Day: August 7, 2012

So this movie shows the great disparity between men and women in Hollywood from the opening scene. On one hand we have two talented actresses,* who are beautiful, despite being underweight, and shunted, once again to the “girlfriend” role and they don’t do much but react to the males who are both overweight (which would be fine if women of a similar weight could star in or even take the boring girlfriend role, but they cannot so I must call them on this disparity) and making money doing the same shtick they have been doing for years (although I still find Vince Vaughn’s talky-talky arguments quite amusing.)  I’m not sure why Ron Howard directed this, but at any rate, Channing Tatum was quite amusing as a sleazy guy who isn’t quite in control of his emotions.**

*Also, Queen Latifah was completely wasted in this film.

**Channing Tatum appears for a total of maybe 10 minutes, so make your plans accordingly.

poster from: 

http://www.impawards.com/2011/dilemma.html

I dreaded watching this adaptation of a schmaltzy Nicholas Sparks novel, but

Amanda Sayfried

and

Richard Jenkins

are pros and they can sell their characters like nobody’s business.  Thus, though it could have turned into treacle at any moment, it never did, and it even surprised me a few times.  Overall, much better than I thought and actually quite good.

ps. DVD extras includes a gag real which is unusual for a drama, and so quite fun.  The gag part from the scene on the movie poster cracked me up.

pps.  Stupid tag line for this movie as it doesn’t really relate in any way to the content of the movie.

poster from: 

http://www.impawards.com/2010/dear_john.html