Review: The Bounty Hunter

If two beautiful people were all a movie needed to be good, this movie would be top notch. Unfortunately, this movie also had a story line, talking, and a soundtrack that will delight the average fourteen year old girl.

Nicole (Jennifer Aniston) is a reporter on a mission to the top. While on her way to a court date, she gets a hot tip on a suicide story that she is covering, and ends up skipping out on her trial. The judge then revokes her bail and has put out a warrant for her arrest, which is assigned to a bounty hunter… but not just any bounty hunter, her ex husband Milo (Gerard Butler). Milo and Nicole were once madly in love, but ended up driving each other mad, like most couples. Milo must now take his ex to jail, but she is more worried about chasing her suicide story. Needless to say, she gets herself, as well as Milo in trouble, making for a mediocre story.

There is nothing new about this story. Aniston and Butler have great chemistry, but it is not enough to make this a box office smash. The story is not very believable, and everything, from the two of them falling back in love, to them being chased by bad guys, yet somehow coming out of the mess safe and sound, is completely predictable. This movie is suppose to be a comedy, but it is just not funny. There are maybe, and I mean maybe, three or four parts that are slightly amusing, but nothing to write home about. Oh, and I hope you like hearing people bicker about how in the world they could have ever married each other, because you will have to sit through a lot of it.

Now, I normally don’t comment on how bad a soundtrack is, but this one was horrible. I take that back… it is horrible unless you are a teenage girl. They play tracks from Kesha, for example, which does not fit into a grown up romantic comedy. I would expect it in a movie directed towards teens, but not one that is more for adults. It reminded me of someones mom trying to appear younger and more hip than what they really are, and just made the movie even more awkward than it already is.

Needless to say, the only bounty that you can count on for watching this movie is mediocrity. I could have written more about it, but there is just nothing exciting to tell… or make fun of.

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Review: Date Night

Work, kids, monotony… DATE NIGHT is definitely a movie for couples that have been together for a long period of time!

Phil and Claire Foster are a boring couple from New Jersey. Phil (Steve Carell) goes to book club with his in-control wife Claire (Tina Fey), they have a sex pattern that involves whether or not Claire is wearing her retainer, and they go to the same restaurant every Friday for their same old date night. After a couple that they know decides to split, Phil and Claire decide to spice up their relationship and do something different… They are going into the city for dinner.

When they arrive at their super hip destination, they realize that there is no way that they are going to get a table. Phil then takes someone else’s reservation, the Tripplehorns, who obviously didn’t show up, and this is where the trouble starts. Two twisted gentlemen mistake the Fosters for the couple that originally had the reservation, and threaten to kill them if they don’t get the flash drive. After a narrow escape, Phil and Claire are now on the run, trying to save themselves from certain doom.

This movie was pretty darn funny, but not the kind of funny that I expected. I expected 40-YEAR OLD VIRGIN funny, and instead, it was more of a romantic comedy meets date movie. The best way to describe it would be something that I could take my mother to. Tina Fey is one of the hottest comics right now, especially with the success of 30 ROCK, and Steve Carell is hysterical in anything that he is in. There is definitely a charm about him that makes him likable in any role that he plays. The two make for a quick-witted dose of humor, despite a relatively predictable storyline.

There are a lot of great cameos in the film as well. Mark Wahlberg plays a shirtless, intelligence savvy, ex-client of Claire with quite the bachelor pad. I must say, he is quite a tasty snack for the eyes, and I give his performance 5 stars just for being allergic to a shirt. He is kind of a joke in the film, making Phil feel inadequate and turning Claire into a babbling teenager. Mila Kunis and James Franco play Taste and Whippit, aka the real Tripplehorns. They play an amazingly dumb young couple, who are fantastically trashy, but also madly in love. There are also cameos by Ray Liotta, Kristen Wiig, Will.I.Am, Mark Ruffalo, and William Fichtner. Common and Jimmi Simpson play the corrupt cops that are chasing down the fosters, and they do it rather well. I’ve been creeped out by Simpson since he played Liam McPoyle on IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA. Leighton Meester also makes a cameo by playing the Fosters babysitter.

Overall, I feel like they did a great job of making a movie that couples can relate to. It’s a bit tame for Fey and Carell, but a perfect movie for a date.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Review: Letters to Juliet

“For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” Quote from William Shakespear’s ‘Romeo and Juliet‘

There is something to be said about a romance that lasts, and keeps the hope of love alive for as long as Romeo and Juliet has. They are the epitome of true love, and their story will continue to keep making it’s way into the mainstream.

Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is a fact checker for a newspaper,with the hopes of becoming a writer. She and her fiancé’ are about to take a trip to Italy before the wedding, since he has a new restaurant opening very soon. This will be their honeymoon, before the wedding. Little did she know that while in Tuscany, her fiancé would be more worried about finding ingredients and recipes for his restaurant rather than spending a romantic honeymoon with her.

During her time alone, Sophie visits the home of Juliet, where women from all over write letters to her and place them on a wall. Sophie is fascinated by this, and ends up helping the Secretary’s of Juliet respond to the letters, when a brick falls out of the wall, exposing a very old letter. Sophie responds and the next thing she knows, the woman who wrote the original letter, Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), has come back to Tuscany to find her Lorenzo that she stood up 50 years ago. With nothing left to do, Sophie tags along as Claire and her less than eager grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) on their adventure to find Claire’s true love.

Vanessa Redgrave is fantastic in her role. She is funny, passionate, and quite splendid to watch on screen. It is inspiring to see that she has never really given up on true love. Amanda Seyfried is always appealing on screen. The only actor that I did not really like, and I believe could have been cast better was Christopher Egan. There was something about him that I did not really care for… and, someone needs to buy him some eyebrows… just sayin! I also thing the ending was a little too cheesy, but not so much that it ruined the movie.

Still, the movie was romantic and fun! I fell in love with the views of Italy as they made their way throughout the villages in their quest for Lorenzo. This is a movie for anyone that believes in romance and true love.

Overall rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

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