marshagentry Reviews

The Other Woman (2014)

The Other Woman Isn't Always a Mistress

[8/10 · 2 August 2014]

I have seen Cameron Diaz in comedies where she wasn't funny at all. She was adorable in "There's Something about Mary," but I thought she was UN-FUNNY and obnoxious in the movie where she trades places with Kate Winslet during the holidays. That movie was a loser, especially for Cameron. I believe that she did what the director asked her to do. Her acting made me uncomfortable.

I mention this because I was so happy with her performance in The Other Woman. She didn't laugh or cry or act melodramatic in inappropriate moments. She was appropriate for her character, but very charming. Leslie Mann is the actress who does some over-acting, or her part is written so that she is hysterical a good part of the time, but she does this rather well. I'd read that Kate Upton wasn't all that great in this flick but this was a perfect movie for her. She is a beauty with a pleasing charm.

THIS IS A SMALL SPOILER. I'M NOT GIVING AWAY MUCH OF THE PLOT. I'M DESCRIBING THE REACTION THAT EACH WOMAN HAS WHEN THEY FIND OUT THEY'RE DATING A CHEATER.

I believe that all this is evident in the previews. The previews often give away half the plot anyway, but the part that I describe is evident during the first third of the movie.

Let's get to the good part of this review. This movie is about three woman who realize that they're all with the same cheating man. That is the premise of the movie. Leslie Mann plays the wife. This is what I love about the story: There is no competition whatsoever between women. I was able to love Cameron Diaz' part because she isn't willing to be the other woman. She isn't willing to beat out the wife. The same is true of Kate Upton's character. These women make some clarifications about the woman "mistress." You can't be a mistress if you don't know that the man has a wife. If you pull yourself out of the situation when you find out, you are not a mistress. I like this definition.

I think this is a movie more suited for women viewers because I could revel in the good feelings of loyalty that these women had as friends under duress. Cameron Diaz plays a career woman who also knows how to attract men. She has a balanced life. She's a successful single woman who has scruples. She is still disappointed in men, or at least, this man.

Leslie Mann's character is dingy, but she isn't stupid. She's emotional, and she plays a funny drunk. She is not quick to hate "the other woman." Because these women don't hate each other, I can have fun watching this movie. I can enjoy the relationship that these women create as they deal with this cheating man.

Kate Upton doesn't have a huge part; her character isn't super developed but this isn't necessary. A third woman is needed in this story to show that this man is a cheater all the way. He'll cheat on the wife. He'll cheat on his hot intelligent girlfriend. He'll even cheat on the even hotter, younger girlfriend.

Another big plus for women viewers is Taylor Kinney who is mostly known for the TV show Chicago Fire. But I'd never seen him. He's a nice surprise as the brother to Leslie Mann's character.

This isn't a perfect movie. Its a very good comedy. I didn't give it a 9 or a 10 because it isn't When Harry Met Sally or The Princess Bride, my favorite comedies that I've watched many many times.

One more thing: There is some gross humor that doesn't work for me (even though I loved Bridesmaids, one of the tackiest movies ever, but I didn't like all of Bridemaids' tacky gross stuff either).

I hate the term "chick flick." This movie would be fun for women to watch together. Because most of the actors in the movie are women, I'd say that women will prefer this movie.

Here's a newsflash: I have no desire to watch a movie with men only. Men enjoy watching other heroic men doing heroic things. We don't call their movies "men flicks," or something similar that's a vague put-down.

The Other Woman is fun and sweet. The financial transactions in the story weren't clear to me, and perhaps twenty minutes of nothing happening could have been shaved off the movie.

But this movie is cute. The main characters are moral; they take the high ground under duress. I enjoy the distinction made between strong moral women who like to let their hair down and have a good time and weak desperate women who don't mind breaking up families or stepping on anyone to get their man.

The moral code in this craziness is refreshing.

The Canyons (2013)

One of the Top Five Worst Movies of All Time

[1/10 · 22 June 2014]

I knew nothing about this movie when I accidentally got hooked on it. I thought it was almost over when I tuned in, and I left it on out of morbid curiosity. Lindsay's acting isn't bad. It's actually good, at least in parts. It is Lindsay who looks so phony herself; she's difficult to look at with cheap uneven hair extensions and hard makeup. Her face looks puffed up. She works pretty hard at throwing away her career. I can't understand why she did this.

What got my attention was a guy who takes off his pants for a full-frontal view of him, not a quick view, maybe five seconds or so, while he moves around with his jewels exposed, followed by Lindsay taking off her top to show her boobs, and a third guy going down on her on the sofa while the naked man has his way with himself. Yuck and ick.

The first thing wrong with the movie is the script. None of the dialog is clever. No witty banter, and there should be, because the only thing to this movie is dialog....and some boring sex. Not much action. Just a little. There is only one storyline going on. A good script will have several mini-plots interwoven into the main plot. Here is the gist of it that is revealed early in the movie: Will he or won't he catch her cheating, and what will he do about it? This should be a sub-plot, not the main story.

