Archive for the 'Romance' Category

Dan In Real Life

Published
by
Chalupa
on November 13, 2007
in Comedy, Drama, Family and Romance
. 0 Comments

If you liked Pieces of April or About a Boy, you’ll probably love this movie because it was written and directed by Peter Hedges. Dan in Real Life, is about a widower who write a daily column in the local newspaper about parenting, family and life in general. It’s that time of year again when the whole family gets together and Dan accidentally falls in love with his little brother’s new girlfriend.

First off, if you’re any kind of fan of Steve Carell (Anchorman, 40 Year Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine, The Office) I think you’ll like this. Lots of comedy. Lots of laughter. Lots of Steve Carell. Another welcomed face would be Juliette Binoche (Chocolat) who plays the girlfriend and even Dane Cook who plays Mitch, the younger brother. I’m a big fan of Dane Cook and his stand-up comedy. I even liked him as The Waffler in Mystery Men and nearly laughed myself to tears seeing him as a line cook in Waiting…, however, he just played Dane Cook in those movies. It was nice to see him branch out a bit and actually act.

One thing Liz and I noticed was Dan didn’t really discipline his kids. Throughout the movie he did things they didn’t like - the oldest wasn’t allowed to drive and the middle child wasn’t allowed to do what she wanted with her boyfriend. In response, the children weren’t very respectful of their father. If I had acted that way towards my mother at that age, I would probably be walking with a limp now; especially if I had done that in front of my grandfather. This kind of seems like a trend in society and movies. Parents are often busy trying to be their kids’ friend instead of being the parent.

Overall, we really enjoyed this one. It has a happy ending and is sure to entertain. You should check it out. I know you’ll love the impromptu song about pig-faced Ruthie Draper.

Hitch

Published
by
Chalupa
on November 4, 2007
in Comedy, Dancing, New York and Romance
. 0 Comments

Starring Will Smith, Eva Mendes and Kevin James, this is a movie I remember hearing college students, where I work, talk unceasingly about back in ‘05, along with The Notebook - which I still haven’t seen. I didn’t really know what all the hub-bub was about and after two years it finally found its way to slot #1 on my Netflix list.

This is a movie partly about a man hiring a dating coach to help instill confidence in himself while pursuing the woman of his dreams. The other half is the dating coach also pursuing the woman of his dreams. If you know much about the actors listed above, I’m sure you’ve already guessed that Will Smith is the suave and sophisticated dating coach while Kevin James is the somewhat nerdy and uncoordinated client. James’ character, Albert, is after a woman he used to work for and Smith’s character, Hitch, is after Sara, a woman he met in a bar. Throughout the movie we watch Hitch give Albert tips and lessons on how he should conduct himself in public and around his date. We also see Hitch putting his own advice into action while Sara is after this mystery man that supposedly helped to ruin her best friend’s life.

That man turns out to be Hitch, or so Sara thinks. She eventually exposes him in her gossip column, ruining Hitch’s career and the relationships his clients have made or are in the process of forming. Things turn out in the end though - this is a PG-13 feel good, happy, dating movie after all. The last 20 minutes are so do get pretty cheesy for me, but overall I enjoyed myself while watching this.

Once

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 18, 2007
in Drama, Independent, Music and Romance
. 0 Comments

Once Once Once. That’s all I was hearing when this film first hit the theaters. Everybody that saw it was just gushing love for this movie. Usually that kinda turns me off to something. If EVERYBODY just loves it I kinda assume there must be something not quite right with it. I guess another reason was because none of my friends whose movie opinions I unquestioningly trust, there’s about 3 in the whole world, had seen it.

This was another film Liz and I caught while in L.A. and I now know what people were gushing about. This film is pretty awesome. Nobody even has names. This is something that didn’t even dawn on me until afterwards. I have heard one complaint - this movie is made up of musicians trying too hard to be actors. I kinda see that, but I still like the movie anyways. Music/soundtrack is also available on EMusic if you’re into that sort of thing.

So story - yes, it’s about musicians. More than that though it’s about people finding each other, making friends and connecting with each other on deeper levels. It’s about poetry, life, love found and love lost. It’s about a lot of things.

