Someone Like You
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Movie Reviews of Someone Like You
Movie Review: an udder dudder?
Summary: 3 Stars
Even the movie title's bland, am I right? When it was first being pitched, a romantic comedy featuring Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman probably sounded like a solid no-brainer. But, without a good script, it not quite falls apart, but it does leave one with a feeling of "Err. Huh. What?" In the end SOMEONE LIKE YOU is a nice light romantic comedy, nothing more, nothing less. Something maybe worth catching on cable TV, but I don't know that I'd shell out money for the DVD. I didn't mind watching it, but the flaws were right there in your face.
Ashley Judd plays Jane, a producer on a daytime talk show and she thinks she'd met that special someone. Never mind that this guy (Greg Kinnear) already has a girlfriend. Jane and this guy hang out, hook up, get serious. But, on the verge of their moving in together into a new apartment, the guy breaks up with Jane. With Jane's old apartment already leased out to someone else, she takes up her co-worker Eddie's offer and becomes his platonic roomie in his spacious loft studio. And since Eddie (Jackman) is an unapologetic womanizer, Jane's regard for the opposite sex plummets even faster. One day, Jane reads an article in the paper and comes up with the "new cow" theory, this basically suggesting that a man always gets bored with banging the same woman and will always look for greener pastures. As a plot device to propel the story, it sucks. Instead of the lame pop psychology, a more apt theory is the one raised in When Harry Met Sally, which dictates that men and women can't be only friends.
Ashley Judd is sweet and yearning, and cute when her character is throwing a tantrum, and that one scene in which she performs a cheerleading routine while dressed in only her sexy scanties, well, that goes a ways in redeeming the movie for me. Hugh Jackman, back then fresh off playing the brutish and smelly Wolverine in X-MEN, doesn't come off as brutish or smelly here. This was before he landed those other romantic lead roles (Kate & Leopold, Australia) and before he hosted the Oscars - and I think most of us missed his star turn in OKLAHOMA! - so SOMEONE LIKE YOU may've been the first time we've seen him be all casually charming and cosmopolitan. Anyway, the two leads do the best they can with the shoddy material they're given, and they're appealing enough and go well enough together that they just about overcome a weak and lifeless plot. The supporting cast is good, and I can never get enough of Ellen Barkin and Marisa Tomei. Greg Kinnear is really excellent at playing the quietly sleazy part.
I like that Ashley Judd doesn't come off as too much of a weepy victim. But then she does get obsessed with drawing parallels between men and the bovine kingdom. She ends up publishing an article regarding her "studies" under the pseudonym of a much older woman. The kicker is that this article takes off and the mysterious author then becomes a much-in-demand guest star for the talk show circuit. It's dang uninvolving, the way this whole thing plays out, and the movie loses even more points for utilizing this plot device to resolve everything. The biggest flaw, though, is that the romance between the two leads comes out of nowhere. The film really could've done with more key moments to establish and develop Jane and Eddie's relationship. For most of the movie, Jane despises Eddie for his hound dog behavior, and Eddie just seems to cruise along his own merry way, bopping chicks left and right and not demonstrating one whiff of romantic interest for Jane. Then, late in the flick, Jane realizes that she loves him, and vicey-versy. It's a heck of a leap, and there's nothing truly suggested in Eddie's character that would indicate he's become a one-woman dude.
I do like the switcheroo aspect in that Kinnear's character is regarded initially as the sensitive, thoughtful guy only for him to turn out to be a weasely scuzzbucket. And then there's Jackman's Eddie, on the surface a shallow one-night-stand kind of cat but who does have a chivalrous side. And did I mention Ashley Judd in her undies jumping up and down doing a cheer? It's what makes this fluffy film relevant to me. Heck, I may end up buying the DVD after all.
Movie Review: Potential Sadly Gone Flat
Summary: 3 Stars
I was excited about the potential for this movie: a talented cast with multiple Academy Award nominees and winners (Greg Kinnear, Ashley Judd, Ellen Barkin, Marisa Tomei).... Cute but familiar storyline... a perfectly reasonable expectation to really have a great time watching this one.
Add in director Tony Goldwyn (remember the treacherous villain in "Ghost" who is an entertainment blue blood - the "G" from MGM?) and I thought, "Slam dunk but why haven't I ever heard of it?"
The movie itself is why I haven't ever heard of it.
Marisa Tomei - why hasn't she done more with her talent?
I am tired of her playing best friends of women she is smarter than - what is up with that? Ashley Judd is beautiful and has always appeared intelligent as well - what is up with the cheerleading in your underwear for your roommate scene?! (I bet some of you guys will check this movie out just to see that!)
