My last post was kind of ranty. I don't really like ranting on my blog because then I find myself in a negative space and feel like I need to continue ranting - but that's not healthy. So I took a break. And in my break I saw a lot of movies. So I thought I would jot down what I thought of them.
Letters to Juliet: I dragged my dad to this movie when he was visiting from Mexico. For some reason it decided to rain most of the time he was here - so one day we decided to go to the movies. We had to decide between Iron Man and Letters to Juliet (L2J from now on). For some reason my dad seemed a little more enthusiastic to see a rom com set in Italy than a comic super hero flick. Anyways - this movie reminded me of good old fashioned rom coms of the late 90's "While You Were Sleeping", "Knotting Hill", "Wedding Planner", "Sweet Home Alabama". Fairly predictable plot about a girl satisfied with her life, but then some kind of event turns everything topsy turvy and suddenly that life ain't so great and she pursues a new one which leads to happily ever after. Sigh. Sweet. I really liked it although it was nothing revolutionary (not that it was trying to be). I think it was greatly aided by its location - ITALY! Gorgeous settings and I really liked the Italian music - some of them Italian covers of classic American pop. It was all so sweetly romantic, but not really sexual - so I was comfortable seeing it with my dad (who may or may not have fallen asleep). If you like the classic rom coms - rent it!
Sex To The City 2: I went with my friend K. We had seen the last one together so it was natural that we would go see this one together. I liked the last one because it really captured the grounded glamour that was in the series. Yes, Carrie and company wears lots of Manolos - but that doesn't mean that there life is great. The girls suffered from real problems - spousal infidelity, cold feet from partner, etc. You could empathize with the girls. You couldn't do that in this movie. While I get the producers decision to go technicolor glam as a way to distract us from our economic problems similar to what was done during the depression, but I don't know if the original nature of the SATC material really lends itself from that complete breakage from real problems. The movie was funny at times, but mostly shallow - shallow not in a good way. Skip it - unless you are a huge fan of the series and must see it and be disappointed for yourself.
The A-Team: I wasn't convinced that I was going to go see it until I spent two weeks staring at its ads on the side of the buses while waiting for my bus to arrive. So I ended up taking my friend Leanne to go see it for her birthday - and I have to say that A-Team is a PERFECT summer flick. And it did a very good job of adapting an old tv show for film. I know they've done a lot of these in recent years and not all of them have been successfull - Miami Vice (too serious), Starsky and Hutch (too slapstick), Dukes of Hazzard (WTF). But there have been a few to get it right (Mission Impossible, Charlie's Angels). I think this was another one. It has the right combo of action and comedy - and it took elements from the show and made them their own witout disrespecting/dismissing the source. I think its unfortunate that it opened against the Karate Kid since the people who enjoyed the Karate Kid and A-Team in the 80's are probably the same population and Karate Kid was better to bring their kids to see (since suddenly the karate kid pre-puberty at age 11 instead of a horny 16 year old). I know the critics were kinda trashing it by saying "its all just action sequences", but do you remember the show - it was all just action sequences. Go see it - its Awesome! And I want a sequel.
Killers: I was really looking forward to this movie because in it Katherine Hiegl plays a kind of clumsy girl who stumbles into the world of professional killing - and I think her performance will kind of dictacte how well she will be as Stephanie Plum. Based on this film, I think Hiegl will do the physical comedy great, I'm just hoping that when she does Stephanie Plum annoyed, she does it annoyed and not bitchy. That was kind of the probelm with this movie. When Hiegl character's got irritated, she got really bitchy - and she's not really appealing when she is in that mode. I did really like Ashton in the film - which surprised me because I'm not really a big fan of Ashton. But overall, I don't know if I was satisfied. I felt like the film was trying to be a combo of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Gross-Pointe Blank, Chuck, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, but it was like they took the relevant parts they needed from the movie and made them dull. And it just kind of ended suddenly, like they realized what the running time was and just tacked something on that resolved everything. But I did like the Heigl/Kutcher chemistry. It was ok, and if you are going to see it, rent it.
I don't know how many more movies I will check out this summer. I definitely want to check out Eclipse and I want to see Toy Story 3, oh - and the trailers for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World have me intrigued. So I'll let you know how those go.
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