One for the Money

This afternoon Lori and I went to see One for the Money. Neither of us were sure what to expect as we haven't read the Janet Evanovich novel on which the film is based -- that said, I think it is safe to say we were both pleasantly surprised. I tend to like Katherine Heigl -- not all of her films by any stretch, but ever since 27 Dresses if I hear she's in a romantic comedy I'm at least willing to consider it (I never stopped to think until now just how much goodwill 27 Dresses gave Heigl in my book...yeesh I love that film). Here Heigl trades in her trademark blonde tresses for brunette and a serviceable Jersey accent to bring to life the character of Stephanie Plum, who after a string of personal and professional bad luck lands a job as a recovery agent for her cousin's bail-bond business. Stephanie is anything but ready to bring in fugitives, but the girl's got game and determines her first big success will be collecting the bounty on Joe Morelli's (Jason O'Mara) head, a cop wanted for questioning in a murder investigation and the one who got away in Stephanie's book.

Stephanie is a bit rougher around the edges than most characters I'm used to seeing Heigl play, and to her credit I think she does a fair job pulling it off. As befits her loveable misfit type character, she's got a mother who wants nothing more than to see her married, played with aplomb by Debra Monk. It was great to see Monk on-screen again -- I'm a big fan of her work from the short-lived Nero Wolfe television series. But hands-down the best supporting cast nod goes to Debbie Reynolds as Stephanie's boozy grandmother. Reynolds was HILARIOUS! I only wish she'd had more screentime. :) Oh, and fans of Grimm will recognize Stephanie's scummy cousin Vinnie, played by Patrick Fischler. Fischler was the "bluebeard" in the "Lonelyhearts" episode -- and let me tell you his role as Vinnie was no small stretch from that appearance.

Going into this movie, I was expecting a straight-up romantic comedy, so I was pleasantly surprised when this movie delivered a story in more of an action-adventure vein. As Stephanie relentlessly pursues the bounty on Joe Morelli's head, she gets drawn into a murder investigation that someone wants pinned on Morelli at all costs. I liked seeing Stephanie actually start to care about more than just the payday. This is particularly evident when her first "informant," Lula the hooker (Sherri Shepherd) is beaten for daring to talk to her. I absolutely loved Lula, she was flipping hilarious, and a great addition to Stephanie's quirky circle of friends.

My favorite part of the film is Stephanie's two love interests -- Ranger (Daniel Sunjata), an expert bounty hunter she enlists to help train her in the basics of becoming a successful recovery agent, and Morelli, her target. Sunjata is pretty drop-dead gorgeous, and as Ranger is hilariously deadpan -- nothing, and I mean nothing, rattles him. But Morelli is by far my favorite -- I just adore O'Mara, and give me O'Mara all scruffy and worried about Stephanie? Yes, please, I am so there. *wink* O'Mara is so ADORABLE! And there's a nice spark between him & Heigl (really I would worry if there wasn't, because I can't fathom that). Seeing as there's something ridiculous like eighteen Plum novels, I'd go see a second film for O'Mara's appearance alone.

Content-wise there's some language and innuendo in keeping with the film's rating, and similar to a completely unnecessary scene in The Proposal there's a moment where entirely too much of Heigl is on display when Morelli handcuffs her to her shower rod so she can't turn him in. That aside, the movie delivers some laughs and more action than I expected and yes, even a bit of heart. I suppose now I should give the book a shot, hmm? :)

Excuse me while I go dream that Jason O'Mara (or a reasonable facsimile) is going to show up at my door with a cupcake... *wink*

Life as We Know It

Spoilers...

Saturday night I wasn’t in the mood to watch something from my DVD collection, so I decided to go see Life as We Know It. Since I wasn’t in the mood to cook anything, either, popcorn for dinner seemed like a perfect idea. *g* I find myself somewhat conflicted about my take on this movie. I really wanted to like it (mainly because I thought Josh Duhamel was so freaking adorable in When In Rome), but I didn’t like it nearly as much as I expected or wanted to, to be honest. That’s not to say the movie isn’t without its charms – I just wish the good wasn’t counterbalanced by so much meehhhh…

If you’ve seen the preview, you know the story – Duhamel and Katherine Heigl play a pair of constantly at-odds singles (Messer and Holly) whose respective best friends (played by Hayes MacArthur and Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks) just happen to be married. When the aforementioned best friends have their first child, Messer and Holly are made the baby’s godparents. When both parents are tragically killed in a car accident, Duhamel and Heigl are shocked to learn that they were named baby Sophie’s joint guardians.

