Crazy, Stupid, Love, 2011

Crazy, Stupid, Love, 2011
Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Regua
Cast: Julianne Moore, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling


Stage: Home theatre


Crazy, Stupid in short: Cal (Steve Carell) and Emily (Julianne Moore) have the perfect life together living the American dream... until Emily asks for a divorce. Now Cal, Mr Husband, has to navigate the single scene with a little help from his professional bachelor friend Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling). Make that a lot of help


Preps: I got a hint from a good friend of mine, she saw this one at the movies. Nevertheless, I do watch a lot of "hints" at home.


Reality: A promising start. However this is it. Now, the meaning of searching true love through an escapade of first changing the looks, then start working out, and then all of the sudden women fall at your feet. Cliche. Don't like it.
Are guys really in for making love over and over again, night after night with a different woman? And where is this bar with gorgeous women, that are waltzing around? No such thing. Nowadays, if you go to a bar, not likely that you will meet a hot chick or a hot guy, hitting on you with all the right words.

OK, we go through different steps of transformation of this ridiculously gayish guy. Which village did he come from and how come Julianne Moore is the one that got stuck with him when being a teenager (you just don't let a woman like that waltz away, or do you?) Not enough background in the marriage to see that. However, one of the points this piece is trying to is everlasting love, the one and true love you meet once in a lifetime. Well guess what. Some of us do and a lot of us don't. And that's the reality. No point of making this a big thing on the screen. And if you are making it, why distroy this image with this loap through the wild with the good women chase all of the sudden? The directors could have made up their minds earlier. Either go the true love cliche or go with a stud that goes around dazzling women like James Bond.

Not enough meat. Or if I paraphrase one of the good speaches. My god, you look like you have been photo shopped. The complete piece has been photoshopped.


My personal rate: 5,0 (well, there are good looking persons of both sex. And you will have some laughs with the plot and the complications. Is one of the messages that the world is a small place? Least I buy that).


Crazy, Stupid, Love on IMDB

Date Night, 2010

Date Night, 2010
Director: Shawn Levy
Cast: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg


Stage: home theatre, being half dead of the disease, desperately seeking for movie entertainment

Date Night in short: Phil and Claire Foster are a couple who have been married for several years. Their days consists of them taking care of their children and going to work and coming home and going to bed. But they find time to have a date night wherein they go out and spend some time together. When another couple they know announce that they're separating because they're in a rut, Phil feels that he and Claire could be too. So when date night comes Phil decides to do something different. So they go into the city and try to get into a new popular restaurant. But when it's full and still wanting to do this, Phil decides to take the reservation of a couple who doesn't show up. While they're having dinner two men approach them and instructs them to stand up and go with them. They think the men are with the restaurant and want to talk to them about taking someone else's reservation. But it appears the couple whose reservation they took crossed someone and the two men work for this person...

Preps: hm, none whatsoever. I just have it on the disk and has been waiting for rainy days like this one. Me, being very feverish and in a terrible cold. Wow, I see Mark Wahlberg. Haven't seen this stud in a while. My curiosity increases.



Reality: Boy, this one is so predictable, yet entertaining up to a point. Now imagine being an old couple (not old in years, but old in the time spent together), bored to death and forcing yourself to go on a date. Yuk. Would never want to be in their shoes. Or skin, for that matter. And yes, you close the door to your bedroom and don't let your flesh and bones menaces to just walk in at five in the morning.

Apart from that, the red line seems adequate. A bit of wine makes everything sparkling, I guess. A bit of boldness in the relationship should spice it up a bit. The unusual adventure is a bit underestimating to the viewer, but for the mid of the night entertainment I must confess that there are several points in the piece that entertain me more than just the average piece. Yes, they again claim cops are pretty stupid. And yes, the movie implies that couple logic can be totally illogical. And implies old romances to just last and last. A lot of trivial information and hardly believable, are exposed in this piece. And a lot of "fortunate" events that cannot be real. However, the mission of this piece isn't really in reality of the stage and reality of the events happening.

In my opinion the movie on one hand implies that making a relationship work, means constant work from both sides and also points out where the point of no return should be (or how to recognize you are diving into this status). Point of no return would mean being fed up with the relationship and making it happen for the sake of relationship and not because you are comfortable within it. So not living the life, but being a mere observer.

In this sense, the movie makes me think about relationships. Whatever happens at the end, I am not really interested. And it doesn't bother me if I never know. I just know I don't want to be in the shoes of that couple - before their comedy starts.

Oh, yes, Wahlberg. A pure decoration in this movie. Nothing more, unfortunately.


My personal rating: 5,0 (can make you think. Apart from that, nothing special.. And Mark has even more muscles and looks as I remember).


Date Night on IMDB