| Product: |
Hitch (DVD) |
| Date: |
20.10.05 (166 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Funniest rom com I've seen in ages.
Disadvantages: Um.. Michael Rappaport scenes being cut????
“The Cure for the common man”
Now I am a sucker for a good romantic comedy, it is probably my favourite genre of movie. Even a seriously bad RomCom is still normally a pleasurable experience for me, Bridget Jones 2 being a notable exception.
Though I possess no traditional Romcoms in my DVD collection they are the kind of film I can watch again and again, maybe that says something about me!
Having let you know that, and that I am biased towards this kind of film let me tell you how incredibly good Hitch actually is.
Hitch is one of the best Romantic comedies I have ever seen. It has all the clichés you have come to expect but has an added pizzazz to it that raises it above even the best of the genre. It IS predictable, it has to be, but the witty script, the Alfie like asides to the viewer, the charm and personality of Will Smith and the winning performance of Kevin James (King of Queens) overcome that predictability.
Will Smith is Alex ‘Hitch’ Hitchens, the date doctor, a semi mythical, almost legendary man in the New York date scene. The women believe he doesn’t really exist, that he is a story that is only whispered about while any man just in love would just love to get one of his cards. Hitch doesn’t advertise, he get his clients by word of mouth and his business is to help any man get the girl of his dreams. As he says “Any Man has the chance to sweep any woman off her feet”! He is not interested in aiding someone in a conquest but in helping find true love. He teaches the men how to make a woman notice them, how to dress, how to talk and be interesting, in fact all the little tricks to help the woman fall for them.
Hitch’s new client is Albert Brennaman, a mid 30’s large built, puppy dog of a man. A financial analyst who is in love with one of his clients the super rich heiress Allegra Cole. He only see her when she visits for some advice and then only amongst a table full of fellow analysts! Can the date doctor help him get noticed?
Meanwhile Sara Melas, a gossip reporter, is hot on the heels of Allegra, having broken the news of her fiancés love tryst while on a Caribbean holiday she wants to see who Allegra will hook up with next. Her love escapades always sell papers and she will stop at nothing to find out where she goes and whom she is with. Sara’s life is her job; she is always working and has no time for men and their pathetic attempts to chat her up. The scene where She is chatted up in a club and is ‘saved’ by Hitch is extremely funny, but more importantly is believable. It is not an artificial conversation like a lot of these scenes feel like.
This sets up the rest of the film with the two potential couples. Hitch and Sara who neither really believe in love, for reasons explained in the film and hilariously so for Hitch, and Albert and Allegra who both want to find someone who will love them for themselves.
Will the course of true love flow straight and complication free? You will have to se this film to find out!
Now you already know where he plot is going don’t you? You have two people who don’t believe in love and two desperately searching for it. This is a Romcom so the ending is predictable, they always are, but it is the journey there that will make the film. Hitch is the world cruise journey wise, the 10 star, luxury liner world cruise at that!
There are so many superb, funny and just downright hilarious scenes in this film that other Romcom makers must be pulling their hair out! The number of top quality moments in Hitch is more than you average film should be allowed to possess.
Hitch and Albert’s first meeting, the fantastic wordplay of Hitch and Sara’s first meting, the dance teaching, the pen, the jetski, the food fight, the food rave! I could go on and on but you should all go and see this for yourselves!
Hitch has been graced with a superlative script, from Kevin Bisch (???), that just crackles with class and style. The characters are well defined without shoehorning in info just so you can discover it. The acting is great, though Amber Valletta as Allegra is a bit of a misfire (though that could be due to her part being the least worked on and that she had three very good performances to fight against!)
The Will Smith/Kevin James and Smith/Eva Mendes partnerships work extremely well, they all bounce off the other with effortless charm. Good chemistry between leads can liven a less than stellar film (Clooney/Lopez in Out of Sight) but a good film becomes great when all the stars play off each other this well.
Andy Tennant (????), the director has an easy job really when he has such a great script and stars firing on all cylinders. Still he hits every spot easily and everything runs smoothly without any jarring moments to pull you out of the film world and back to reality. The whole film just looks great set in a New York of bright lights, fun and style. This is a romcom for men as well as women for a change. A man’s chick flick, an endorsement of personality over looks, it gives every man the hope and belief that he to can get that girl of his dreams that he believes is beyond him, that is out of his class, and what man can say that he hasn’t thought that at some time in his life?
Finally a word about Eva Mendes, she was good in Stuck on You and Out of Time but her on screen relationship with Smith just sparkles, after this she has a big career in front of her. You can truly believe that these two world and love weary people have finally found their true partners in life, trouble is as much as we realise this will they?
Michael Rappaport, a fine, fine actor has a very small part as Hitchs best friend, I wonder whether some of his part was cut out because he seems wasted, especially as he is a counterpoint to Hitch at the beginning.
Hitch made me laugh out loud more than any film I have seen in a long time and can there be a better recommendation than that?
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 118 minutes
Main Cast:
Will Smith – Alex ‘Hitch’ Hitchens
Eva Mendes – Sara Melas
Kevin James – Albert Bernnaman
Amber Valletta – Allegra Cole
Michael Rappaport – Ben
Adam Arkin – Max Trundle
Summary: The funniest Rom com for a long time!
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