Mel & Ray's Movie Reviews

Since I'm behind with most things lately, it would only follow suit that I'm also behind in getting out movie reviews. If I'm going to be undependable and a slacker, I figure it's best to just fully commit. (The rating is out of 5.)

New In Town

This was funny. Was it the best movie ever? No. Does Renee Zellweger have a weird lip scrunching habit that annoys the living daylights out of me? Yes. Is Harry Connick Jr. pretty much hilarious just showing up to work? Absolutely. The story goes that the city girl is needed to streamline one of their production plants in Small Town, USA. She is ultimately transformed from the cold hearted business professional to the warm, lover of all things Minnesota. It is very formulaic (and seriously Renee, with the mouth, what is up with that?? So annoying. ) But at the end of the day, this was a pleasure to watch. I probably related to it on a deeper level seeing as Rene's character comes to Minnesota during the winter. People only think they know cold until they go to the Midwest. The supporting cast was an absolute delight and kept us laughing the whole time. I think in the end those characters were the difference between fun and touching or feeling stale and "done before." For sure rent or buy it when it comes out. It really is worth your time.



He's Just Not That Into You

The casting call for this movie must have gone out as, "Aspiring actors need not apply." With the exception of Hugh not being in it, they had a star studded cast, and even had a few of my favorites. I was thrilled that Justin Long was in it. He's been a favorite of mine since Ed. He was kind of the "player" who ends up dispensing hysterical straight forward advice to Ginnifer Goodwin's character. Lines like "An excuse is a polite rejection. Men are not afraid of “ruining the friendship.” or "Hey, let’s meet at so-and-so’s party/any club/friend’s house” is not a date."
Bradley Cooper was another favorite, has been since Alias, but I was disappointed they gave him the sleazeball character. And whoever was dressing Scarlett Johansen had a fixation with the 90's. I literally swear to you that I wore every single outfit she wore in the movie at some point between the years 1993-1998. Maybe I'm just weird, but I found it distracting the whole movie.

("Why is she wearing high waisted jeans with a belt?!" "Is that a flannel tied at her waist?!")

The movie provided some great lines and overall I'm pretty sure I liked it, even though I think Raleen enjoyed it a bit more than I did. For me it lacked a bit of cohesiveness between the stories, and with the exception of Long and Goodwin, the characters didn't give you a whole lot of good reasons to like or enjoy them.

My favorite line was delivered by Drew Barrymore's character:
"I had this guy leave me a voice mail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It’s exhausting." Makes me appreciate my high waisted jeans and flannels. The future of dating sounds hard.




Taken

By the time I saw this movie I really really needed a good movie. I had loved the trailer, and I just really didn't want this movie to disappoint. In the end, it didn't really, but I can't say it was what I expected. Liam Neison is hard core. I mean, he is Qui-Gon Jinn, trainer of Obi-Wan Kenobi for crying out loud. What else would you expect?! His performance carried the movie hands down, and ultimately that is why you enjoy it. His no mercy, no nonsense approach to getting his daughter back is a bit shocking at first. You expect him to be a tad nicer, but when you catch on that he's not going to be, you end up going along with it. He's a parent and he's mad as all get out. I get it. Raleen was less impressed with it. While she liked aspects of it, she thought he did alot of the same moves to get out of trouble. By the end she was a bit tired of him throwing his standard karate chop to the throat. I guess I thought, hey, if ain't broke don't fix it, you know? (The bad guys were just lucky he didn't pull any lightsaber action on them.) The actress playing the daughter was laughable at times. (To those who have seen it, what was up with the way she would run??) But the story really revolves around Liam's character and that is what is worth your 8.50. Or your 3.99 Pay-per view, or a spot on your Netflicks queue...




Duplicity

I looked up the word duplicity in the dictionary and it means: contradictory doubleness of thought, speech, or action; the belying of one's true intentions by deceptive words or action. Which is odd. After seeing the movie I would have thought it meant: long mediocre movie with two A list actors and a bad ending. Yeah! Zing! Got em!
There was no denying the chemistry between Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. But then again Clive Owen could most likely have chemistry with a couch.

It could have been better if the supporting cast was more fun and involved. It could have been better if the pacing was faster. It could have been better if they didn't throw in scenes that were clearly intended to confuse the viewer, but then never really came back and explained coherent reasons for doing it. We found the whole thing a bit of a mess with the added perk of Clive Owen as eye candy. This storyline was way beneath both of their acting ablilites and in the end, I don't know about duplicity as much as we know about feeling a bit duped.