The Jenn Remke 31 Days Project

Can't Buy Me Love

2011-01-15T10:36:00.002-05:00

Can’t Buy Me Love
Oh oh oh! This is the movie that started it all! McDreamy at his best! Everyone’s been copying this teen out line since, but here we are at the one that taught us all those valuable life lessons: Borrowing ‘Moms’ clothes will always lead to disaster (or as in my case, borrowing Dad’s vest – what?! Vests were popular in the 90s – will lead to him taking all of your clothes out of your room leaving you with only what is on the floor to wear for an entire month), It doesn’t matter how hot you are no one wants to hear your poetry, If you do a weird tribal dance with confidence everyone will like you and join in, If you finally stand up for the nerds you will earn a slow clap, You can go from totally geek to totally chic with hair gel and ripping your clothes, and of course: You can buy your popularity but not love. Despite the fact that watching 80’s movies right now makes me feel a little like I never lived up to my own potential (yes, I’m feeling that “I’m old and I never did anything with my life” depression again), this movie can bring me nothing but joy joy joy! So lets check it off shall we?
• Giddy: Hell yes! We have several dance scenes, the geeks vs. the cools, emotional outbursts on top of lawn mowers and slow claps!
• Lie: Ohhh yes! Its supposed to be their lil secret that he pays her 1,000 bucks just to pretend to go out with him so he can become popular. But oh how she spills the beans!
• Big Emotional Outburst: Is there any other way than on a lawn mower?
• Wedding: No but that’s okay, just looking at the suede white suit she and her mother fight over, I’m guessing that it would be so full of tacky 80’s garb, I might fight down vomit.
• Dance Sequence: I think we have 3! If you count the white girl “cheering” in the beginning, which is nothing short of bad jazz-pre-stripper routine.
• Rewatchable: Yes! Oh hell yes! So glad to finally own this one!
• Love: I think Ronald sums it up best in his speech to the jock who is about to pummel his friend. And he gets the slow clap for such a wonderful performance (sigh, I never got the slow clap, Oh wait, no I think I did but it was for something drunk and stupid I did at a party and it was more out of a way to make fun of me and not to encourage me onward – jokes on them though – I’ve been drunk and stupid many many times since!).
• Fantasy: I think this is actually closer to reality than you think. I think popularity only takes money, always has and always will (I saw that there is a company now out there who will take your money, put you in places near stars and get you your own paparazzi thus enabling you to be talked about and made famous- for a fee of course. I think my fee to get me famous would have to be a lot larger than some young 100 pound beauty). But we are transported back to the golden age of 80s and highschool and thus there is a lovely scent of nostalgia (and the pungent smell of regret) in the air.
• Journey of the main character: Again, see Ronald’s slow clap moment.
• Body Count: none
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: Oh we have a few golden oldies
• Strong Female: Not really no. If finally going for a ride on the boy’s lawnmower is redemption enough for ya, maybe but for me, nope this girl ends up arm candy to somebody else who can support her shopping habit.

The Back Up Plan

2011-01-14T17:22:00.003-05:00

The Back Up Plan
Happy birthday to me! I’m 35 today. And what better way to celebrate than watch a wonderful Romantic Comedy! But oh noooooooooooo, it’s The Back Up Plan! Oh god, I suddenly am lying in the fetal position on the floor crying because my clock has been ticking for years (it’s real, it’s INSANE how real it is, I’m not kidding, I never wanted kids, EVER, and now… my god… it’s babies, its all I think of… and I’m married to a man who well…isn’t there yet and now...I’m OLD… oh my god its physically painful at times) and here is a rom com about a woman who decides to take matters into her own hands at the exact moment she meets the one. Breath, just breath… but actually, it’s pretty funny and after an impropriate glass of wine in the middle of the day… its not so bad…once I get past the whole- I’m-35-years-old-and-I-don’t-have-a-kid-and-don’t-even-get-me-started-on-the-whole-fertility-drugs-selfishness-soap-box. So yeah, despite the feeling of personal utter failure welling up on my part, I still found this film adorable and no Jenn birthday should be without a cute adorable rom com! And away we go…
• Giddy: The first date…in the garden, before everything goes beautifully wrong (hell even when it does), it is the ultimate date, and despite that it’s “cheap” pizza it would cost a fortune to do in NY. I’m smiling down to my toes!
• Lie: She doesn’t tell him the moment she meets him that she’s preggers, but seriously…would you?! I wouldn’t say anything till… um… the babies out?
• Big Emotional Outburst: Okay seriously, can you top an emotional outburst as big as this? She’s in LABOR! With TWINS (damn fertility drugs… many of you who read this already know my prejudice against the over-population of the world and disgust in fertility drugs instead of adoption)!
• Wedding: Yes, and this time, it’s not so appealing, it’s old people, so its sweet but not so glamorous.
• Dance Sequence: Yes of course, in the wedding with walkers! Woohoo!
• Rewatchable: Yes, especially as soon as I’ve got a damn kid of my own!
• Love: What I really like about this kind of love, is its actually quite opposite of most of the loves. It’s the love that says “I’m still gonna be there through all the crap, cause you, and us are worth it”. It’s a rarely seen in rom com land kind of love and its really heartwarming. Because after the passion dies down THIS- this is what you really want, a partner.
• Fantasy: Other than having a baby, a nice pet store, enough money to afford twin in NYC?...
• Journey of the main character: Here we have a woman who is truly being irrational, she dumps him over the dumbest thing, because she’s made up her mind she can do it on her own rather than deal with compromise with another, and then learns that she’d rather do it all with him.
• Body Count: None… hrm.
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: Not very noticeable to me, but maybe some other time.
• Strong Female: Yes, she’s willing to do it all alone. But finds the courage to do it with someone else.
And here is a bit of my own rom-com:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te94SZ0nIrY

Just My Luck

2011-01-07T21:38:00.001-05:00

Just My Luck
Hollywood infected my brain (check out the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1VTcJfL7RE)!
Okay, yes, this movie has Lindsey Lohan, and yes she’s not very good, but I had never seen this movie before now, and I find it ADORABLE! That’s right, I think I might finally be going off the deep end, being alone everyday with my dog and a ton of Rom Coms, because I actually liked this movie. I mean don’t get me wrong, I have my standards, its’ no Princess Bride! But its cute, and perfect for a snowy day (and snow, is there anything better that watching snow fall? Oh wait there is (Hawaii) never mind)! I know you’re rolling your eyes (Blohan? Really? I know I know!) so lets just cut the chit chat and get to it shall we?

• Giddy: Okay I’m sucker for those damn blue eyes (I don’t trust them, but I’m a sucker for em),Chris Pine is adorable, and then we have this whole luck thing (something I’ve been more on the down side of than the upside of) that I find so fascinating: she doesn’t know she has luck till she loses it and they both give it up for each other in one of the greatest romantic places in all of NYC, Grand Central Station (okay seriously what is wrong with me, the majority of the Rom-Coms are set in NYC and I do NOT feel the love for real when I walk through the same places).
• Lie: not really no…
• Big Emotional Outburst: Yes!
• Wedding: um no
• Dance Sequence: No
• Rewatchable: Yes actually, I love this cute magical plot
• Love: Love makes us not care about our luck, because we’re lucky to be with the one we love
• Fantasy: This whole sweet luck plot that is switched by a kiss is adorable, and man, I wish I could find someone with that luck and kiss them! But best yet, there is an entire scene where she goes around kissing strangers trying to get her luck back (something I have often fantasized about – what you don’t? Really? You know standing there on the train, seeing some cute person engrossed in their book or iphone and you focus on their lips and wonder just how they taste and that little devil pops up inside you and says ‘wouldn’t it be a great way to shake up their day’ and the urge just swims with in you the entire ride? No?)
• Journey of the main character: Ms. Lohan learns that she had great luck only once she’s lost it and learns to live with in the bad luck and learns that others are more deserving of her good luck than herself.
• Body Count: none boo
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: Oh here it is just awful! And we even have one of those music montages where we sum up the entire movie, or last 10 minutes in a flash back montage. Oh dear lord!
• Strong Female: Somewhat…

Letters to Juliet

2011-01-07T21:33:00.001-05:00

Letters to Juliet
This movie should be one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, this movie’s plot should go down in history as the worst plot ever, and this movie should be on my list of ones to never watch again BUT… darn it all, I find it strangely pulling me in, maybe its my own insecurity in the choices I’ve made in my life and the hope that maybe I’d be able to redeem them one day or maybe its my pms, but I end up liking and being swept up into this ridiculous plot. I really didn’t want to like this film. It has a HORRIBLE plot (come on, anyone who has been to Italy or even read EAT, PRAY, LOVE knows that there is no way that a letter would go from Italy to England that quickly): A girl goes to Italy on what is supposed to be a pre-honeymoon and while her fiance neglects her she stumbles upon a wall where women write to Juliet and finds a group of women who write letters back as Juliet, she becomes one, sends a letter to a woman who wrote 50 years before, and the woman shows up and she journeys with her in search of her “one true love”! The society of Juliets? Really? Every detail about this plot is ridiculous. And then the jerk grandson comes in, teaching me that Brits aren’t all warm and fuzzy (seriously, their accent is so damn cute, I thought they were all super sweet and adorable). Despite myself, I kind of liked this movie. I’m as shocked as you are dear reader! Like I said, maybe it’s the pms. But…well lets just check it off shall we, maybe I’ll change my mind…

• Giddy: When Vanessa Redgrave finally meets her true love… yeah I’m a little giddy.
• Lie: um none really
• Big Emotional Outburst: Oh dear lord, the end scene where Amanda is on a balcony and the angry brit (whom I never warmed up to) pathetically tried to climb up to her… oh I feel embarrassed for those actors but we do have the big emotional outburst…ug, HOWEVER lets give him credit for saying the only true line in the movie: New York is overated.
• Wedding: Yes actually! And its beautiful! I want one just like it
• Dance Sequence: nope
• Rewatchable: um…well…its gonna be at the bottom of the pile, I’m gonna have to be a bit desperate
• Love: Well first she’s with a guy who is more passionate about his work and food than her (that sounds familiar to me… a little TOO familiar and he never even reads her writing or shows any real interest in her own passion… also way too familiar…my husbands doesn’t read this blog…) and then she falls for a guy who… I guess loves her (after he’s done hating her- and I’m not sure when that switch actually happened)…
• Fantasy: Besides this horrible plot? Well… there’s Italy and my god, if your gonna give me a bad bad plot and bad actors at least give me something pretty to look at… and you did: Italy!
• Journey of the main character: Um… I think there is supposed to be one in there, I just had a hard time seeing it. She journeys through Italy though! That’s something!
• Body Count: none…we could have used some here!
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: typical Italian music during pretty drives through Italy
• Strong Female: Um no… you really can’t call this woman strong at all. Perhaps Ms. Redgrave makes up for it?

Just Wright

2011-01-07T21:29:00.001-05:00

Just Wright
So, once upon a time, in my pathetic lil brain, I couldn’t understand that there really were women that were cold hearted Gold-diggers. I mean, I had always chalked it up to nasty labels like “psycho” that ex-boyfriends used to sum up women. But that obviously (just like Psycho- which usually means the men did something wrong and the woman lashed out and god forbid dumped the men and then the guys go around saying that she’s just Psycho) there must be a deeper story there. However with age (and my god, I’m getting old), and experience, I’ve come to understand that just like there CAN be pure evil out there in the world (Dick Cheney) there does exist these women, looking for men to just “take care of them”(also proven true: a dear friend of mine who recently got dumped from a true “psyco”). I discovered the majority of them live here in NYC and in LA. It’s sad. Really sad. And this movie, is one of those wonderful fantasies of good triumphing over the gold digger! And not just good, Queen Latifah good! I think Queen Latifah is my new Goddess of Rom Coms, because I want her to win so badly, I’m on her side from the moment she enters the screen and she always exudes beauty, confidence, with just enough of vulnerability. If only her male lead could act. Sigh. Well, he’s pretty to look at. So, lets get to it:

• Giddy: Jersey Represent!
• Lie: The GOLD DIGGER! AAAAH!
• Big Emotional Outburst: “Common” doesn’t have the chops to pull it off and the scene lies flat
• Wedding: nope – um… dear friend who got me started on this by giving me all these movies to watch… we’re not off to a good start this year! Where are the pretty white dresses?!?!?!?!?!?!
• Dance Sequence: Once again we have some dancing of one – the kind we all do in the bed, you know after we’ve been laid properly?
• Rewatchable: Yes indeed
• Love: Aw that sweet, I’d never notice the fat chick, not when hottie gold digger is around but oh wait, when hottie leaves, the fat chick actually has a soul and I find that so much more appealing.
• Fantasy: That good ol’ fat chicks like me could triumph over skinny hot gold diggers! My god I really love this fantasy! Reality is, even if he did end up with the Queen, she’ll spend her whole life insecure and paranoid that he’s cheating or going to leave her because she’s not as hot as her cousin!
• Journey of the main character: see the Love bullet.
• Body Count: none! And we really could have used one! I really feel that the gold digger should have died!
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: okay, um the bombom music during the making love scene is a bit over the top but the songs are okay.
• Strong Female: The Queen! Bow down to the Queen!

The Bounty Hunter

2011-01-07T16:47:00.002-05:00

Bounty Hunter
So I just recently read a small yahoo blurb where they reported on Hugh Jackman “slamming” Jennifer Aniston because she makes crap movies and still gets to be considered Hollywood elite. And well, this one probably is one of the movies he’s talking about. But for my taste, I kind of like the movie. I like it the best so far of all her Rom Coms and it’s a cute lil flick. I don’t know if that means she deserves her huge paycheck but I would rather wonder why CEOs and the producers and hell Wallstreet deserve their big paychecks more than wonder why an actor does. As I am an actor who has never received paychecks for my acting, I kind like to at least be “pro-check” in case my luck ever does change…

• Giddy: Oh we start off with her breaking out of the trunk of a car, yes we have giddy moments all over. There is a palpable chemistry between Gerard and Jennifer (well, I think all us gals would have chemistry with Gerard, he’s yummy in a thug way). I actually like this tougher side of Jennifer too, like stealing the kids bike after he asked to see her boobs and she screams over her shoulder show me your penis! But her stripper mother(Christine Baranski) is fantastic!
• Lie: There’s a lovely mystery that has to unravel that keeps things moving along smoothly 
• Big Emotional Outburst: Yes, yes there are some big ones
• Wedding: nope
• Dance Sequence: No, except in my living room, while watching this movie…there are a few songs, I just can’t help it, the butt starts jigglin…
• Rewatchable: Yes, it’s adorable, I don’t care what Hugh Jackman thinks!
• Love: My favorite kind! Hate/Love! Yay! As some wise person once said (and I think I ignored them then as much as now): The worst thing is Apathy, Hate and Love can always lead to one another, but apathy can lead nowhere.
• Fantasy: To think that this relationship is really going to work a second time around? That’s a big Fantasy!
• Journey of the main character: Gerard goes to get his revenge for a broken heart by taking his exwife to jail but gets caught up in the mystery that needs to be solved and falls back in love with her.
• Body Count: I don’t think there are any but there is a lot of people getting really hurt, so… that counts as a plus in my book!
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: “It’s tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that’s right on time, its tricky”, butt jiggling good tunes! YAY!
• Strong Female: Yes, Jennifer, you did well. Some people tell me (when I bother to actually try and look nice with make up on and such) that I resemble you and most of the time that irritates me but today… It makes me PROUD!

The Holiday

2011-01-07T16:15:00.002-05:00

Holiday
So this isn’t a great movie, it might have been better with some different casting choices (I’m not sure I can believe Ms. Diaz as an all work no play kind of gal and Jack Black?! Really?!What is it with Hollywood and being fine with men being ugly or dumpy as long their funny but no way no how can that be the case with women) or perhaps even split up the two stories into two different movies but… well it’s got some good points (Jude Law and Kate Winslet) so… away we go:

• Giddy: Really, the pickings are a bit slim here but Jude Law pretty much anytime gets me giddy.
• Lie: There aren’t any major ones going on, nope.
• Big Emotional Outburst: Well of course we got 2 ladies heartbroken and taking off to different countries to break away from it so there are outburst to be had, but the one I believe usually comes at the end of the movie, the big emotional “I love you” didn’t really go down that path.
• Wedding: nope
• Dance Sequence: We have several! We have both of the girls doing their own little dances (I dance that goofy too all the time alone) and we have a finale dance with the loves and kids.
• Rewatchable: meh
• Love: We have all kinds, the unrequited, the unemotional, the unavailable, the “we’re just friends but you might be good for me”, and the “I refuse to fall in love with you but can’t help myself”
• Fantasy: I’d love to jet off to England after a heart break, I’d love to have half as much money as Ms. Diaz has in this movie.
• Journey of the main character: Each girl goes off to get away from heartbreak and discovers all new love. But my favorite line in the movie sums it up for us all: Your Leading Lady material, why are you behaving like the best friend”
• Body Count: nada damn!
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: Holiday songs are always a hit (until you’re listening to them for the millionth time because the damn radio started playing them Nov. 1st) But I do love Jack Blacks line to Kate when he says “If you were a melody this is what you’d be” he plays a sweet sad melody and then says “I used only the good notes”.
• Strong Female: Well I think if we had seen this done as intended by the writers, we would have seen one woman (Ms. Diaz) who is seemingly strong and got it all, money, career, nice house but learns to let it down a little and warm up to love and the other (Ms. Winslet) who is run over by every person because she allows them to, learns to stand up for herself and demand the treatment and love she deserves. But… alas… we don’t really see that.

Say Anything

2011-01-04T11:56:00.003-05:00

Say Anything

Ah, yes, the classic! I haven’t seen this movie in a long time, and I think age has improved this movie. Everyone is so much cuter, their dialogue so much more adolescent and adorable. Well…the only downside is that well… Ione Sky is really not a great actress, sigh.
So lets get right to it shall we?

