THE PROPOSAL.

As some of you may know, I'm quite the large fan of one Mr. Ryan Reynolds. I'll see pretty much anything he's involved in. Sandra Bullock? I can take her or leave her (I liked her in Speed). So I tucked away my shame and went to a RomCom. Alone. In the middle of the day. Because I liked the male actor. Um... anyway...

The movie focuses on Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock), a biotch boss of a publishing firm in New York. Her assistant, Andrew (Ryan Reynolds), has swallowed his pride for the last three years and gone along with whatever she wanted, all in the hopes of securing an Editor promotion. But one day, Margaret gets called in to her boss's office. Apparently, her green card was rejected, and she's going to be deported back to Canada, which means she can't work at her job... and the guy she just fired get it instead. In desperation, Margaret reels in Andrew and tells her boss they're engaged, and later threatens to blackmail him if he doesn't go along with it. But it doesn't go down as well at the immigrants' office, where they automatically smell the scam. Unless they can prove that they know each other inside and out and prove that they aren't committing fraud, Andrew will owe a huge fine and go to jail, while Margaret will get deported anyway. So they go up to Sitka, Alaska, to visit Andrew's family for the weekend, as it's Grandma Annie's (Betty White) 90th birthday. His mom (Mary Steenburgen) is surprised at first, but goes along with it, while he and his dad (Craig T. Nelson) show Margaret that there's a bit more trouble to Andrew's life than she knew.

The movie doesn't waste time getting to the point. It introduces us to both characters quickly, and then puts us into the deportation situation. Before you know it, you're viewing beautiful Alaska for the majority of the movie. And boy did they capture its beauty. The film is gorgeous to watch. I've actually been to Alaska (actually, I've even been to Sitka, where the movie takes place), and it's like no matter where you look, it's stunning... pretty much like the film. And though I've been to Sitka, I didn't really recognize a damn thing outside the mountains, clear water, and fishing boats.

The movie is your run-of-the-mill RomCom. It's predictable. But in this case, that doesn't make it a bad thing. Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock bring an incredible charm to their roles, and the chemistry between them is fantastic. I personally think Reynolds was underused in the movie, but when he was on screen, he stole the show. I really couldn't help but be taken in by the movie and worry about these characters. Betty White also has a fun role as Grandma Annie.

The one thing RomComs often do, however, is focus the story on the relationship building (the "they're falling for each other!" moments) and forget, mostly, about the comedy. This movie doesn't. This movie is really funny, and I laughed at this about as much as I did with The Hangover. Though this is a much different style of comedy (outside, perhaps, the Ramone character, which is more similar to The Hangover's comedy). And when I wasn't laughing, I was smiling and enjoying the film.

There were a couple scenes that could have been trimmed down a bit, though. For instance, Ramone's introduction and the 'chant' scene. With both, the funnier parts were toward the end of each respective scene, but it took too long to get to those parts. So a little better editing would have suited them well.

There's not much more to say about this movie. It's pretty to look at. The comedy is good. The chemistry between the characters is great. Ryan Reynolds is still doing well. I also enjoyed that they both work at a publishing firm considering my interest in writing and being published, so that was a plus in the entertainment factor. Yes, it's the RomCom formula, but it's charm pulls the wool over your eyes where you just don't care. Not to mention it's the rare RomCom where it ends up the woman's fault... but I digress.


A Keanu 'Whoa'

Brief Note: Deadpool Is GO!

Hell yeah! I know I rarely do more than one post in a day, but I felt this was warranted. I just read that they just gave the greenlight to a Deadpool spinoff with Ryan Reynolds reprising the role. Again I say to you, hells to the yes.

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE.

I want to start off by saying I don’t read the comics, but have seen all the movies and used to watch the old cartoon from time to time. That being said, during the movie, with a few scenes as exceptions, I was really enjoying it. But then, after it was over, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized how much I didn’t like about it.

James Logan (Hugh Jackman) and Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber) are mutant brothers with the ability to heal and grow things from their body. After many years of fighting wars, and with Victor getting more and more violent and unstable, they are recruited into a special program by William Stryker (Danny Huston). There, they work with other mutants such as John Wraith (Will.i.Am), Fred Dukes/The Blob (Kevin Durand), Chris Bradley/Bolt (Dominic Monaghan), David North/Agent Zero (Daniel Henney), and Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds). But Logan doesn’t like what they’re up to, so he quits and moves to Canada, where he falls in love with a school teacher, Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). But when Victor shows up again, apparently killing all the old team, Logan seeks vengeance. And on the way, he seeks help from Remy LeBeau/Gambit (Taylor Kitsch).

As the movie starts off, we’re given some rather rough acting off of a pretty bad script from some child stars. This didn’t excite me whatsoever. But then it gives us a pretty good title sequence of wars-through-the-years that made up for it. Unfortunately, it starts to go a bit downhill for a while after that. The pacing of the film prior to Logan getting the adamantium is off. It’s too fast and choppy, never giving us enough time to really get to know or care about anybody.

