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.
Luke (Ryan Gosling) is a stunt motorcyclist working in a carnival. He sees Romina (Eva Mendes) a woman who he had a fling with previously and discovers that she has given birth to his son, but moved in to a relationship with Kofi (Mahershala Ali). Deciding to dedicate his life to his newly discovered son, he quits the carnival but discovers how difficult life can be without skills and with face tatts. Luckily, he meets Robin (Ben Mendelsohn) an ex-bank robber who scopes out Luke’s skills on the bike and they work together to start-up the old business. Things don’t go great, and in steps rookie cop Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper). The film’s focus turns to Avery and his life in a corrupt police force. After some stuff happens, the story jumps fifteen years. Avery and his wife, Jennifer (Rose Byrne) have split. Avery is running for political office, and Jennifer sends their son, AJ (Emory Cohen) to live with him as he is running off the rails. In his new school, AJ meets Jason (Dane DeHaan), Luke’s son. Without any knowledge of the connection between their parents, they begin getting in trouble together.
That’s a pretty difficult plot to tell without spoilers, but I think I’ve done it. I think. Apologies if I spoilt anything. The Place Beyond the Pines is like three different films stitched together. It is very much the old Shakespearean tale of the sins of the father being revisited upon the sins of the son; the story of Jason could be the early days of Luke, yet it is partly the life of Luke that caused Jason’s stories to go the way it did. I think I enjoyed the film, although it is the type of film that it seems wrong to describe as ‘enjoying’ – I appreciated it, I appreciated the beauty of the cinematography and the pacing. The characters annoyed me so much, making bad decisions, or living lives that are the results of many bad decisions. But I still wanted them to work it out. Like one of director Derek Cianfrance’s previous works, Blue Valentine, it’s not quite sadtacular for me, but it’s certainly getting there.
Every time I try to tell someone about this film, I get so excited by it that I end up watching it. It happened again last weekend. I don’t think The Other Guys did very well at the cinemas, which is a darned shame. Here’s the low down.
Due to a hilarious mishap, the heroes of the New York City Police Department (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnston and Samuel L Jackson) are no longer the top cops and some of the other guys are trying to step up. Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) is an excellent cop who made a career destroying mistake which has left him attending a ridiculous support group and partnered with forensic accountant Alan Gamble (Will Ferrell). Martin(Rob Riggle) and Fosse (Damon Wayans Jnr) are two other cops desperate to get in on the action, and who are utterly terrible at delivering an action movie-style one-liner. Love it. When Gamble accidentally stumbles across a conspiracy, they have to go rogue to try to find justice.
I reckon that the storyline is a bit weak, especially some of the details regarding the conspiracy, but I don’t care. The film is just so funny and absurd that I love it. From the whisper fight to the mysterious attraction of Gamble and the skills that Hoitz developed as a child to bully other children, it’s marvelous. I am a fan of Ferrell, and I think if you don’t like him and his humour, you probably won’t like this film. However, there is an amazing supporting cast including the marvellous Steve Cogan as the incompetent businessman and Eva Mendez as the ‘plain’ wife of Alan Gamble. Plus, it was totally and utterly wonderful to see Michael Keaton back on the screen as the fantastic police chief with a part-time job at Bed, Bath and Beyond who is constantly accidentally quoting TLC. Too good.
Now I’ve said all of that, I just want to watch it again. Hilarious.
ireckonthat 