• Giddy: Kissing in the rain, having sex in the backseat of the car (hey it’s how I was conceived), the 65 Joe songs, THE BOOMBOX (seriously who can not be giddy during that scene?!), “I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen”
• Lie: The Dad’s been stealing from the old people (bad Daddy, bad!)
• Big Emotional Outburst: Does the boombox count? It does to me!
• Wedding: Um no
• Dance Sequence: Not really, breaking pure 80s tradition, there is a wild party with an over the top Piven that might count?
• Rewatchable: Um YES!
• Love: I actually think this relationship won’t work in long term but first love, ah first love! So very sweet!
• Fantasy: I think we all fantasize about being loved that hard, that passionately.
• Journey of the main character: Well Ms. Sky really doesn’t do a great job of it, but it’s the journey of a girl who has worked so hard and finally getting to enjoy herself a little.
• Body Count: Um none
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: Isn’t this one of the greatest? In your eyes! I get weak in my knees!
• Strong Female: ‘Diane Court’ starts out strong, extra credit classes, working jobs, volunteering, a real go-getter, but everything is to please her Dad and once her Dad comes off the pedestal she links herself with ‘Lloyde Dobler’ as her new crutch. I foresee a long future of going from man to man until someday in her late 30s she wakes up and realizes it should be about herself and not the men in her life…

Moonstruck, Killers, She's out of my League

2011-01-01T19:38:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year! So, I’ve watched a ton of movies as we dragged ourselves into this new year (needing to escape is um… at its highest). My god, lets really hope this next year brings us all so much more happiness and so much more success than this past year. For me and many of my dear friends 2010 was extremely rough. I didn’t get anywhere near my resolution to be in a romantic comedy instead of just watching them. Ah well, here’s hoping 2011 brings on the greatness we all so well deserve! And lets start the year off with a bang! 3 count them THREE of the movies that my dear friend gave me to watch and blog on. Whew, that’s a lot of typing so lets just get right to those check off lists shall we?

Moonstruck

• Giddy: Yes, the passion in this movie is okay…well… yes, a bit over the top but I love it! When Nick Cage throws the table across the room and grabs Cher passionately and kisses her… whoa! Then he picks her up, screaming “Son of a bitch” and carries her to the bedroom…mmmmm. Also when she goes to the Opera (which I’ve never been to and sniff… would love to go) and she looks so amazing! Do my giddy dance! Lalala!
• Lie: There really aren’t too many big lies, I mean, she plans on telling her fiancé she slept with her brother, and her father is cheating but her mother already knows.
• Big Emotional Outburst: Oh god, every ten minutes there’s one! My favorite is this little exchange: “I’m in love with you” smack “Snap out of it” or this one: “Why didn’t you wait for the right man” “Because he didn’t come” “I’m here” “Your Late” or this one “Old man you give those dogs another piece of my food and I’m gonna kick you till your dead”.
• Wedding: Nope, but there’s 2 engagements
• Dance Sequence: Does Cher kicking a can down the street count?
• Rewatchable: I’ve been watching this movie since I was a kid, and yes I will continue to do so.
• Love: Ah my favorite kind, Passionate!
• Fantasy: I used to fantasize about living in NY like they are…but now that I’m here (and really don’t love it anymore, but this is a topic I actually need to hit on, many many movies are based in NYC and they all romanticize this town, so that I think oh wow look how beautiful how hopeful it is, and in the last year and half I’ve found nothing of what I see in the movies in this town, granted it is pretty to look at, but it’s a city of desperation and hungry people striving to live as rich and as superficially as the top 1% do and all the money it bleeds from you and all the dreams it dashes, it sort of takes off that rom-com shine and make it dingy and sad), I guess the only thing I fantasize about anymore is to get a shred of the passion seen in this movie back into my life.
• Journey of the main character: Cher is resigned to a boring nice life until she meets Nick who sweeps her off her feet (literally) and awakens her a desire to be sexy and passionate again.
• Body Count: nada
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie…
• Strong Female: Cher has got to be one of the strongest women on and off screen out there. Granted she’s a bit more in the gay-con category then rom-com-icon but still… she’s fantastic! I wish I had her balls!

The Killers

• Giddy: Alright, alright, now some of you are really gonna hate me for this (my husband does, he hates all Ashton Kutcher and refuses to watch anything he does) but this whole movie makes me giddy! It’s exactly what I like to see: action, ridiculous side characters, and even though I can’t buy that Ashton is a spy let alone in love with Ms. Heigl, I still have his abs to look at! And that means a lot to us ladies over a certain age…mmmmm…. Muscles! And this movie had my heart by Ms. Heigl’s speech about her name: “Its Jen, Jennifer, sometimes Jenny, no… no it’s just Jen. Just Jen.”
• Lie: Oh dear lord EVERYONE is lying, all the neighbors, Ashton (badly granted)..Tom Selleck.
• Big Emotional Outburst: Oh yes, we have several!
• Wedding: They skip that (sniff)
• Dance Sequence: Sort of, when some jerk at a club thinks she’s a hooker.
• Rewatchable: Yes. I’m sorry to all you, you judging people, yes this is right up my alley!
• Love: He gives up the killing career for her and then goes out of his way to protect her… yeah that’s love. We also have the scary overprotective dad kind of love going on here too.
• Fantasy: I love the action sequences in this movie. They are great!
• Journey of the main character: She learns that her husband is a former professional killer and so is her dad and that she’s pregnant and she finds her own inner strength and ability to deal with a little spontaneity.
• Body Count: Too many to count, but I really love how almost every single person they think are their friends, neighbors and co-workers are out to kill them. Just goes to show you… you really DON’T need to know your neighbors that well.
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: I think I own a lot of the songs in this soundtrack.
• Strong Female: She becomes one.

She’s out of my league

• Giddy: Yes! This movie is adorable! Giddy all over with this lovely little film, more of a man-rom-com (like 40 Year Old Virgin) where the men are idiots and the women are on pedestals (vs. most female rom-coms where the women are quirky, cute and odd). But the side characters MAKE this movie, we have the lovable assholes (male and female) that just give this movie not only all the best lines like “No one wants to fuck a moodle” and “Oh the Hamburgler wasn’t in to me?” but the charm and sweetness from the other characters – ones like the sweet Nate Torrence who calls Jay’s lady love “Princess Jasmine” and he even helps his him shave his balls!
• Lie: Well there’s some attempted lies like when Jay tries to get back his bitchy ex girlfriend by saying he’d been on a “snatch parade” and Alice Eve is only dating him because he’s safe.
• Big Emotional Outburst: Yes we have that lovely big end, brought on by the lovable assholes to bring the kids together again.
• Wedding: nope (sigh)
• Dance Sequence: Well we do have the lovable assholes tribute band playing at a party and that’s… well close…
• Rewatchable: Yes, this movie is hysterical!
• Love: A hot girl with a dorky guy… it happens!
• Fantasy: For most guys I guess it would be having such a hot girl… for me… wishing I was that hot?
• Journey of the main character: Through love…you can have the confidence to follow your dreams… yeah… and with confidence you can get the hot girl
• Body Count: nada… sigh
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: I love this soundtrack! Everytime I hear Chelsea Dagger I want to jump around in joy!
• Strong Female: Um… maybe it’s my prejudice against pretty people, but I don’t think she’s very strong. But her best friend is kick ass and funny as hell soo…

Eat Pray Love

2010-12-28T18:48:00.003-05:00

So, it begins again, another great gift of 24 mystery movies for me to talk about on this blog. And we start this gift package off with none other than Eat Pray Love. Sigh. My heart is a little sad having to talk about this movie. It’s all so complicated for me. The book, I read (as I think most women do and why we love it so fiercely) during a huge identity crisis time in my life and troubles in my marriage. It helped me in countless ways, mainly because here was a woman I completely identified with who was getting not only the luxury of wallowing in her emotional needs, getting to rediscover herself, rediscover her passion, but also do it in a way I can’t even fathom how I’d ever afford to: in 3 countries for a year. So she gets to live the life I want but I get to read the book and end with a calmer awareness of myself. And I love this book! I recommend it to every woman I know who is going through that crisis (which typically seems to be in the 30s). Now, when I heard the movie was going to be made, I thought: How? How can you show this in film? And then I heard Julia Roberts was attached to it and I sighed and said, ah you are not making this book into a movie, you are making a romantic movie that Julia can be in and your going to vaguely hit on points from the book. As they did.
Now lets talk about the heartbreak… I used to love Julia Roberts (I love all her rom coms- they make me smile down to my liver). But this past year (which has been a very hard struggle for me and it is my sincere hope that next year I get a little of my sparkle, hope and joy back, among other hopes of.. you know success and money and such), while working as the-lowest-of-low-on-the-totem-pole-of-films: an extra, I had many opportunities to sit around with fellow dirt-levels and we would talk about the stars we’ve been around. These conversations inevitably led to who was a jerk to work with(Walberg) and who was surprisingly sweet (Gandolfini). And time and again, I heard horror stories about what a bitch, what a diva, what a nightmare Julia Roberts was. I didn’t want to believe it, America’s Sweetheart? Surely she is nice, that’s how I can believe she is in all those movies. But no, I heard a story about how she so diminished a young actress playing a stewardess who messed up one line that the girl up and quit acting, it ruined her to be so humiliated by the wrath of Roberts on the set. Well, I must admit, this has affected my ability to watch her. I just have so little room in my heart for those who look down on others, those who can be so cruel.
So I went in to seeing Eat Pray love with those 2 very large marks against it: my once idol was a bitch and they aren’t going to be able to really make this book into a movie. And so this movie, which I should have wanted to love, I only walk away with a meh. Julia seemed cold to me. She has lines in the movie (because the character in the book is actually this way) that she says she’s a Suzy Cream Cheese, a happy talkative person and I don’t believe that for a moment from Julia. I don’t really see the complicated journey to loving herself and loving the whole world too in her. And she also talks about her “muffin top” and has an entire scene where they try and close jeans on her and um… seriously she has NEVER had a muffin top! Arg! So with all that said, lets check Eat Pray Love off of my list, shall we?
• Giddy: Well there are moments when they quote the book like: You select your thoughts like you select your clothes in the morning, and Look through your heart and not your head but the parts that usually get me giddy (the love scenes) don’t really do it for me here.
• Lie: This is a book/movie about facing your truth. So no.
• Big Emotional Outburst: We have a typical Roberts blow up scene on the beach of Bali. And of course there is the one at the very beginning of the movie… the one that scares the shit out of me quite frankly. The scene where she goes to pray about her unhappiness and decides she doesn’t want to be married anymore. I think I’m more re-living my own fears and bad moments then empathizing with Julia here though (but unlike Julia’s character, I came out of that situation realizing it was better to work on the love I have than throw it away and start over- but I still tear up every time I hear that line: The only thing more impossible than staying was leaving). Also… my god can we please praise once again an amazing performance from Richard Jenkins- his scene where he describes why he is at this ashram in India is heart wrenching!
• Wedding: Why yes there are 2! An Indian wedding (so beautiful despite the fact that its so sad) and flash backs of her own.
• Dance Sequence: In the flash backs of her own there is a lovely scene where Billy Crudup (another supposed jerk in real life) dances around Julia
• Rewatchable: I have to admit, this movie does the opposite for me of what is its intentions: to lift you up so… well yes when I’m feeling doomed (which is often lately).
• Love: This is supposed to be as I said before the learning to love yourself and then love others, but I had a hard time buying it from Julia. There is also the love with Javier Bardem, which is sweet and that perfect rom-com hate em first then love him. Honestly I must give the film credit here, I thought they’d skip right over Italy and India and focus mostly on the Javier affair but they did a good job of keeping them all balanced and showing us that love is not in one form – it is not just romantic but the love of friends, of strangers, of places and passions.
• Fantasy: A writer takes a year off of life and travels to 3 exotic places to discover herself. It’s my number 1 fantasy!
• Journey of the Main Character: Read the book, her journey is amazing!
• Body Count: none
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: Its got some good songs
• Strong Female: Again… read the book.

Side note: It's driving me bonkers that I can't lay out this blog by title and that it only lays it out by date. If anyone knows how to change it so I can lay this blog out by title instead of date can you email me at jennremke@gmail.com ? Love to you all!

Assassin In Love

2010-12-11T10:50:00.001-05:00

What a crazy year! But currently I have a job at home and from the miracle of Wii netflix I get to expand my rom-com watching. And recently, I got to see this sweet little film: Assassin in Love. And I just had to add it to my lil blog.

“Professional hit man Milo (Damian Lewis) flees the city after failing to carry out a contract, and gets mistaken for a baker while hiding out in the country. But just as Milo begins to embrace his leisurely new lifestyle and strike up a romance with local veterinarian Rhiannon (Kate Ashfield), his secret gets out, and the locals start asking for much more than specialty cakes”- says the netflix description.

Adorable film with great odd side characters! And of course, we have deaths! Now, granted, Milo is cute, but with those lips, I’m not quite convinced he’s straight (though my last production: Macbeth, the director had similar poofy lips and he turned out to be “straight” so who knows anymore) and I definitely don’t buy him as a cold blooded killer but never the less, he charms me anyway and this one will now be added to my ongoing list of films I can’t stop watching. And here is how it checks off my list:

• Giddy: Assassins gets me giddy all on its own! But we also have a hysterical and really odd love making scene with every ingredient in the kitchen.
• Lie: Milo is a trained assassin, hiding out in a small town pretending to be a baker.
• Big Emotional Outburst: This comes from a few of the side characters.
• Wedding: Yes at the end and it is beautiful!
• Dance Sequence: Non. However we have a group song, this should maybe go in my music category but it gave me the same thrill a group dance does.
• Rewatchable: So now that I am working from home (I’m uploading baby pictures and sending them to parents – which is one of the greatest jobs I’ve ever had, finally affording me the freedom to audition, and to watch in the background all the rom-coms I want, the only downsides being that I actually can’t seem to get that many auditions- damn this town is hard to break through to, and I’ve got a massive ticking clock and seeing cute babies all day long does not really help this) I’m really putting this category to the test. I saw this movie 3 times so far. There are so many great side characters, and that British wit creeps up on you.
• Love: As I said, I’m not sure I buy that this guy is straight (maybe I just don’t trust guys with blue eyes) but the sex is hot and I really feel that like me, Milo falls in love with this quirky town. Living in a city that I don’t love and dealing with the struggles of no longer having the comfort of a core group of people who “get you” and “love you anyway” (well that’s not exactly true, I have some wonderful friends here – its just they are very spread out in this big big city and the trials I face trying to live here and make it here overshadow these good people), I understand what its like to fall in love with a place, a town, loving it for its flaws, its beauty and all the people that inhabit it.
• Fantasy: This town! Oh these charming people!
• Journey of the Main Character: Milo moves to this small town to hide out but ends up wanting to stay and give up his evil ways of killing people quickly with guns an opt for the killing them slowly with baked goods. We’ve all been there right?
• Body Count: 3!! Not counting the Ram’s head!
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: Okay maybe some of these songs are a bit overdone, maybe we’ve all heard them before in a bunch of other rom-coms but I really love them. They make me happy!
• Strong Female: The Vet is a nice tough gal all on her own (or maybe its just her short hair- as all my girlfriends with short hair have proved- the shorter the hair, the tougher the gal- which really says a lot about me I guess- since… well mine is extremely long – but this is no surprise to you dear reader who know I only play tough on stage and am such a sap in real life).

So what a crazy year, I quit a job where my boss screamed, I got a great job that I quit for a dream of making kick ass money in fit modeling, got fired from fit modeling for not being “modely” enough, and fell into this current job where I upload baby pics, which doesn’t pay the bills enough so I have to do a lot of extra work on the movies and tv shows being shot around town (and extra work is by far the most brutal for us non union folks). I’ve only been in one play but it was a great role: Lady Macbeth! But art wise… I’m still on the losing end. I have no idea where I’m going, what is coming next, or how I’ll get through it, but I have to admit, just for now… especially after the horrible trials and tribulations of this past year, I’m pretty happy! I’m really quite blessed! I’ve got some great friends here, I’ve got a great job where I get to be at home watching the movies I’d rather be in but alas we can’t have it all, and my husband and I are stronger than ever! So my own little rom com, is having a good music montage moment right now. Happy Holidays and may this next year bring us all many great romantic moments, great success and dreams come true!

Overboard!

2010-06-17T10:16:00.005-04:00

Overboard!
In honor of the return of the 80’s in fashion (seriously, I’m dizzy walking the streets of now – I had to actually call my friend and have him remind me which decade I’m in. It’s scary. And you know something- that is still ugly clothing this time around too!) I sat down and watched one of my all time favorites: Overboard! This is a classic! I love this movie on so many levels: it’s a loosely based adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew, it’s got all the good and bad of being rich vs poor and the great divide between the two, it’s a true warning that a woman is a slave in the household unless she is given respect and love, and its got all the great gooey chemistry between this hot Hollywood couple. Here is how the timeless (I used to think this movie was ugly and dirty but through the goggles of nostalgia and brain washing by the fashion industry that 80’s are cool I find it quite glamorous) Overboard checks off my list:

• Giddy: From the first twang of that terrible song during the credits, I’m in heaven! Goldie playing rich-bitch is so cute, then you have great moments like “Fuk her Fuk her” “I don’t think you can say that on television” “No, No, Fuk her means seal in my country” ; and the Katarina and Arturo story, the making love scene; the dirty boys (filthy in mind and in body); “Baby, if you have a baby, you won’t be the baby anymore” (something I am still trying to convince my parents of) and countless other moments
• Lie: Oh heck yeah! A big one! Let’s see here: He gets knocked off her yacht and left unpaid for building a cabinet made of oak so when she turns up in a mental hospital with no memory he fakes being married to her in order to get a SLAVE to cook, clean, and raise his children as payback. Written down it sounds so much more awful then on screen. (But seriously, the hospital considers it proof that they are married because he can describe a strawberry like birth mark on her ass, if its always that simple there are quite a few people who could claim being married to me…)
• Big Emotional Outburst: We have several, cause Goldie is friggin adorable when she’s angry! My favorite though (besides jumping in the water for each other at the end of the movie) is when she tells off that nasty judging teacher.
• Wedding: No but there are faked pictures of the wedding which are HILARIOUS!
• Dance Sequence: Yes Jim Dandy to the Rescue Jim Dandy to the Rescue! (Um Goldie- you look like your having an orgasm on the dance floor).
• Rewatchable: YES YES YES YES YES
• Love: I love this kind of love story! This is the backwards kind- start with work, family, obligations, start at hate and discover respect, admiration, and love.
• Fantasy: At the very end, they all discover that she’s the rich one. Rich enough for friggin servants and a yacht and evening gowns for no good reason at all! The one boy sums it up best “How do you spell Porsche?” This ranks right up there with my lottery fantasy.
• Journey of the Main Character: Oh I actually think Goldie does an amazing job with this character! Here she goes from being a rich-bitch snob who can not have any empathy for someone not rich like her to being battered around as a slave for a sweaty bohunk man to finding virtue in the smaller things in life (like teaching a child to read and cleaning a house) to once again fit back into the world she came from. It’s a really fascinating journey to watch.
• Body Count: Cest la vie: Non!
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: Ok this music sucks, but true to the 80’s there are lots of great montages. Especially in building the greatest thing Elk Snout has ever seen: A mini put put.
• Strong Female: Yes! Goldie! I love you!

