Category Archives: Romantic Comedies
New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Eve is the latest from the makers of the extraordinarily original (not) Valentine’s Day. You may be thinking, “wow, this is going to be stunningly lacklustre.” Well, you would be right. Joy of joys, deck the halls, auld lang syne, this movie is more mind-numbing than anybody could wish for.
Just like Valentine’s Day (and Love Actually, but we’ll get to that), New Year’s Eve is a rom-com that aims to top all rom-coms. It isn’t just one rom-com, but MANY rom-coms ROLLED INTO ONE. It’s a bunch of different love stories from different people all over New York, and they’re all intertwined in some way. One person from each story knows another person from another story, and they know someone from another story, blah blah blah. Apparently everybody in New York celebrates New Year’s Eve by falling in love. Apparently that’s how it works.
I am normally on top of rom-coms. I am all over them like a cat on a baby. I love them. They’re great. I’m having trouble finding nice things to say about this rom-com, though.
First off, it’s not really a rom-com. There are two parts to romantic comedies – romance. And comedy. Romance, it’s got. Chocablock full. More romance than you can shake a cheese at. Comedy? Hm.
Don’t get me wrong, I did laugh. At Abigail Breslin’s self-conciousness. And Katherine Heigl’s badly-done hair. And the fact that Jessica Biel kept pushing her fake belly IN, making it very very obvious that it was just a sack of lentils.
No, I am being a little bit mean. There are in fact some funny moments. But you’ll only really giggle half-heartedly at them, and you’ll only really do that if you’re in a cinema that’s quite full, and everybody else is giggling half-heartedly, and you just don’t want to stand out from the crowd.
But the lack of actual humour isn’t even my main problem with New Year’s Eve, it’s that it is, without a doubt, an exact copy/paste of Valentine’s Day. Just pasted onto a different holiday. The same cast, the same crew, the same format, the same storyline(s), the same heart-squishing sugar cuteness – only this time it’s getting a bit old. And they’ve added a couple of vomit-worthy musical numbers (I kid you not). And Valentine’s Day was just a poorly-Americanised Love Actually, so really NYE is just a copy of a copy. A bad copy of a bad copy. It’s unbearable.
And such a wonderful cast too, just wasted on an unchallenging script and poor direction. Their are “more celebrities than rehab”, and with some exceptions (can I get a Hilary Swank-induced shudder) they all have measurable talent. But their performances are heartbreakingly poor in New Year’s Eve. Michelle Pfeiffer is the most uncomfortable to watch, which is so sad, but on the plus side Zac Efron as her character’s young protégé is pleasantly surprising. I think people expect far less of Zac Efron than he is capable of, me included, but we’re seeing him come further and further out of his tweenie shell all the time.
All this aside, it can’t be denied that in some ways this movie is perfect. I went to see it with my mum after she’d had a tiring day, and it was a perfect girly thing to do to cheer her up. It’s a fun sleepover movie. It’s got a certain lack of intelligence that means it’s not confronting, or challenging, and it serves its purpose of pure escapism. It’s fun to name the stars and to wonder at how big Abigail Breslin’s gotten. It’s nice to perve on Zac Efron and Ashton Kutcher (even if his beard does make him look a bit homeless). It’s the definition of chick flick. On pure enjoyment, it rates pretty high. That’s why I have to give it a 2.5/5.
I know, I know. I’m hopeless.
xx
Za.
Definitely, Maybe
For my birthday I sometimes like to watch a romantic comedy – preferably a good one that I haven’t seen before – and to be honest the selection was a bit thin on the ground this year, but I asked my very generously helpful friends for suggestions and we came to the consensus of Definitely, Maybe, for no real reason other than it has Abigail Breslin in it who is inarguably adorable.
Definitely, Maybe is the story of a young father, Will, who is in the process of being divorced by his wife. His 10-year-old daughter, Maya, is suddenly curious as to how the two of them met in the first place, and thinks that in the telling of the story Will will come to realise how much he loved her when they first got together and that that will repair their marriage. Will at first doesn’t want to tell Maya the story, but eventually concedes, saying that he is going to tell a story about the three major loves in his life (one of them being Maya’s mother), but he’ll change the names of the women so Maya is forced to guess who her mother is.
It sounded interesting to me for two reasons: 1. My own parents split up when I was nine, and 2. It was made by the same people as Notting Hill and Love Actually, my favourite romcoms of all time (although it feels to me like they’ve copied the poster design for this movie from Love Actually).
