Hitch (2005) Film Review

Hitch (Will Smith) is a Date Doctor, manipulating women into relationships with men, and he refuses to help a guy who only wants a one night stand with a nice girl. Only, he’s a romantic, so it’s supposedly not as creepy as that sounds. Sara (Eva Mendes) is a gossip columnist, but she’s got a heart of gold, and only exposes the nasty happenings in the life of superstar Allegra (Amber Valletta) to give her a better life. In Sara’s mind. Hitch meets Sara and they start an ongoing flirt. Meanwhile, Hitch is setting Albert (Kevin James), an overweight boring accountant with Allegra.

It’s a pretty standard romantic comedy. Some fun times, some humour, a lot of flaws and some seriously questionable attitudes toward the women involved. I wanted to like it a lot more than I did because I like so many of the cast, but I just found it just average.

 

Life – TV Review

 

Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis) is a police officer who, after being wrongly imprisoned for murder and jailed for many years, is back on the force. He is very much into zen, shares his large, empty house with another ex-con, Ted (Adam Arkin), wants to get back with his wife and is spending his time between cases with partner Dani Reese (Sarah Shahi) trying to figure out the whole conspiracy that landed him in prison.

I really like this show. The cast is fantastic, but it is carried by the charisma of Damian Lewis. It’s just a shame the show ended after only two seasons, because it felt that there was much further it could go.

A Serious Man (2009) Film Review

Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a teacher whose wife is planning to leave him, who has two children who barely notice him, whose brother has been living on the couch for quite some time and who has a student attempting to bribe him for a passing grade. He doesn’t seem to have any emotional response to any of this. The main response he gets from any of his friends and colleagues is to ask if he has consulted a rabbi. He visits various rabbis getting confusing responses.

I’ve been a huge fan of the Coens for so long that it is so disappointing to come across one of their films that doesn’t totally work for me. I loved the pacing and the feel of the film – really reminded me of early work like Barton Fink. Perhaps it was just there were some parts that I reckon I didn’t get as much because I don’t know all of the ins and outs of the Jewish religion – or how it would be to be a middle class Jew in the suburbs of America in the sixties. I just accepted that some stuff was important even if I didn’t know why. Still, every time that I felt I wasn’t enjoy the film, a scene came along that gave me the Coen brothers love back.

A Serious Man was nominated for Oscars for Best Motion Picture of the Year and Best Writing, Original Screenplay.