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MissMeggie
Reviews
How to Deal (2003)
Likable, if you belong to the target audience.
A harmless flick, likable as teen movies go. Maybe the most redeeming quality is it did not feature the horrible robot if-he-only-had-a-brain Freddie Prinze Jr. trying to look sensitive and earnest while fantasizing about his costar naked. Speaking of, the "I'm so innocent" look on Peter Gallagher's face at the restaurant is nauseating. Trent Ford wears a couple of irritating puppy dog expressions himself. The most enjoyable scene is the funeral, with a brilliant use of "Do You Realize?" by the Flaming Lips. One can't help but like Scarlet, the airhead best friend. For Mandy Moore, it is at least an improvement over A Walk to Remember, which has perhaps some of the worst dialogue in cinematic history (everyone, cringe along with me at the memory of "promise you won't fall in love with me.") Just don't make your husband sit through it.
Illicit Lovers (2000)
Uh...yeah
Porn is good. Porn is fun. Porn is not meant to be a serious film. However, these filmmakers obviously thought this was the little porn that could. One day, some hardcore screenwriter looked at his script and said, "this could be a real movie". And then it was, and things got very, very ugly. Flaws include casting (Suzette Andrea as Denise is utterly unconvincing as someone that could lure a husband from his sexy wife; Michele Perry looks way to old for her husband) and hair and makeup (again, Suzette Andrea has some ridiculous hairstyles). Chief flaw, however, is dialogue. When Denise compares love to a rose to Susan at first one is induced to wonder if she's being sarcastic; when the realization comes that Denise is actually trying to have a serious heart to heart with Susan it is obvious once again that yes, you are watching a glorified porno.
In the Cut (2003)
Mark Ruffalo and Kevin Bacon are too good for this yawn of a flop
I'll get right to the point: this film was dreary, predictable, and if not for the sexy Mark Ruffalo role as Detective Malloy it would not have even been watchable. Malloy kills his golden tongued appeal to the fairer sex, however, with one line: "I had a nice time...thanks."
Meg Ryan is a clear candidate for early retirement, as she is obviously getting too long in the tooth to play the cutesy romantic comedy leads of her youth. She does not command her scenes, particularly those in which she is opposite Kevin Bacon and Mark Ruffalo; if one was not familiar with the cast, one would think that Mark Ruffalo is the star and Meg Ryan the considerably lesser known.
It occurs to me that most people went into this movie for one of two reasons: (a) to see a thrilling crime drama, or (b) to see an erotic movie in which Meg Ryan happens to be naked.
Thriller it is not, because, as mentioned earlier, the killers identity is made very obvious from the beginning; scenes of peril are tired and banal. Filmmakers spend most of the movie making viewers question one characters innocence; meanwhile that character, one of four (actually, mainly two) likely suspects, is eliminated by the fact that it is obvious they want you to question it.
Sexy soft core it is not, because frankly, it is a mainstream movie that tries to push the boundaries in a scene or two with fellatio and male genitalia.
And Ms. Ryan, my only advice to you is that after doing very little nudity over the span of your career, after forty is a bit of a strange time to start.