Of course, Holly and Messer took an instant dislike to each other when their best friends tried to set them up on a blind date a couple of years earlier. She’s organized and punctual, he’s sloppy and laid-back. They couldn’t be more different, but since this is a romantic comedy, of course we can guess how things are going to turn out. When it comes to romantic comedies, I don't mind predictability if the stars have chemistry and the storyline adds one or two fresh takes to the formula. The end point, for me anyway, is how much I enjoy watching the journey unfold on-screen. Since this film centers around two single adults trying to raise a young child, there are a TON of comedic possibilities for the filmmakers to mine, and they take full advantage for the most part. It helps that baby Sophie is played by the freaking adorable Clagett triplets (who totally look like they’re related to Christina Hendricks, right down to the eyes!), so any scene with the baby are some of the movie’s best moments.

Katherine Heigl movies are either hit-or-miss for me. Personality-wise she typically comes across as someone I think I would get along with. Movie-wise, I either love her films (i.e., 27 Dresses), find them forgettable (i.e., Killers), or I won’t touch them with a ten-foot-pole (i.e., The Ugly Truth, because no matter how much I love Gerard Butler, R-rated romantic comedies are way too crass for my tastes). Heigl is better here than she was in Killers, but falls short of the charm and likability found in 27 Dresses. My problem with her character is that I just didn’t buy the process she goes through that results in her change of heart towards Messer…and this is due to the incredibly attractive “option B” the script throws in her way in the form of Sophie’s pediatrician played by Josh Lucas. (Side note: Why isn’t Josh Lucas in more movies I want to see? The man needs another Sweet Home Alabama moment ASAP.) Holly goes from hating Messer, to tolerating him, to falling for the doctor, to jumping into bed with Messer, back to the doctor, and then back to Messer so fast and with so little context it just leaned too much towards contrived for my tastes.

As he proved from his turn in When In Rome, Josh Duhamel has got a lot of potential as far as being the star of romantic comedies goes. Life As We Know It taps into some of that – in fact, I’d rate Messer’s character arc as the best part of the film. Messer is quite a womanizer when the movie starts, and personality and lifestyle-wise he seems to have the most adjusting to do when it comes to deciding whether or not he’ll accept his friends’ wishes and become Sophie’s guardian. I LOVED watching Duhamel interact with the baby – seriously, a guy like him carting around an adorable baby like Sophie? I’d fall for him in two seconds flat, if that. *wink* Watching Messer bond with the baby is hilarious, especially when he becomes fascinated with her TV shows (like the super-freaky Wiggles!). I thought that Messer’s change of heart towards parenthood and Holly was much more believable than hers – it didn’t hurt that once he makes that jump we only see his feelings for Holly, he doesn’t move back-and-forth between Holly and another romantic option. I get why Holly turns to the doctor when she thinks she can’t depend on Messer or trust his feelings for her, since she’s a character who craves security. I get that. Yes, he doesn’t tell Holly about his across-the-country job offer and he should have, but good grief he was going to loan her all sorts of money to see her dreams for expanding her restaurant come true – that gesture apparently didn’t mean quite as much to Holly initially as it did to Messer, as that was the first time he was really willing to invest in another person’s dreams. Josh Duhamel is adorable, even moreso when he starts to “grow up” into his new responsibilities as one of Sophie’s guardians, and incredibly patient with Holly’s quirks – so yeah, I can’t help but pull for him to “win” in the end. But that didn’t lessen my dislike for how poor Josh Lucas ends up getting his heart stomped on. The doctor’s storyline deserved better IMO.

So basically, I’d watch this movie again just to get a Josh Duhamel fix. It’s too bad that the end product doesn’t quite live up to the story’s potential, though. I also wish the script hadn’t called for the characters to make the "oh-so-hilarious" batch of pot brownies and get high while the kid was sleeping, for one thing. Seriously?! It’s just beyond me how that scene was funny. For a film that touched on some serious issues – grief, adjusting to unexpected life changes, etc. – scenes like that just felt grossly irresponsible.

