Ed's Review Dot Com

New Line Cinema, Offspring Enterprises

Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Charlie Day, Jason Sudekis, Christina Applegate, Ron Livingston, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Jim Gaffigan, Natalie Morales, Kelli Garner

This romantic comedy is about a couple, Erin (Drew Barrymore) and Garrett (Justin Long) and their attempt to keep their love alive even though they are separated, one in California and one in NYC. They meet in New York City and hit it off. Garrett is trying hard to make it in the recording industry, but currently has a menial job. Erin is a wannabe reporter, who thinks she has a great chance for a real reporting job, but it isn’t to be, so she decides to head out to California to finish her degree. They are both anxious to keep their relationship alive, but neither wants enough to give up their dream. So they decide to live on opposite coasts and see each other when they can.

This is a very interesting approach to the chick flick genre, because most of the movie is told from the gentleman’s side of things. Also, they are in “like” with each other, but it doesn’t seem deep enough to keep it from being mostly superficial. This is an unusual approach to the one typically taken by movies of this type. We get to care enough about the characters that we are concerned with what happens to them, but if it doesn’t work out it’s not going to be that devastating to anyone, even us as voyeurs to their situation. To top it off we have really good secondary characters. Erin has a grumpy and constantly criticizing sister Corrine (Cristina Applegate) and Garrett has a friend in Box (Jason Sudekis) who doesn’t give very great advice all the time. They provide a lot of the comedy relief for us. The way they meet is really cute. Erin is playing “Centipede” in a bar, and Garrett is a fantastic of that came. He interrupts her attempt at the high score and finds out that she is the one he was chasing for the top score all along. Can you build a relationship on the love of a video game? Well of course there is a lot more going on than that.

What we have here is a chick flick that is ok to take a guy to. It’s clever and witty and Drew and Justin work well together and make such a cute couple. By the end of the film we really like them. I enjoyed it. It’s not a great film, but is quiet an enjoyable romantic comedy and I recommend it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Columbia Pictures

Gerard Butler, Jennifer Aniston, Gio Perez, Joel Garland, Jason Sudekis

This is a movie that should have been a lot better.  I tried to figure out why it wasn’t better, and the only thing I can come up with is that the chemistry between these two is just not there.  Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant in  “Did You Hear About the Morgans” worked, so it was a cute movie, but this one did not.  Nobody would ever believe these two were ever together or would ever be again.  It just doesn’t work.

Jennifer is so whiney and pouty she needs a good swift kick in the butt.  And Gerard is such a wise ass that he needs the same thing!   So you don’t really care about either of them.

That is the problem with the movie.  But there are lots of good things too.  The comedy works and there are some really funny moments.  There are some real decent laughs here and there, and some action and adventure as the team gets into one mess after another.   Jason Sudekis has a small part, but he’s really funny.

So this is a typical romantic comedy with a couple that can’t stand each other that get back together but mess it up, and so on, but the situations they get in are pretty humorous and we enjoyed the DVD.  Glad I didn’t go plunk down $13.00 for a ticket though!

The locations are cool too.  Atlantic City, Monmoth Park, New York City.  All this adds to the fun, but the final effort just wasn’t enough to be a really great movie.  Worth a rental, but should have been a lot more.