Curious Notions

Overdue movie reviews:

Definitely, Maybe
Movie one of Jamie, Jacky and my movie extravaganza night last last weekend. We saw this one first before dinner. I didn’t have high hopes from the previews but I’m a major Ryan Reynolds fan. Actually, I’m a huge shirtless Ryan Reynolds fan. Sadly, he kept his clothes on during the movie. I’m also a great fan of Abigail Breslin (Hope Floats, Little Miss Sunshine.) She plays the precocious daughter of Ryan Reynold’s character. It opens up with him signing divorce papers and then picking up his daughter from school. Upon pick up, he learns they had human sexuality class that day… Later that night she cajoles him into telling the story of what went wrong with him and “Mom.” Pros include that it’s not as cheesy as most romantic comedies. My favorite ones are the ones where it’s not exactly a happy ending. It’s why I loved My Best Friend’s Wedding so much. She didn’t get the guy. It feels a bit more realistic and I don’t feel slighted by watching sickeningly sweet romantic plots that may or may not leave me delusional. So it’s not the typical Happily Ever After chick flick and I appreciate that. Other pros? Abigail is fricking adorable and Ryan can win you over almost as easily as Ryan Gosling. (I said, ALMOST.) Another pro? I can see a lot of my guy friends enjoying this movie. Cons? It’s an airy chick flick that does not give you any new insights into your life. Only that you just paid eight dollars to see Ryan tell Abigail the woes of choosing from the sweet first love, or the elitist literary journalist, or the flighty hippy. If I had to do it over again, it would have been a matinee.

Step Up 2
The second movie we caught as part of our movie extravaganza night. Not much substance. I just love dance movies. Incidentally, I wasn’t feeling up to going out last last Friday but seeing all the gyrating and stepping gives you the going out bug. So that was catalyst for a fun night out later for me. Yeah, not much to say. If you like dance movies a la Stomp the Yard, go see it. You don’t even have to see the first Step Up. Though, I heard it was just as entertaining.

Taxi Driver
On the AFI top 100 American list. So I was working on my resolutions. Young Robert De Niro plays a night Taxi Driver. He’s awkward, socially challenged, maybe therefore misguided. Oh, can’t forget that he’s also a Vietnam Vet. He meets a 12 year old hooker played by Jodie Foster and decides he wants to save her. Meanwhile he also nurtures an unlikely crush on Cybill Shepherd’s character (I realize I need to work on remembering character’s names when I watch movies). The first part of the movie dragged on for me. I kept waiting for shit to get CRAZY, knowing what I knew (that De Niro goes CRAZY). It wasn’t till the very end he gets crazy but I do appreciate the depiction of the road there. I realize it’s more about his descent into CRAZY. The descent was superbly captured. As unstable as he is, he is just as likable. I could see why it made top 100. I wouldn’t watch it twice though unless I was introducing the movie to someone else to see the greatness that is De Niro and Scorsese.

I’ll leave you with the trailer to Taxi Driver.