Valentine's Day

2010-06-07T11:24:00.003-04:00

I’ve always had a problem with Valentine’s Day. It is an excuse for the lazy to not be romantic all year long until one stinkin’ day. That said, just like my love for Romantic Comedies, I am completely irrational about it and still desire to get something nice on that holiday. So I sat down this weekend, newly inspired by the greatest proposal of all time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3rlU8bGovU ) to watch Valentine’s Day. I hadn’t rushed out to see this one in the theatres because I am not enthusiastic about this trend in films where you have tons and tons of stars with short interwoven plots that occasionally collide. It feels a bit like ADD and I’m not sure who to give my heart and attention to. There are some great exceptions like Love Actually and He’s Just Not That In To You, but this really didn’t measure up. It actually felt like a knock off version of those two films. Maybe it is just that nothing could possibly put me as over the moon as that You Tube proposal, or maybe it is that Ashton Kutcher just looks like the dumbest puppy dog ever, or maybe it just wasn’t that great...
Maybe it would also help, if I stopped drinking an entire bottle of wine when I sit down to enjoy these movies... I might be able to follow more... just sayin. But we’re not here to talk about my flaws (wait...are we?!)...but here is how Valentine’s Day checked off my list of must have’s:

• Giddy: I’ve noticed a trend here that I’m extremely giddy in the beginning of a movie and as the movie unfolds, I tend to get less so. Quite like most of my past relationships. And like those past relationships, they might not have been good the first time around but nostalgia and a more complicated current reality make me long for the already tried-and-not-really-so-true. So the scenes that could have been heart pumping here might be so in a year but for tonight... not one thing compared to that proposal...
• Lie: There is McDreamy lying to his 2 women, and Jessica Alba lying that she wanted to marry Mr. Puppy dog but not really (and um the director who cast her in the role of powerful go getter woman is lying to himself if he thinks we’re buying Alba in that role) and there’s that guy that looks like he is related to Leonardo DiCaprio who has been lying about being gay... oh there’s lies- lots of em... too many to keep track of!
• Big Emotional Outburst: Oh yes, again- in spades and hard to keep track of.
• Wedding: No, but I think if they had tried to squeeze in one more RC stereotype something would have had to explode!
• Dance Sequence: No
• Rewatchable: Ask me next year
• Love: Every kind there is
• Fantasy: I guess its seeing this many hot people. There are lots of hot people in this movie.
• Journey of the Main Character: Which ONE!?
• Body Count: No – and this – they could have used a bit of- so there would be less plots to keep track of!
• Music Montages/Soundtrack: Actually I liked a few songs on this soundtrack. I will most likely be downloading them soon...
• Strong Female: Um, I think there were a couple- Like Queen Latifah (but when isn’t she?) and Julia Roberts is a soldier... um but again, I didn’t get to have a full 2 hours to judge them, I got maybe 10 minutes of each character so... I can’t really say.

Leap Year

2010-05-22T17:44:00.005-04:00

So before I ever got around to watching this movie my whole being was in conflict about seeing it. Yes we have a RC and cute Amy Adams (Enchanted!)and some hot Irish guy...but we also have an insult to strong women that you can only propose to a man on one freakish day every 4 years(I want to start a campaign that women can propose to men - I have written several great commercial specs and designed some great male engagement rings but alas no one is biting...) and the commercials, to be quite honest, looked pretty dumb. And sure enough that conflict was not resolved in the actual watching. Yes there are some very cute moments but the pace is off and the plot in spots is almost too thin, like they were trying too hard to get these two to fall in love. So even though I own it now and it resides with the rest of my porn stash under the bed next to the dark chocolate and good reviews from past shows I was in.... it may stay at the bottom of the box for a while. So lets try to resolve this conflict by checking it off my list shall we?

Giddy: Okay there is the kiss (a very familiar plot device - I kinda liked it better in Addicted to love when Granny tells Meg to kiss Matt - but this one sends significant butterfly flutters into the pelvis area).

Lie: oh there isn't really one

Big Emotional Outburst: A few... but in that cute Amy Adams way where I just want to pinch her cheeks.

Wedding: Yes and another great moment- one of which I could completely relate- Amy is the biggest klutz ever and makes royal mess of this wedding.

Dance Sequence: Yes Irish folk dance and even though the moment getting her onto the floor was really odd, once there, I had fun watching this.

Rewatchable: Hmm...it may take a bit more desperate day than I've been having lately (and that's kind of saying a lot)

Love: You have the I love you enough to propose to keep the apartment love and the you are unbearable and rude but I'm stuck with you and oh look you might actually be more of the Mr./Ms. Right kind.

Fantasy: Ireland. Oh lovely.

Journey of the Main Character: She is on a physical journey to get the man she wants and she sends the cute Irish guy on an emotional journey to find a way to deal with the pain of loosing his girlfriend.

Body Count: none

Music Montages/Soundtrack: nope

Strong Female: Okay see... hrrrmmmm... in some ways she seems like she is going to be (but seriously I'm a sensible shoes kind of girl and am pretty judgemental on what that high of heels in EVERY moment of the day says about your inner strength), she does chase the guy (but she waited around for 4 years - um but then I'm one to talk - but I am not as cute as her and I didn't get many(ANY) offers) and she does walk away from him when she finds out he was only marrying her for the apt., but she's well... wishy washy on most things - even her own proposal to the cute Irish guy. So I give her C - .

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

2010-04-28T17:49:00.003-04:00

I adore this movie! And like most people, I can relate. Though, I'm on the quiet white side of things (I can relate alot more to Michael than Nia in this movie: I married into a large Filipino family). What should be the sequel is 2 large outrageous families from different cultures. I wonder what that would be like! (Well as long as Joey Fatone is in it that is, isn't he adorable?)
Another way this movie is way too similar to my own life is that Nia is a bit more on the chunkier side in this film and they never excuse it. She was an instant role model for me, that chunky women can play the romantic lead. I wish I could have such luck! I wish she had stayed the way she was (did anyone see her latest film I Hate Valentine's Day - She looks like in every scene her only subtext is "I wish someone would let me have a burger"). But alas, she lost a ton of weight... and alas, I'm here writing about RC's instead of being in them. Bitter table for one! Okay lets just get right to it shall we:

Giddy: Yes! I love the sweet proposal, the scene where Michael gets baptized and Nia says to her brother "I keep waiting for him to say 'Yeah right your so not worth'" and her brother replies: "Yes you are", and lines like "Did you say I was beautiful" and "I'm a snowbeast".

Lie: Nia is lying to her family to hide her boyfriend.

Big Emotional Outburst: Yes quite a few! I love particularly when the father is yelling at Michael about not asking for his permission to date his daughter and Michael asks if he can and he says "NO". So cute!

Wedding: Yes! Maybe not a fantasy wedding, honestly its up there with maybe one of the more hideous weddings I've seen and I've seen a redneck version of a Renfaire wedding so I know what I'm talking about, but its great! Spitting and all!

Dance Sequence: Yes! Opa! My favorite is with Joey Fatone-he looks so intense I think he might kill her.

Rewatchable: Yes! Again we have another movie my husband just won't sit through with me. Maybe I should start that as a category? The ones I can get others to sit with me through vs. those I have to have closet love for?

Love: This guys joins her religion for her! That is LOVE!

Fantasy: Okay I'm gonna be a bit brutal here, but I'm thinking the fantasy is that family can always be that unconditionally loving

Journey of the Main Character: She had spent the majority of her life being embarrassed by her family but through the love of her man, she learns to love herself and thus learn to love that part of herself.

Body Count: none

Music Montages/Soundtrack: I don't really find the music that memorable but there is a great dating/making out in the car montage that has me contemplating was I just way too easy?

Strong Female: mmm...not really... I mean she does finally take the step to getting classes and changing her life to something better and that takes courage soo... well sort of... she's just not you know "Angelina kickin ass strong".

Practical Magic

2010-04-24T17:20:00.007-04:00

So as if its not bad enough I'm such a sucker for Romance, I also am a sucker for all things Magic! No I'm not like a closet wicken(not that there is anything wrong with that) or anything. But I really get drawn into stories that have to do at all with magic. Harry Potter? Yes Please! Witches of Eastwick? Charmed? The Illusionist? The Prestige? Yes Yes Yes Yes! (some of you are shaking your heads in dismay and saying oh god Jenn why? and to that I say I don't know, maybe because I loved a man who was a magician and its stuck... or maybe its because I like the idea of a world where a spell can fix things).
So of course this movie, Practical Magic, is not just ice cream on a hot day but ice cream banana split with cherry on top on a hot day! And I think it is the ONLY movie I can ever think of where the book actually SUCKED and the movie is something so so much better! How the hell did they ever get this movie out of that book? That book was AWFUL!
But I digress...lets get to it shall we?

Giddy: Magic? Curses? The scene where Sandra makes out with Aiden... YES! We have many giddy moments!

Lie: Sandra's lying to herself about her gifts and Nicole is lying about the accidental murder of her boyfriend.

Big Emotional Outburst: Yes - and it takes a COVEN to resolve it!

Wedding: no

Dance Sequence: Put da lime in da coconut... mmmmm margarita dance (I've had a few of those).

Rewatchable: YES! This is one of those movies my husband really doesn't understand how on earth I could watch so much and has to go find something to do when its on. He knows I will not turn it off mid movie and he can't possibly stomach one more viewing of it.

Love: Yes! A spell cast love, a love that breaks the family curse!

Fantasy: Magic! YEAH!

Journey of the Main Character: I love that classic tale of the girl who denies her own gifts because she's seen as not normal but comes to embrace them and learn that self acceptance is far superior to others'.

Body Count: 2! Husband and boyfriend.

Music Montages/Soundtrack: Oh yes! We have several great montages and this soundtrack has a lot of great classics!

Strong Female: Yes each woman (Sandra an Nicole, Dianne and Stockard) has strength, endurance, and MAGIC! Yay! I assume having magical powers has to make you pretty damn strong. I don't have magical powers... and strength is something I struggle to attain everyday.

The Princess Bride

2010-04-21T15:53:00.007-04:00

Blog about the greatest Romantic Comedy of all time? As You Wish!
I would like to mention that the day came when I realized I'm old and that there might actually be people in this world who have not seen this movie. I actually worked with a couple on one of my last jobs and it broke my heart! This is the greatest film of all time. It has everything (well except a lot of females to emulate but we'll get to that later). It should be mandatory in school or something. You know those dumb surveys where they ask if there is only one thing you can bring on an island with you... this is the thing I bring!
However, small sad note, I never realized before that Wesley has a cheezy mustache in this movie. Uck... I usually find almost every man with a moustache to be a child molester (or at least look like one). But I guess I will forgive him.. cause.. well.. he's my childhood fantasy of the perfect man and I'll just have to! Also, its always bugged me, what were the 5 most romantic kisses of all time? I often wanted to have one (I think I did once, in the 42nd street subway station, where time stood still and moved in slow motion around us... but I digress). I have 5 copies of this book (given to me by past loves) and I've read it cover to cover trying to have that answered for me. But it makes a great party game question I guess...so again.. forgiven!
But back to the greatest movie of all time... Oh lets just get right to the check list shall we?

Giddy: From the first cough of the young Fred Savage, I'm in heaven. We have some of the best lines ever written like: "I wonder if he's using the same wind we are using", "Inconceivable", "As you wish", "Move?: Your alive, if you want I can fly", "I don't accept excuses, I'll just have to get myself a new Giant" and many many more!

Lie: The prince is lying to Buttercup the whole darn time! Boo! Boo!

Big Emotional Outburst: A couple small ones...but my favorite is "Hello, My name is Inigo Montoya, You killed my father, prepare to die" (of which I have a great tshirt)

Wedding: Yes! Maaawwwaaaaggeee is wwwwwhhhat bwwwwinnggs us togevah twoday

Dance Sequence: no, but i forgive you!

Rewatchable: I know every line of this movie. And its perfect for every occasion! Its perfect for the Saturday afternoon chore day and its perfect for the date night and its perfect for the getting stoned night (which you may not be able to get through the death of Vizzini without tiring yourself out from laughing so hard)and also perfect for slow days at work.

Love: TRUE LOVE!

Fantasy: True Love (which I have to admit, I went searching for way too long because of this film)! The fantasy of true love alone is pretty darn good, but then you also have storybook fairytale with princes and princess and pirates and sword fights. Mmmm. Lovely!

Journey of the Main Character: Wesley fights everything, even death, to get back to her. Oh also, Fred Savage learns to love books read by his Grandpa.

Body Count: 8 I think: Vizzini, Wesley, The Albino, 4 soldiers and Tyrone :)

Music Montages/Soundtrack: I love this soundtrack. I get weepy every time I hear Storybook Love, I know, I know, its not like it has a bunch of hummable tunes, but it reminds me of this movie, and my heart swells!

Strong Female: Okay, here's the downside... there are only 2 women in this movie. One is a witch ("I'm not a witch I'm your wife") and the other is Buttercup. And for all her beauty, for all her wit and charm, she's just a pretty female that has to be rescued. When I was a little girl, I never cared. Most girls don't. The fairy tales we have grown up listening to were all this way and thus feminism for me was delayed a few years I believe because I didn't grow up necessarily having those great women role models. Well... now I'm stretching it aren't I? Because there were Romantic Comedies like His Girl Friday and anything with Kate Hepburn in it to look up to. But you get my gist right? One of the reasons I am in love with this genre of movie is because, typically, its one of the only genres where women are strong, are role models. And so, even my childhood favorites must be called out, when they do not bring the role models!
But I still love you Princess Bride! I still love you!

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

2010-04-14T16:10:00.007-04:00

Okay, technically this isn't a RC. It falls under action/adventure. Proof is in my body count, where I lost count of the dead at 19 and we were only half way through the movie... but... a)lets not forget that it was this movie that broke up the Bennifer and started the Branjolina and it shows cause the chemistry is off the charts in this movie between the two hottest people in Hollywood (who can I just once again gripe about how unfair it is that these two superpowers procreated? What happens to us ugly mortals when the Gods team up? More crap work and groveling that's what!)and b)I laughed a LOT! And as I stated earlier: laughter and love are the key ingredients so with that in mind lets see how this action/adventure Mr. and Mrs. Smith checks off Jenn's list of RC's:

Giddy: Oh yes, but in a "it tingles down there" kind of giddy. This movie is SEXY!! We have 2 dance scenes, the most violent make up sex scene I've ever witnessed and some great funny moments from Mr. Vahn too.

Lie: Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been lying to each other from day 1 pretending to be something they are not while they are both killers.

Big Emotional Outburst: Oh yes in the form of guns and beating the crap out of each other.

Wedding: There is video footage of their wedding... its small but I must count it

Dance Sequence: Yes 2!!!!

Rewatchable: Well yes, yes I think I will

Love: This is that almost competitive kind of love, the kind where they may have to concede at some point that one or the other is slightly better at one aspect of their job but they make an unstoppable team when together.

Fantasy: The fantasy is Brad and Angelina ... either one... together... blowing stuff up... as sexy as they can... mmmmmm

Journey of the Main Character: I think both of them have to learn that the other has some talents they wish they had and learn to fight for their marriage.

Body Count: As I stated previously... I stopped counting at 19! My god, I really don't think horror films ever have as high of body counts as Action movies do... then again- a lot are just getting shot... as we have learned from before being shot does not necessarily mean dead...

Music Montages/Soundtrack: Not that notable to me

Strong Female: I would like to praise Miss Jolie right now...okay she has her flaws and she's a bit weird but no woman has ever held the high honor of Action Hero like her before. She plays strong, sexy, with a hint of vulnerability and I wish so badly I could be her or do her. She plays that perfect strong female here in this movie and I don't even mind (staunch feminist that I am) that she "took his last name" because she breaks every other stereotype of women in two in this film.

Everafter

2010-04-10T19:16:00.004-04:00

Sigh...mmmm...I feel like frolicking through a flower laden field and blowing bubbles and dancing barefoot...maybe it's spring is here... or maybe... its EVERAFTER! I love this movie. I love Drew (even though it is obvious she's super self conscious about her accent in this and thus not so good at it - You gotta jump in Drew just like Renee in Bridgette Jones). Again, we have a new take on an old story and no pumpkins or mice needed, we have the classic Cinderella tale turned on its head with a strong woman with Utopian ideals that saves herself and winning the prince is secondary. Here is how the beautiful Everafter adds up to my wish list of RC's:
Giddy: What girl doesn't get giddy from that never worn down phrase: Once upon a time...
Lie: She is pretending to be a rich courtier when really she's just a peasant.
Big Emotional Outburst: Brought on by the evil step mother (a wonderfully over the top Angelica Houston who brings the real honest side of evil: vanity and greed to the role)
Wedding: Yes! But its fraught with the best hysterical crying I've ever seen. Seriously chica - your crying over the wrong guy!
Dance Sequence: not really no...but we have a BALL!
Rewatchable: Yes! This is part of my other Ipod collection! yummy!
Love: I love that this is not a love at first sight, just cause the girl doesn't have dirt under her nails anymore love (like the original story) but that she earns his respect and he is in awe of her fierce spirit and wit and that leads him to see the love.
Fantasy: I don't know a girl who hasn't fantasized about becoming a princess. I still have the occasional fantasy that Prince Harry is going to run into me on the street, fall madly in love, demand I divorce my husband and marry him.... um... yeah it's called a FANTASY!!!
Journey of the Main Character: Her's is not so much as his. He learns to be a better human, a better leader and find love through her. YAY!
Body Count: 1 - the Daddy!
Music Montages/Soundtrack: uh no not really
Strong Female: Yes! Yes!

