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Crazy, Stupid, Love (DVD)
by Doglovers
Cal Weaver's life is turned upside down when his wife announces she wants a divorce and has cheated on him.
Cal moves out and drowns his sorrows at a local bar where he meets Jacob. Jacob is super cool, stylish and has women falling at his feet. Cal sticks out like a sore thumb in the bar telling anyone who will listen about ... his wife's cheating and observing this Jacob decides to take him under his wing.
To be honest I wasn't expecting much of this film as I trawled through Sky movies looking for something that wasn't too taxing. I chose this, primarily because it had Julianne Moore in who was the only actor I recognised in the films on offer on Sky that night.
I love a good film but recently all I seem to watch are films from the last decade, or I watch films by directors I like which tend to be foreign language. Hence the reason I didn't know who Ryan Gosling was who plays Jacob or Steve Carell who plays Cal.
This was definitely a good choice as it was a really good comedy that is very entertaining, funny and had me laughing out loud many times.
I thought at first that Steve Carell was going to be annoying in an Adam Sandler sort of way, but he plays the part of a wronged husband just right. Slightly pathetic but very convincing portraying a man who has just had the shock of his life and doesn't know how to cope with it. So agrees to be groomed by Jacob as he perceives him to be successful just when he is feeling like a failure in life.
I did find it difficult to understand why Jacob decides to groom Cal and give him a makeover but that being said their relationship and scenes where they shop, go to the gym and hang out in the bar contain some absolute comedy gems and the two men really work well together.
There are also some very funny scenes with Cal's teenage son who has a massive crush on slightly older teenage babysitter Jessica. Just to complicate things somewhat Jessica has a crush on Cal.
Julianne Moore plays Emily Cal's wife, not the biggest part in this film, but a believable one as I don't think she really knows why she slept with another man and wants a divorce.
Ryan Gosling is excellent , he looks good , is very charismatic and somehow manages to deliver some truly cringe worthy chat up lines , but still comes across as being cool.
I can't say too much about how his character develops as it will give the game away, but the Dirty Dancing moves had me hitting the rewind to watch it again as it was so funny.
There are a couple of sub plots and Emily Stone is in love with someone who her friend thinks is all wrong for her and encourages her to take up Cal's offer when he hits on her in the bar, but she turns him down. She really comes into her own towards the end of the film and is magnificently funny after she receives disappointing news.
What I liked about film was the comedy wasn't predictable, some of it I had seen before but it still made me laugh. One scene in particular in the changing rooms where Jacob is talking to Cal has been done before, but was still very funny.
I can't watch a bad comedy and will switch off pretty quickly rather than stick it out to the end. So many comedy films rely on so called funny men like Adam Sandler (annoying voice and not funny in my opinion) or the humour is too juvenile for my tastes or too predictable, so this was a real treat. Not sure my husband would agree to watch this as he may class this as a romantic comedy but if he did I think he would have laughed at it as well.
It was also a comedy with a heart and there are some moving moments that make this a real feel good movie. Quite a long film at 113 minutes, but I didn't find it too long and enjoyed every moment.
It is rated 12 and runs for 113 minutes. Not too sure I would want to watch this with a 12 year old as it seems a little bit too adult in parts, but I guess it depends on how mature the 12 year old is.
Directed by Glen Ficarra and John Requa.
I watched this on Sky premier but the DVD is available to buy from Amazon at £4.99 , so this is a review of the film only.
I give it 5 stars and look forward to discovering some more Ryan Gosling and Emily Stone films - not sure about Steve Carell though.
Just the sort of film I want to watch when I am in the mood for something lighhearted that does not require too much concentration.
