Crazy, Stupid, Love. is a terrific, lighthearted romantic comedy. In many of my reviews, I’ve stated that 2010 was the best year for movie releases, despite not having that one super scary or laugh-out-loud funny movie that you would expect a great year to have, I have also noted this to be the case. While 2011 has yet to come close to measuring up to 2010 (based on what I’ve been seeing/reading about the fall/award season releases), it has had some good movies. It’s had three films already that I would put in my Top 20 comedies of all time. I don’t think any of these are in that Top 10 range, but
Horrible Bosses,
The Hangover Part 2, and
Crazy, Stupid, Love. All fall into that second tier. I believe
Bridesmaids will also fall into this group once I see it. In terms of pure comedy,
Crazy, Stupid, Love. doesn’t have as many laughs until your stomach hurts movies, but I would say that it is the best overall movie in this group. This movie had the potential to be great, but like many good movies that don’t reach that elevated status, there is a flaw in the screenplay that is very hard to ignore.
Continue reading Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011) →
In 2011’s Horrible Bosses, four of this decade’s best actors (Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Aniston, and Collin Farrell) take a backseat to the film’s three stars. The plot of this movie revolves around three friends. Nick (Jason Bateman – Juno, television’s Arrested Development), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis – 
To say that Michael McGowan’s One Week suffered from the wrong movie/wrong time syndrome would be an understatement. Much like the beautiful movie Walk The Line, Joaquin Phoenix’s performance and the film were overshadowed by Jamie Foxx’s Ray, which came out a year earlier. From most critics’ perspectives, Ray was a slightly better movie. While Phoenix received a Best Actor Academy Award nomination, there was no chance he would win it because Foxx won the award a year before. The Academy wasn’t going to reward essentially the same movie with a nearly identical lead performance. The unfortunate part was that these movies were based on legendary actors (Johnny Cash in Walk The Line, Ray Charles in Ray), and each actor portrayed each man correctly.
I would have seen it years ago if I had been made aware of how great Edward Zwick’s movie was. I had always known About Last Night was an 80’s classic, but I associated it with cheesy teenage comedies like The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, and Pretty in Pink. And while those movies have a certain charm, I put them all into the same category. By association, I also classified About Last Night with those movies because of the stars Rob Lowe and Demi Moore. Over time, I, for whatever reason, associated the plot with two people who met, had a wild night of sex, and then spent the rest of the movie regretting that decision. This story didn’t interest me either. I’ve seen that movie play out hundreds of times on the screen. Had I not stumbled upon About Last Night on cable one night, I might never have seen it. Had I not, I may have forever missed out on a good movie.
Roman Polanski’s (The Pianist, Chinatown) first American film, 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby, is a classic film that has held the test of time and should be viewed by every film fan at least once. Though classified primarily as a horror film, it isn’t scary compared to today’s movies. However, it does have a certain eeriness that only the legendary film directors (such as Alfred Hitchcock in Psycho and others) could capture in that day and age. It’s neither the darkness nor the freaky-looking characters that establish the fear. Instead, the fascinating, web-weaving storyline captures the audience’s interest for the film’s duration.