A Life Less Ordinary

2010-04-07T13:29:00.005-04:00

This is one of those films that many will disagree with me on. But I LOVE this movie. Its exactly my kind of humor! A dark dark comedy, great lines like "I thought we agreed - no cliches" and LOTS of great side characters (Holly Hunter is out of control and I love it)! This movie brings Stockholm syndrome to a whole new level! Okay, granted, the end gets a little derailed. It gets a bit weird but so many charming scenes, great chemistry, fantastic side characters and funny romance all throughout the film make me forget that ending. Here is how A life Less Ordinary checks off the Remke ransom demands for RC's:

Giddy: Yes! Ewan always gets me giddy! And he is adorable in this film. The perfect puppy boy!
Lie: There is the whole kidnapping thing...
Big Emotional Outburst: Yes! The love poem scene, the fight to save her from Delroy and Holly, but my favorite is when Ewan is digging his own grave. Classic!
Wedding: Yes! How very Shakespearean we end in a wedding.
Dance Sequence: YES!! I tried so hard to convince my husband to dance our first dance to Beyond the Sea (but he wanted to be "original").
Rewatchable: Yes! I downloaded this to my ipod so I can take it with me on days like today when I'm barely being paid to sit and smile at the very few customers who wander in on a hot day like today.
Love: This is a dark cupid love story - God demands that love happen between these two opposites and angels have a hell of a time making it happen.
Fantasy: Well there's a lot of shooting in this movie that doesn't end in killing them(and anytime you've been stuck in really bad traffic or in an argument with a complete idiot who just keeps making the same illogical point over and over again- you have had the fantasy of wanting to shoot that person - or someone- but not necessarily want the whole death on your hands), then there's the fantasy of being filthy rich, and then there's the comforting fantasy that there are angels out there pushing us toward our destiny.
Journey of the Main Character: The rich girl learns to slum it and open her heart to love and the poor boy learns to be a bit braver
Body Count: 3 (but 2 are not really cause they are angels)
Music Montages/Soundtrack: I like the music in this movie but I don't think there are music montages. I think I heard Squirrel Nut Zippers. I love that band!
Strong Female: Even though she is a spoiled little rich girl she can sure shoot a gun, take control of every situation, have little fear and generally be tougher than anyone else on the screen (except Holly). Oh yes, she's strong!

Did you hear about the Morgans

2010-04-04T12:27:00.005-04:00

Oh my god she's back and talking about more RC's? YES! I'm working one of my many jobs that are not helping cover my NYC rent(to quote another not-so-RC-movie "Its hard out here for a pimp) and I had a little free time between kissing the SOHO Chic's asses so I thought I'd rant on this movie I saw last night.
Um.. there are only two ingredients really required in a Romantic Comedy and that is ROMANCE and COMEDY! And this movie... tried... but did not have either really in it. As you know by now, I'm a Hugh Grant fan through and through. No blow job from a hooker is going to turn me away from loving him on the big screen. But every scene it looks like he is desperately trying to get Sarah (or as my husband calls her SKELATOR)to play along and so every line comes out like "hey - maybe you'll find me funny or charming if I say THIS line". Meanwhile, all the surgery and days without food have not only taken away any fat cells left on Sarah Jessica Parker's face but also the ability to react to anything. Ouch, maybe that's a little mean. But ultimately, what we're missing here is JOY. Every great RC has that twinkle in the eye of the actors that lets you know this is fun, this is love, this is JOY! And even Mary Steemburgen seems to have been told this was a drama instead of a comedy. So here is how "Did you hear about the Morgans" (and do I really need to even mention how much that title SUCKS?) adds up to the Remke list of RC Do's:

Giddy: The only time I was Giddy, was when I saw that it was out on video and my husband and I sat down to watch it with a plate full of great pasta. From that moment on though... I was pretty disappointed, sorry to say.
Lie: They are pretending to be from Chicago instead of New York as they stay in the witness protection program.
Big Emotional Outburst: I think there was supposed to be one from Jessica... but I... I... well... I never saw it...
Wedding: Nope
Rewatchable: Nope
Love: Nope - okay that's not fair but really its the kind that is like: I love you but I want to make a baby so much that I drive you crazy and to cheating and then we separate and then we witness a murder together and are forced to be together out in a small town and that makes us bond again...and decide to adopt (the only real positive message I got from this film).
Fantasy: They have a very rich life in NYC that I want...
Journey of the Main Character: I think Sarah is supposed to go through a change out in the small town that makes her love her husband again but um...I ... I ...well... I didn't see it...
Body Count: 1 (thank God for small miracles)
Music Montages/Soundtrack: Oh dear lord, its like the editing team got together and said: Hey this movie is SLLOOWWW paced, lets speed it up with music montages. And they are horrible. Most of the music reminds me of a really bad musical I did in Chicago that I'd rather forget about but it had all that old school country in it. Ug
Strong Female: um... she shoots really well the very first time she picks up a gun?

Dear Producers of Did you hear about the Morgans: I'm sorry - this hurts me more than it hurts you. I know that.

Day 31: Pretty Woman

2010-02-04T17:18:00.010-05:00

Did you miss me? I missed me too! I have had a horrible start to the new year and well, its been very rough and I'm even unemployed! Oy! Some things, no RC can fix. I meant to write a couple weeks ago but couldn't get around to it through the tears and struggles. But here were are at an end. Not really cause there is hope! Hope that I will grab a new, flexible, great job. Hope that it will allow me to continue this diatribe on Romantic Comedies (because I have 24 in my collection alone as well as a Netflix membership and a willingness to take suggestions from you dear readers). Hope that it will pay all my bills and allow me to continue to go out there searching to be in one of these great Romantic Comedies. Hope that I'll be in one. Or at best, hope that I'll win the lottery and never really have to hope again!
So with that hope, this is not the end, but lets reflect a bit shall we? We've had 31 days of Romantic Comedies that at worst, distract us from our daily miserable lives and at best, define our very heart's desire. Why would a feminist like me love these oh-so-predictable stories where women are never complete without love? Maybe it was because like so many of us, I was weened on fairy tales. Maybe it was all that Barbie playing. Maybe its that I like a little escapism that horror and action really don't make me feel as warm and fuzzy afterward. Maybe its that there is a little truth to these movies (the struggle to find love, to find someone who sees you, understands you, completes you) but it comes in a palatable form. Maybe, like going to church having already read the bible, its the small variations on each theme that help me to understand love in a new way each time. Or maybe, and most likely, I'm just a damn sucker for a good romance because my heart and head are rarely based in this world of reality.
Oh so, here we are, the last day(well not really) and how appropriate is it that this one is the one that started it all. I was 14 years old and this movie was the first R movie I was allowed to see with my parents. And I soaked in every moment that wasn't covered by my mother's hand. Too many of us have worshiped this movie with out thinking it really through. We forget that this is NOT really the ideal love story (how many of us truly want to be a hooker with a heart of gold and get paid for a week to play a girlfriend to a rich over-worked man)but that is forgiven by all of us because of the chemistry between this great duo. And well... it's just a classic! And here it is, the one, the not so Only (I think the French did this plot first and they had the hooker die at the end, like they do- being french and enjoying the sorrow more)Pretty Woman:

Giddy: Well yes we have all the classic lines and awesome music that from the very opening moment to the very last scene, I'm Giddy!
Lie: Pssst... don't tell anyone but She's a Hooker!
Big Emotional Outburst: "I say who, I say when, I say WHO"
Dance Sequence: Well, one small one when she's trying on clothes but not really no,Oh but there is making love on top of a piano. "Your forgiven"
Wedding: Nope, but we have great montage of shopping for 80s clothes.
Rewatchable: Okay so, when I sat down to watch this movie I was SHOCKED to see scenes that weren't in there before. Did you remember that there was more to the date when she steals him away from work and they go back to the club looking for her other hooker friend and the Limo Driver has a gun that he uses to scare off a pimp? Or that after the dinner with the company he's about to take over, after the "Slippery little suckers" snail scene, she puts ketchup on her steak? I have been watching this movie on TV for 20 years and so it was a lovely little present to see the scenes they always cut out. Also did you know that Hank Azaria is in this movie? In the beginning after the classic lines "No We're From Orlando" (which in Orlando, when I saw this movie for the first time was A HUGE hit line)? So yes, I think I've proven my point about the rewatchable factor.
Love: Oh the "I picked up a hooker and she is actually not a crack addict or a messed up stupid ho that will never amount to anything but a beautiful smart woman that is JULIA ROBERTS and she's going to be the first woman to make me actually enjoy my life" kind of love.
Body Count: ONE! Skinny Marie!
Music Montages:Oh yes! And to this day, I still get teary at the one that starts when he's given her the diamonds to wear and they get on the plane for the Opera.
Strong Female: Yes, if you consider hooking (a career I might have to pursue in order to get me out of this debt and able to pay my bills- hey it's got to have flexible hours right?) and then turning down an incredible offer to be some guys ho for life because she has respect for herself. It's one thing to have sex with a guy for money, its another to do it long term. She's no gold digger!

Day 30: He's Just Not That In To You

2010-02-01T12:41:00.004-05:00

3 years into my relationship with my boyfriend and living together, my mother's best friend was watching Oprah. She saw the episode where they talked about this revolutionary book called "He's Just Not That In To You" and my mother's best friend went out, bought the book, tabbed the chapter titled "He won't marry you" and mailed it to me. But, my boyfriend opened the mail that day, when it arrived. Thus a huge argument came about. And to this day, my now husband has a very strained relationship with my mother's best friend. But who knows, maybe the books arrival is what shamed him in to finally popping the question. Or maybe it's what made him take another year to actually do so. But I did actually flip through the book and all it did was make me feel insulted and worst of all - powerless. I mean, I just had to sit around and wait for a guy to be in to me?! What the hell?! Why is it always one sided?
That personal bitterness aside, this is a great movie (which I still can't convince my husband to watch with me)! This movie is... not at all like the book! It has so many great moments! And it is not one sided! I love so many parts of this movie! The entire end, when everyone is hooking up, or not hooking up and learning about themselves, I'm just weeping! So here is how He's Just Not That In To You checks off:

Giddy: Every scene has a moment, but to narrow down to a few: The 2 ladies talking about having never been dumped but really they had been, the 7 different technologies monologue by Drew, the lashing out but then cleaning up your own mess scene, the oh so terrible phone messages Ginnifer leaves, and my all time favorite gooey moment (whenever it happens in a movie , and it happens a lot in RCs) the stopping the babbling with a kiss!
Lie: There is some lying and cheating going on
Big Emotional Outburst: They all get their moments but Jennifer Connelly's is by far the best, cause they keep the camera rolling after she breaks stuff to show her going back to pick it up. Yep, at some point through the tears, you still gotta do that!
Dance Sequence: Small one at a wedding. Non romantic though. Oh well.
Wedding: Yes!!!!
Rewatchable: Yes, but this one probably never around my husband.
Love: All different kinds. My personal favorite story to follow is Jennifer Aniston and Ben Afleck's (cause that's the one I relate to the most - gee I wonder why).
Fantasy: Some LOVELY apartments, some great jobs, some fantastic romantic gestures.
Journey of the Main Character: Despite this star studded film (the film of Jennifers actually) Gennifer, I think, is the one we're following (she seems to be the one the writers are most like) and though everyone has their own little journey in this movie, their is nothing better then learning you are an exception to a rule. :)
Body Count: almost lost Jennifer's dad... but no.
Music Montages: Yep
Strong Female: This book was written to slap insecure women in the face and tell them to get over stressing over guys not wanting them. The movie is a much milder version of that. The women in this movie seem to have moments of strength and moments of insecurity and weakness.

Day 29: Serendipity

2010-01-31T11:12:00.007-05:00

I will admit it. I'm a believer in signs too. I'm THAT hopeless romantic, yes. Figure 8s for luck, hearts for love, feathers for taking flight and now X's (which I haven't yet figured out what they mean- but I see them all the time). This movie encourages me to continue my belief in signs and fate (and maybe that is not a good thing but I'd rather a life full of wonder, wouldn't you?).

I can't believe this, but I only have seen, till last night, bits and pieces of this movie and I think I must have been in a bad mood when I saw them because I had no interest in tracking this movie down till now. But OH MY GOD - I bounced up and down with joy watching this movie last night! I got the girly giggles that only a really good RC can do. And now, Serendipity checks off on my list:

Giddy: The definition alone of the title of this movie: A fortunate accident; "They should make pills for this"; both scenes in the skate park in Central Park, Selling a 700 purple suit just to get a name; the engagement ring not fitting; and oh my so many others, I can't possibly write it all down!
Lie: Well, they are "keeping the truth" from their partners that their true love is someone they met just once, but um... no I am not really going to count that. There is the lie that Kate tells to her friend and fiance to go to NYC with alternative motives.
Big emotional outburst: I love that she runs in to the Waldorf ready to break up the wedding screaming STOP - but there is no wedding there.
Dance Sequence: Okay not really but hilarious dancing from John Corbett with his new age band.
Wedding: Well, though we don't get to see it, there is the ALMOST wedding at the Waldorf Astoria. WHOA! See fantasy for the rest of this rant.
Rewatchable: Yes! Oh yes! Living in NYC, this is going to become a "Saturday afternoon Staple"
Love: The Fated kind (and this is why I love RC's! In reality, I'm not quite the believer in fated love. I have believed for a long time that you can have several Mr. Rights in your life, and much of love depends on timing. But being the hopeless romantic I am, I WANT to believe in fated love, and a really good RC like this helps me live out that fantasy for 2 hours).
Fantasy: Oh we have several great fantasies! First off, what artist can possibly afford the apartment the french guy does in this movie, also we never really find out how John Cusack makes so much money to afford a great apartment and a 700 purple suit and a WALDORF ASTORIA WEDDING! My God! Inexplicably rich people! Mmm! Love it! Also, again Fated Love - great fantasy!
Journey of the Main Character: Both of them meet, move on to other parts of their lives and in one weekend decide that they have to seek each other out again.
Body Count: erg. no.
Music Montages: yes I think so.
Strong Female: Yes, Kate is strong and a great individual.

One slightly bad note, I forgot to mention this about Picture Perfect too but what is it with the whore outfits? Was it just the 90's? I mean Jennifer in Picture Perfect in almost every scene is in an outfit I don't think even hookers would wear and then yes, she's hot in it but come on Kate, that ice skating rink scene is um... whoa, that skirt is um... NON EXISTENT!

Day 28: Picture Perfect

2010-01-30T15:50:00.003-05:00

Huh. I actually had never seen this movie. Or maybe I did and I forgot. It's meh... I don't know why, I guess it's just I don't really see the love. But technically, it has many of the things I love in my RC cocktail, so lets check it off shall we?

Giddy: erm... um... wait there's gotta be something here... it's not like this movie is awful or even a drama, it's just sort of meh...
Lie: Okay so she is lying to her company saying that she has a fiance, a guy that she met once at a wedding. And then she hires him to come be her fiance and break up with her.
Big Emotional Outburst: She confesses right before her big presentation to her coworkers and then runs out to find Jay at a wedding and interupt the wedding to tell him she likes him.
Dance Sequence: They mention the bunny hop... but one is never actually done.
Wedding: 2! Yay! Pretty!
Rewatchable: Maybe I'll watch this again to see if it was just my mood from a stressful work week or if it really isn't giddy worthy.
Love: She thinks she's in love with a guy who only wants her if she's unavailable but realizes she's in love with the guy she's made up to be her fiance.
Fantasy: it takes place in NYC with all those big apartments. And because she's engaged, she gets a bigger office and gets to sleep with the man she likes.
Journey of the Main Character: She starts to dress nicer, and realizes the guy she likes is a jerk...
Body Count: no.
Music Montages: yes.
Strong Female: I will give this movie that - Jennifer Aniston is playing a woman who starts off doing anything to get to be a successful marketing executive and learns that she doesn't want that success unless it based on her work and not her lies. Very nice. And she goes after the guy.

Day 27: Four Christmases

2010-01-30T14:58:00.004-05:00

My father has been quoting for the last 20 years Christmas Vacation. It's not Christmas at our house unless my Dad has said "Shitters Full". This past Thanksgiving, I rented this movie for the family. We LOVED it! And finally, I think my Dad will have something else to quote. This is more comedy than romance but I don't mind! I really don't! Laughed and Laughed at Reese and Vince's misery! Here is how Four Chistmases checks off:

Giddy: The opening seen where Vince flings off his glasses and takes control...mmmm... also we have the fantastic Mary and Joseph play, practically every house they visit has a moment that has me laughing out loud and giddy happy.
Lie: They lie to their families every year saying they are going to do charity work in some foreign country so they aren't forced to spend the holidays with their horrible families. They get caught in the lie in the very beginning and then must face the consequences.
Big Emotional Outburst: So many!
Dance Sequence: I was laughing too hard to really count, but I don't think so.
Wedding: nope.
Rewatchable: Yes!
Love: This is the kind of love a lot of us start out with I think, common views, common likes, adventurous and fun and then it takes those really trying moments to see what will endure.
Fantasy: The fantasy here lies before the timeline of the movie. The fact that for years they have been going on fantastic vacations instead of being with their families is a GREAT Fantasy (no Mom, if you read this, I'm not talking about you! I love you and of course I want to spend the holidays with you, I'm talking about the REST of the family).
Journey of the Main Character: Reese is great in realizing that her views, her needs are changing (I really sympathize as of late) and has the courage to speak up about it, and walk away from the comfort of what she has in search of it.
Body Count: no, but there are a lot of close calls!
Music Montages: again, laughing too much to remember
Strong Female: Reese- see Journey of the Main Character. Yes! I think that qualifies as strong!

Day 26: Sweet Home Alabama

2010-01-28T13:29:00.002-05:00

Ah Sweet Home Alabama. Being a girl from the South as well, I can relate to the embarrassment and nostalgia of going home. And though, I think I'd choose McDreamy rich boy and the NY life over going back to the South (the warm weather just isn't enough enticement to deal with rednecks), I can fall into the charm of this movie just as easily as the next gal. Here is how Sweet Home Alabama checks off on my list:

Giddy: Oh my God! The Tiffany Proposal!I started weeping! "Pick One"! Yes Please!You have great lines like "Honey just cause I talk slow doesn't mean I'm stupid" and "People need a passport to come down here" and "You can have roots and wings".
Lie: Reese lies to Patrick and well all of NY society about her past.
Big Emotional Outburst: She punches her almost Mother In Law and screams "Nobody talks to my Mama like that". Oh boy! We also have her running after her first husband and a horrible drunk scene in the bar.
Dance Sequence: There is some 2 steppin
Wedding: Yes, and its beautiful!
Rewatchable: This in another I've seen several times half way through to the end on TV and am glad to now own. I'll watch that proposal scene over and over!
Love: Here's a girl who may change but her roots stayed the same and that is where her heart lies.
Fantasy: The TIFFANY PROPOSAL! Also, the folks in Alabama being fine with the guy who is gay.
Journey of the Main Character: Reese had made a name for herself in NY while Josh worked to do the same back in Alabama and this movie is about them meeting back up after they have become the people they thought they wanted to be.
Body Count: I know they don't really die, but I'm gonna go ahead and count the reenactment of the Civil War. Cause its a great scene!
Music Montages: I would like to praise the credits music montage with pictures at the end of the movie, it wraps it all up in a nice package, shows everyone being happy eventually and makes me feel the world is safe and well again. I love that! Knocked Up had one too!
Strong Female: Reese runs away from her home and her husband, starts her own designer clothing line, becomes a huge success in NYC. But she throws it all away to go back home and be with that husband and live through his success (as we find out by the pictures music montage during the credits).