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A Little Bit Of Heaven (DVD)
by GentleGenius
RELEASED: 2011, Cert. 12
RUNNING TIME: Approx. 106 mins
DIRECTOR: Nicole Kassell
PRODUCERS: John Davis, Mark Gill, Robert Katz, Neil Sacker & Adam Schroeder
SCREENPLAY: Gren Wells
MUSIC: Heitor Pereira
MAIN CAST:-
Kate Hudson as Marley Corbett
Gael ... Garcia Bernal as Dr. Julian Goldstein
Kathy Bates as Beverly Corbett
Romany Malco as Peter Cooper
Lucy Punch as Sarah Walker
Rosemarie DeWitt as Renee Blair
Treat Williams as Jack Corbett
Steven Weber as Rob Randolf
Whoopi Goldberg as God
Peter Dinklage as Vinnie
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FILM ONLY REVIEW
Marley is a bubbly, cheerful young 20-something woman who enjoys life to the full. She has a good job, a very close circle of good friends, her own home and a dog. Shying away from close romantic relationships, Marley is more than happy with her life as it is, being somewhat commitment-phobic due to fear of rejection and being hurt.
One day after a friend notices that she looks a bit off-colour, Marley takes herself for a medical checkup, not expecting the diagnosis to be anything serious. However, further tests reveal that she is suffering from cancer of the colon.
To find out how Marley, her family and her friends react towards and cope with her illness, you must watch the film yourself.
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A Little Bit Of Heaven is one of these films where human attitudes and emotions are tested during difficult times. There is a slight vein of humour running through the storyline, but this humour isn't of a nature that is compatible with my own.
I wasn't too sure what the film's content would be when I chose to watch it, so I went into it more or less blind.
Firstly, I found the characters, particularly that of Marley, quite irritating....maybe too effusive and garrulous for my own tastes. The acting throughout the film really is quite good, especially that of Kate Hudson as Marley and Kathy Bates as Beverly, her mother. The role of Marley must have been quite a difficult one to play and perfect, but Kate Hudson nailed it, and Kathy Bates can do no wrong in my eyes anyway. I did love the little untidy bits of the mother and daughter relationship, and I felt the two actresses worked well together. However, A Little Bit Of Heaven wasn't all plain sailing for me.
Because of its subject matter - and dare I say it also being an American film - A Little Bit Of Heaven contains levels of slush that I personally find very uncomfortable. Of course I appreciate that were the film's situation real life, those concerned have a huge cross to bear (for obvious reasons), but I go into cringe overload when issues such as terminal illness are liberally decorated with mounds of mawkishness, and A Little Bit Of Heaven has plenty of the modern-day version.
I won't 100% slate this film though because it is quite well put together and the acting standards are more than acceptable, plus it is interesting to study the way different people deal with issues such as potentially terminal illness from whatever their places are within the situation. I think what is well conveyed in A Little Bit Of Heaven is how some people launch into denial whereas some other people go into overdrive regarding bringing the subject out into the open, wanting to discuss it to death beyond what is probably healthy. The most eye-opening part for me was to realise that however any of the people involved dealt with - or didn't, as the case may be - the knowledge that one of their family members/friends has a potentially fatal illness, each one was trying to make themselves feel better about it under the unintentional guise of supporting the sufferer. Of course this is human nature and something we're probably all aware of at some level, but this film draws it to the surface....it certainly made me think about what my own reactions would be towards a friend or family member of mine were they to be diagnosed with a serious, possibly terminal condition.
The music to A Little Bit Of Heaven I found largely twee and a bit irritating, although the opening and closing theme is quite good, and I did enjoy a couple of soul/blues-flavoured numbers that cropped up here and there during the film.
Much of A Little Bit Of Heaven is predictable as it is a story which has been told many times before, but although overall it isn't my type of film (largely due to high slush levels), it is quite a sleek production which isn't boring to watch, but I don't think I'll be going back for second helpings. It is probably one of the better films I've seen of this type - for instance it far supersedes something like Love Story - but it is all much too twee and neat....in reality, life just doesn't happen like that as our existences are riddled with loose ends.
