2929 Productions, Chockstone Pictures, Nick Wechsler Productions,
Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Ifans, Toby Jones
George Pemberton (Bradley Cooper) lives in depression era North Carolina where he is trying to run the Pemberton lumber business. He’s a harsh boss, but he tries to be fair. He’s just not getting ahead due to some dumb decisions. When he meets the lovely Serena (Jennifer Lawrence), who is a stunning witty blonde who is all alone, he immediately falls for her, but she has many reservations. But she has a strong sense of business that leads to a very prosperous company at a time when money was hard to come by. But when Serena learns that George has an illegitimate child and she is barren, things turn sour pretty quickly.
This is a stunning film with beautiful views and the cinematography is top notch. There’s also astounding talent in this film with Bradley and Jennifer tearing up the screen whether they’re loving or fighting. This is, after all, primarily a love story after all. But if there’s anything that lacking in this film, it’s how the story is written. It’s not as catching as it should be, and we are not drawn in as much as we could be. Parts get boring, especially when Jennifer and Bradley are not together, and though they do their best, it’s not their fault. I think there should have been a bit more effort into the story to make it flow a little more clearly. This is a very beautiful love story and drama, well acted, and well shot. It’s well worth watching and I did enjoy it very much, but I feel like it could have been a lot better than it was. It’s an excellent film to study and draw your own opinions, but I felt as though they missed the mark a bit, and it could have been a home run. I do like Jennifer and Bradley together, and I feel with a slighter tighter story they would have nailed it.
Chris Evans, Michelle Monaghan, Topher Grace, Ioan Gruffudd, Aubrey Plaza, Martin Starr, Philip Baker Hall, Luke Wilson, Anthony Mackie
Our narrator (Chris Evans) begins to tell his story of how he tried to write a romantic comedy screenplay. He’s an action writer and love stories with fast chases and big explosions, but his employer tells him he MUST finish this ROM/COM before he can move on to the next action film. His problem is that he is a one night stand kinda guy, who does not believe in the concept of falling in love, so he’s completely out of touch with where to even begin. But when he meets a lovely girl (Michelle Monaghan) he finds himself really attracted to her, but both of them are not looking for romance. As he starts writing his feelings to try to craft a story, things get rather complicated in this new romantic comedy about a guy writing a romantic comedy.
I was not blown away by this story, but it did have some interesting points. First of all we have a guy named “Me” telling us the story. He doesn’t identify either of the two people until the very end, so she is just known as “Her”. The interaction between the two is really rather interesting. Both of them do a decent job with their roles, so the interest level is rather good. There are some fresh approaches to this classic ROM/COM. The problem is that the story goes exactly along the formula and there aren’t any surprises. I think that’s kind of inevitable in this kind of film, however, so I don’t hold that against it. I was just not much invested in the story all in all. I watched it, and I made it through it. I didn’t dislike it, and I am not recommending this as a great work of cinema. But it is a harmless romantic comedy, so if you’re a fan of those or of the actors in the film, by all means give it a shot. It’s up to you.
CBS Films, Vast Entertainment, Wonderland Sound and Vision,
Mae Whitman, Robbie Amell, Nick Eversman, Bella Thorne, Skyler Samuels, Bianca A. Santos, Ken Jeong
Bianca Piper (Mae Whitman) is in High School and friends with two girls who are quite popular. Things are going along fine until her next door neighbor and close friend Wesley (Robbie Amell) lets it slip that Bianca is their DUFF. Not knowing the term, she digs until she finds out that it stands for Designated Ugly Fat Friend, and it’s a term for the one person in a group who is easily approachable and who can make the rest of the group look better in contrast. She starts looking out closely at all the DUFF’s in the world and realizes Wes is right and she is a DUFF. She makes a deal with him to help him on a very important cause if he will help un-DUFF her. Then the fun begins as he tries to make Bianca the cool one.