Day 25: The Wedding Planner

2010-01-26T20:13:00.002-05:00

No I promise, I have not OD'd this time. I just felt sort of starved for these RC's and had to make up a weeks worth of being with out, and I swear this is my last one for the day and I will go directly to bed after writing this blog and read my cheesy romance novel (are you really surprised?- yeah I didn't think so- I'm girl in love with love). Plus, as I said before, I really needed a wedding! And I got one! The Wedding Planner! Yay! Again, another movie, I hadn't seen all the way through, just sort of caught it on tv when it was on. I had no idea of the beginning. Man that made a huge difference for me. It still didn't save my bad opinion of the secondary characters, particularly the 2 "italian" men, Rocco and Salvatore who have such odd accents it sounds more like they had strokes and are trying to speak through a half paralized mouth. Its sad. Also, I can't tell if her father Salvatore is gay or not. No one explains it. I'm very confused! And I'm sorry but every time I've seen Bridgette Wilson, ever since Billy Madison, I'm often staring at her wide set eyes and wondering if her mother drank through the pregnancy. And usually, I'm not a big Lopez fan. I know, I know, she's done quite a few of the RC movies but she's never quite done it for me. That said, this movie was still formulaic enough to put me in a nice happy mood afterwards. I can now go to bed with the covers pulled up, warm and fuzzy knowing true love won out. As it should. As it always does. SO here is how The Wedding Planner checks off on my list:

Giddy: Oh well, we have all the things on this check list that make me giddy through this movie, dancing, weddings, lies, we also have the classic: saving the damsel in distress and lines so cheesy they make the goose pimples pop instantly on you, like "I know the curves of your face" and "You kinda stayed with me".
Lie: Well they met, by him saving her, had a lovely first date and then had to hide all that as he was marrying the girl that Jennifer is doing the wedding planning for. Plus they are both lying to themselves that the ones they are with will eventually make them happy instead of each other.
Big Emotional Outburst: There are a couple small ones.
Dance Sequence: Oh yes, and NICE!
Wedding: Yes! Yay! We have 5! And they are all beautiful in their own way. This movie actually romantisizes getting married at City Hall for me. If I had a booty like Lopez and a dress like that, City Hall would be a step up from Leisure World (where I was in fact eh hem married).
Rewatchable: I've seen the middle of this movie to the end a dozen or so times. So yes, especially now that I can see it from the beginning again, I will do so!
Love: Ah here we have the classic love at first saving. However, there is a line in here about how Timing is always off for these characters, how they always seem to be in love with someone who isn't in love with them. I would just like to take a moment to praise this movie for bringing out one of the aspects I truly believe is necessary for love. I believe we have many people we can love in our lives, but "the one" is nothing more than the timing being right for both of you.
Fantasy: Mmm the weddings.
Journey of the Main Character: Erk, I have a bit of a hard time pin pointing this one...
Body Count: nope. Her mother died a while back but nope that doesn't really count.
Music Montages: Somewhat
Strong Female: Somewhat

Day 24: New In Town

2010-01-26T13:34:00.003-05:00

Not a movie to help you forget the winter blues but heart warming all the same! I really like this movie. The go getting female (Renee) never has to be less strong in order to get the man and win the town. And the town, oh, true Mid-western sweetness! You-betcha! Here is how New In Town checks off on my list:

Giddy: We have lots of great embarrasing moments like the stuck zipper, the nippin out, and the stuck in snow scene where she gets drunk. Rebuilding this company also makes me dance a little happy dance, I get those goose bumps of cheesy goodness when I see this plot device: The saving of a town. And we have great lines like "You're not so bad, when your unconscious".
Lie: She comes to the town to fire half the workforce but does not tell anyone that till its too late.
Big Emotional Outburst: I like that this one isn't for the love of the man but for the love of the town. Sort of sweet.
Dance Sequence: Not really no.
Wedding: Nope. Sigh, I could have used a wedding feast today.
Rewatchable: Yep.
Love: So there is the ever popular in my book I hate you right off but love you soon after love and then there is the love of the town.
Fantasy: Saving that company from corporate is pretty fantastical.
Journey of the Main Character: She goes from an almost Republican way of thinking to seeing the numbers as human beings and pushing herself and the town to reach their highest potential. Awe inspiring!
Body Count: sigh, no.
Music Montages: there are a couple, but my favorite is the one that starts with the food fight!
Strong Female: By far the strongest of them all, at least so far. I love you Renee!

Day 23: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

2010-01-26T10:49:00.002-05:00

I used to really get offended when a guy said to me about his ex, "She was a real psycho". I thought it such a pathetic way to sum up a relationship. But this movie, well this movie proves that if all men had dated at least one of these kind of women at some point in their life, then they are justified in calling their ex a Psycho. And I think that the reason why I never really sat through this whole movie till today was because the character Kate is playing for her magazine article is really so irritating and awful, I couldn't stand to watch. But sitting through the whole movie, I must applaud Kate and Matt on really defining the moments that their characters are genuniune with each other and when they are playing the roles they both set out to play. And the chemistry is really there. So here we are now, day 23 (much late due to my very bad week) and oh what a relief it is to finally indulge in a light, non-brainer RC! I'm so glad to have this day off, I want to hurry up through this check list so I can plunge into another one! How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days:

Giddy: Matt without his shirt on I think is cause for mild swooning (I've thought I should start a section of this check list for women over 30 only, who would appreciate the muscle catagory and the baby catagory... but well... I'll just leave that off and keep it here, in Giddyland), The cute character names: Andy Anderson and Benjamin Bennet, whoa the chemistry when they kiss, LOVE FERN! (after seeing this movie, my husband - back when he was my boyfriend bought me a plant as a joke - cause I killed all plants - still do- and called it our "Love plant" and strangely- its one of the only ones that has survived - barely, but there is green there), Naming his penis Princess Sophia, when she comes out in the yellow dress and he reaches up to his heart and says honestly "You are beautiful" (I really don't hear that enough in my life- do you dear reader?), Embarrasing moments all over the place, and ofcourse the end where he runs after her.
Lie: Mmmm Double Header - he's made a bet to have her fall in love with him, and she's writing an article on how to get a guy to dump her in less than 10 days.
Big Emotional Outburst: We have this one start at a great moment, while embarrasing each other by singing Your So Vain and it leads all the way outside and ends with a fantastic line "You can't lose something you never had".
Dance Sequence: Nope.
Wedding: Nope.
Rewatchable: I think I have to be in the right mood to be able to withstand the seriously irriating things that this woman does. But yes.
Love: Ah, they start off fascinated, but then get down to work, and then hate eachother but their careers mean so much that they fake it until they fall for eachother despite it all!
Fantasy: We have some pretty nice jobs that pay soo well for great apartments in Manhatten again, and we have Matt without a shirt, and falling in love in less than 10 days...
Journey of the Main Character: I think they both kind of learn that work is not worth it if you lose the one you love.... but that's mild. Honestly its really just them coming back to being themselves.
Body Count: Nope (and after the week I've had, I sure could use a couple hilarious deaths).
Music Montages: We have 3 that I counted folks! 3! One that leads to a hot and steamy making love in the parents bathroom scene, and one that leads him to chase her down the bridge leading to JFK.
Strong Female: She drinks beer and likes basketball, but does that make her strong? She's playing the worlds worst weakest woman ever, and I suppose she's really some where in the middle.

Day 22: While You Were Sleeping

2010-01-21T20:44:00.003-05:00

I really can't watch this movie with out tearing up. Before you throw something at your computer, let me explain, this movie is all really about Chicago. Most RC's take place in NYC and that is great because it constantly reminds me to love this new land I live in. But this movie, ah, this movie loves the town I'm from. And every moment in this movie, I'm remembering fun I had with friends on those very same blocks. I fell in love with my husband in that town. I learned how to be comfortable in my own skin in that town. It's a tough town. It's gritty. But it's great! And I miss it! Okay While You Were Sleeping, though flawed is sweet and lets just go straight to the checklist shall we?

Giddy: Every scene of Chicago! Besides that? We have saving the man you think is your dream guy, slipping on ice with his brother, the whole fricken family (seriously if families were really like this- my god I'd never dread going to holiday functions), and great lines like "It took a coma to wake me up, my family loves you, I might as well love you".
Lie: Sandra is lying to the whole family posing as the fiance to Peter Gallagher (Peter saved my life once, oh yes, mine and my best gal Sus- uh - a story for a different day but non plucked eyebrows and all, I love this man!).
Big Emotional Outburst: Lovely! Just beautiful! At the wedding in the hospital Chapel.
Dance Sequence: hrm... not unless you count the slipping on ice... which I don't so... no.
Wedding: YES! YES! 2! We have the hospital scene and then I start weeping everytime I even think about that scene of them in their wedding gowns on the back of the CTA at the Chicago Station pulling out of it and heading towards the Merchandise Mart!
Rewatchable: Yes. This one falls under the catagory of soo many times, I really don't want to admit how much!
Love: The beautiful rich guy, is not for you, the ambitious, humble brother who has potential but not already there is the right guy for you. Love is found while you are distracted by other seemingly more important things.
Fantasy: There is an actual lot of grit and real life in this movie. I've lived in Chicago and know how tough of a town it is, and this movie doesn't make it appear like a piece of cake (like most RC's on NYC do). I guess if there is a fantasy, its that there is this cool of family.
Journey of the Main Character: Ah Sandra, she doesn't have much of an arc other than discovering her fantasy guy is not nearly as great as the guy who is beside her through most of the movie.
Body Count: A lot of close calls: Peter and the fantastic Glynis but alas no.
Music Montages: I don't think so.
Strong Female: This is a bit of a tough call. Sandra is not wimpy or weak by any stretch of the imagination but she also has never gone traveling like she really wanted to do, or spoke to the man she is so "in love" with. She lets life happen. Tough call.

Day 21: The Ugly Truth

2010-01-21T20:04:00.002-05:00

Ah, The Ugly Truth. The character Gerard Butler plays in this movie reminds me of an ex of mine. I know, I know, but I was young and I believed in the fantasy that this film generates that I could be the one to "change him" or bring out his true good self. Alas, very few men that act like this jerk have a good true self. So here we are, another fun, fluff, feel good romantic comedy with a socially awkward girl who wins the heart of a jerk! YAY! Here is how The Ugly Truth checks off:

Giddy: We have in this movie some great giddy moments: lots of embarrasing moments for Katherine Heigl: hanging upside down from a tree and a great scene with her and some vibrator panties in front her boss (which I must say - if you get the chance rent Oh in Ohio because Parker Posey's version of the exact same scene is much much better); we also have some lovely moments where we truly get to see Gerard fall in love with her, and one super hot dance...
Lie: Katherine makes a deal with Gerard to leave the show if he can teach her to be exactly what the man she is hot for wants and as usual, she's not showing her true nature. I love this morality that RC's teach us: be true to yourself and the one that is right for you will love you for who you are. MMMM... only if your thin and hot like Katherine Heigl but yes, truer words were never spoke!
Big Emotional Outburst: Here we do it live on the air in front of hundreds of viewers in a hot air balloon. Kudos for the scene change!
Dance Sequence: This is HOT! Or atleast to me it is. Then again most times two people are dancing to remotely latin music I get turned on.
Wedding. No. Probably a bit inappropriate for this film.
Rewatchable: I rented this movie as soon as it came out on DVD. And, now that I own it, it will be sure to make the rounds on days I need an RC fix.
Love: Ah, as I mentioned before, we have that oh so precious, he's a misogynist jerk but I can change him and in the process grow to be a bit cooler myself love. And also, the classic: Opposites Attract.
Fantasy: See first paragraph and previous bullet point.
Journey of the main character: Even though this should be Katherine's film, its Gerard we actually watch grow, change, show his other side and that makes it his movie. And he grows from a bitter, angry, "all women are only good for pokin" guy to an in love, devoted man.
Body count: No. They could have snuck one in! In one of the news segments! But nooo... they had to be all wholesome with lines like "I only slept with the one who could read" and stuff!
Musice Montages: Ohhhh yes, and veering off the usual path of the montages being about the 2 main characters, they are actually scenes of Katherine and her pretty boy but not the real one love. Very sweet.
Strong Female: She is a producer for a tv show, and she thinks she knows what she wants and very strongly goes after that. She knows how to fight too. And she's got a nice gooey center like the majority of us women do. Yes, she's strong.

PS: Dear readers,
I'm sorry I haven't written, we were really rolling along there weren't we? The thing is, my job changed, they moved me to a new office that has absolutely no supplies and a ton of work, no staff that wants to sit through these movies with me, tons running around, answering calls and starting all over again. And I had a few fit model jobs that went sour (though seriously - my bubbies are the best! Why you no want me?!!!? Why?!). Plus, this Sunday, I'm reprising my highschool dream role of Lady Macbeth in a reading and I really have to spend my evenings reaquainting myself with the text. So, needless to say, I probably, for at least a week or two will have these posts sparingly. Sorry! The good news? My dear friend who forced me to start this sent me even MORE movies for my birthday and encouraged me to go through my collection I already own and blog on those as well. So, this is no longer a 31 day project... it's much longer than that. And if you're lucky, and I'm lucky, I'll take your suggestions after that and watch even MORE RC's! Woohoo!
Thanks to all those who are actually following along!

Day 20: Addicted to Love

2010-01-17T12:27:00.002-05:00

Day 20: Addicted to Love

Yay! Addicted to Love (appropriate title for a gal like me hmmm?)! My husband even likes this movie! Don’t you just love romantic comedies? They allow for the most ridiculous of plots to be accepted in the sweetest way. Here we have two jilted lovers so upset about being dumped that they stalk and ruin the lives of their exes but magically fall in love with each other, confess their sins and all end up happy in the end. If this were reality, we’d have some serious lawsuits on our hands, but as it is Romantic Comedy world, we get a couple slaps, a couple tears and everyone moves on happily ever after. Here is also a good movie where Meg tries to stretch herself a bit, wear some dark makeup and be a bit tougher.

So here is how Addicted to Love checks off:

Giddy: Oh yes, we have giddy. First off, we have a guy so in love with his girlfriend at the top of the movie that he stops all work each day to look at her (giddy dance), then we have the steamy kiss with Meg in front of her Grandma no less (giddy dance – oh I feel that kiss down to my toes), and of course the end of this movie where they use the Lassie story to come together (giddy dance oh yeah).Also, I just have to say, I love both Matthew and Meg’s descriptions of love in this movie: Matthew says its how you feel hollow when you don’t have love, like something is filled when you do have it and Meg tells the gruesome tale of her dad carefully taking each maggot out of their dog’s butt. Ah lamour!
Lie: Matthew starts working for the man who stole away his love and lies to him.
Big Emotional Outburst: Here again, we have several. Personally I love the ones by the Frenchie the best, mainly because it is those outbursts that make me finally see something attractive in him. Until then, I spend the majority of the movie just wondering why on earth not one but two women are addicted to him. Yes- that’s right folks, I’m a sucker for Men being vulnerable. A man cries for me, oh yeah, I’m done for.
Dance Sequence: Nope.
Wedding: Nope.
Rewatchable: Oh yes.
Love: Ah, passionate love(Tcheky and Kelly) and love for the wrong person (Matthew and Meg)
Fantasy: Well we have the fantasy I already talked about: You can ruin someones life and all will still be well, but again, we also have NYC apartments and one is amazing and one is a condemned building. Now here is a great fantasy: You can move into a condemned building in NYC and not find rats, or crack addicts, and actually furniture and running water will still be at your disposal. Oh I wish this one were true, I’d break my lease so quick!
Journey of the main character: We have two jilted lovers who slowly discover that maybe the best thing for them was to have been dumped. It helped them discover the extreme side of themselves and helped them discover each other.
Body Count: Nope.
Music Montages: Sort of. But they do end up doing the opposite, they make me think that Meg and Matthew have been stalking for a very very long time.
Strong Female: Ah Meg, you tough broad with a soft heart! I love you!

Day 19: She's All That

2010-01-15T17:46:00.004-05:00

Day 19: She’s All That

Oh dear. Here we have a movie that I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I prefer the film that makes fun of it to the actual movie. I think I’ve seen Not Another Teen Movie more times than She’s All That and it’s a little more fun. Sorry, but it is. But there are some redeemable moments, lets check them off shall we in my checklist:

Giddy: There are some lines that are so bad, they actually make me laugh and get a little giddy and of course we do have choreographed dance scene that I don’t need an explanation as to why its there to be happy that it is!

Lie: Oh we’ve got several, we’ve got the bet that he can make her prom queen in 2 weeks, we’ve got Freddy lying to his dad about being accepted to school, The blond kid (who was much better at this character in Pleasantville) is pretending to like her too and lots of other small ones to get us through this movie.
Big Emotional Outburst: “Am I bet, am I f*cking bet?!”, but as for Freddy Prince, I really don’t think he has it in is bag of acting tricks to pull one off.
Dance Sequence: Though the choreographer is trying so hard to bring back the thriller dance moves in a sexy, hip, 90’s way and not quite making it, it still makes me happy. I’m that weirdo who can’t help but get all blissful over many people doing the same moves.
Wedding: Nope, and its not like TEEN romantic comedies can’t pull them off! Just look at Sixteen Candles!
Rewatchable: I’ll catch Not Another Teen Movie next time it’s on Comedy Central.
Love: Oh how sweet, we have the I made a bet, but got to know you, saw you take off your glasses and cut your hair and finally see you as hot and then decide you’re my new best friend after only 2 weeks and I’m in love with you kind of love.
Fantasy: I’m officially 34 years old. Any movie about teenagers living it up is a fantasy world for me.
Journey of the main character: I think Freddy is supposed to be having some kind of journey, but he really doesn’t have a clue how to show me, and the girl in this movie only has to doll herself up like Sandy in Grease to get a man. So that’s not much of a journey either. But don’t we love to watch the transformation? Hmm?
Body Count: Nope. There really really REALLY could have been some!
Music Montages: Yes, with all the hip songs when this movie was first made. J
Strong Female: She runs the house, she wears what she wants, she doesn’t care to fit in with the vipers that are popular. That’s strong! Especially for a teenager.

Day 18: Love Actually

2010-01-14T17:32:00.002-05:00

Day 18: Love Actually

As the opening credits started to roll and I realized what film I was in for today, I was half ready to stop it and pick another, not wanting to get all weepy in front of my coworkers. But it is MY Birthday, so I thought, maybe they’ll forgive me (and they did). This is a beautiful movie and one that has a very sentimental connection to me. This movie shall always remind me of my dear friend who was taken away from this short life just a few months after my wedding. He sang the “All You Need Is Love” song at my wedding, inspired by this movie.
I can’t think of a more perfect way of reminding me, on this day, the greatest gift I have received in my life and that is all the many shades of love. I have love and friendship in abundance (Facebook alone, my god, I’m overwhelmed)! This movie is that beautiful reminder that love is everywhere and the only thing worth fighting for. Also, bonus, me and my coworkers danced along with Hugh Grant to “Jump for my love” and I feel younger already!
So, as the cutest boy ever says in this movie “Let’s go get the shit kicked out of us by love” and lets check off Love Actually shall we?

