this one pushed the envelope a little much in order to get laughs. Of course, realistic or not, I still laughed when Reese Witherspoon started kicking butt in the jump castle.

Being a chick myself, I liked the sweetness factor of The Proposal that Four Christmases lacked. And I have to say that either Reese Witherspoon is freakishly short or Vince Vaughn is freakishly tall (or both). But even though I criticize it, this was still a treat to relax in front of with a glass of wine after the kids went to bed.

The Proposal

This was a really cute movie. Total chick flick/rom com all the way, but it made me giggle. Of course, other than that, I don't have much to say about it, except that I wish the INS agent had surfaced next to the boat wearing scuba gear.

I think I giggled the most when the multitalented Ramon was stripping for the bride-to-be, and Gammie was yelling, "Smack his @$$, Margaret!" The giggling was mainly due to the fact that I just could not believe Carole's mom loves this movie. Did she love that part??

Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist

I thought they didn't make good high school movies anymore (and never would again, since John Hughes has passed). Granted, this is nowhere near as funny as The Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles, but it was cute and sweet and not raunchy like I thought all high school movies were these days (like American Pie).

I must admit I'm a little disbelieving that anyone could find Michael Cera attractive. I mean, it was incredible enough that he got laid in Juno, and that was just the result of boredom. But he had two beautiful chicks after him in this movie. I don't care what kind of music he likes. I'm just not seeing it.

Fool's Gold

I really only watched this so I could see Matthew McConaughey with his shirt off (yet again). Jimmy Kimmel assured me he couldn't keep it on. However, before watching, I had a pseudo-premonition that I'd seen the movie already and it was horrible. (Or maybe it was just a memory of a bad review). I was pretty relieved to realize the movie I'd been thinking of was "Into the Blue," but I was still worried about this one. But not too worried, because I had some wine to drink.

Surprisingly, Mr. McConaughey kept his shirt on far more often than I would have thought. I should have known that from looking at the poster. But that was OK, since the movie was decently funny, and it didn't take itself too seriously. And I hadn't seen it before.

I just have to say, poor Kate Hudson . . . Matthew's boobs are bigger than hers.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Instead of bothering to write anything about this movie I'll just refer you to the first paragraph of this blog entry. Pretty much the whole thing applies (although this movie did veer into slightly depressing territory for a little bit before the happy ending).

Just a note: You definitely don't want to watch this movie with your kids (don't worry, I didn't!!), unless you want them to learn virtually every possible sexual position. This may apply to watching the movie with your mom, too.

Baby Mama

A cute, funny movie that made me smile. Before I even watched it, I already knew I would find at least one part of it humorous, because I'd seen a clip of Angie's conversation with Carl where she told him the ultrasound picture he'd found looked like a squirrel. Carl's response? "That's because it was a squirrel. It's the only one I could find on the Internet." Luckily, that wasn't the only funny part. I had been a little worried, because movies with Saturday Night Live people in them can tend towards the stupid (A Night at the Roxbury, anyone? OR... just about any movie with Chris Farley in it??) but I should have known that Tina Fey is too smart to make a stupid movie.

Based on the squirrel ultrasound, I already knew prior to watching that Angie was faking her pregnancy with Kate's baby, but I didn't know it would turn out that Angie was actually pregnant the whole time, so that was a nice surprise. However, I saw Kate's pregnancy coming from a mile away... although it made for such a sweet and happy ending that I didn't care.

It's nice to actually like a movie for a change. I was starting to wonder if I've just become so critical that I can't enjoy watching movies anymore. But now I know it wasn't me, it was the movies. Whew!

Made of Honor

Not much to say about this movie either (which doesn't surprise me). It's cute, sweet, funny at times, stupid at others. Nice mindless fluff. I snuck this one up to the top of the queue because I wasn't ready to dive right into the run of "movies I don't especially want to watch." I should have picked something a little more worthy, though. Nothing about this movie really makes it stand out from any other romantic comedy (although I did learn that Dr. McDreamy is a pretty awesome juggler. Those Hollywood actor types are just multi-talented, aren't they).

