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Directed by: Roger Kumble Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart, Anna Faris In many ways, this is a great movie. In many more ways, it is a terrible movie. Kumble is not a great director, he is very heavy-handed with forcing the jokes, and the Paris Hilton parody by Faris falls flat more than it succeeds. However, Ryan Reynolds is quietly becoming our generation's Eddie Murphy (when Eddie was good)- he plays the same character in every movie, but it's such a good character that it doesn't matter. Chris Marquette plays the role of little brother to perfection, and I really felt a chemistry between the two. The thing about the movie that stands out is that it isn't instantly quotable. The jokes come from the character's reactions and visual cues (which admittedly sometimes devolve into shameless mugging), but there is a real, visceral pain there. Unlike the similarly-Holiday themed "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation", however, this movie doesn't make you laugh because of the ineptitude of its star, but rather laugh because the alternative is crying because the results of people trying too hard to be someone other than themselves is too painful to watch. This movie skirts being a true dark, black comedy, and (naturally) comes with the cop-out happy ending, but it manages not to telegraph every move too early. With a different ending, this could be a really great testament to misery and unrequited love. The only preformance that really was grating was Amy Smart, who plays the same drat character in every movie. While this might seem hypocritical in a movie starring Ryan-freakin'-Reynolds, Amy Smart's 'passive good girl' schtick is eminently uninteresting. I give this movie -½ a point for the cop-out ending, and -1 point for the ham-handed, shove-jokes-down-our-throat direction. The story, however, rings very true (at least to me it did). RATING: 4 PROS: Ryan Reynolds, Chris Marquette, CONS: Cop-out ending, Amy Being Amy ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://imdb.com/title/tt0433400/
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Dec 18, 2005 19:45
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 14:35 |
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