Ellen Barkin actually looked like she was having a great time in her role as the host of a television talk show. I have to admit thinking continually of the recent "Little Black Book" and thinking this reminded me a lot of the Kippy Kan show with a lot less obnoxious host.... I wonder what Ellen's character was doing with that DUD Greg Kinnear played?!
Yikes.
This movie barely held my attention.
I was looking forward to listening to the Bonus Director notes (remember the Tony Goldwyn thing) but I couldn't bear to sit through it again... just not compelling at all.....
Movie Review: A bit banal yet fun to watch
Summary: 3 Stars
This movie has lots of ups and downs, high and low moments. The beginning is with the very original cow theory showing real cows and scientists and in a way promising us that this is not going to be just another regular love story. Then the film moves on to a very banal story, where the "villain" is marked from moment one. Somewhere along this line you get hooked until the once again banal (and too dramatized) ending. All in all fun and entertaining to watch but not one of the best romantic comedies. Ashley Judd as the dumped lady is lovely and is a good excuse to watch this film. I liked this actress since watching her in "where the heart is", but I have to say she does not really look miserable, or maybe I wish I looked like her when I was miserable (actually, I would not mind looking like that when I am happy either). Other then that I could not stand Gregg Kinnear as the love object, he seemed too pathetic to win anybody's heart. I liked him a whole lot better as the neighbor in "As good as it gets" - in that movie his pathetic expressions seemed to fit the role. Marisa Tomei is lovely as the best friend role.
During the viewing I wondered how such a hectic and demanding work at a television network seems to take up so few hours of the hero's daytime. I wonder.
Movie Review: This Is What Passes For Romantic Comedy?
Summary: 2 Stars
Jane Goodale (Ashley Judd) is the talent booker for 'Diane Richards Live', a New York talk show that has just been picked up for syndication. Ray Brown (Greg Kinnear) has just been hired from a Washington station as the new Producer. Eddie Alden (Hugh Jackman) is the writer/director of the show. Jane falls in love with Ray. Ray asks her to move in with him. Ray gets cold feet. Jane develops a theory about cows (don't ask). Jane becomes Eddie's roommate. Jane's attraction to womanizer Eddie grows as she also reconsiders Ray.
"Someone Like You" is your basic girl-meets-boy-boy-becomes-jerk-can't-decide-whether-attractive-womanizer-is-the-right-guy story. We have all seen this story hundreds, if not thousands of times. If "Someone Like You" were just that, it would be a pleasant diversion starring attractive actors.
Unfortunately, Jane comes up with a theory about cows and their mating rituals. She finds that they are very similar to that of humans. Huh! Jane is the very young talent booker on a syndicated talk show. How did she become such an expert in biology? She buys a lot of books at Barnes and Noble and then lays on top of them. You think I'm kidding.
Because the ludicrous 'theories' that Jane Goodale (get it?) comes up with are referred to repeatedly, they completely undermine any chance that we might have to get to know or believe the characters were real. The theories keep bringing us out of the story.
Judd and Jackman are both very attractive and manage to generate some chemistry. Unfortunately, this is one of those stories in which we never see them kiss until the very end. I'm not really revealing anything here. You can tell this will happen from the very beginning.
"Someone Like You" is supposed to be a romantic comedy, yet I only laughed a couple of times throughout. Not very successful. It is also a classic example of a 'chick flick'. However, calling "Someone..." a chick flick is as insulting as calling "Exit Wounds" a guy film. Neither film is any good and prescribing them to a particular group only insults that group. More accurately, "Someone Like You" is just a bad film. Be careful you don't step in it.
Movie Review: Drivel
Summary: 2 Stars
I don't like to brag, but I'd like to think that I'm a pretty good judge of movies and whether they're good or not. I wasn't expecting a blockbuster of a movie, or anything, but MY GOODNESS, this movie was awful! One could ask themselves, "What's wrong with this movie?" But the answer itself is the very broad question, "What isn't?" Ashley Judd plays strong, sexy women very well, but she does NOT convince me when she plays a character whom is heart-broken and borderline desperate.
Not only is Judd's character not believable, the actual plot pertaining to men behaving like cows who need many "places" to plant their seeds is just stupid. There are about a million and a half romantic comedies that are better than this, and I recommend all of them wholeheartedly over this joke of a film.
Watch A Walk to Remember instead. Although not the best movie ever, it's a heck of alot better than this drivel.