These actors looked like soap actors or waiters, not that I have a thing against either. All the cast seemed to be roughly the same age. I'm attempting to explain why the cast of men seems generic to me. A pug nose with a good head of hair and some muscles will get you into this movie if you don't mind saying the F-word 20 or 30 times

The music is pretty funny as well. I confess to watching this movie for the fun of it. I recognized it as a baddie right away, when the guy dangled his jewels.

Save you money unless you have a weird sense of humor, a boring life and time to waste..

Some Girl(s) (2013)

The Dialogue Seems Improvised

[5/10 · 22 March 2014]

I'm wondering if the main character is making the rounds to his various ex-girlfriends to gather material for his next novel. The trips down memory lane are vague and general, without specifics. Adam Brody's character doesn't remember details. Was he emotionally connected to any of them, or is this lazy writing? The actors are great. Adam Btody has turned into a hunk since The O.C. He's awfully cute.

At first our writer seems to have matured into a sensitive person. He wants to be faithful to his fiancée. Later, he refers to her as just some girl who's going to nursing school. Diminishing a current girlfriend is not impressive. This characterization is confusing and inconsistent, These actors do a great job with what little that have. Dialog needs to be more specific and more colorful.

As another reviewer suggested, this seems to have evolved from a play. No action. Most of the "in-action" takes place in the hotel room.

A Lot Like Love (2005)

Good Chemistry

[7/10 · 16 January 2014]

Why isn't Amanda Peet a household name? A mega-star? She's a beauty with comedic timing, and she's good at quirky. She did great drama in Law and Order: SVU as a kid who faked her own kidnapping. She was scary.

This movie is cute and the ending is a bit predictable. How it gets there is not predictable.

I shaved off points because Amanda Peets's character fake smokes cigarettes for no reason. What possible reasons do movie makers create a character who smokes when the actor isn't a smoker?

ANNOYING. ANNOYING. ANNOYING. I'm guessing that this writer or director is a non- smoker because smokers or ex-smokers like me can spot a fake a mile away. I can't watch. Seriously.

Sharknado (2013 TV Movie)

Enough Said!

[24 July 2013]

Instead of frequently used movie adjectives such as "Riveting," or "Unbelievable," the "Sharknado" billboard uses the descriptive words, "Enough Said." I don't know why but these words make me laugh, and they set the tone for this ridiculously silly movie. I love scary movies when the enemy is not a real threat to me or any other movie watcher. Therefore, I don't watch stalker or slasher movies.

There are sharks coming from every direction when they're catapulted into the sky by a freak storm that carries them everywhere. No place is safe.

Common sense is rarely used in this type of movie. I'll admit that "The Birds" is in a different league, but I always wonder why no one thinks to wear a hat that could deter at least some of the birds for awhile, especially a construction hat or football helmet. In Sharknado the sharks are vicious and hungry. Why no one in this movie can get away from these sharks baffles me. There are so many that its easy to get pelted by one. Pelted and then chewed, even swallowed. No one seems to remember that sharks can't walk or run on the land. Once they land on the ground, they would be stuck without rushing water to move them along.. Our hero---played by Ian Ziering---and his family and friends must take a proactive approach to fight these big fish while waiting for the torrential storms to pass.

This movie has some great foreshadowing. You can predict that certain characters will not be around much longer. But who cares? If you don't mind watching people get dismembered, or even swallowed, you may enjoy this movie as much as I did.

Spring Breakers (2012)

I Wasted $6

[1/10 · 23 July 2013]

I realized during the first fifteen minutes that the movie was going to be shot like a music video without much deep dialog--or shallow dialog, for that matter. The girls' faces are rarely shown in normal light, making it difficult to identify their faces. There is little actual acting by the girls, except for Selena Gomez, and her real acting doesn't quite add up to five minutes of the film.

There is little character motivation or character building. We know that the girls are bored with their lives at the beginning of the film. But we don't know why one of the girls keeps shooting her fingers like an imaginary gun.

James Franco's performance is laughable. He probably does an okay job with the dialog and the scenes he is given. I'd hung in with the movie, waiting for him to appear but the grid on his teeth showed me immediately that his role was going to be over the top and silly. He's an exaggeration of Al Pacino's "Scarface" with a goofy ghetto dialect.

This movie has characters behaving in grotesque, obscene ways. Believe it or not, the various shots--and there is a lot of them--of girls at Spring Break dancing with their arms up in the air, many of them topless and many of them drinking out of a long tube, are the least troubling shots.

This movie is nasty, grotesque, and over-simplified, with characters that are nothing but clichés. I don't know what audience should watch this movie, or for whom this movie was meant. HIgh school and college boys may be entertained by this hour-and-a-half long tacky video.