I can see a lot of people not understanding this film and not finding any redeeming value because this is nowhere near blockbuster material. The people, situations, dialog and pace aren’t the contrived, fast action, anti-ADD sort of stuff that makes millions of dollars in its opening weekend.

One interesting story I heard was while filming the scene where the guy tries to steal the guitar case, nobody on the street was informed. So in one of the first takes, a good pedestrian sees the theft happen, gives the thief a first-rate shot to the nuts and retrieves the guitar case for the main character. That’s what you get for trying to invoke honest responses I guess.

Stardust

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 18, 2007
in Adventure, Based on a novel, Fantasy, Narrated and Romance
. 0 Comments

I wasn’t really sure what to think of this one from the previews, but it looked interesting. I’m also a big fan of Claire Danes, Peter O’Toole and Robert De Niro. So Liz and I gave it a shot in L.A. It was definitely entertaining. It was a bit long in parts and is definitely geared towards the kids. This is probably something you could take the family to and everybody would be ok with it.

I’m always surprised by DeNiro in relation to Pacino. Both actors have done many similar projects but in the past 10 years DeNiro has definitely stepped out of the mold and has been broadening his horizons. It all started back in 1999 when Analyze This came out. This was followed up by the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie, Analyze That, Meet The Parents and Meet the Fockers. He even did a voice on Shark Tale. At first my reaction was that he must need money. Bad. I don’t really feel that way anymore. You might say DeNiro was kinda type-cast as an Italian gangster/tough guy. I think he’s been trying to break that mold and is doing a good job at it. Pacino has done a variety of roles but I don’t think they’re as recently diverse as DeNiro.

There are a lot of recognizable faces if you choose to go see this. Lots of cameos where you’ll recognize people from all sorts of things. I wouldn’t rush out to see this. Stardust isn’t a must-see film on the big screen. Still worth watching some time though.

Superbad

Published
by
Chalupa
on August 20, 2007
in Comedy, Coming of age, High School, Romance and Teen Movie
. 2 Comments

I finally saw the long awaited and hoped-for Superbad and have to say that I was in no way dissapointed. I think this is by far, the dirtiest teen-genre movie I’ve seen and it wasn’t full of naked co-eds going at it like rabbits. In fact, the only nudity is at the very beginning of a movie when we see a magazine cover. One side note is that when Liz and I saw this, a guy walked in with his 3 or so very young children. We were pretty worried about them being in there, but he got up and ushered his youngtsers out before they were even out of the convenient store (couple minutes in). That made us quite relieved. He must not have realized what the movie was.

As I’ve said before, Judd Apatow is amazing. He didn’t direct this, but he did produce the film along with co-writer and star Seth Rogen and co-writer Evan Goldberg. Like most “cool” Hollywood people, Apatow and Rogen brought in tons of their friends from previous shows and movies. That’s one thing I’ve really enjoyed about Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up - I get to see all my favorite actors and actresses again. One of my favorites was seeing Steve Bannos as the math teacher. He was also the math teacher in Freaks and Geeks. Then there are also the new people brought in like Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Michael Cera, an upcoming comic genius to be reckoned with.

Story - this is probably the best high school portrayal I’ve seen in a long time. This is even better than Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused. Elephant is another amazing high-school movie, but it’s in a totally different league. One thing I love so much about things Rogen and Apatow are involved in is just the dialog. It’s so real. Yeah it can be rough around the edges and a little “dirty” at times, but it’s how I remember high school. Just the way people act, think and look is so amazingly perfect. I’m continually wowed.

The basic gist of the story is you have three fairly average senior high school students. One of them has just acquired a fake ID with the name ‘McLovin’ and the three friends have promised to buy booze for a popular girl’s party. This sounds pretty average. In fact it sounds way too average. What happens in between the promise and fulfilling it is what makes this a masterpiece. Store robberies, mistaken identities, crazy adult-parties, bar fights and a pair of buddy-cops that could give Hot Fuzz a run for its money and turn this into one of the best movies of the summer.

I know I can’t recommend this to a lot of people just because of the content. They’ll turn it off or walk out just like that responsible father did within the first few minutes or scenes. Even though this movie is pretty dirty, it’s still going in my top three movies of the year. The hard part will be decided which I like the best.

