Couples Retreat

Couples Retreat is the story of a group of friends that go to an exotic island resort in the hopes of a dream vacation and to help their friends considering a divorce only to find out that the resort is also a heavy duty couples counseling center – and the counseling is not optional. Each of the four couples undergo counseling and discover a whole host of issues they didn’t know they had in this Mars vs. Venus comedy.

While I enjoyed Couples Retreat like I’ve enjoyed any joint venture between Jon Favreau & Vince Vaughn, I can’t quite say the film was cohesive. The movie isn’t as funny as the trailer leads you to believe, but isn’t bad as you might assume it would be; it’s a little clichéd and predictable at times, but altogether entertaining – something that I mainly pin on the sense of humor that radiates off the screen from almost all the actors.

What I really enjoyed about Couples Retreat was as always the partnering between Favreau & Vaughn, and I found the introduction of Jason Bateman to the mix fit well. These are actors that know comedy and know how to find the quirky or comedic beat in a moment. This is the men from Swingers if they managed to grow up and have kids outside of the LA scene, and seeing that is kind of enjoyable in a very unique way.

The one large downside to me was the character Faizon Love played; I’m not talking negatively against Love himself or his performance but how he actually appeared in the movie. For most of the scenes, including some major ones Love’s character is simply not there; either he was cut out as much as possible in editing and reshoots based on studio notes, or Love for whatever reason was not on set nearly as much as everyone else and they shot around him. The problem is that this leaves the audience feeling like his character was included for ethnic variety and that his character and conflict is never actually developed past being the sad divorcee.

Couples Retreat is a good movie and a fun watch. If you’re looking for a laugh not based on gross outs or jokes involving bodily fluids I highly recommend it – this film actually derives it’s comedy form pretty real to life situations which is kind of refreshing.

Director: Peter Billingsley
Writers: Job Favreau, Vince Vaughn & Dana Fox
Dave: Vince Vaughn
Jason: Jason Bateman
Shane: Faizon Love
Joey: Jon Favreau
Ronnie: Malin Akerman
Cynthia: Kristen Bell
Lucy: Kristin Davis

The Proposal

Sandra_Bullock_in_The_Proposal
Originally uploaded by mykiru isyusero

Margaret is an executive at a high powered publishing company and is known for being ruthless. Andrew is her handsome, adorable assistant that she tortures daily while he waits patiently for a promotion to editor and possibly a chance to have his manuscript published. However, Margaret is Canadian and unexpectedly she has her visa revoked and is told she will be removed from her job while in Canada reapplying for her visa. In desperation Margaret tells the partners that she and Andrew are engaged and the two being to engage in deceiving an immigration officer in the hopes that Margaret and Andrew can marry long enough for her to be granted citizenship. What Margaret doesn’t count on is meeting Andrew’s family in Alaska and what that will change in her grand plans.

The Proposal was a cute movie; it wasn’t worth buying, or seeing twice, but it also didn’t bore me – that’s actually pretty good for a romantic comedy. I laughed when I was supposed to laugh, and fell a little in love with the characters, the only thing I never really saw was the relationship. Most of the time this would be a killer for a review of a romantic comedy, but Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds brought a lot of chemistry and were incredibly personable characters, and this is what made the film work, even though I did not see the romance in their relationship.

I have to say that the more I see him in the more I adore Ryan Reynolds. The man has a personality, charisma and humor that radiates from any character he plays and somehow doesn’t detract from his portrayal. The closest thing I can equate him to is a classic star like Clark Gable – you watch him perform and you are aware you are watching an actor, but you still see the mastery of the role.

As a date movie, or a distraction The Proposal is a movie to see. I don’t know if it will have much in the way of legs on DVD, but it’s definitely worth seeing at least once.

Director: Anne Fletcher
Writer: Pete Chiarelli
Margaret Tate: Sandra bullock
Andrew Paxton: Ryan Reynolds
Grace Paxton: Mary Steenburgen
Joe Paxton: Craig T. Nelson
Grandma Annie: Betty White
Gertrude: Malin Akerman

Margaret Tate: What am I allergic to?
Andrew Paxton: Pine nuts, and the full spectrum of human emotion.

Watchmen

Watchmen: Comedian
Originally uploaded by AsceticMonk

Since its publication there has been the universal theory that Watchmen is one of the single most brilliant pieces of literature ever written, and possibly right next to Atlas Shrugged as one of the most unfilmable pieces of literature.

I am one of the ones that agrees - Watchmen is unfilmable – but Zach Snyder may have gotten as close to filming Watchmen as anyone can every hope to get. There are simply things in Watchmen that cannot fit into a movie: Hollace Mason’s autobiography, the news stories of missing artists & scientists, the relationship of Sally with her husband/manager, the newsstand, the black freighter, the lesbian cab driver; if everything that were in the graphic novel were in Watchmen the movie would have to be at least six hours long, or 2-3 separate movies.

Watchmen at its core is the story of a group of retired superheroes; it is told from the perspective of a world that is our reality (only slightly tweaked to change history), a world that actually relied on heroes until they began to see them as a threat. The question behind the story is how do these characters deal with being more than the average citizen when they are no longer allowed to use those skills. For some it eats away at who they are, some have no sense of identity, one feels like he is no longer a member of humanity and only one of them remains active despite being a wanted man. This is a story that explore the morality and humanity of the superhero myth.

When reading the graphic novel my favorite character was Comedian, which is actually quite disturbing as he is possibly one of the most amoral characters in history, but he is the character that galvanizes the plot of the story, and he is by far the most symbolic of all the characters. In the filmic version Comedian is played with brilliance by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. I have loved watching this man at his craft since I discovered him on the CW’s Supernatural and I hope he has a long career on the big screen.

All in all Watchmen is a damn fine interpretation of Alan Moore’s graphic novel, but it does have a few things I have issues with. However, that is for a different review as I saw Watchmen twice in less than 24 hours.

Director: Zack Snyder
Writers: David Hayter & Alex Tse
Laurie Jupiter/ Silk Spectre: Malin Akerman
Jon Osterman/Dr. Manhattan: Billy Crudup
Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias: Matthew Goode
Walter Kovacs/Rorschach: Jackie Earle Hayley
Edward Blake/Comedian: Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl: Patrick Wilson
Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre: Carla Gugino
Hollis Mason/Nite Owl: Stephen McHattie
Richard Nixon: Robert Wisden

Adrian Veidt: It doesn't take a genius to see the world has problems.
Edward Blake: No, but it takes a room full of morons to think they're small enough for them to handle.