With Iron Man, Wall*E and of course, The Dark Knight, it's been a pretty decent summer at the movies. For a much-needed boost of estrogen, I even liked the new Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie—even if I was supposed to believe that the blonde chick from "Gossip Girl" would actually go on an archaeological dig. Yeah, right.
And while I know I was supposed to like Mamma Mia! given my love of most musicals-turned-movies and those delicious ABBA tracks, I just couldn't get over how bad it was—I mean, Pierce Brosnan may have been James Bond and all, but he should never, never, never ever sing! And Meryl Streep, you know I love you, too, but you tried way, way, way too hard. And what's the deal with the ratty blonde wig? And Colin Firth, dear Colin, I don't even have words for what the writers did with your role...what a waste!
Ok, ranting over.
Or wait.
As a fan of romantic comedies, you know those boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy-wins-girl-back gems that usually star actors like Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant, (who incidentally were amazing together in the very underrated, Two Weeks' Notice) I've felt particularly deprived as of late. Before the summer kicked into full swing, Made of Honor was supposed to make me all swoony. But all they did was remake My Best Friend's Wedding from McDreamy's perspective (and without the much-needed comic relief of Rupert Everett), and I'm supposed to feel like I've gotten my 10 bucks worth? Um, no. Even with the great NYC and Scottish scenery, it was mostly a dud, thanks to an unfunny script and way-too-predictable premise (and that's saying a lot when a romantic comedy is even more predictable than usual).
Ditto for The Women, Fool's Gold and even 27 Dresses, a movie that could've looked perfect next to Muriel's Wedding, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Wedding Planner, The Wedding Singer and the aforementioned My Best Friend's Wedding in the nuptial-themed section of my personal DVD collection. But a fun-enough concept (a girl who is always the bridesmaid, never the bride) quickly went to waste with little chemistry between the leads (Katherine Heigl and James Marsden, for the record) and the requisite drunk karaoke to Elton John's "Benny and the Jets" that's supposed to convince us that they're really perfect for each other. Blah, blah, blah.
But fall looks promising so far in terms of romantic fare. It's already gotten off to a good start, in fact. While it's hard to imagine Ricky Gervais (yes, as in, David Brent from the BBC version of "The Office") as a leading man, his deadpan, snarky humor makes him a hit in Ghost Town, a dumb name for what's actually a very funny supernatural rom com about a guy who sees dead people. Check out my recent review for all the pertinent details.
In other chick flick news, next week I'm screening the new Nicholas Sparks' weep-fest Nights in Rodanthe. While I've already told myself it won't be as good as The Notebook, I'm really curious to see if they changed the original ending in the book because it wasn't exactly happy ever after.
I'll make sure to link to my review as soon as it's live, which I'm sure will thrill my male readers to no end. Ha ha.
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