This is a rather cute movie, though it is definitely aimed at teens, there’s no doubt about it. That is the audience that the movie was designed for, and certainly they will have the most fun with it, and enjoy it the most. It wasn’t a bad movie though, and as a senior citizen, I enjoyed the humor and the laughs and the tough spots Bianca and Wesley put themselves in while trying to help each other. I wasn’t bored at all with this movie, and I thought Mae Whitman did a really good job in the lead. She has a “Juno” quality about her and she’s just a nice normal girl trying to fit in. She is a good actor and nailed the part. The “pretty girls” are sterotypical mean spirited rich spoiled girls, so they don’t have much to work with, but they do it as well as any I’ve seen, so they don’t detract from the movie. There are a couple other roles that are very well done. Allison Janney plays Bianca’s Mom who has a really funny role that stands out, and Ken Jeong has a nice role as the teacher/sponsor of the school paper who thinks the world of Bianca and tries to help her find her inner voice. It’s a small role, but nice and touching, and though there are some really funny lines, he’s in a small, but nice part with some meat in it. He keeps his pants on in this film (He tends to get naked a lot) and adds a lot to the story. All in all I enjoyed watching The DUFF and found it a pleasant and light movie with loads of teen angst. Definitely aimed at younger teens, but enjoyable by all.
Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, Aimee Teegarden, Chris Lowell, Max Adler, Austin Stowell
Mickey Wright (Liam Hemsworth) is a soldier in Viet Nam on an extremely nasty tour of duty. When they return from the field and collect the mail from home, he looks for a letter from Jane (Aimee Teegarden) his sweetheart. He finds the letter, but is shocked to learn that she is breaking up with him. Yes, it’s a Dear John letter. He is granted a two week R&R in Hong Kong with the rest of his men, but he makes up his mind to go AWOL (technically) and go back to the states to get his girl back. One of his closest buddies, Dalton (Austin Stowell) decides to risk everything to go back with him on this adventure to recover Jane.
This movie starts out with some fresh battle scenes in the fields of Viet Nam with some heavy duty scenes. Then we head back to the states and get a good look at the other side of the Vietnam situation. They are surrounded by people who spit on them or throw rocks, who despise the war and the army and who are convinced that the pair should head to Canada and renounce the army and the war. They guys need to take a good look at that. The performance by Liam Hemsworth is not bad, but it’s not really something in his wheel house. I thought Jane (Aimee) was really pretty awful. I understand that she has to play a crazy mixed up young adult, but she wasn’t very likeable. Most of what she did made no sense at all. The movie starts out with a great battle sure to create some action scenes for the trailers, but after a few minutes, it turns into a romance that isn’t really that dramatic nor is it comedic. In the end, they tried to throw in an action sequence of car chases and escape, but it doesn’t really add anything to the mix. My feeling is that this is a film that couldn’t figure out what it wanted to be. The blood and violence will turn off the girls and the long romantic chased and banter between the boys and girls will send the guys out for pizza. Nobody gets what they want out of it, and it sort of fizzles out. It seems to be schizophrenic and and bi-polar at the same time. I lived through the Vietnam era so I have a lot of familiarity with the times, but that still didn’t help me appreciate this film any more. I found that it was a fair try, but missed the mark in many ways, so I don’t highly recommend this one.
Anne Hathaway, Johnny Flynn, Mary Steenburgen, Ben Rosenfield, Lola Kirke, Paul Whitty, Dan Deacon
Fanny (Anne Hathaway) is estranged from her family, busy with her career and with her own life. But she returns home when her brother Henry (Ben Rosenfield) is in an accident and ends up in the hospital in a coma. Fanny stays beside him day after day hoping for a sign of recovery. Her brother was into music and his favorite artist was James Forrester (Johnny Flynn) who is at the crossroads of his career and on the brink of taking off. Fanny decides to go meet James, and brings a book of song lyrics that her brother had written and asks James to put some of the lyrics to music, and hires him to come and play the songs at the hospital. Franny and James are not alike very much, but they hit it off and find they are strangely attracted to each other.
There is one word to describe this film. Anne Hathaway. This young “Princess Diaries” star has become one hell of an actress. Her performance in this movie pulls it out of the gutter and turns it in to an enjoyable film. They were certainly lucky to cast her in this role. Secondly, the music, of course, is a major player in this movie as well. It is dark and sad, but becomes hopeful as Fanny and James learn much about life from each other. It is a pretty decent drama that has a lot going for it. This was not a blockbuster film, and won’t make anyone’s best films of 2014 list, most likely, but is very worth taking a look at. It was a pleasure to watch the performances, both acting and musical, and if you’re a fan of the quirky independent Brooklyn music scene, this is a big plus for the film. I would say take a chance on it, and you might find it an enjoyable time.
