You're a dad now-- do projects she can be proud of! |
|
Maybe it's the Arctic weather that's making me surly, but it seems that lately I am always at work, always very tired, or both. Thus, I am very protective of my time as of late, and when I feel like some has been robbed from me, I get uncharacteristically angry.
So last week when the BF was watching I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY, I got sucked in because it was just that bad. Don't get me wrong, I generally do like Adam Sandler. At times, my sense of humor is much closer to that of a 12-year-old boy than a 30-something woman with a master's degree. Really. So when I saw Adam Sandler as an ugly homophobe who scores simply because women in Brooklyn are apparently indiscriminate about which firefighters they have sex with, I was hurt. And why does Rob Schneider have to be an ethnically insensitive stereotype in every movie? In one particularly ridiculous scene, Chuck (Sandler) and his lawyer ("Alex," played by Jessica Biel) are soaking wet because of the rain or a particularly rowdy parade or something, so they head inside to Alex's apartment (because lawyers always hang out with their clients and then have them over), and then Alex changes out of her wet 
I'd like to stab both of them with a fork |
|
clothes in front of Chuck (because lawyers always change clothes in front of their clients), and then Chuck has to request a sweatshirt to cover his enormous boner.
You might ask why I continued to watch. I did do other things at the same time, btw. I sorted clothes, did a load or two of laundry, even took a shower. But I was determined to see the end. I figured the movie had to have an ending to give the movie some redeeming value. And, well, Chuck and Larry (Kevin James, whose character wasn't nearly as reprehensible as Larry, which is why I haven't been ranting against him) did learn a bit about what it's like to be discriminated against. A particularly poignant moment is when the student at career day refers to them as "butt pirates." Moving. So, yeah, I stuck around for the ending.
The ending was straight from the perfect comedy starring Kevin Kline, IN AND OUT, only the it was firefighters, not students, stepping up to speak out against homophobia. But, as you may have guessed, the scene, which was a rip off and most decidedly not an homage to IN AND OUT, was a poor substitute.
If I met Adam Sandler, I would ask him why. I mean, I know he's got 
The wonderful and underrated Kevin Kline |
|
bills just like anyone, but he's shown us that he can make quality comedies (like 50 FIRST DATES, if you disregard the Rob Schneider character) and quality dramas like PUNCH DRUNK LOVE and SPANGLISH. He makes me like him and then it hurts all the more when he lets me down by making a movie like I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY.
Which leads me to Judd Apatow and company. Apatow has his name attached to amazing, perfect projects like Freaks and Geeks, THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, KNOCKED UP, and ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY, so when he produces films that don't quite live up but still have their moments, films like SUPERBAD or FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, I can forgive that. But PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, Judd, I cannot forgive.
I like Seth Rogen a lot, so he wasn't the problem. This movie was just boring. Seriously. I kept waiting for it to get funny, and it never happened. Okay, scratch that: I do remember laughing once, when the girlfriend stabs James Franco's character with the fork. Maybe Apatow needs to stop producing films written by his friends. Catering to friends was part of MC Hammer's downfall; learn from the Hammer. Judd, I'm excited for FUNNY 
I'd love any thermos he'd pick out for me. |
|
PEOPLE and GHOSTBUSTERS 3; please don't let me down.
So what's a girl to do when in such a fragile state? Well, stick with the tried and true, of course. The flicks and stuff that won't let ya down. My picks:
THE JERK. It never gets old. Martin's writing, delivery, Bernadette Peters is divine, the cat juggling bit.
Scrubs New ones are on ABC, and the reruns are just as fun-- I enjoy Cox's rants more and more with each viewing. Scrubs is as reliable as my favorite sweatshirt. They're always on somewhere, and if you catch them on WGN, you can laugh at the way they censor words like "cojones."
PULP FICTION is Tarantino's best, and even more appealing to me in the last week or so since the BF discovered our copy is missing.
BOOKS. Alice Sebold writes some smart thrillers. Read Born Standing Up. Grab anything in Margaret Atwood's forty-plus catalog. I'm reading Steven Pinker's The Stuff of Thought which is an amazing book about psychological linguistics. And now would be a good time to read Watchmen before the controversial film comes out in March.
 email this column to a friend
Comment on this Column:
Sorry, you must be a member to add comments to columns.
Join or Login. |
 | Tim
Jan 18, 2009 11:23 AM
| [X] delete |
Seriously...I thought Superbad was Apatow's best film..but Pineapple Express was for sure his worst...I almost walked out of the theatre on that one.
Chuck and Larry was weak...but Sandler has followed in the same fashion as Jim Carrey. Carrey's best films were when he first cracked out of his b status shell...being Ace Ventura, The Mask and of course Dumb and Dumber. After Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore...Sandler bombed with Little Nicky and then probably thought he needed to turn into more of a serious actor. However Chuck and Larry is worth watching if nothing else just to see Biel's ass in her underwear. |
|
| Tim
Jan 18, 2009 11:25 AM
| [X] delete |
| Oh yeah and when you say Pulp Fiction is Tarantino's best...do you mean writing or directing...because I would argue all day that his best example of script writing would be True Romance... |
|
 | Karma
Jan 18, 2009 8:35 PM
| [X] delete |
| I haven't seen either--I just can't bring myself to watch train wrecks (usually). Kudos for the Atwood reference. She sent me a signed bookmark the other day (in response to a letter). |
|
 Subscribe to MatchFlick Movie Reviews through RSS
|
| Take Your Queue From Du |
Every other Sunday
Semi-wholesome Midwestern girl and certified Geek Magnet offers her suggestions - often new, sometimes classic - for DVDs that are definitely queue-worthy.
|
| Denise DuVernay |
9 out of 10 librarians think Denise is a hoot. The 10th one couldn't corroborate because she was dead.
|
| Contact |
If you have a comment, question, or suggestion, you can send a message to Denise DuVernay by clicking here.
|
|
Jan 18, 2009 7:18 PM