(no subject)

[blue_lotus13]

I'm feeling much better now. I slept on Tuesday, went for a walk in the SUN after work on Wednesday and had a pretty intense dance class last night. My deadlines and articles are all on schedule. I have some time to write today and a haircut scheduled for tomorrow. (I love getting haircuts.)

***
On Tuesday, I watched the flawed Must Love Dogs . After watching this movie, I thought about how it's much more fun to write about mediocre movies than really good ones. I was in the mood for a light movie, but I still feel like snarking on it.



First, if I'm going to see a movie called "Must Love Dogs", I want there to be many, many dogs in it. There were only 2 and they weren't in many scenes. I must admit that I was quite happy to see a West Highland White Terrier. I'm all about spreading the terrier love.

There were some cute scenes in this movie, but it was highly uneven. First, I was annoyed by the fact that Diane Lane's family was so obsessed with her love life and fixing her up. If they had been my family, I would have told them to shove it. This is one thing that consistently bugs me about rom-coms. In real life, people do love to set each other up and are always interested in other peoples' love lives, but it never seems to get to the point of obsession.

Secondly, Cusack's character in this movie SUCKED. He just came across as a total flake. I thought it was cute that he was obsessed with Doctor Zhivago and made boats, but seriously, he had some of the cruddiest lines ever, "She's my Halley's comet?!!" WTF, is that supposed to mean? Also, Cusack was wearing a Ramones shirt and a trench coat in several scenes. We get it John, you're supposed to be Mr. Sensitive. You're chanelling Lloyd Dobler. Aren't you getting a little old for that?

Also, I know Diane Lane is hot, but couldn't you two have a couple of decent conversations before you fall madly in love? Then maybe I could believe it.

I actually found Dermot Mulroney's character to be fairly interesting and could see the attraction there. But he was set up to be evil.

Cute scenes- The scene with the date with her dad and my favourite line-

Sister 1- "Where are your boob shirts?"
Diane- "My boob shirts?!"
Sister 2- "I brought some of mine."

Everyone knows that a boob shirt is something that makes your boobs look incredibly good. Very believable.

I do appreciate a good rom-com, but there has to be a bit more substance. I'm skeptical when characters fall for each other without good conversations.

A couple years ago, I read a lot more chicklit. I've since fallen out of the habit. I realized that chicklit was making me feel inadequate. It wasn't because of the romantic aspects of the books; it was because most of the characters have these top jobs in the media industry, and are writing for magazines and top-notch papers while shopping for Mahnolo Blahniks. By contrast, I work like a demon at a variety of jobs while buying shoes at Winners.

I've also abandoned reading a lot of chicklit because a lot of it is just badly written. There are some good writers (Jennifer Cruisie and Meg Cabot, I'm looking at you), but a lot of it isn't very good. My need for lighter books has been filled by YA and kid-lit, which can be quite well written and inspiring.

Comments

[graphxgrrl.livejournal.com]

I kind of felt like Cusack was phoning it in, I definitely saw the channeling Lloyd Dobbler. There have been a number of romantic comedies I've seen lately that make me wonder at the grasp on reality that the people writing and producing them must have. Springing to mind is the other recent Dermot Mulroney vehicle, The Wedding Date (with Debra Messing). I love the mindless fluff of these movies, but it's sad when I end up finding something like Kate & Leopold more realistic. ;) I would say I'm biased towards Hugh Jackman, but really--I'm a Cusack fan since Better off Dead!

[mirabillia.livejournal.com]

i also appreciate a good rom-com, and also did not appreciate "must love dogs". dumb dumb dumb.

diane lane always seems to get the role of the pathetic divorcee (i.e. "under the tuscan sun", which i do admit to enjoying, probably because i wish i lived in a tuscan villa), while you have accurately pegged the pigeonhole john cusack's in to a tee. terrible.

in conclusion: MORE TERRIERS!!!

[darkthirty.livejournal.com]

Why not look at some older films, like Fassbinder's, especially his mellowdramas from the middle period, or Dorothy Parker and Flannery O'Connor for a lookback at fun women's writing, from which you can approach contemporary writers afresh, without the glut and, frankly, arrogance of the suburban middle class that has dominated much of the "light" reading since the Reagan/Mulroney era - a literature that, not so strangely, we men don't really like very much. It's like derivative, banal Joyce Carol Oates without any subject but, well, the "subject", which always makes me think of a fellow I knew with no social life who spent afternoons shooting acorns at squirrels who were hanging around the bird feeders. Interesting, and possibly charged with meaning, but WHAT it means hardly excites me, yunno? It's almost as if the suburban women's literature of the last two decades, where freedom can be defined more or less as the willingness to divorce, by it's very focus, created a separate genre that more or less is only read by, well, middle class women.

[blue-lotus.livejournal.com]

I DESPISE Joyce Carol Oates because of her horrible, run-on sentences.

I refuse to read any more of her books. The only other writers that inspire such venom in me are Candace Bushnell and David Adams Richards. (Shudder)

[zooby.livejournal.com]

Remember when John Cusack would make good movies in between the bad ones? So that, for every America's Sweethearts and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, you could pop Grosse Point Blank in the VCR and think "It's okay, John. My love for you is still strong." Or words to that effect. Lately, there's far too many America's Sweethearts for my liking.

Every character he's played since High Fidelity has been variations on Lloyd Dobler. Holding boom-boxes up to windows in the pouring rain might work when you're 18-20, but when you're pushing 40 and starting to look more and more like your sister every day, it's tough going.

But I still watched Must Love Dogs. My favourite line:
Sister: I filled your freezer with enough meat to feed every guy who answered your ad.
Diane Lane: This is Lloyd Dobler. He answered the ad.
Lloyd/John: Hi. Do I get my meat?

Anyway, it is my contention that Must Love Dogs was a great movie TRAILER, but a terrible movie.

[blue-lotus.livejournal.com]

The part about the trailer is true. And I liked that line as well as the whole "looking for a condom scene."

[meli-mello.livejournal.com]

Personally I would rather see a movie about Terriers than another rom-com about blind dating. And so would Hamish. Actually, Hamish will watch anything as long as he can sit on my lap.

[(Anonymous)]

thanks for the review. i'm not a Cusack fan at all, but did enjoy him in Serendipity.

Won't be renting MLD anytime soon. And speaking of Dermott Mulroney, I find him cute and I have The Wedding Date at home, which I am itching to get into. I hope it's good.

The only chick lit I've liked in recent memory are the Shopahlic series (and related books by same author) and the Bridget Jones books. The Nanny Diaries were ok but The Devil Wears Prada was godawful. Am currently trying to get into the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency but I'm having a hard time getting past the whole white author thing when the main character is a black woman in Africa.

-hotlunch

[blue-lotus.livejournal.com]

I love Jennifer Weiner's "Good in Bed." You must read that one.

I hated No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.