Several times (like during the two kissing scenes) I found that rather than being happy for Tom and Hannah, I was thinking, Oh, poor Colin. Although really, you know the saying about how if something sounds too good to be true, it is? I expected it to come out that Colin was some sort of monster. But it never did. He was just a good sweet (rich!) guy. Of course Tom was rich too so that made it all better, right? How did this chick end up with two millionaires fighting over her and why has that never happened to me? But I digress.

I found another song to download in this movie: "Stop crying your heart out" by Oasis. I just want to know why the heck I have to pay $1.29 for a song that's already 7 years old. I prefer discovering songs that are still obscure enough to cost only 99 cents. And I was proud to recognize "Stolen" by Dashboard Confessional towards the end. (Already have it, so I get to listen to that one for free). It rarely happens that I recognize movie music, unless we're talking a movie like Paul Blart Mall Cop which I heard used all 80s hits like "Eye of the Tiger"--I would recognize that one.

Something's Gotta Give

This was a nice little movie! A chick flick, certainly. I don't think I could have gotten Hud to sit through it with me. Not without some serious bribery, anyway. But I enjoyed it! And was pleasantly surprised. I honestly did not expect to like it.

I was definitely impressed by Jack Nicholson. I mean, not that I doubted his acting ability, but I just couldn't see him pulling off "charming older gentleman." All I could picture was "crusty old man" from "As Good As It Gets." So, props to the old guy.

OK, I must admit that I was a little bit grossed out seeing old people making out. There are some things that should just be left to the imagination. But at least they didn't put in so much detail that I wanted to cut out my eyes.

It was nice to see Keanu Reeves smiling and acting like a human rather than a block of wood. I didn't know he had it in him. He actually spoke as if he is fluent in English, rather than as if he were only half literate and trying to read directly from the script. I could almost believe he was smart enough to be a doctor.

I was especially glad they made it crystal clear that Harry and Marin never did sleep together (even if they did beat me over the head with that fact to make sure I noticed), because that would have been awfully squicky when he ended up with her mom. As it was, it was a little bit weird to think that he had once dated his future step-daughter (assuming Harry and Erica got married, which I guess they didn't specify, but still the ick factor is there).

The ending was a little bit too perfect (would the gorgeous young doctor really have bowed out so easily?) but let's face it, this is Hollywood we're talking about, not real life. The less realistic a movie is, the more fun it is. Um, in moderation.

27 dresses

I got exactly what I wanted from this movie (namely, mindless entertainment). There is really nothing important to say about a movie like this, so I just have a few random bits and pieces to mention. 

I remember talking out loud to the movie at least twice. Once I said, "Oh, this is ridiculous," although I can't remember why I said that. The other time it was "This is so corny," when Katherine Heigl's character leaped onto the departing boat at the end. (I mean, was that really necessary?)

Throughout the entire movie I was trying to figure out who played Kevin. As soon as I pulled up James Marsden on imdb.com (before I even saw X-Men in his list of movies) I remembered he was Cyclops. He is kind of like Paul Walker of Fast and Furious "fame": pretty is all there is to him.

Katherine Heigl looks like a cross between Ashley Judd and my friend Jenna K. (who, coincidentally, just got married 5 days ago! Congratulations, Jenna!) 

Surely you can't really spoil a movie like this (and remember I made no promises about keeping spoilers out of my posts) so I have no problem mentioning the 27 dresses at the end. It was a nice twist, and (believe it or not) I didn't see it coming. Blame the wine. 

Favorite quote: "What good is it being appreciated if no one is naked?" Not that I ascribe to that philosophy but it made me laugh. Oh, and I liked it when Kevin told Jane, "Get over here," at the end. That line could have been far more gag-inducing but they actually picked a good one, and Cyclops spoke it well. 

Redeeming quality: the song "Be Here Now" by Ray LaMontagne. I plan to download it from iTunes in the morning. Plus I got all my ironing done while watching. So it wasn't a total loss... although admittedly it may have been a waste of brain cells. I'm sure a few of them died while watching this movie.