I liked the premise of the film, that it was a story told by a man to his daughter. It was almost a love story between Will and Maya (in a totally paternal way) than it was between Will and any of the women. Will was a really great dad to Maya and the film represented their relationship as just as important, if not more important, than his romantic relationships. Which I think is really important. It’s great to see a movie that highlights the importance of fatherhood (as opposed to the importance of motherhood) and the impact dads have on their children, which is often very different in real life to the way fatherhood is usually portrayed in the media.
I really liked Maya, too – she wasn’t a dumbed-down version of a ten-year-old, which can happen in movies. Children are made to seem cute and helpless. But Maya spoke to her father like a person and had real feelings about their divorce, which I identified with. She was a smart girl, and I think a lot of the time children are not seen as smart or grown-up in movies, but her character was really lovely. And Abigail Breslin is an extraordinary actor, as well as being adorable (she is getting older now, though).
The cast was great (Ryan Reynolds, Isla Fisher, etc. etc. etc.), and they did pretty well in their roles. I feel like Rachel Weisz could have done better as Summer, Will’s second love interest, but now I’m nitpicking, and nobody likes a nitpicker. Unless they actually have nits, and then it’s a different story.
As well as being a love story, the movie seemed to be a bit of an anti-love story, in that two of the three relationships Will has turn out to not work. Love isn’t always a happy ending, as Disney would have you believe. Definitely, Maybe is about how relationships are imperfect and difficult and the realities of life are that you have to deal with them. That really identified with me, and I think it is a really accessible concept for most people. Love doesn’t always stick around.
It was a great movie for a birthday treat, and probably a good girls’-night-in DVD hire, but quite honestly not very appealing to the male population. As with most romcoms, I guess. I liked it, but I didn’t quite love it – maybe a 4/5 from me.
xx
Za.
No Strings Attached
No Strings Attached revolves around a couple of old friends who have sex for fun one morning and decide to make it a regular thing – without feelings.
I really wanted to watch this when it first came out and I sadly missed it, but luckily because of my overseas trip I was able to catch up with it on the plane.
Natalie Portman is wonderful as always in the role of Emma, as is Ashton Kutcher as Adam, but the characters are a little depthless and the actors take them as far as they possibly can within the parameters of the poor character writing.
I was expecting more nudity, but I think they tried to play for a wider audience and there’s hardly any actual sex scenes. That’s good news for parents, but I just wanted to see Ashton Kutcher take his clothes off. So sad face.
It is another typical romantic comedy with a predictable plot, and follows the regular foolproof pattern of try 3 times and fail, succeed on the fourth try, but it is a sweet story and Portman and Kutcher do have some chemistry. Plus, it IS a romantic comedy. And I love those.
The whole thing is a bit clumsily put together, but I keep coming back to the impeccable casting as No Strings Attached‘s saving grace. Really good and attractive choices.
This movie was really only to fill my time on my long flight, so I enjoyed it in a kind of sedated way. It was colour and movement. But when I analyse it, No Strings was actually pretty good. Another girls’-night-in movie. 3.5/5 stars
xx
Za.
Wild Child
I remember really wanting to see Wild Child when it came out in 2008. As an 11-year-old tween it was incredibly appealing. And let’s face it, it is a movie for pre-teen girls. And teenage girls too. So obviously I enjoyed it when I saw it for the first time last week, to a certain extent.
I started off a little unsure. I don’t like Emma Roberts. She seems sweet enough, but I don’t think she’s a great actress. There’s something about her American rich-girl attitude that doesn’t sit right with me. But then, that made her perfect for the role of Poppy, a stuck-up Malibu princess who is shipped off to boarding school in England for misbehaving. Let me tell you, I am so glad the plot moved to England. English humour and English accents and English countrysides are far more appealing to me than a Californian approach to movie-making. Not sure why.
I hated Poppy at the beginning and I felt no sympathy for her, but I really, really liked her dorm mates. They were incredibly adorable and totally funny. Why isn’t Juno Temple (Drippy) in everything? She’s so cute!
Juno Temple as Drippy... adorable!
As the movie goes on Poppy redeems herself and of course you end up caring about her. She’s really a sweet girl at heart and her totally adorable friends make her see that. She changes her hair and reinvents herself (because we all know that dying your hair changes the very basis of your personality).