But then he gets the adamantium skeleton and things start to get a bit better. That is, until they bring in Gambit, and I realize exactly what the biggest flaw of the film really is—much like the recent Dragonball movie, it’s just a checklist. They even toss in Scott Summers/Cyclops for what just seems to be for the hell of it (though there is a cool cameo at the end that comes from it, so that is a plus). Otherwise, we get introduced to some really fun characters—Wade Wilson and Gambit at the top of that list—and then get them yanked away again. After Ryan Reynolds’ brilliant introduction, he disappears from the movie almost completely (trying to avoid spoilers here).

Gambit has a fun introduction, as well, but he deserves a paragraph all to himself. You know how when they were going to include Gambit in X3? But then they cut him from the script because he wouldn’t have had much screen time and they wanted to give the character justice for the fans (well, that and they couldn’t get Sawyer from LOST)? Now just imagine how Gambit would have been like had he been in X3, and that’s basically what you get here. He has, maybe, a total of 10 minutes screen time in the entire film. Same goes with Ryan Reynolds.

In fact, it’s that way with the majority of the characters who aren’t Logan, Victor, Kayla, or Stryker (and Kayla is questionable, too, really). Outside of Logan, there is no character depth whatsoever. Everybody is basically a flat character, just there to move the story along and nothing else. And I think the next issue somewhat stems from that, which I didn’t really realize until after I’d thought about it for a while. But there’s really very little depth to the movie at all. It’s a basic revenge tale, and that’s it.

But this isn’t all negative. The characters of Logan and Victor are fun to watch, and Hugh and Liev play them well (though Hugh has had quite a bit of practice with his). In fact, outside a character here and there, the acting was pretty good. Not to mention the action was also great. And there’s enough humor and explosions to keep your mind away from the fact that this movie is mostly disappointing.

Then we come to the special effects. There actually were some questionable CGI moments. Maybe it was just me, but a few of the times when Logan shows his shiny new claws (primarily in the old couple’s bathroom), they looked incredibly fake. And then there’s The Blob. When Kevin Durand shows back up in the movie about halfway through (or so), he’s gotten, well… bigger. But instead of JUST wearing a fat suit, they apparently added some CGI fat. You heard me right… CGI fat. It was absolutely ridiculous. Every time I saw a graphically enhanced jiggle, I wanted to groan.

Overall, though, the movie actually was entertaining. It was by no means as horribly awful as the early reviews made it out to be, but it is rather disappointing. They could have done so much better with this. They needed to tweak the script a bit, maybe remove some characters and give more time for development. Maybe make the movie a bit longer to help out. And they could have at least tied up a few loose ends. What the hell happened with Victor? You just… don’t see him again. After a movie building up their relationship, you would expect even a little bit of closure before the memory loss (oh, and how did Victor lose his memory, anyway? That’s never explained, either). And if any of you have heard of the scene after the credits, don’t bother. It’s the lamest after-the-credits scene ever. Actually, there are two scenes after the credits roll. One is not long after the credits start, and the other is at the very end, after they’re over. It adds absolutely nothing to the story, doesn’t give a new twist… all it does is give us an insanely lame and cheesy line, and then a headache for sitting through the what-felt-like endless credits.

One thing is for sure, though. They need to have a Deadpool spin-off movie (or at least a Deadpool reboot, but keep Ryan Reynolds). I actually think I heard whispers about that anyway, so that’s cool. Anywho, it wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great, either. It was just alright. I gave it the following score because it was entertaining enough to make me not be too disappointed… but it still could have been better.

Stop Saying Okay! Okay.

ADVENTURELAND.

I’m almost happy this movie didn’t get more advertisement than it did, because the advertising it did have made it seem like a big comedy, the next Superbad. And it couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s the 80s, and James (Jesse Eisenberg) just graduated college with a literature degree and plans to go to Europe as a graduation present before heading off to grad school in New York. But when his dad gets demoted, he not only loses the money to go to Europe, but nearly loses the chance to go to grad school. So he’s forced to get a summer job so that he can pay to live in New York. His old friend Frigo (Matt Bush, AKA the kid from the AT&T rollover minutes commercials) get him a job at a theme park, Adventureland, where he’s hired by owners Bobby (Bill Hader) and Paulette (Kristen Wiig). He gains a new friend, Joel (Martin Starr). But he also starts to fall for fellow co-worker Em (Kristen Stewart). Of course, it’s not that easy. Between maintenance man Connell (Ryan Reynolds) and sexy co-worker Lisa P (Margarita Lavieva), their relationships and friendships will be tested.

Like I said at the start, this movie is much more a drama than a comedy. Sure it has some comedic moments (usually in the form of Matt Bush, Bill Hader, and Kristen Wiig), but the majority of the movie is about how freakin’ miserable everybody is. But unlike movies like Knocked Up, where I thought it got too serious, the drama in this movie didn’t bring it down any, for me. It stayed at a healthy level of both drama and comedy—it wasn’t too serious to make the comedy seem random, and it wasn’t too funny to make the drama seem like too much of a downer.