As far as the movie’s supporting cast goes, the highlight was Melissa McCarthy as one of the neighbors, DeeDee. McCarthy is just hilarious and in everything I’ve ever seen her in (The Back-up Plan or Gilmore Girls), she pretty much steals every scene.

Life as We Know It left me wanting more Josh Duhamel romantic comedies – the guy can take the most roguish, irresponsible character and make him likeable. The movie's main problem boils down to tone - it can't decide if it wants to be a rom-com or a romance touching on serious issues like grief and parenthood. Cute, but falls short a bit. I'm curious, if anyone else out there has seen this, what are your thoughts?

Upcoming movies...the falling into Christmas edition

The fall/Christmas movie season is practically upon us, and there are several films I'm interested in seeing in the coming weeks. I've featured a couple of these on the blog before, but for those that have made appearances here, I think they are worth featuring again because the trailers are so good. :)

Opening October 8th:

I've always had a thing for horse stories, so I'm definitely going to see Secretariat:



The last Katherine Heigl movie I really enjoyed was 27 Dresses, and this movie looks like it might have teh same kind of heart. Plus, it has the added bonus of Josh Duhamel's presence, and I adored him in When In Rome! Here's the Life as We Know It trailer, also opening on 10/8:



Opening October 15th:

Helen Mirren and Karl Urban? Yes, please. Here's the Red trailer:



Opening November 19th:

As a die hard Harry Potter fan, I can't watch this trailer often enough. :) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1:



Opening November 24th:

This movie just looks fun, plus since I'm a crazy Chuck fan it has the added bonus of featuring Zachary Levi voicing the lead! Here's the latest Tangled trailer:



Opening November 26th:

The history and the acting talent in this picture makes it an absolute must-see in my book. I forgot to mention in my previous post about this film that it's also notable for being a mini Pride and Prejudice reunion - Colin Firth, a.k.a. Mr. Darcy plays King George VI while Jennifer Ehle, a.k.a. Elizabeth Bennet, plays Myrtle Logue. Here's The King’s Speech trailer:



Opening December 10th:

Words cannot express how happy I am that the release of a third Narnia picture is right around the corner. Here's the latest trailer I could fine for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:



And last but certainly not least, an exciting new version of Shakespeare's The Tempest is slated to open on 12/10 as well (my guess is limited release). This play is near and dear to my heart, one of my favorites since it was the subject of my senior English thesis paper in high school. I adore Helen Mirren's acting, so I'm anxious to see how this "revisionist" take on the play "plays" out on-screen (no pun intended). I can't find that a trailer has been released yet, so I'll leave you with this awesome poster image:

Isn't it cool? :) How about you, what films are you looking forward to seeing heading into fall?

Upcoming movies...the summer edition, part one...

Well, sorry to spring another upcoming movies post on you so soon, but this is turning into quite a week. I'm in the middle of a few books (reviews to come of course!), I still haven't reviewed Iron Man 2 or Letters to Juliet (loved 'em both just in case you were wondering), and I finalized plans to move sometime within the next month. Let the packing frenzy commence!

Since May is already half over (can you believe it?!) the summer movie season is gong to be kicking into high gear. There's a handful of movies coming out in June that I'm interested in seeing...here you go:

You all know I'm a sucker for a good historical epic. :) Princess Ka'iulani has already opened in limited release, mostly on the west coast (I think). There's no telling if it will ever make it's way to Tennessee, but if it does I definitely want to see it. Starring Q'orianka Kilcher, who played Pocahontas in the gorgeous film The New World.



Killers opens 6/4, starring Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher. Looks fun but it may end up being a rental:



The A-Team opens on 6/11, and people I can not WAIT for this one. I absolutely love the TV show. While no one can fully replace George Peppard as Hannibal, and no one can ever, EVER replace Dwight Schultz as Murdock (LOVE him!), this cast looks like it will do a decent job. :) Starring Liam Neeson as Hannibal, Bradley Cooper as Faceman, Sharlto Copley as Murdock, and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson as B.A.



Last but certainly not least, Knight and Day opens 6/25 starring Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise. I am endlessly entertained by this trailer, which is really something if you know how long I've spent loathing Tom Cruise (I've mellowed on that somewhat...loved Valkyrie, bad accent & all). If it comes down to a choice between this movie & Killers, this one will win, no contest...