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| Gerard Butler, Katherine Heigl-The Ugly Truth |
Joseph Belanger
February 2010
Movie Entertainment
As a film critic, people I know are sometimes afraid to tell me what films they like. Do they think I watch nothing but pseudo-intellectual foreign melodramas or something? No, this critic needs to get silly like everybody else from time to time and what better movies to do it with than these?
YES MAN
The concept is simple but effective: Jim Carrey is Carl Allen, a hapless loser who hates people and life while pretending not to. To avoid becoming a complete hermit, Carl agrees to say “yes” to everything thrown his way for as long as it takes. This could obviously lead to some problems, but if you’re anything like Carl and you say “no” to more things than you care to admit, then you too will be seeing the power of “yes!” by the end of the movie. (TMN, February 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26)
BRING IT ON
This one is actually from the same director as YES MAN, Peyton Reed, and is one of my guiltiest pleasures. I hear your initial apprehension. This is a cheerleading movie, after all, that has gone on to spawn countless low budget sequels. Let me assure you, though, that this first romp with Kirsten Dunst as the head cheerleader will have you cheering along. (M:Pix, February 15, 20, 26)
WHATEVER WORKS
I’ am a big Woody Allen fan sobut I was a little skeptical when I heard Larry David was going to be embodying the role Allen would have once played himself. That’s a whole lot of neurosis in one character. To top it off, David’s love interest iswould be played by Evan Rachel Wood, who is 40 years his junior. For what it’s worth though, WHATEVER WORKS, works and is reminiscent of Allen’s work from the 1970’s. (TMN, February 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, 27)
THE UGLY TRUTH
The actual ugly truth about this movie is that a lot of critics considered it to be pretty bad. I would never nominate it for an award, or anything but I actually laughed out loud whenpretty often watching it. Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler are easy to look at and a lot of fun to watch sparring with each other. The humour follows suit and gets pretty sexy too. (TMN, February 27)
BAND OF BROTHERS
Ok, fine. There is nothing fluffy about this 2001 HBO mini-series about a real paratrooper regiment called Easy Company that fought in the Ssecond World War. In fact, it’s the exact opposite but I had to throw something in there for the serious folks. I actually only caught this series last year for the first time and I was consistently moved by the battles Easy Company braved through. It is impeccably shot and wonderfully acted by the entire ensemble. It is not to be missed. (HBO, see premieres page for details)
Joseph Belanger is not taking life too seriously, and blogging regularly at www.blacksheepreviews.com.