The plot line is appealing and the jokes are funny. The soundtrack is young and pretty good. The girls are active and good role models. The love interest it hot. It’s a perfect sleepover movie.
I think if you’re not a teenage girl you will probably not get this movie. Which is a serious let-down. I have to give it 3.5/5 though, because I did enjoy it.
xx
Za.
Sorry for the short review! Bit busy getting ready for my trip to the UK. Because of this I won’t be posting regularly for about the next 4 weeks. I will try to post about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, because the premiere of that will be SO EXCITING! Are you excited? I am. See you in a few weeks!
Notting Hill
I haven’t seen any movies this week (a first in a while), so I think I’ll have to review an old favourite of mine: Notting Hill.
This is one of the first movies I watched when I was little and only really just getting into movies as more than just colour and movement, but as a credible form of entertainment and art. It and movies like Love Actually (which is an incredibly similar style of movie) are really basic movies that I can’t help but… love. They’re comfort films. I watch them when I’m sad. Which makes them incredibly hard to criticise. So I have to tell you now that this review is not going to be very long because of that.
Notting Hill is pretty obviously the kind of movie I enjoy. It’s a British romcom classic, and it has the whole package – Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, Richard Curtis, could you really ask for more? I don’t think so. The storyline involves a young-ish bloke who’s kind of at a dead end in life until one day he accidentally bumps into a beautiful movie star. And you can probably guess how the rest of the story goes – it’s love at first sight, then they’re not sure if they’re meant for each other, it’s a situation of will they won’t they, and then in the end of course they do. It’s well executed and predictable and relatable and very, very sweet.
The characters are funny, and Hugh Grant slides effortlessly into his classic role as a romantic but unsure doofus. Rhys Ifans and Emma Chambers are hilarious in their characters and Julia Roberts is gorgeous and naïve and on top of her game.
As a romcom you do invest some sort of expectation that it will be funny and it does have many laugh-out-loud moments (LOL moments?), which I think if it lacked would bring down the tone of the whole movie, but as such it’s really enjoyable.
Overall there’s not many points I can make for or against Notting Hill, because in the end it is a breezy, light, comfort film that always makes me happy, and for that I can hardly rebuke it. I have to give it 4.5/5 stars.
xx
Za.
High Fidelity
High Fidelity is one of those classic indie movies. Kind of like Garden State. With peculiar but very cool characters and a ripping soundtrack. I don’t think I liked it quite as much as I liked Garden State, but maybe I was just in a better mood that day. Or something. But I still enjoyed it. Just not as much.
High Fidelity follows the story of a slightly self-loathing record store owner as he breaks up with his long-term girlfriend. Rob is a compulsive list maker, and throughout the movie he revisits his top 5 most memorable break ups and tries to find out why girls always break up with him, in a sort of self-discovery way.
The acting is fabulous and John and Joan Cusack are both hilarious in their roles. I cared about all the characters. In particular I liked Todd Louiso as Dick, Rob’s quietly opinionated employee. He was sweet and funny and just quiet. He was a real dork and I was rooting for him the whole film – when he got a girlfriend I was over the moon. Dick, representing nerds everywhere.
The thing I loved most about Rob was how cool he was. You know, when you see somebody cool in a movie, you just want to be like them, you know? And Rob was just, like, completely cool. He didn’t care about anything. He was so hipster it made my eyes burn. He was so laid-back I was worried about him falling over (Geddit? Laid-back?). The whole vibe of the thing was incredibly relaxed and just… cool.
The ending was great, too, a little reminiscent of 500 Days of Summer. It felt like the beginning of a relationship. The beginning of a new story. Like the movie had gone from start to start rather that start to finish. I liked that.
The best thing about it was EASILY the soundtrack. What an amazing soundtrack. Great music. Mmm.
My problem with High Fidelity is pretty shallow. It’s one of those things where I just don’t feel absolutely… right about it. There’s something that doesn’t sit right with me. I could never really get completely into it.
But, that being said, I did really like it, and I can’t fault it on many levels. So I have to give High Fidelity 4/5. Pretty good, huh? I can probably recommend it.
xx
Za.
Valentine’s Day
Me and my mum had a girly night out and went to see Valentine’s Day yesterday.
This movie is about lots of different couples and people and their stories about love on Valentine’s day, and they’re all inter-connected. Familiar? Yes!!! LOVE ACTUALLY!!!