Giddy: Oh yes, almost every moment of this movie!
Lie: Not one big lie, no, lots of little ones among all the many different stories.
Big Emotional Outburst: Yes several And Oh My GOD don’t you just love the end where all these people are realizing that they can no longer be without the ones they love and they have to rush to their neighborhood, their country, their front door, and their work just to tell them!? I had a big emotional outburst just watching the end of this movie!
Dance Sequence: Hugh Grant… NICE!!!
Wedding: Yes, opening credits, with by far the most beautiful wedding end ever (but Nick, sweet Nick did such a close second for us at my wedding).
Rewatchable: I honestly didn’t think I could handle seeing this movie again, but once I got past the wedding scene I started to swim in the gooey heartwarming joy that comes from following these different love stories. So YES, I will be able to watch this again! YAY!
Love: We have every kind here: destiny, love from afar, speechless love, love worth the risk, love that is strained, LOVE LOVE LOVE!
Fantasy: Well, I think we have a major one with the British boy who goes to America in search of hot chicks and runs into 4 super model women too poor to own pajamas and more than one bed? Yeah! That’s for you boys! My coworkers and I actually all debated this point today, and we all came to the agreement that the end of this movie is one giant fantasy too
Journey of the Main Character: All the characters are going through their own journey in this film.. and uh, I want to get back to eating my Birthday cake so I don’t have enough time to talk about them all. Just see this movie!
Body Count: 1 – Liam Neeson’s wife.
Music Montages: Another fantastic soundtrack and great montages
Strong Female: Yes, several – again – cake is calling, can not extrapolate.

I think you all could tell from previous days on this that I wasn’t looking forward to my birthday, but I have been filled with love and well wishes today and I can’t thank you all enough!

Day 17: You've Got Mail

2010-01-13T19:00:00.002-05:00

Day 17: You’ve Got Mail

Oh now I get it… Sneaky dear friend… Sneaky! My best friend who created this project for me put smack dab in the middle of these 31 days the trilogy we have often debated about and I believe was the reason I even asked him for Romantic Comedies as a present in the first place. Watching Meg and Tom over and over again is one of the simplest joys in life, or well, my life at least.

Completing the Meg and Tom trilogy we have You’ve Got Mail. This movie grew on me. I have no idea why I didn’t like it in the theatres but I didn’t. And now I do! Somehow, the older I get, the more I can relate to having both a luddite side and a titillated by the latest technology side. I haven’t seen the original this movie is based on. I’ll have to check that out once this project is complete. But, what I once saw as “eh”, I must now admit is the strongest of the trilogy of Meg and Tom. So here is how You’ve Got Mail checks off on my list:

Giddy: So there is this moment where she’s ranting about something awful he did, as she does (as I do) and he covers her mouth ever so gently and stops her from saying something nasty: That moment makes me weak in the knees.
Lie: Tom and Meg are lying to their partners sort of, but the big lie is Tom knows his online partner is Meg and she doesn’t know.
Big Emotional Outburst: eh… there’s a couple of almost scenes… and let’s be honest, that last scene- ouch – as a romantic I love it, she sees him, she says she hoped it was him, they kiss. But as an actor, that scene SUCKS! I’ve never seen a stiffer reading of “Don’t Cry ShopGirl, Don’t Cry” in my life. But eh hem, you guys don’t care about my acting criticisms, you are here for my ROMANTIC critique… or here to laugh at me… either way… back to the point… there are not that many emotional outbursts.
Dance Sequence: Again… no… what do Tom and Meg not dance? Honestly I actually can’t think of a scene in a movie where Meg danced… hmmmm…
Wedding: No.. and maybe that’s why I didn’t initially like this movie. But I’ve really come to appreciate how Meg is dressed in this film, like an adult little girl, I like it so much. It’s sweet.
Rewatchable: Yes actually, but I didn’t think so way back when it first came out. I’m happy to report, this could be on in the background on a Saturday while I rearrange my closet, happy to know that love is working itself out while I organize.
Love: Once again we have the destiny love. I love this kind of love.
Fantasy: Lets talk about a fantasy not yet discussed here but quite evident in most of the Romantic Comedy movies: The “it’s okay” break up. We have a movie where the gal or the guy are with the it-should-be-right- but- really- the- wrong person and before they can run off and fall in love with the right one they must break it off. And every time in these fantastical RC’s, the wrong one practically says THANK YOU for not ruining my life. Now we, here in reality land know that this is absolutely false, that even if the person maybe 20 years down the line might think that, they sure as hell are not going to take it so lightly in the moment. Have any of us had this kind of break up? Seriously? People do not get over it that easy and usually, if you are doing the breaking up, chances are the person you are dumping thought everything was pretty okay (cause if they didn’t – they would have dumped you) and is now really heartbroken. But in the wonderful world of Romantic Comedy’s this is as painless ripping off a bandaid, and as forgotten the moment it is done. I think my favorite breakup of all time is Meg and Greg breaking up and laughing out loud about how they should love each other but just don’t. Ahh… lovely fantasy!
Journey of the main character: Having just recently uprooted my life and moved to NY (a romantic destination) and now struggling to redefine myself, I can really relate to the journey she is going on. She loses her job that has till that point defined her. She fights like hell for it, but that is futile and ultimately she must learn to find her own way without the comfort of what is familiar.
Body Count: None. I’ll forgive them because in the first of the trilogy there was a mass genocide of an entire island… so you really can’t go any further than that.
Music Montages: Yes, there are some. And some lovely pics of NYC throughout. This movie says I LOVE YOU NEW YORK. It shows all of the good, all the beautiful.
Strong Female: Trying to come out of her mothers shadow and define herself, but in that cute, sweet, not too threatening Meg way!

Day 16: Sleepless in Seattle

2010-01-12T16:15:00.005-05:00

Well now we've come to one of the great classics! I'm surprised to say its been a long time since I've seen this movie. I can't really say why, other than its probably the same reason I haven't seen When Harry Met Sally in a very long time: I saw this movie so much, I actually got a little sick of it. But I think time and my bad memory have helped me to place this back on the shelf of rewatchable RC's. I get weepy when I see this movie. I don't know anyone who doesn't like this movie. I don't think I want to... here we go, how the lovely, perfect Sleepless in Seattle checks off on my list:

Giddy: From the moment she starts to listen to him on the radio till she meets him on top of the Empire State Building (which, my husband, knowing my deep deep love for these gigantic romantic moments chose the same place to pop the question to me... he gets double points for that one!).
Lie: Well.... she's keeping the truth from her fiance. That's sort of one. Can't say I think that there is really that much lying going on. I don't care, do you?
Big Emotional Outburst: Tom and his kid, and Meg has some major breakdowns on her own, but when they finally meet, really meet, it's the calmest scene ever. Its like a big deep breath in and out and ahhhhhhh... finally we have found the one that fits.
Dance Sequence: Nope. I think that we could have used one actually. But the music is fantastic!
Wedding: Nope... but we do have a lovely wedding dress! Which she rips. Because its a sign. I love the SIGNS in this movie!
Rewatchable: Yes.. We covered that.
Love: Here we have the destiny love! Actually what I really love about this movie is that there are more than one kind. That we are allowed to love more than one person in our life and that each one though different is not less special. But this love, this wonderful Meg/Tom love is that destiny love. The kind you know of from the moment you hear their voice, and though they spend the majority of the movie trying to talk some sense into themselves, the fact is, it can not be denied.
Fantasy: Destiny love, trips across the country all on a hunch from hearing a voice or reading a letter that this person might be right for you...
Journey of the main character: The whole movie is in that gigantic stage of doubt until the end when it all suddenly becomes so clear.
Body Count: His first wife.
Music Montages: Some great ones
Strong Female: Hrmm.. she's not my strongest female. Meg usually isn't in her films. Maybe that's why she is universally loved, she's never really too strong and never really a total wimp either. She's the just right goldilocks. I'm a militant feminist so I tend to like my women a bit more dominant but you can't help but love Meg! And we do have a funny Rosie to bring in a bit more of the stronger side.

PS: To Laura who asked about my job, my boss kicks ass- and I know how to hit pause and act professional for the customers. ;)

Day 15: Joe Versus The Volcano

2010-01-11T17:14:00.002-05:00

Day 15: Joe Versus The Volcano

John Patrick Shanley is in my books a genius. Mix in my favorite queen and king of romantic comedies, Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, a silly plot and the worst puppet shark I’ve ever seen (except the Goonies octopus – which I saw- which you probably didn’t, but if you go back and rent it you can see it in the deleted scenes and no why that scene should never see the light of day) and you have yourself a PERFECT MOVIE!
I think this might be a bit hard for me to write about as this, like Goonies, is such a childhood favorite I can’t possibly talk about this like a normal human being. Well, I think I have shown myself already to be pretty abnormal so what the heck right? I love LOVE This Movie! And I don’t care if I’m the only one on the planet who does (actually I think I may have one or two others in my boat but judging by the rolled eyes of my coworkers, I know I am at least in a minority here). Yes this movie is CHEESY! Yes this movie has some horrible special affects. Yes this movie has Meg Ryan in 2 baaaad wigs. But this movie has some incredible music, lots of visually and symbolically beautiful scenes, a great sense of humor and one of the best moral lessons ever: Get a Second Opinion on a Brain Cloud Diagnosis. Look, like my duck blanket and my puppy, this is a piece of my heart that you can have your own opinions about all you want, but I LOVE THEM and that’s all there is to it! Here’s how Joe Versus the Volcano checks off on my list:

Giddy: Every damn scene!
Lie: Lloyde Bridges and Robert Stack both convince Tom Hanks that he has a brain cloud and is going to die anyway so why not jump into a giant Volcano. That’s one big lie!
Big Emotional Outburst: I can’t tell you how many times I have seen the scene at the top of the volcano with Meg and Tom professing their love, but I never get sick of it!
Dance Sequence: The lonely, awkward Tom dances to Buddy Holly on top of the floating luggage. Sigh – I dance the same way at home alone.
Wedding: Yes, on top of the volcano with the soon to be extinct Waponi Woo’s.
Rewatchable: Well, lets put it this way, if I can say the lines as they’re saying them though every scene, yeah we got a rewatchable. I think there are maybe 3 movies that I can say that’s true about and this is one of them.
Love: I would like to believe this one falls under the category of love at first site. Mmmmm… can you hear it? My heart is melting just a little.
Fantasy: We have a brain cloud, a rich man who swoops in and gives you a gigantic spending spree before you are to die, an ocean voyage, a typhoon, a Hawaiian like island, a volcano and love that keeps you afloat (along with great luggage).
Journey of the main character: The rediscovery that life is beautiful is a wonderful tale that I love having told to me. We all get bogged down in jobs that suck, stressful situations, and life can for a while look bleak and bland and then suddenly you get a wake up call to all the beauty and abundance there is in this world that is out there for you. Like Joe says “Dear God, thank you for my life, I forgot how big it all is”.
Body Count: And here we have not only 3 shipmates on the Tweedle Dee but an entire ISLAND! That’s right folks, this Romantic Comedy has mass genocide in it!
Music Montages: Dom Dom Dom Dom Dom bee doo bee Dom Dom Dom Dom Dom, Dom bee doo bee dom – wa wa wa wa wa… ur… I mean – Buddy Holly during the fishing scene.
Strong Female: She says it her self folks when he asks her if she believes in God and she says “I believe in myself, I have confidence in myself”.

Day 14: 27 Dresses

2010-01-11T13:10:00.001-05:00

Day 14: 27 Dresses

I feel like a kid in a candy store with a pocketful of cash! 27 Dresses is the closest I’m going to come to living out my dream of having 100 weddings! And though, I would probably tell my fellow actors that the costume designer has gone overboard here (blatant bad taste in the bridesmaids dresses and why does Ms. Heigl always have to be in flower prints?), I admit to you dear reader, I LOVE almost every scene in this movie! Weddings, Weddings, Weddings and all the best parts about them (and humiliating – I’ve held 2 wedding dresses while my lovely lady friends peed, been there and oh can I relate!). Once again we have great side characters (well except the sister – who I don’t know if this is a personal grudge or not – but I HATE her- she is one the worst actresses I’ve ever seen and she makes me feel as if I’ve lost brain cells just watching her try and act). But this is one, I don’t care about the plot or the characters at all, just give me more DRESSES! YES!!! Oh and we have so many great embarrassing moments too! By the end of this movie, I’m like that kid drunk on sugar, I’m laying back, half giggling, half shocked I ate all that and pretty sure a stomach ache is around the corner. Here is how 27 Dresses checks off on my list:
• Giddy: Oh hell yeah! We have lots to be giddy about! The dresses, the weddings, the moment she realizes the one she wants and leaps onto a boat to crash another wedding and publicly declare it, the singing at the bar, the dresses, pretty much every line out of the mouth of her best friend (Judy Greer) such as “Are you kidding, the only reason to wear this monstrous dress is to have some drunken groomsman rip it to shreds with his teeth”, Katherine Heigl saying in that oh so pained way “I feel like I just found out my favorite love song was written about a sandwich”, James Marsden saying “Get over here”, and did I mention the dresses?
• Lie: Well, the terrible actress sister is lying her boobies off, then there’s Mr. Marsden sort of lying that he’s not Ms. Heigl’s favorite journalist, and Ms. Heigl’s been hiding the whole time how in love she is with her boss.
• Big Emotional Outburst: Oh yes!
• Dance Sequence: Besides all the wedding dances (my FAVORITE) we also have the Benny and the Jets song and dance. I have to admit, until this movie, I never thought of this as a song to sing at the top of your lungs on top of a bar. Now the theme to Greatest American Hero… yes of course… but Benny and the Jets? Well… they pull it off.
• Wedding: YES! SO MANY I LOST COUNT!!!!!
• Rewatchable: Yes. YES! YES! (I’m saying it in the When Harry Met Sally way – and you’re saying as you read this “I’ll have what she’s having”)
• Love: Ah let me point out another of my favorite myths that are ultimate truths in the RC world: The kiss tells everything (Hitch actually makes fun of this point). Here once again, the absolute right guy for her is all wrong and we know because they kiss and there is no spark. The wrong guy for her is actually the right one. I love this simple way at looking at life. I really wish it was that simple!
• Fantasy: Well once again, we’re in NYC with FABULOUS huge apartments in Dumbo, we have great jobs for eco friendly companies, we have all these really expensive weddings, and a man who gives FLOWERS all the time! Which, I have to tell you this: as me and my co-workers are all crowded around my computer watching this movie, we all equally start complaining about how we never get flowers and how we all want them! And then I go home and for the first time I think in 8 years, my husband actually surprised me with FLOWERS! Whoa!
• Journey of the Main Character: She is weak, she is run over by everyone in this film, everybody takes advantage of her and she allows it for some inexplicable reason (actually she reminds me a lot of a cousin of mine) and all of a sudden she flips and starts to stand up for herself. I would too if I had a sister who ripped up our mothers wedding dress. I’m so glad I don’t have a sister! Especially one that is that bad of an actress!
• Body Count: Nope- but guess what I DON’T CARE CAUSE THIS MOVIE HAS A TON OF WEDDINGS IN IT!
• Music Montages: erm… I think so… I’m sorry I’m still high on all those weddings, I can’t remember.
• Strong Female: Well she starts on the path to becoming one…

Day 13: Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

2010-01-10T14:38:00.001-05:00

Day 13: Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Weee! I love this movie! I’m a sucker for films that are re-imaginings of classic themes (like 10 Things I hate about you is a spin off of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew). One of the reasons I love a good Romantic Comedy is because the plots are so predictable, and when you mix in a classic as well, it’s double the pleasure! I forced my poor guy best friend to see this film with me in the theatres – yes the THEATRES! And I loved it then. The good way to try and hook a man into seeing this one with you, is dangling the Michael Douglas carrot in front of them. And he is a riot in this film, with great lines like “Hows your Dick-tation”, “An ugly broad you have to take out behind a shed and shoot but any guy with a Johnson can still be cool” and “You made your bed, now you gotta bang every thing that crawls in it”.

Only on Day 13 and yeah I’m really starting to notice how all the same actors, do the same things, in the same movies with just different titles over and over again but I don’t care, because it just makes the slight variations of each film that much sweeter. And the chemistry between these actors is always different and this allows for multiple butterflies to go jumping in my stomach with each new kiss, each new profession of love.

I have dreamed since a small child that one day I would be one of these queens of RC land. And though, I may have to finally admit that I am no queen but always the side character (or keeping with the kingdom vernacular: The Jester), I can still take comfort in hoping to be in one of these films because no great RC is complete without the side characters. And in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, we have a slew of GREAT side characters. Of course we have Mr. Douglas, but the perfect Jewish Princess Lacey Chabert is a scene stealer as well, the fantastic Emma Stone who I can not say enough about, and then you have the yummy, ultra perfect, “designated wedding sex” Daniel Sunjata who does such a good job at being great you spend the whole movie wondering why the hell Jennifer Garner would even bother with a guy like Matthew McConaughey.