Venus

Published
by
Chalupa
on August 16, 2007
in Comedy, Drama, Film in film, Play in film and Romance
. 0 Comments

I wanted to see this movie based on the trailers I saw. I didn’t quite know the plot until I started watching it. I was a little surprised, but not really at all. It’s basically an old man falls in love with a much younger girl/woman. I don’t remember her age being revealed, but she couldn’t have been much more than 20. Even though I felt like this was a very good movie by the end, I was still creeped out just a little bit. I also don’t feel like I could recommend this to many people at all based on just content.

This was almost a reverse Léon in a way. You know, the international version of The Professional starring Jean Reno, Natalie Portman and Gary Oldman. If you haven’t seen the longer, uncut version I can sum it up for you. There are some extra and extended scenes re-enforcing the fact that Mathilda is in love with Leon. I say Venus is a reverse because in this case it’s the old man loving the young girl. For some reason this seems like a worse case, but both parties were in that consenting stage of life.

“Venus”, or Jessie is played by Jodie Whittaker and Maurice (the old man) is played by none other than the great and amazing Peter O’Toole. I’m not even going to start on a list of his accomplishments because it would be too immense. To give you an idea of their real age difference, Peter O’Toole just turned 75 two weeks ago and Jodie Whittaker is/will be 25 this year. Jessie was in a way starved for attention and had a warped sense of what love really is. Maurice was an old man enamored with a young girl he couldn’t have and crossed the line more than once. But, and this is a very big but, Jessie kept encouraging him. The more and more time they spent together, the more she would allow him, and even invite him, to do things.

Now right now you might be saying, “What the hell?” It’s not as bad as it sounds. Seriously. I’m talking about things like touching her hand, kissing her shoulder; it wasn’t that bad. It was still creepy and weird though. The language in this movie is a bit coarse. I kept going back and forth between potty-mouthed-old-men and this-takes-place-in-London and they-talk-that-way. I’m not really sure where I ended up, however, the choice in language didn’t seem out of place or there for shock value. It truly fit.

The movie ended well. I’m not going to give away the ending. If I wasn’t sure I liked it halfway through, I definitely liked it by the end. Like I said before, I’m not going to recommend this to hardly anyone, but I’m still a fan.

Waitress

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 28, 2007
in Comedy, Drama, Dysfunctional, Marriage and Romance
. 0 Comments

Now here’s a movie that left me pleasantly surprised. I was a little intrigued by the previews. I occasionally like to cook things and all the unique pies sounded interesting. There was also the fact that Nathan Fillion (Firefly and Serenity) was starring in it AND this was Adrienne Shelly’s last movie.

I usually try to avoid the PG-13 movies because I get annoyed with the crowd. Tara knows what I’m talking about here - all those pre-pubescent teens. Luckily the theater wasn’t full of them this time around.

So Jenna, played by Keri Russell, is pregnant and married to the biggest jerk in the world, Jeremy Sisto. Jenna likes to make pies and starts going to her new doctor who is played by Fillion. Jenna falls in love with her doctor because he’s the only man that has noticed her, and isn’t a jerk, in quite some time. What’s she going to do? How can she get rid of Earl, her husband?

Don’t worry, it doesn’t turn into a murder mystery or get cheesy. Things work out in the end. One of the best parts is when Old Joe, the owner of the diner where she works, tells Earl a thing or two. Everything seems to work out for the best in the end. Definitely a feel good movie. Not quite as feel-good as Amelie, but something to put a smile on your face and worth watching every so often.

Knocked Up

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 11, 2007
in Based on a book, Based on a novel, Comedy, Coming of age, Drama, Drugs and Romance
. 0 Comments

Yet another amazing creation from Judd Apatow. If you’re a fan of Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared or 40 Year Old Virgin, you’re sure to love this one as well. It’s full of faces you’ll remember along with more side-splitting comedy.

