Mitzi's Review: Ok, I have been wanting to watch this movie forever but it just hadn't happened until tonight. Talk about disappointment. I'm sure I feel that way because I had high expectations for it and I wanted to see it for such a long time, but come on! Could that movie be more of a cheesy cliche? The script and the acting...I just don't know what to do with myself. I'm afraid that being married to Scott has turned me into a bit of a movie snob. But really people, can we please watch something with some sort of meat; let's get away from the junk food. I just don't know what to do with myself. I think the only redeeming quality that it had was that it was probably the cleanest PG-13 movie I have ever seen. Props for not making it raunchy. I feel like the story was similar to the movie Family Stone, but Family Stone was so much better. However, that movie does earn its PG-13 rating. This solidifies why Scott and I hardly ever pay full price for movies. I am not saying this is the worst movie I have ever seen but seriously, I think it's so disappointing because it had so much potential. Boo to this awful movie.
Scott's Review: Mitzi has been wanting to see this movie for a long time. When we received two free movie passes from Hart and Jory in return for tending their kids a couple of times, we had the choice between this movie and I Am Legend. I have this thing about "in the theater" movies vs. "watch at home" movies, and I Am Legend definitely looked to be more of the "in the theater" movie in this comparison. So Mitzi acquiesced and Dan got put off. We ended up borrowing it from some friends in the ward and watched it tonight. First of all, let me just say that the trailer is very misleading. I thought this was going to be a movie about the father-daughters relationship, and about how that influences his work as an advice columnist. It turned out to be a movie about a guy falling in love with his brother's girlfriend. Where have I seen that before? Probably in a lot of other formulaic romantic comedies that throw in a love triangle twist to appear more interesting than they actually are. Now, this movie could have balanced the two and given both the characters and the story a lot more depth, but in stead it jumps into the conventional awkward love-triangle story with only minimally establishing any of the characters. Then the relationship drama takes center stage and no one gets developed except as a by-product of continuing time on-screen. (Might I add that, in contrast, I liked how daring they were on King Kong to take as long as they did to develop the human characters before ever introducing Kong - otherwise it would have been very easy with a movie like that to focus on Kong without caring who he squashed, tossed, or ate. A movie like Dan, however, that is all about the people - and not a 30' Gorilla - still managed to keep me from caring about any of the characters to any significant degree.) Anyway, big disappointment for me also. I think I might have laughed once during the whole movie, and I just found myself pointing out all of the fantastically unrealistic events and situations designed for laughs, to further the plot, or to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Give me the 30' Gorilla! That was more believable, not to mention entertaining, than most of this movie.
8 comments:
Ok, we're going to have to 100 million percent disagree with you on this one. We think there was much subtle charm that you must have missed. Here you have a clean film, with a normal family, who gets along and has fun with each other in original ways. Dan is a very likable character, and, in our opinion, well developed, who, despite his best efforts, is put through fate's tumbler in interesting ways, in order to better understand himself and his family. We appreciated Steve Carell very much and put this film in our enjoyable films list top 10. Interestingly, we did not enjoy Family Stone at all. ~Walker and Liz
I got some of the subtle charm, and I do admit that I kid of enjoyed the "How to have a fun, active, and original family vacation without alcohol or TV," aspect of the film, but I feel like they didn't show us sufficiently what Dan was like before he got into this awkward, bizarre situation and began acting in an awkward and bizarre manner. I did however also appreciate in no small degree the squeaky cleanness of the film and applaud the filmmakers for not crudding it up (which does unfortunately happen to a significant degree in Family Stone). Unfortunately for me, this film was just a little bit too "polite and boring" to be enjoyable.
By the way, Scott wrote that last comment.
I liked it. I saw it this week and I thought it was very funny and entertaining. I think part of the reason that I liked it was that I had no built-up expectation. I wasn't expecting very much like some award winning LOTR (ha- had to throw that in for Scott), but I was pleasantly surprised.
Gabe
Maybe we should have watched it in the movie theater. I will admit that Family Stone is not for everyone. I really wasn't sure if I liked it the first time but I really like that movie. I am not saying it's like Gone With the Wind or anything but for what it is I liked it.
Mitzi
Oh, you guys, this post was awesome. I love movie reviews. We just watched this movie a couple of weeks ago with much over-hyped anticipation, and I have to agree. Any remotely funny joke was given away in the trailer. (Although, I did laugh pretty hard at the "Piggy" song. That actually seemed like something a "real" family might do--well, maybe mine.) Also, it felt like a big subliminal message to buy all my clothing at L.L. Bean and purchase over-priced, cool-cabin-y decor from Pottery Barn. I also agree that we saw this storyline about three years ago in "The Family Stone". Maybe the writer missed that memo. The only thing I kind of disagree with is the "cleanliness" of this movie. I'm not saying it wasn't cleaner than most other PG-13s, (it was) but, it still pushed the boundaries. What about the shower scene? Don't we catch a side glimpse of "something"? Had I been watching this with my dad, I probably would have squirmed.
Just to clarify, Brady liked this movie and laughed every five minutes.
Oh man are you serious? We loved this movie! We thought it was hilarious. How can you go wrong with Steve Curell?
didnt you die during the dance scenes??? CMON!
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