If you enjoy a bit of tissue-grabbing sentimentality, then A Little Bit Of Heaven I'm sure would be something you'd like, but if you are the sort of person who is embarrassed by gushing 'mawk', then it may be best to give it a miss.
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At the time of writing, A Little Bit Of Heaven can be purchased on Amazon as follows:-
New: from £2.89 to £999.00 - crazy, so the one underneath that is £199.99 which is almost equally crazy!
Used: from £2.80 to £8.40
A delivery charge of £1.26 should be added to the above figures.
Thanks for reading!
~~ Also published on Ciao under my CelticSoulSister user name ~~
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One Day (DVD)
by carlz2001uk
Not one to really watching romantic films, I do occasionally give in and try one. Especially one that doesn't seem stereotypical. I had heard good things about One Day and as I quite like Anne Hathaway, I decided to give it a try one afternoon when I noticed it on Sky Movies.
The film follows Emma and Dexter, two graduates, ... who try to fall into bed together at the very beginning, but it just doesn't happen. Emma is an out and out geek and doesn't seem to know how to react to the very confident Dexter. They decide to become firm friends instead and so the film begins. Filmed on the same day each year, we see a snap shot of each characters life on July 15th (St Swithans Day) each year starting in 1988. Emma is introduced to us as a fairly complex woman who wants for a simple yet successful life but hasn't achieved anything. An intelligent woman with a hand for poetry, Emma finds herself waitressing in a Mexican restaurant instead. Meanwhile Dexter who doesn't seemingly have a talent for anything, finds himself becoming rich and famous as a television presenter, and adored by many woman, which he duley takes advantage of. As each character grows, it appears that their friendship disappears as Emma openly admits she doesn't like who he has become, and Dexter admits that Emma is wasting her life away. It is interesting to guess what they will be up to on the following year, and each year after that.
My own thoughts about the film are generally very positive. I really did enjoy it and would happily recommend it. As I am so difficult to please with films of this genre, I would guess that it is probably even better than I realised but I am being picky. I had a few niggles throughout the film, including Anne Hathaways bizarre accent that changed dramatically from beginning to end. Also, I find that in general in films/books in this genre, it is quite easy to guess the outcome. In this instance that is also true, however it is how the film journeys to the conclusion that makes it interesting. I found that the ultimate ending, which I assume is supposed to be shocking, was also easy to guess. I could see it coming from a mile off, however I always seem to guess the endings of films, much to the annoyance of most people I know! The film will openly make you laugh, smile, and cringe occasionally! Some may cry, some may be able to comprehend what each character is going through as they follow each other in love, while each character enters a new relationship.
The film doesn't give you time to be bored as each year keeps the pace of the film moving along nicely. Some years are shorter than others, depending on if anything is really going on on that day of that particular year. I did wonder how the characters would age during the 20 years of the film. The filmmakers decided to simply turn Anne Hathaway from a complete geek in her early twenties to a sleek sophisticated woman later in life, whereas with Jim Sturgess they greyed his hair which I couldn't stop staring at in the ending of the film as you know it isn't real, it looked unreal. A difficult thing to do in a film, I will give it to the filmmakers that they approached this aspect of the film well.
Based on the book by David Nicholls, it was extremely successful in paper copy so it is no surprise to me that the film is loved by so many. I'm not usually a fan of films like this, but even more so in book version, I just can't read women's literature for some reason, so unfortunately I cannot make comparisons from the book to the film. I have found several glowing reviews online of the book including this one: 'One Day is a wonderful, wonderful book: wise, funny, perceptive, compassionate and often unbearably sad. It's also, with its subtly political focus on changing habits and mores, the best British social novel since Jonathan Coe's What A Carve Up.' - John O'Connell, The Times. My own personal thoughts on film adaptations are to read the book first so if you enjoy womens literature, read the book, then watch the film.
Sturgess and Hathaway were perfect for the film, and gelled well together on screen. Both characters are likeable and you believe them and their feelings for one another.
An enjoyable and recommended film.
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