In this film Ben, played by Seth Rogen, meets Alison, played by Katherine Heigl, at a bar and she gets “knocked up”. The story then unfolds as Ben tries to do the right thing and be a responsible father while Alison is trying to deal with an unplanned pregnancy and living with her sister who’s having some marital problems of her own. Mixed in are Ben’s stoner buddies and all kinds of hilarious one-liners that will probably have you laughing out loud. Most of this humor is pretty crude though so it’s something to keep in mind before going to see it. There’s a good chance you could be offended.

One thing I love about Apatow’s projects is they just seem so real and down-to-earth to me. I see these characters and I can relate to them, or they embody someone I know. I see realistic conversations and situations being played out that I could see happening or have heard similar stories about. I think this is why I like it much more than your run-of-the-mill comedy/romantic-comedy that creates impossible situations with unbelievable outcomes.

This has to be right up there with Hot Fuzz being some of the funniest movies of the year. I highly recommend seeing this one.

Curse of the Golden Flower

Published
by
Chalupa
on May 7, 2007
in Action, Adventure, Based on a play, Drama, Epic, Martial Arts, Romance, Suicide and Tragedy
. 0 Comments

Once again, I was awed by yet another action movie from director Yimou Zhang. You may seen some of his other movies like House of Flying Daggers, Hero, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, Raise the Red Lantern, etc. This guy puts out good stuff.

This film centers around the royal family of China during the Tang dynasty. Like most Greek tragedies, this film doesn’t end on a much happier note. Through lies, betrayal, plots and secrecy, the royal family collapses on itself leaving very few alive when everything’s said and done. The emperor alone seems to be the only one who is untouchable. I think that’s how it’s supposed to be though. Even though he is the most powerful man in the empire, he is the loneliest because he can’t let anyone get too close to him. I’m not going to go much deeper into the plot for fear of ruining this for anyone.

I’m sure some people will/were disappointed with this film because they were expecting something action-packed from the trailer. You do get plenty of action, but not all the way through. I found the movie quite interesting and, as usual with Yimou Zhang, quite beautiful. I don’t know if he is always behind the color schemes, artwork, scenery and costuming, but they are all breath-taking in the films of his I’ve watched.

One thing I found out in the “extras” was they actually built the entire palace set. I assumed it was mostly green-screened due to its size and grandeur, but it was actually built. There was one part where Li Gong is talking about foreign tourists seeing the set and thinking they were crazy for building something of that magnitude. Speaking of which, you might recognize her from Memoirs of a Geisha. Hopefully you’ll also recognize Yun-Fat Chow from movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Bulletproof Monk, Anna and the King, Replacement Killers, etc.

One other thing that caught my eye were the weapons of some elite ninja fighters. I’m not expert on martial arts movies, but I feel like I’ve seen a few. These guys has scythe like swords with ropes attached. They would swing them around like grappling hooks and slice up their opponents. The epic-battle scene in the end was pretty amazing too. I was also pretty impressed with the immediately clean-up and how everything was “back to normal” afterwards. Hopefully I haven’t spoiled anything for you. I highly suggest you check this one out.

Deja Vu

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 22, 2007
in Action, Drama, Romance, Sci-fi, Thriller and Twist
. 0 Comments

I saw this one at the dollar theater. I love the dollar theater cause if the movie turns out to be a bust, you aren’t out that much. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie. In fact, I was kind of expecting it to be “one of those movies” where I’d be glad I had seen it for a dollar. Surprisingly, I really liked this one.

If you’re not sure what deja vu means, here’s a definition: 1.Psychology. the illusion of having previously experienced something actually being encountered for the first time. Make sense? Well you have Denzel Washington who is a cop and there’s been a horrific crime. While he’s trying to check some things out, he sort of has that “deja vu” sense about the whole thing. We then find out that the government has this big top secret equipment where they can look back in time 4 days 6hours and 45min, if I remember correctly.

So they use this top secret equipment to look back in time and solve the crime. The equipment shows them the past at “real time”. This means that they can’t fast forward or rewind so they better pay close attention. They end up solving the crime and getting their man, but this has gotten personal for Denzel and he still feels the need to tie up some loose ends. This is where it gets interesting and you find out why the movie has its name.

I won’t go into too many more details just because you should go out and watch this yourself. I give this one a surprised two thumbs up.