We had the day off for President’s Day again this year, so we wanted to grab a quick lunch, and see…… The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock. We were in a rush, so we scarfed down fast food as we drove to the theater. We got a little lost, but found our way soon enough. We stood on a long line at the ticket window, but my wife found the automated kiosks, purchased tickets, and rushed to the theater. Movie hadn’t started yet — it was still previews! We walked all the way in, but found that the theater was packed. All that remained were the lame-ass front row seats, which I’m sorry, are pointless. If no one wants to sit there, why keep that row?

We decided to hang around an additional 50 mins to see Valentine’s Day, a Garry Marshall rom-com starring a shitload of big-name Hollywood actors and actresses. This was not the first choice for either of us, but we made due. You can gather the premise by watching the commercials. The movie involves the intertwining storylines of a multitude of characters.

I’ll go out on a limb, and say it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen. My wife was able to predict most of the plotlines, but there were too many stories IMHO. Young teenage love, senior love, unrequited love, infidelity, childhood crushes, marriage, engagements, and on and on. Out of all of the intertwining stories and characters,  I thought the Topher Grace and Anne Hathaway characters were the most interesting. Everyone else was just blah.

Valentine's Day (2010)

Another movie in the can. Once the kids went to sleep on a quiet Friday night, we sat down to eat some Pappa John’s pizza, and watch our latest Netflix movie, Away We Go. It’s a 2009 Sam Mendes movie starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, with respected supporting actors/actresses like Catherine O’Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

The premise of the story is that Krasinski and Rudolph are a couple who are about 6-months pregnant. Living near Krasinski’s character’s parents, they originally planned to have his family nearby to help. Turns out, the parents are soon moving to Belgium long term. Our intrepid couple heads out to visit various family and friends around the USA and Canada, in order to find a suitable home where suitable locale with family/friends that would be best for their future daughter. They end up travelling from place to place, finding these various people to be odd, or off their rocker, or whatever, unable to find the perfect spot.

I don’t think this was the best movie, per se. It was a decent rental. I liked Krasinkski and Rudolph in these roles, and I personally liked the characters they played. They didn’t have much, but they were two likeable people in love, surrounded by a sea of nutjobs. I could relate to them, even though they had “cardboard windows.” They were both approx 33 years old, deeply in love, and not exactly at the pinnacle of wealth and power. I’m 33, deeply in love with my wife, and not exactly rich and powerful. We don’t have the perfect life.  In the movie, they don’t have a particularly perfect life, and openly question, “Are we fuck-ups?” Hey, when you’re at this stage in your life, and you didn’t have the “perfect” life, you’d wonder if you were a fuck-up at times too.

In addition, the supporting actors/actresses establish those characters very well.  I will say that I could have done without the folksy, earnest soundtrack, which is starting to get cliched in some of these indie movies.

So final assessment — it’s a decent rental.

Away We Go (2009)

Last week, we watched The Wedding Date, a 2005 rom-com movie starring Debra Messing and that Dermot Mulroney fellow. The plot itself was the usual romantic comedy BS that you see these days, but you have to remove more of the interest you normally would express.  Debra Messing’s character hires an male escort to pretend to be her wonderful boyfriend and accompany her to England, in order to to attend her sister’s wedding.

I’d go into more detail, but really, what else do you need to know?  Will sparks fly between Messing and Mulroney’s respective characters?  Will hilarious situations ensue? Will they start to feel attraction for each other? Will they make up in the end?  Frankly, it wasn’t all that good a movie, and Debra Messing is not a good actress.  I never really watched her Will & Grace show, but from what I’ve seen, it’s the exact same character. Not a good sign of a great actress.

The Wedding Date (2005)

We tried to see July 4th fireworks this year, but that didn’t happen as expected. It doesn’t seem like there was much scheduled in our area on the actual 4th of July!  After we got the kids to bed, we watched another romantic comedy — Only You. Three rom-coms in a row must be a record.

Only You is a 1994 romantic-comedy starring Marisa Tomei (yes, back when she was making movies), Bonnie Hunt, and Robert Downey, Jr.  Oh yeah, and Fisher Stevens was in it too — truly a 90’s flick.  At age 13, Marisa Tomei’s character gets the name of her soulmate from a Ouija board and a weirdo carnival gypsy.  The movie picks up some 17 years later, and 10 days before she is to marry this podiatrist. A friend of her husband calls to say that he won’t be able to make the wedding, as he’ll be in Italy.  His name? Damon Bradley!  She and Bonnie Hunt dash off to Venice, Rome, and the Tuscany region on the search for Damon Bradley.

This could seem the typical love story and more or less it is, but it makes you remember the classic romantic movies. It has the same spirit. A movie where you get exactly what you expect. It was nice to watch Robert Downey Jr. and Marisa Tomei still fresh faced and full of potential, before their personal troubles began. Excellent location shooting, including Venice, Rome and a small Italian beach town, with beautiful cinematography. Impossibly romantic premise? Yes, but I guess that’s what you wanted in 90’s movies, including the expected payoff at the end where everybody lives happily and so on.

Only You (1994)

Can you believe it? Two movies consecutively in the same weekend? On Friday, we dropped off the kids to my parents’ place, and then met up with friends Doug & Kathy at the Palisades Center mall for lunch and a movie.  We had lunch at Chili’s (ah, where the choices are endless and salty, and the servers have lots of tattoos. )  Based on the time, and everyone’s choices, we ended up seeing The Proposal @ 3:30pm, closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.  Well, whatever, better than waiting further or seeing something stupid like Transformers 2. Yeah, that’s right. I said it. The Proposal would undoubtedly be cliched, but hey, at least the girls would like it, and my wife certainly deserved a day off to see a movie that she would enjoy.

Turns out, yes, it’s a chick-flick, with some cliched plot elements and twists, but it certainly had some good comedic moments.  In fact, I’d say the supporting cast was excellent — Craig T. Nelson, Mary Steenburgen (I like her a lot), Betty White, and Oscar Nuñez’s character Ramone stole the show in my view.  He was frickin’ hilarious.

BTW, there was no closed captioning during the movie.  Does no one like the disabled?

The Proposal (2009)

You know, Thursdays are the new Fridays.  I took a floating holiday for Friday, July 3rd, so Thursday night was basically Friday night.

After the kids went to bed, we watched Dan in Real Life, a 2007 romantic comedy starring Steve Carell and a host of quality supporting actors and actresses — Dianne Wiest, Juliette Binoche, John Mahoney, Dane Cook (blech, btw.)  It’s the story about a widower (Dan) with 3 daughters attending a family reunion.  He meets Juliette Binoche’s character, Marie, and is wowed by her.  He later meets her at the family reunion, as she is his brother’s (Dane Cook) new girlfriend.  Hilarity and awkwardness ensues over the next 3 days.

Yes, there was awkwardness, as Dan realizes that he and Marie are perfect together.  I will say I was distracted by the entire family.  I don’t really know where one would find this insanely unreal extended family existing outside of Hollywood.  No large family can be this gooey, chewy, lovey, dovey, can they?  Not my extended family, I’ll tell you that much.  Apart from that, the movie was entertaining, and worth a home movie rental on a Thursday night when you don’t have to work the next day.

Dan in Real Life (2007)