So here is how this great movie checks off on my list of necessities for a romantic comedy:

Giddy: Oh yes, strangely Matthews extremely cheesy lines and sleezy acting makes me giddy, I don’t know why- look I know I’m weird. Why on earth do you think my friend made me make this blog about my obsession with RC’s? I’m weird and he wants to publicly laugh at it! Also, I went giddy over the lady tears scene, the “You gotta risk love” monologue, the wedding, the “Gay Pirate” line, the sexy dance scene… oh I could go on, I’ll sum up – MOST of this movie makes me Giddy!
Lie: Well he’s been lying to himself for years by saying that “Power in a relationship lies with whomever cares the least” and striving to believe it. But other than that… we only have a small uncovering of his brother sleeping with one of the bridesmaids.
Big Emotional Outburst: Oh my god, I LOVE the scene where he begs his future sister in law to risk love and go back to his brother.
Dance Sequence: Once again, we have some lovely 80’s dancing and then we have a wonderful scene with Jennifer and Daniel (WHY didn’t she choose this guy?!).
Wedding: YAY! We actually have 2! Both BEAUTIFUL! Both just lovely weddings – I wish mine was that nice!
Rewatchable: Oh yes yes yes yes yes!
Love: Well, though I really think she’s an idiot because the best guy for her is Daniel she loves Matthew because she sees him for what he “CAN” be instead of what he is. Ah that great kind of “I can CHANGE YOU” love… one of my favorite kinds which leads right into our next part of the check list:
Fantasy: Well, anyone who believes in that “I can Change You” love is in fantasyland alone but we have 2 more WONDERFUL Fantasy treats: 1. VERY RICH UNCLE and VERY RICH PEOPLE all of them, must be nice! But at least the great thing about rich people in movies is we get to live in their world for 2 hours and see all the beauty they take for granted. And 2. The Ghosts! The chance to look back on your life and see it from a fresh angle and to see people talk about you when you are not around.
Journey of the Main Character: Classic Dickens! In one night he discovers the error of his ways and vows to change it around.
Body Count: As close as I can tell we have 4. Definitely the Uncle and the Parents. But they don’t really explain what happened to his first, I’m guessing she died as well.
Music Montages: One of my favorites of all time! With a tongue n cheek style they have a great montage of the Wooing days.
Strong Female: Subtly Jennifer Garner knows what she wants and doesn’t put up with crap. She’s is surrounded by a bunch of flimsy-ego chicks who are bit pathetic but she’s a beacon.

Day 12: Hope Floats

2010-01-08T17:40:00.003-05:00

Day 12: Hope Floats

Okay Day 12 gets some definite mixed reviews in my book. There are moments in Hope Floats that I just feel all gooey and absolutely love, there are some all too real scenes like where the kid is begging the dad to take her with him that make me weep and thus do NOT fall in my category of RC and then there are some of the dumbest dissolves that I thought for sure the director or editor’s are on crack when they made this right? So, this movie is just all over the place for me. I have some friends (and now coworkers) with very strong opinions for and against this movie and I must say, I just feel sort of "eh" about it.

Lets just get right to my list hmm?

Giddy: We have some great giddy moments here, like the dancing “Dancing is just a conversation between two people…talk to me”, and pretty much anytime Harry Connick enters the screen, not to mention that over the top cheesy end where she sees the one clear picture of him standing there with flowers.

Lies: No lies.
Big Emotional Outbursts: We have them here. The scene with the daughter begging for her dad, that scene rips me up, but to be honest somehow doesn’t belong in this movie.
Dance Sequence: We have the mom trying to cheer up the daughter and the sizzling scene on the dance floor with Harry and Sandra.
Wedding: No. boo.
Rewatchable: Yeah but probably after all 30 other movies I now I own J
Love: Ah well… there is supposed to be this great love with Sandra and Harry but honestly, all I see is a guy pining over a girl that isn’t ready to love him. And then she just changes her mind after seeing a picture of him at work. Hmm.. I needed a bit more.
Fantasy: It being set in a small town in the south can be sort of a fantasical setting for some.. I grew up in the South… so not really for me.
Journey of the Main Character: She has to come to like herself and accept what’s been thrown at her. Do I believe I see this transition… well…
Body Count: 1! The Grandma dies. And MAN was she cool!
Music Montages: There are a ton in this film but I’m not crazy about the songs so…
Strong Female: The Grandma definitely is. And well… I think that is the goal for Sandra’s character, to become strong and independent.

Day 11: Gross Point Blank

2010-01-08T11:27:00.001-05:00

Day 11: Gross Point Blank

And this is what I’m talking about! Finally we have a body count in a cute, funny romantic comedy! I adore Gross Point Blank. This is the perfect mix of an action movie and an RC. Its funny, dark, sexy at times and has a fantastic soundtrack! Lets check this one off shall we?

Giddy: There are some great ones here: the first time they see each other again how they kiss, the holding of the little baby Robbie at the reunion, the way he runs to save her Dad from being offed, and oh dear lord just them even playing the song “Let My Love Open the Door”. Great lines abound as well: “Its just as if everyone had swelled” when talking about their reunion, “If you love something set it free, if it comes back to you its.. well.. broken”, “You need a swift spiritual kick to the head that alters your reality forever”, “People say to forgive and forget, I say forget forgiving and learn to accept”.
Lie: Nope, not really, part of the great humor of this piece is that he’s telling the truth to everyone but no one believes him.
Big Emotional Outburst: There is nothing like a man screaming he’s in love with you when he has a gun in one hand, blood all over himself and a frying pan that he’s beaten a man to death with in the other. That’s love!
Dance Sequence: The dancing at the reunion is okay- just a little embarrassing to be reminded how much white people 80’s dancing sucks.
Wedding: We don’t have a wedding but we have a Wedding dress – which I still haven’t been able to figure out why they are there at their reunion in their wedding dress? Who gets married at their reunion? I smell a dick producer move where some producer said “You know statistically girls like to see wedding dresses in romantic comedies and don’t like to see blood so if you are going to have this much blood we need a wedding dress”. But no one explains why these 2 extras show up dressed up, its sort of just accepted, and we move on.
Rewatchable: Yes! Yes! Yes!
Love: Oh this love is eternal! It saves his soul, it causes him to dream of her night after night. It’s that kind of love – that kind my parents have – that kind where you meet the person wayyyy early on in life and they are just always going to be the one. Highschool sweetheart kind of love. Verrrrrrrry romantic!
Fantasy: Sexy, brilliant man freaks out one night and finds out he’s actually perfect fit to be a trained assassin, comes back for the love of his life into sweet town and gets her back… yeah I’m saying the fantasy is pretty strong in this one too.
Journey of the main character: Here I believe we have quite a journey, the start of a man growing a conscience over the lives he’s taken. That’s pretty deep but it’s kept light with funny side characters and love, beautiful, great chemistry love.
BODY COUNT: 15! 6 of which are in the first minute! YAY!!!! Seriously there is nothing like a good body count when you are frustrated with your own life.
Music Montages: I don’t quite remember there being one, but there are definitely great background songs. I was watching this movie on my computer at work and suddenly from the other room I hear one of my coworkers scream I LOVE THAT SONG!
Strong Female: Oh yes Minnie Driver is AMAZING! Strong, cool, funny, goofy. I want to be her when I grow up. Seriously!

Days 8-10: RC OD

2010-01-07T13:08:00.011-05:00

Days 8-10 RC-OD

So Tuesday was my “Saturday” and I decided to slap in Day 8 while I cleaned. Feeling mildly depressed after a emotionally manipulative Christmas with my inlaws and a looming 34^th birthday I was in need of a little TLC that only RC’s can provide. But Day 8 did not succeed in bringing me out of my funk, ironically it sunk me deeper. RC’s are usually a wonderful escape, except on those rare days when all the emotions I’m currently trying to avoid are being played out on the screen. So Day 8 was Knocked Up. And instead of laughing and enjoying myself as I did the chores about the house, I stood several times in front of the tv crying and questioning my pathetic achievements so far in life. This is a film I usually love to watch, the guy flick that is really a chick flick, but today I couldn’t sink into it without inward reflection. Needless to say, I hadn’t gotten too much done and so I decided at the end, to plop in Day 9. Surely Day 9 would get me out of my funk, back into my fantasy land. Day 9 was Princess Diaries. And that was sufficient background for more of my chores. Having seen this movie a dozen times (I was practically born in Disney World – all Disney films are great to me), I could happily go about my work knowing all would be right in the world again. And then I started to think about what the movie is really saying and that is always a bad idea, to think too much about an RC. But I did, and I once again started comparing myself to this awkward teenage girl who is blossoming into a princess and I am looking at my pathetic 34-year-old-to-be self and not liking the not-so-princess I turned out to be. So… of course… like a true crack addict – it’s obviously not me, but the movies that aren’t giving me a sufficient high and so I must watch another one because surely this next one will make me feel all giddy and gooey again like the first time I saw Pretty Woman and then I can get on to the task of taking down that friggin Christmas tree! So Day 10 was plopped in as soon as the credits started to roll on Day 9. Day 10: America’s Sweethearts. Ahhhh! Somebody shoot me! I love this movie too usually but my god- it’s all about being famous actors and actresses and how you need to lose 60 pounds to get someone you love to love you back or even just notice you. And well…as you can see, by this point in the day (though never once did I stop a movie mid way through- they each had to play out in their entirety) I was a lost cause and no RC was going to help. I finished America’s Sweethearts, a sniveling, self-pitying mess and curled up on the couch to nap. I woke up, took out the majority of my frustrations on my poor husband and then took a hot bath. I had over dosed on RCs so the next day I took a break from the movies.

So, trying to not let me pathetic breakdown get in the way of my checklist, though I guarantee NOTHING… Here we are, how these 3 movies check off on my list:

Day 8: Knocked Up

Giddy: I usually get giddy anytime I see man get happy about having a baby.
Lie: Well, the lies aren’t really too big in this movie, there is a little sideline one going on with one my favorite actors Paul Rudd and it leads to a very honest look at the need for alone time.
Big Emotional Outburst: There are quite a few these and they are hilarious!
Dance Sequence: Nope. Boo. But them trying to get into a club is hysterical!
Wedding: THAT’s what this movie is missing. There is a very sweet proposal though.
Rewatchable: Yes… but after Tuesday’s fiasco, I may wait a bit.
Love: This has the more real kinds of love here, that ever questioning “are they THE ONE” looming over the heads of the 4 main characters here. Bleh, real love? Bleh!
Fantasy: Depending on my mood, I’d sometimes tell you the major fantasy here is a man getting happy and changing his life around for a baby or the fact that these two clearly opposite people could end up liking each other at all. But I know that’s coming from my bitter side, so I’ll just say no there aren’t too many fantasies here.
Journey of the Main Character: They both go from not liking each other and not even thinking about a kid to liking each other and having one. That’s nice.
Body Count: None. I really could have used some on Tuesday.
Music Montages: None that I remember through the pathetic weeping I was doing. I think there might have been one showing the growth of Seth’s character from boy to man who actually reads the baby books.
Strong Female: Yes. Both women I think are strong with the very real flaws and conflicts women generally face: Career vs. baby.

Day 9: The Princess Diaries

Giddy: Typically I get a little giddy every time I hear that Disney sound and see Tinkerbell fly across my screen. I also get a little gooey each time she has a fantasy about being kissed and the hint at a much deeper passion between Hector and Julie.
Lie: Well she was lied to from birth that she was a princess, and then she tried to hide it from her best friend once she found out.
Big Emotional Outburst: Oh we have some classics with “I am throwing your charm friendship bracelet in the gutter” and the end speech where she takes the crown.
Dance Sequence: Oh isn’t this wonderful! We have several! Yay! My favorite is the one between the chauffer and the Queen but I also enjoy the ridiculous stupid cupid song done at a beach bash that rivals some classics like Back to the Beach and One Crazy Summer.
Wedding: Again no. Hmm. No wonder I was so angry on Tuesday. There are some really lovely ball gowns though.
Rewatchable: Yes, yes of course. Disney has a hold on me, I can’t help it. I should hate Disney, but I can’t it’s just so fakely good and wholesome!
Love: We have the Grandma/Daughter love, the love for country, and then the “oh you’re my best friend’s brother, I never noticed you there before but oh wait I think I love you” love.
Fantasy: She finds out she’s a princess of a small but quaint little European country. Fantasy level is at its highest.
Journey of the Main Character: I love this transformation from the awkward unsure girl to a lovely woman to be. And the scene with Palo the hairdresser to making her physically go through this journey is a riot. Especially because he makes her look like a whore.
Body Count: This movie begins because the dad died… leaving the country to her… that’s 1!
Music Montages: Yes. Lovely.
Strong Female: This is the beginnings of a strong female with the overseeing done by a mother and grandmother who are both pretty darn strong and independent. Good role models all the way around! Yay Disney!

Day 10: America’s Sweethearts

Giddy: This one doesn’t set off the fireworks that some of Julia’s other classics does, but maybe that’s because she’s outshone in some scenes by Catherine Zeta…but the end does it every time. There is nothing like a public profession of love to get me to do a little jig of joy.
Lie: We’ve got Billy Crystal making a lie out of their relationships and Catherine lying to everyone so yes we have some good satisfactory lies
Big Emotional Outburst: Yes several
Dance Sequence: Not really, unless you count the scene of the Nazi’s dancing in the movie they all are watching the premiere of.
Wedding: NO! Man! What does a girl have to do around here to get a little old-fashioned- symbol-of-a- woman- being- property- handed-from- one-man- to- another WEDDING?!
Rewatchable: Oui!
Love: Here is that perfect moral lesson to all slightly fat females like myself: If you want true love, lose 60 pounds.
Fantasy: Well, personally being an actress who has NEVER been treated so nice, I think it’s a fantasy that actors are pampered so well but I really think that maybe the really big stars are and the real fantasy is the dream that I could ever be treated that way. Also, when you have 2 super hot women, I mean ridiculous hot, in a RC you instantly have a great Fantasy.
Journey of the Main Character: Other than losing 60 pounds… hmmm I don’t see it. I really don’t. Pretty much everyone stays the way they are, they just switch around some partners.
Body Count: None. And this film really could have gotten away with one too!
Music Montages: None.
Strong Female: I’m going to say no. Julia’s character has been up until this movie a pathetic shadow of her sister. And she never really takes her own stand until the very very end. And even that is only through the help of a man. So no. And Catherine’s character- oh hell no!

Day 7: Confessions of a Shopaholic

2010-01-04T15:33:00.002-05:00

Adorable Isla Fisher has my heart! And she’s telling my life story (accept mine isn’t a huge debt due to clothes but experiences – which is even harder to sell back, so I’m just stuck with my debt unlike her). I heard the book is even better but I think that might be too painful for me to endure. Seriously, I started having a mild panic attack once this movie began because at the bottom of my office drawer is a huge pile of bills I can’t pay this month and like the girl in the green scarf it is ALL MY FAULT. Or maybe its not: as a friend once told me “Credit Cards aren’t REAL money!” And besides as John Goodman points out in the movie, “If the country can be billions in debt, why can’t my daughter”. Oh who am I kidding, I’m in trouble and this movie just pointed it out to me all over again!

But we’re not here to talk about my many flaws; we’re here to talk about the wonderful world of escapism through Romantic Comedies! And escape I do! In luscious colors of clothes and settings, sexy male leads with British Accents (good God I just get weak in the knees when I hear a brit man speak- my best gal friend Swoose is damn lucky she gets to wake up to that accent every morning), and something that I have debated putting on the check list: Great Embarrassing Moments. As a girl who is no stranger to embarrassing moments having inherited a foot in mouth disease from her mother, been attacked by a tree, and locked herself in her own trunk, I take a certain comfort in seeing a female lead in a film go through a few of her own. And this movie, for all its uncomfortable feelings it gives me also gives me great comfort. Here is how Confessions of a Shopaholic add up to my list:

Giddy: We have Giddy! Yummy Hugh Dancy is enough alone, but you also have some great lines like “She’s not my girlfriend, she’s not you” and “Nothing defines me except you and your mother”. And all those lovely embarrassing moments! But the quintessential Giddy moment comes from the SLOW CLAP! Ahhhh, the slow clap, used across the board to enhance a moment of achievement in lots of great films. I didn’t put this on my check list because sometimes it really irritates me, it is not always a winner in my book. But here, in this movie, I like it – maybe because it is done with mannequins
Lie: The big lie in this movie is that she is in the worst personal financial situation and she is working for a money magazine giving advice on finances. She is also trying to work her way up to work for a fashion magazine. Not to mention all the many lies she tells her debt collector. We have lots in this movie! Yay!
Big Emotional Outburst: Yes, we have a bunch of those too!
Dance Sequence: YES! YES! YES! And it is awesome! The fan is hilarious and so is her dancing.
Wedding: We have one of the tackiest weddings here, the ugliest dresses, the made of honor doesn’t show up till the last minute and they leave right after the ceremony which means there wasn’t a reception? Wha? But we have a wedding and that’s what counts!
Rewatchable: Yes! I will be watching this one again – perhaps after I win the lottery and can sit back and laugh laugh laugh at the days when I used to worry about money too.
Love: Oh that wonderfully inappropriate I’m-in–love-with-my-boss kind of love. Of course I still haven’t figured out why he was bidding with himself over the green scarf.
Fantasy: The apartment isn’t one of the fantasies in this NYC RC surprisingly… but the love life, the ease of a job, the shopping, the mannequins, the male lead, the fashion, and the great embarrassing moments are.
Journey of the Main Character: She does what I fear to do- takes that hard look at her life, how it spun out of control and grabs the courage to set it straight. She also discovers that the relationship high far outweighs the shopping high.
Body Count: erg… no.
Music Montages: Yes! We have some nice ones, and I like the songs.
Strong Female: Yes, I’d say so – see journey of the main character checked above.

Day 6: Down With Love

2010-01-03T15:14:00.002-05:00

Day 6: Down With Love

YAY! Down With Love! I love this movie! It’s witty, it’s funny, it’s tongue and cheek, it’s feminist, and it’s cheesy romantic at its best! I don’t think you can watch a Ewan McGreggor without getting a little weak in the knees and Renee Zellwegger is delightful in almost all the RC’s she’s in (maybe I love her a bit too much, she really reminds me of myself – especially in the Bridget Jones movies)! Here is just how very much Down With Love checks off on my list:

Giddy: Oh Yes! Ewan smarmy and adorable, Renee trying so hard to be strong, those hilarious split screen scenes and the over the top non stop sexual innuendos! I’m doing my happy dance!
Lie: Oh hell yes – so I’ve never really got this straight but I think it turns out that Barbara Novak is really some girl named Nancy who was one of Catcher Block’s secretaries and the whole movie is an elaborate ruse to get him to fall in love with her.
Big Emotional Outburst: Well, yes several- classic one is Barbara’s editor punching Catcher in the face.
Dance Sequence: Oh yes! We have a lovely montage of dates and dancing is in this as well as during the credits! BONUS!
Wedding: Hmmm.. well as that is the ONLY fashion missing from this movie, I forgive them. We have women in so many different outfits that I hardly noticed we were missing a wedding dress.
Rewatchable: I have this movie on my dvr- I dvr’d it when I first moved in to my apartment and watch it all the time. Before that, I had it on VHS- oh yes- it’s another one of those- ones I wore out. And unlike most of my RC’s, this one I can actually get my husband to watch with me. I think it is because it’s a callback to the Cary Grant days and he (like most men) want to be Cary Grant. I’m glad to now finally have it on DVD so I can delete it on my DVR and make room for future Mad Men and Glee episodes. Thanks Jason!
Love: Yes! Yes! And I’d also like to praise the WONDERFUL side characters of this film: Sara Paulson and David Hyde Pierce. Priceless, hysterical, and doubling the whammy of gooey love! And hilarious lines from them like “At the risk of sounding like my mother, just keep perfectly still and let him get it over with”.
Fantasy: Again- NYC apartments, fantastic careers, beautiful costumes, endless nights out on the town, I could go on but I think you catch my drift
Journey of the Main Character: Ah my favorite kind – they fall in love and it changes everything about them. Classic line from Catcher Block: I don’t want to have sex, I just want to be married!
Body Count: ok- I am well aware that this is the one part of the check list I am constantly not checking but still keep on here. But when you have such great classics as Princess Bride, The Mexican, A Life Less Ordinary, and Four Weddings and a Funeral how can I not love a little death in my RC?
Music Montage: Yes! Mmm lovely!
Strong Female: Yes! I’m doing another feminist flip for this great comedy that is all about the battle of the sexes. This film actually makes fun of one of my main theories about why girls these days are stupidly trying to deny being feminists. They are afraid that men won’t love them if they come out and say they are feminists and deserve equality. But let me catch myself now from getting onto my soap box about the virtues of feminism, equality and the need for self love and come back to the point: This movie sweetly shows us how we can have it all- career, love and self respect. It just does so in a very funny way.