My only issue with the story was that it did focus a lot on the crappy lives of these characters, but outside maybe Em and James (and more specifically Em), it didn’t go into a whole lot of depth about it. It was as if the entire cast of characters was trying to be fully developed, but fell just short. However, there’s only so much you can do in the time frame of the movie. But I don’t think adding scenes would have worked either, because then it might have come off as repetitive. That’s why I don’t think it was a huge issue, and why I think just hinting at a lot of it instead of blatantly coming out with it worked much better. And by the end of the movie, I honestly didn’t care about it anymore, anyway.

As far as acting went, everybody was brilliant, for the most part. I think maybe the role was written for Michael Cera, because Jesse Eisenberg channeled him quite often. However, I don’t think Cera could have pulled off some of the scenes the way Jesse did, particularly at the end. And Kristen Stewart? She’s completely redeemed herself from Twilight (not that she was particularly terrible there, but just for being associated with it in general). She was great in this, showing all necessary emotions. And she was incredibly sexy, to boot. I also want to see more of Matt Bush and Martin Starr in the future. I’ve seen Martin Starr in tiny roles in the past, but the guy deserves better. And the only thing I’ve ever seen Matt Bush in are the rollover minute commercials, where I think he’s hilarious, too. It was also interesting to see Ryan Reynolds in this type of role. It’s not his usual quipster, sarcastic, funny man. It’s a more serious and subdued role, though he was great in it.

I think what I liked most about the movie was that, although I don’t remember too much about the 80s (I was born in 86, so I was still rather young at the time), I could still associate myself with a lot of the happenings. James reminded me a lot of, well, me… except without the pot… or the parties and drinking… or the select group of women wanting to be with him. But like James, I’m a college grad with an English/Lit degree, who wants to travel the world, and is quite awkward when it comes to the opposite sex (at least in matters of dating). Though I was right there with Joel, too, at times. And other things, too. Anyway, the point is, I was able to identify with the movie and the characters quite a bit.

I’ve seen very few good movies in theater so far this year (that were actually movies for this year, not last year’s just taking their time), but I’d wager that this is one of the first “great” movies of the year so far. Depending on the rest of the year, I might end up putting this on my Top 10. I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I think that made it better.

So to end this review, I want to share two anecdotes about the man sitting next to me during the movie. First, I knew I was in for a rough time when the very first trailer starts, and it’s for the upcoming Spanish film Sin Nombre. The man proceeds to say, once the trailer is over (and keep in mind, this is a foreign movie with a completely Spanish title), “Looks like it might be pretty good… except it looks like it might have a lot of subtitles.” I knew that if I ever got closer to slapping a stranger for idiot statements, it would be too soon. So the movie’s not very far in, and it shows them driving up onto their driveway or whatever, and the guy points out the car and goes “A Panzer? You don’t see those everyday.” That’s because the movie takes place in the freakin’ 80s, you Dumbass. Anyway, the point is… well, there isn’t a point. I had a stupid guy sitting next to me. And he talked (and breathed) quite loudly. But the movie was brilliant, and that’s all that matters.

Royale With Cheese

DEFINITELY, MAYBE.

The selling point of this movie to me was Ryan Reynolds. I’ve loved him in everything he’s done. It’s a little different with this movie, as he’s playing something I don’t believe I’ve seen him do before: a dad. The premise is very simple: Maya (Abigail Breslin) has Sex Ed one day at school and goes home with her divorcing father Will (Ryan Reynolds) and asks about how she came to be. At first he refuses because it’s too complicated, but he decides to do it as a love story mystery type thing in which he changes all the women’s names. So thus begins the intertwining love adventures between Will and Emily (Elizabeth Banks), April (Isla Fisher), and Summer (Rachel Weisz).

As far as romantic comedies go, this one was pretty good. While it was predictable at times and had a by-the-book ending, it threw in a unique twist to the story, being the flashback-laden story, which the majority of the movie takes place in. For the most part, the acting was actually done very well, though it got pretty sappy and a bit cheesy toward the end. I still loved Ryan Reynolds in this, as he kept his usual Ryan Reynolds wit and charm. Rachel Weisz was okay, but her character was pretty boring to me. Elizabeth Banks was good, too, but my favorite, of course, was Isla Fisher (which is probably because the movie sets it up that way. In other words, if this had been your average Rom Com with only one main female to fall in love with, it would have been Isla Fisher).

The props, however, have to go to Kevin Kline’s horny professor, Hampton Roth. It was an interesting role for Kline, but it worked. He was entertaining every time he was on screen. Actually, he was probably the good half of the Rachel Weisz part of the story. On the other hand, Abigail Breslin, for the little bit of movie she was actually in (as I said, a huge chunk of the movie was in flashback), did very well. She actually had some of the funniest lines in the movie, but that could be because you don’t really expect a girl of her age to say some of the things she does. It catches you off guard.

All in all, I didn’t think the ‘mom’ was as predictable as everybody is saying, but the ending itself was quite predictable. But it fit, too, as this is a Rom Com. So yeah, it was pretty good for what it was. Ryan Reynolds wins me over again (it really sounds like I have a crush on the guy).

I Am McLovin!

(P.S. Did anybody else who saw it suddenly get the strange urge to go out and read Jane Eyre afterward?)