Basically, on principle I say any movie that copies Love Actually‘s plot or storyline or characters or ANYTHING is sacriligious. Absolutely wrong. Thou shalt not steal. ESPECIALLY from the greatest movie ever made.
However, this movie kind of made it. I thought it was really nice and sweet and cute. I loved the characters and the way everything was intertwined. And me and my mum both agree that on an entertainment level it’s about 4/5, but on a critical level it’s about a 3. No matter which way you look at it it was not as slick as Love Actually, and it was really a copy movie. Not in a bad way, but definitely a copy movie.
So I have to average it out to 3.5/5. Fun, but not funtastic.
And Ashton Kutcher’s performance? Wonderful.
xx
Za
The Devil Wears Prada
“That’s all.”
I decided that since I haven’t posted in a LONG time, I might as well post now. A while ago I came back from a very fun sleepover at a friend’s b’day party and we watched 3 movies in total: Mean Girls, Step Up 2, and The Devil Wears Prada. I decided to do The Devil Wears Prada because it was pretty much my favourite out of all 3.
Ok, so let’s start with the plot. The plot was actually really interesting and funny because you’d always get twists and turns whenever you think the main character, Andrea, has finally calmed down. The characters were very strongly portrayed, especially Emily, who was played by Emily Blunt, ironically. 
I think she did a really good job at getting Emily’s uptight, arrogant yet cool personality through and the British accent made her all the better to watch. As for Marilyn Priestly, Meryl Streep did a really good job as well of getting that bossy, strict and commanding attitude through.
All of this aside, i think the fashion in there was fantastic, and I couldn’t help saying: “ooh, I like that outfit!” at times. If they had a more detailed makeover scence in there, it’s be really interesting. 
Overall, 4/5. ^^
Dr. Hu.
He’s Just Not That Into You
I really liked He’s Just Not That Into You. I mean, I didn’t really really like it, but I really liked it. The Mac guy and that girl Ginnifer Goodwin were like THE BEST! I love cute little relationships like that. In movies.
Fave character: Justin Long’s (the Mac guy) character, Alex. When me and my mum were watching it, I turned to her and said, “When I get a boyfriend, he’s going to be just like that,” and she said, “He better be like that or I’ll have to punch him.” Seriously. He is TO DIE FOR. In every possible way.
Fave scene: This one with Ginnifer Goodwin’s character, Gigi, and Alex.
SEE! AIN’T IT CUTE!
Fave baddie: There isn’t one, like in practically every romantic comedy ever made. There is a nasty guy though, also like in every single romantic comedy ever made.
Fave machine: Nup. Unless you count the TV. Or boat. Yeah, I think the boat counts. The boat then.
Fave explosion: No. No really. I think I might have to cut this one out of the faves list. Only action movies have it.
I’m gonna give this movie 3.5/5. It’s actually not faaaaabulous by a critique-y standard, but fun to watch.
Enjoy the moovie! xxooxxoo!
Za.
Baby Mama
Baby Mama is quite an interesting movie about surrogate mothering, and what can go wrong, but also what can go right.
That is the tackiest sentence I have ever written.
But no, really, it was pretty cute. A little boring, though. And a bit predictable.
Favourite character: Rob, the main character’s boyfriend. He’s so nice. Greg Kinnear is a very good actor. In Little Miss Sunshine, I want to shoot him, but in this movie, I want to hug him because he’s so nice.
Favourite scene: Right at the end, when the main character, Kate, finds out that she is pregnant. Very sweet.
Fave baddie: There are no baddies. Apart from Carl, the nasty-but-good-at-heart boyfriend of Kate’s “surrogate mother” Angie.
Fave machine: The thingy machine. What’s it called? When you get that cold stuff put on your stomach and they take a photo of your baby? Watching TV and blogging is messing with my brain.
Fave explosion: Explosion? In a romantic comedy? You have got to be joking. In fact, now I think about it, this movie was almost completely devoid of explosions, machines, and baddies! How disappointing.
Therefore, unfortunately, the maximum score I can give this movie is 3/5. Enjoy, but probably one of the least enjoyable romantic comedies I’ve seen. Not saying it’s bad. I love romantic comedies. They’re my favourites. It’s pulled through by the actors’ performances. Tina Fey is very good.
xx
Za.
