The Wedding Planner

I think I’ve stated it before, but The Wedding Planner is seriously one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies – I just think that with a little tweaking you could take out Matthew McConaughey & Jennifer Lopez and drop in Rock Hudson & Doris Day – it’s that kind of movie.  I think if you combine this with Never Been Kissed and perhaps He’s Just Not That Into You a group of girls could have a nice, man-free Valentine’s Day.

So watch this movie, preferably with a glass of your favorite girly drink and some chocolate and just think about the career Jennifer Lopez could have had if she hadn’t decided to sing.

Mary: Y'know, "those who can't do, teach"? Well those who can't wed, plan. 

The Wedding Planner

Mary is one of the most sought after wedding planners in the greater San Francisco area and it finally looks like she is going to land the job that will get her the partnership in her wedding firm with the marriage of new-money Fran Donolly. However, Mary soon figures out that the wedding will be more complicated than it seems when she realizes that Fran’s fiancé Eddie is actually Dr. Steve Eddison, a doctor she had a romantic interlude with right after meeting Fran. What follows is a romantic comedy in the style of the Hollywood classics as Steve has to come to terms with why he flirted with Mary and Mary needs to deal with her attitude towards all of the men in her life.

The Wedding Planner really is one of my guilty pleasure movies. I can’t tell you quite why except I feel like it could have been made forty years ago and starred Rock Hudson & Doris Day. This film is soft, sweet and funny to it’s very core and will undoubtedly score well with the hopeless romantic types or fans of Jennifer Lopez or Matthew McConaughey.

Normally, the “seductive” smile of Matthew McConaughey has no effect on me, but in this movie hid good old southern charm comes shining through and he is pretty impossible to resist.

There is not really a whole lot I can say about this movie. It’s a guilty pleasure for a reason and talking too much about it would spoil it as I’d have to look to hard and find the flaws that I know are there but have cheerfully been avoiding.

Director: Adam Shankman
Writers: Pamela Falk & Michael Ellis
Mary Fiore: Jennifer Lopez
Steve Edison: Matthew McConaughey
Fran Donolly: Bridgette Wilson
Massimo: Justin Chambers
Penny: Judy Greer
Dr. John: Kevin Pollak

Mary: Y'know, "those who can't do, teach"? Well those who can't wed, plan.

Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder 3
Originally uploaded by Deadly x Design

Tropic Thunder is still one of the funniest movies to have come out in the last decade no matter how many times I watch it; in fact the more I watch it the more I become impressed with the skills of director and actor Ben Stiller. I still do not quite understand how you direct a movie in which you also act in but Stiller does this in every film he directs and Tropic Thunder shows all the skill of a veteran director.

I enjoy watching Tropic Thunder with people that know very little about it because it seems like they never expect what is actually in the film. Sometimes it’s a cameo like Tom Cruise that surprises them and sometimes it’s merely the nuts and bolts of the film. As my younger brother expressed to me last night after watching it for the first time; Tropic Thunder makes no logical sense, yet somehow it’s all corralled in a way that makes the story make perfect sense and become utterly hilarious.

I truly cannot recommend this film enough and the more I watch it the more I become firmly aware that not only is the in my top five favorite films of 2008, but I think perhaps Robert Downey Jr. should have gotten the best supporting actor Oscar.

Kirk Lazarus: Being an actor's no different than being a rugby player or a construction worker, save for the fact that my tools are the mechanisms that trigger human emotion.

Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder Screen Captures 03
Originally uploaded by AshDigitalis

I have been excited about the prospect of Tropic Thunder for months. I do have a special place in my heart for movies about making movies; add to that the prospect of Robert Downey Jr. and a huge amount of advanced buzz and I was pretty sure that there was no way I could dislike Tropic Thunder.

I adored Tropic Thunder.

Everything about the film was funny to me, but I do not think I have laughed harder in years at a movie. Every time Robert Downey Jr. opened his mouth to deliver a line about the inner workings of Holylwood or the craft of acting I could not stop laughing.

This film has gotten a lot of heat because it is “controversial” and “insensitive”. What drives me nuts is that with these kinds of films (the same with Dogma) people jump to conclusions without seeing them in the text of the film.

Are the jokes about Simple Jack the retard insensitive? Yes. But what they fail to see is that they are more insensitive towards why Tugg Speedman chose to play Jack than the mental condition of the character. The entire joke is based around the insensitivity of Hollywood towards the individual and the outsider, and that their main goal is to win awards and make money – period. This is actually the theme of the entire movie; somehow Ben Stiller and the writing team found a way to poke fun at the system while completely endorsing the system to get the movie made.

Tropic Thunder is filled to the brim with cameos, inside jokes and memorable characters that completely endorse the Hollywood stereotype that people believe in. While I adored all of the stars and cemeos in this film I do have to say that two people stood out for me as my favorites – Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise.

Tom Cruise is Les Grossman, the head of the studio that is making the movie within Tropic Thunder - Tropic Thunder. This is the tent pole movie of the decade for the studio and Les is personally involved, even getting people to assault the films director as he is on teleconference thousands of miles away and cannot do it himself. This role is the Tom Cruise I know, love and have missed ever since his couch jumping incident; this is the Tom Cruise that is in the business because he loves it, and is the biggest star in the world without trying to be anyone but himself – the Tom Cruise that does things because he knows his fans will enjoy it.

This truly is the summer of Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man was brilliant, and I think Tropic Thunder was made by his portrayal of Kirk Lazarus – Australian method actor, multi-award winner, who is so committed to the role that he has undergone a procedure to dye his skin black so he can portray the platoons sergeant. This role is one of the funniest I have seen since my personal favorite comedy Blazing Saddles where I fell in love with Gene Wilder’s Jim.

I highly recommend Tropic Thunder to all. It is a highly enjoyable movie that will entertain adults to no end. Just remember to go in knowing that this movie is not PG-13, and that the jokes are meant to be taken within the context of the film – a knowledge of film history helps as well.

Director: Ben Stiller
Writers: Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux, Ethan Cohen
Kirk Lazarus: Robert Downey Jr.
Jeff Portnoy: Jack Black
Tugg Speedman: Ben Stiller
Kevin Sandusky: Jay Baruchel
Alpa Chino: Brandon T. Jackson
Damien Cockburn: Steve Coogan
Cody: Danny McBride
Four Leaf: Nick Nolte
Rick Peck: Matthew McConaughey
Les Grossman: Tom Cruise

Kirk Lazarus: I don't read the script. The script reads me.