Day 5: Definitely Maybe

2010-01-02T13:54:00.002-05:00

Day 5: Definitely Maybe

Hrmm. Definitely Maybe… Maybe I would like this one but I just can’t seem to sit all the way through it. I first heard about this movie back when I had just moved to NYC and we had free premium cable channels and I had no job. So I watched HBO and Showtime everyday. And this movie was inevitably on at some point at least twice a week. I never caught the beginning and I often didn’t stay through the end. It just didn’t have that great cheesy line or gigantic romantic gesture to make me seek it out, sit down and watch all the way through.

Now Day 5 has finally been watched in its entirety two days off of my 31 day schedule and here is why: Wednesday night, after my dear friend Connie flew in, we thought we’d see what door number 5 held for us and we sat down to watch it but ended up talking, laughing and having a lot more fun than this film can provide so we turned it off and then of course there was New Years Eve (which at work that day, I forgot to bring the movie in and was berated by my coworkers who are now all eagerly waiting the next day’s film) and New Years Day to keep me even more entertained! What a wonderful way to ring in the new year, great friends, lots of laughter and tons of alcohol! So I got back into my project today and sat down to watch this film all the way through for the first time. And though it has great actors in it, all ones I really love in other films… it still lacks something. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s telling this story to his daughter and I’m not sure it is very appropriate especially when she asks what threesomes are. Maybe it’s the fact that there really are 3 love interests and all are hot and worthy but none of them feel like the angels are singing in the background “This is the ONE”. Maybe it’s the fact that there are some very real heavy moments that never really get resolved such as the daughter wanting to hear all this in the first place to try and keep her parents together because she can’t understand why they are getting a divorce. Ultimately unsatisfied but really looking forward to tomorrow’s film here is how Definitely Maybe checks off on my list:

Giddy: Nope, no giddy moments. They almost have me when he’s practicing his proposal and he says “You’re the first person I want to see when I wake up in the morning and the last one I want to see when I go to bed at night” until I realize those lines are stolen from When Harry Met Sally. I don’t require too much originality in a RC but I did feel ripped off.
Lie: I don’t think there is too much lying going on in this movie. Names changed… no lies. Boo!
Big Emotional Outburst: You know the scene in a typical RC where they suddenly realize all they want and start running towards their goal at the end of the movie… that was there but it really didn’t feel like it.
Dance Sequence: None. Boo on that too!
Wedding: NONE!!! This is essential folks! You can not have a Romantic Comedy with out SOMEONE in a wedding dress!
Rewatchable: Well, I’ve had it on in the background through lots times in my life here in NYC so… I guess but not really something I’d actively put in the dvd.
Love: There are all kinds in this film. Again – best friend kind wins out but all three loves lacked a passion. He had more passion for Clinton than he did for any of the women he dated.
Fantasy: 2 major ones: 1. (and my friend Connie is insisting I point this one out) No man would search all over as much as he does for this book of Jane Eyre that she lost and also actually find it 2. NYC apartment sizes. Yet again, we have a film that is saying that you can have almost no job, or work in a bookstore and still have an apartment that is HUGE! Okay this is one fantasy that might have to stop for the good of all people who move to NYC with hopes and dreams (like me). Because these apartments DO NOT EXIST! Trust me! I’ve been working for a real estate company for a few months now and I’m so sick of people complaining about the size vs. the price. It is NYC folks. This is the way it is. There are just too many people here and not enough room for them all so they can have really outrageous prices on closets. It’s the way of the world. And why I live in Jersey.
Journey of the Main Character: So Ryan Renolds goes from wanting to be President to working for an ad agency. And he goes from loving his college sweetheart to loving other women and then back to loving her and then divorcing her and realizing he has always been in love with this other girl. Yes I guess that can all count as a journey of the main character but I really didn’t see the struggle. Maybe I was distracted. This movie couldn’t hold my attention. I don’t know why.
Body Count: And FINALLY on Day 5 WE HAVE A WINNER! Kevin Kline’s great alcoholic character bites it. It is no Vizzini keeling over after laughing about how the 2 things you should never do are start a land war in Asia or make a bet with a Sicilian when death is on the line… but its my first death in 5 movies so I’m a little happy here.
Music Montages: No! None! Nada! Zip! Zilch! Again- that’s what this movie is missing! Also, maybe I’m too old – but the music in this film they play it like we are supposed to have a nostalgic “ah remember when” moment and I’m thinking- well I have that song on my ipod- that’s practically NEW! It’s not like the 80’s music in 2 of the best Adam Sandler films – The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates. Now those movies cause major music nostalgia.
Strong Female: I guess all 3 of the women are semi strong. They all follow their own dreams first. They are all smart. I don’t know why I’m not shaking my feminist pom pom’s but for some reason I’m not. Maybe it’s because the movie was just so so for me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I’m starting it off right with all this romance to watch! I’m hoping I’ll end it by being in a few of these films myself! May we all get our dreams to come to true this year!

Day 4: 13 Going on 30

2009-12-30T10:23:00.006-05:00

And here we are: 13 Going on 30. I feel like this most days. Awkward, unsure and quite confused how I got here so fast. But the 30s are fabulous and I wouldn't wish to go back to 13 ever! This is a perfect cleaning the house film. One you don't have to sit and watch all the way through, just stop the vacuum cleaner in time to watch the Thriller dance sequence and come back for the final kiss. Its comforting to have all those mistakes we've all made being played out by cuter, thinner people on in the background while you do the daily grind. Today I have a cold and so in between cleaning for the friend who is coming in town, sneezing, and stocking up on vitamins I watched this sweet movie.

This film isn't one I'd pay to rent, usually I catch it on TV and will watch it while I do something else. The good thing about that is, every time you see it, there is a scene you missed the time before so it is like getting to watch a slightly used, slightly new movie. Yay! And here is how Jennifer Garner in 13 going on 30 stacks up to my list:

Giddy: The dance sequence does it for me. I'm actually jealous I never really learned that dance!
Lies: She actually doesn't lie too much, she's trying to tell people she's only 13, just no one believes her.
Big emotional outburst: Jennifer does try and stop a wedding and shes quite passionate on the remaking of the magazine. Those count in my book. Its no Harry telling Sally on New Years Eve that he can't live without her but it'll do for today.
Dance Sequence: Oh hell yes! Best scene in the movie - THRILLER - THRILLER NIGHT. Is this even more nostalgic for me because MJ is dead? Hmmm?
Wedding: We have 2 folks! His prep to marry a pretty sweet hottie and then the end him marrying his best friend. AAWWWWWWWWW! So yes- as no RC is complete without a wedding dress this one lives up nicely!
Rewatchable: Now that I know I'm going to have a lovely collection of great RC's when I'm done with this project, I may have this put at the back of the pile. Something I'll pop in a couple years down the road when I've forgotten what its all about. And I will forget. Hell I forget what I ate for breakfast and have a 2nd breakfast (which explains a lot about my weight).
Love: This is the best friend love kind and its slow to come in the film. Though I admire the best friend love - I always feel a little let down on the passion side.
Fantasy: Well she uses wishing dust to turn herself to 30 and be everything she imagined: rich, skinny, head of a magazine and popular. So yeah, I'd say we've got one hell of a fantasy going on. I got to get me some of that dust! I want to win the lottery!
Journey of the Main Character: Okay so because she is still 13 in her mind, the journey here is only of realizing she has it pretty great at 13 and realizing that the man she loves was her best friend.
Body Count: None. Dammit! Somebody really should have killed that blond bitch "friend"
Music Montage: Yes and the music in this film is like a warm blanket of memories. I love the music. I being a soundtrack queen will probably go buy this one on Itunes next time I get some extra cash.
Strong Female: Mmm.. are any of us strong at 13? She makes some bold choices and she has spunk and passion - 2 things I wish didn't fall off as you get older but they just do. But she's not the strongest I've seen. And she took his last name! That is a check in the box of anti-strong female in my book!

Day 3: The Proposal

2009-12-29T13:38:00.008-05:00

Ah lovely! The Proposal! This film, I just recently rented one day and loved it so much that the next weekend I rented it again. This is a common problem for me which is why I'd asked my best friend to make me RC's in the first place. I hate wasting money! But truth be known, isn't it worth it? Spending 6 bucks for watching a great RC?

This is a sweet film. One that I probably wouldn't say is in my top 10, but definitely a keeper. I love Sandra, she's the uptight girl next door perfection. But what really makes this movie a gem is Ryan Renolds. Now, my husband hates him. He's cocky and pretty boyish. But he has such great one liners you can't help but love him. And in the position of servitude as he is in this film...you just sort of don't see the arrogance he usually portrays. And here is how The Proposal hits my checklist:

Giddy: Well, this movie doesn't make me all over giddy but it does have some great moments like: "Marry me, cause I'd like to date you" and "Your allergic to the full spectrum of human emotions", not to mention the kisses, the running into each other nude and the male stripper.
Lies: Oh yes, there is the big lie that the whole movie hinges on - they are lying to the government and their family to get married just so she can stay in the country (though why she would when Canada has free health care I don't know).
Big emotional outburst: We've got a couple here and they are pretty good!
Dance Sequence: Again, not any group dancing but the male stripper and Gammy mother earth dancing are sooo great you almost want to join in (well maybe not you, but me... and I'm writing this thing darn it!).
Wedding: YES! And it's pretty! Barns don't really look that good! Seriously! Ah the magic of movies.
Rewatchable: Yes. Oh this is a great I'm- home -sick- lying- on- the- couch- sniffling- and- drinking- tea kind o film. And unlike some films (Something about Mary, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The 40 Year Old Virgin, oh I could go on) you won't need to run to vomit from some gross scene.
Love: Oh the sweetest kind: The I hate you, I love you kind!
Fantasy: Oh yes, cause so many great RC's have the "secretly" rich man who is humble and good looking. Yes there are so many of THOSE kind of men running around out there.
Journey of the Main Character: Well once again I'm not sure the male lead, Mr. Reynolds had all that much of one but Sandra's character did. And they used the good ol plot devise of taking the Big City gal (or sometimes guy) out of the evil concrete jungle to a remote quaint town (this one being Alaska) where they can finally see the real virtues life has to offer: that Power and Money are not what is important but Love and Family are. Mmm.. doesn't that make you feel good?
Body Count: We almost lose a cute little puppy to an eagle but no... no body count.
Music Montage: I don't think there is one... oh my gosh! That's what this film is missing!
Strong Female: Oh yes! Yet again- She proposes! That is awesome! AAAAANNNDDD she is HIS boss! Oh yeah! Power to the girls!

Day 2: Runaway Bride

2009-12-28T15:02:00.006-05:00

Oh my god, I'm doing a little jig! The second movie in my project is Runaway Bride (which by the way I knew in the first 2 notes of the opening credits)! This is THE Romantic Comedy. I had a VHS of this and watched it so much that I wore out the tape. This is one of the ones I hold up as a standard for all other RC's to live up to! It has (almost) everything. Oh the cheesy love, oh the "I hate you, I love you, I hate you, I love you", oh the great comic side characters, oh the WEDDINGS! Not to mention, this is truly a feminist film! No wait - really - it is! This is ultimately a great lesson to women to learn about themselves and love themselves first. This film warns us not to wrap ourselves up in someone else so much that we have no identity of our own. It insists that love will wait for us to be ready for it.

I just love love LOVE this movie. That darn Julia Roberts and Richard Gere- their charm and chemistry just make a gal like me all warm and fuzzy! Mmmm mmmm that first kiss- that should be super awkward seeings how it is done in front of the man she is supposed to be marrying, is so hot you can't help but forgive them! And here's my list and how this film stacks up:

Giddy: Oh yes! Yes Yes Yes! My heart goes all a flutter and I giggle uncontrollably every time I hear lines like: "I guarantee there are going to be hard times and I guarantee there will be a time when one or both of us want out of this thing but I also guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine I'll regret it for the rest of my life because I know in my heart your the only one for me". Other moments that make me giddy: Duckbill platypus, "Did I not just see you", that first kiss, "I like his tight butt - Well I do!"
Lies: Well she's lying pretty darn good to herself through the majority of the movie. Oh yes, sufficient lies I'd say.
Big emotional outburst: Oh yes - several
Dance sequence: A bit of a slow dance at the end to Miles Davis - but that doesn't count in my book - so no... no there is no big dance number
Wedding: Oh yes, we get not one lovely wedding but 5! Yes 5 different wedding dresses! I'm so jealous!
Rewatchable: I think I've already covered that this is- yes. And I will be watching this one again - very soon- maybe next Saturday while I'm cleaning the house.
Love: Oohhh Yes!
Fantasy: Well - most of us can't afford 1 wedding let alone 5 and I don't know anyone in NYC with that incredible an apartment (especially on a writers salary)...sooo yeah I'd say there is a lot of good fantasy here.
Journey of the main character: The best part is that she goes from knowing nothing about herself to discovering who she truly is!
Body count: well... no, no body count - unless you count all the grooms she leaves at the alter and well that's stretching it.

* I'm adding 2 new things to the list that I think should be included from here on out:

Music Montages: No respectable romantic comedy is without a music montage to quickly let us know of the passage of time, of growth and change. And how awesome this one is! We learn of Julia's struggle to define herself and Richard's struggle to live without the love of his life. This is not the best (the best being Notting Hill's famous montage that goes through the seasons and includes all the side characters) but its good!
Strong Female: As a feminist, as a strong woman- I identify best with strong women characters and I look for them in my entertainment especially. Here, we have a great woman, cool, confident (at least on the outside) who makes the mistake of defining herself through men and learns to define herself on her own. She even proposes to him at the end (a trend I really wish would take off). One of the last lines of the movie which comes from the preacher who is marrying them is 'May your individuality strengthen your union". AND...she rides off on her own horse!

Day 1: 500 Days of Summer

2009-12-27T17:29:00.004-05:00

So the first film up: 500 Days of Summer. I don't think this actually qualifies as a romantic comedy. It says so right in the beginning that this isn't a love story. And (spoiler alert- by the way I never care about hearing about the endings so I'm assuming neither do you) they don't end up together! At best, this is an homage to the relationships that make us who we are before we meet the one that completes us. Boo on that! I want my fantasy. This is a healthy dose of reality! Granted - it does have the unrealistic dance scene and over-dramatic outburst (two off the checklist of what makes Jenn happy when she watches a romantic comedy) but it does not leave me with the warm fuzzy feeling that all is right with the world. It is too real for my tastes.

It did get me thinking (it lacking so many of the qualities that make me giddy for RCs) what does qualify as a keeper in my heart... I've started a list below. As we go on this journey, I might add or have to admit that something actually should be deleted, and I would like to stress that all of this is purely MY taste and everyone probably has their own checklist (or most likely they are not so anal to have their check list but probably just say I liked it or eh I didn't like it so much). Here is my check list and how 500 Days scored:

Giddy: not so much
Silly lies: there were no lies actually - too much honesty to tell you the truth
Big emotional outburst: Check- but it was to quit his job, not for the girl he loves
Dance sequence: This is the best part of the movie, will probably watch this over and over again.
Wedding: Some wedding happened but it was not very romantic and the situation makes it just sad.
Rewatchable: Maybe, when I'm pining for a lost love to remind me it wasn't worth it.
Love: This is NOT a LOVE STORY!!!!!
Fantasy: This is NOT a good fantasy story!!!!
Journey of the main character: actually to me he seemed the same, I know many would fight the whole movie is his arc but really - I didn't believe it. Maybe its because he didn't have roses in his hands.
Body count: based on my first blog- I love movies with a body count - this is irrational I'm well aware but well... this one didn't have it.

The Gift

2009-12-27T12:29:00.004-05:00

So my dear friend gave me a Christmas Present. As always, he gave me a present I asked for but with a twist of his own form of torture. I love him for that.

I asked for him to make me copies of as many romantic comedies he could think of. The reason? Its the only kind of film I can watch again and again and never really get tired of. Sure Schindler's List was wonderful but am I ever going to watch it again? No! Because it was heartbreaking. But a ridiculous comedy where two people fall in love is something I just can't get enough of. I get quite a lot of heartbreak in my real life. I don't need any more of it in my fantasy life.

And let me be clear: Romantic Comedies are pure fantasy. That is the point! Like porn, they have ridiculous plots, usually horrible acting and always there is the big payoff with the money shot (in RC's that is a cheesy over the top confession of love ended with a kiss). And like porn, they get me off! I'm giddy with the fantasy that love like that can exist: that all the money spent for a wedding is nothing compared to marrying the wrong man, that self discovery is as easy as bumping into the absolute wrong person for you who is actually the right person for you and that love is the only thing worth fighting for. Ever. The end.

So, my best friend obliged. With his own romantic comedy twist. He gave me 31 DVDs simply labeled day 1, day 2, and so on. I have to watch the movies in order (ones I'm sure I've already seen) and then blog on them. Here is the torture part. I've never really liked blogs. I never remember to go and read my friends blogs out there. And I really can't imagine why anyone would care to read mine. But this challenge does intrigue me. Maybe there are others out there that love romantic comedies like I do and want to share with me in this journey. If they can find me. Chances are, they are at home, with Pretty Woman playing in the background while cleaning their house and fantasizing of someone showing up with an umbrella as a sword and flowers and limo to their house instead of being on the Internet searching for fellow freaks like me.

But well, at least I'll have a lot of fun along the way. And right now, I'm not living up to my potential by actually being in these movies (my ultimate dream) so I'll dream away watching the other greats before me and telling you (whoever you are) about it. Here we go... Day 1 is.....