Movie: Easy A

Somehow from the the promos, I got the mistaken idea that this was a film about seducing a teacher to improve one’s grade.  That concept would probably be better served in a college context rather than high school especially if one wanted to make it a comedy.

The film had an interesting premise about how reputations can be made or lost, and at least didn’t put anyone in the house asleep while we watched.

Unfortunately, there were some things in the film that just didn’t ring true.  For instance, I had a very hard time believing the main character was really 17 or 18, she looked to be mid-twenties and sounded like a dirty, filthy smoker.  In fact, according to my internet sources Emma Stone was born in ’88 and is indeed a smoker.  It’s ruining her voice and aging her fast.  Anyway, I spent the entire movie thinking:  Okay, this is pretend…Pretend she’s in high school…Pretend she looks like a teenager…Pretend that’s how 18 year olds behave…But because I had to tell myself to pretend, it took away some of the fun one would otherwise have watching a movie.

Plus, Easy A’s end had no punch.  (Or as they would say in High School — it was anti-climatic).

But good endings for movies are hard to come by.  The best movie ending the world for a comedy film would be the ending of 50 First Dates.  Wow — absolutely great ending!

What’s really weird is that whenever we’re channel surfing we always come upon 50 First Dates and it’s always at the same spot…you know the part where Lucy is back in the institution and Adam Sandler comes to see her, and she’s been dreaming about him and painting his picture.  At that point, the movie’s about over, so we have watch the rest because I really love that perfect ending.  And then I get a little teary-eyed and always say: that movie has the best ending in the world for a comedy film — ooohhhh.

Other than that Easy A was okay.  Just okay.

Movies: Hangover, Whiteout and A Perfect Getaway

The problem with whodunits is I can always (well about 95% of the time) guess who did it.  Agatha Christie was the master of whodunit, and after I figured out her formula every other whodunit is easy.  In movies and television it is particularly simple.  A rule of thumb is the “who” will be introduced early on and would be considered the least likely to do the crime.  So simply ask yourself:  who was there in the first few scenes of the movie and who would it seem the least probable to have anything to do with the crime?  Voila!  That’s who did it.

Whiteout and A Perfect Getaway went along with the predictable movie whodunit genre, which ends in the (un-) exciting chase scene.  A Perfect Getaway has a somewhat interesting twist, but failed when it came to giving us any kind of scare.  Filmed in Canada, but pretending to be Antarctica, Whiteout at least gives an unusual location for a crime.

Since whodunits are so difficult to do well, how about more of: what actually happened last night?!

Hangover is exactly that and nicely combines a mystery in with the comedic plot.  I was afraid Hangover was going to be one of those stupid guy movies with barf and fart jokes and half naked women running around with their tits hanging out.  There was some of that, but only one tit and some bikini clad women during the credits.  Mostly it was a great movie, one of the best we’ve seen in a long time.  My boyfriend loved it and said it was worth seeing again — and that means five stars.  Four stars goes to movies that are worth seeing again, five stars go to movies that you actually want to see again.

Another movie we both like is 50 First Dates.  They show it on television all the time, and when we’re flipping through we always catch it at the same spot:  where Drew Barrymore is painting and singing.  It may be a chick-flick but my boyfriend likes it too.  Then we have to watch the rest so we can see the end.  This movie has the best ending of any movie we’ve ever seen.  It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen it, at the end I tear up a little.  Then my boyfriend says something like:  How many times have you seen this movie?  Then he goes:  Ooooh, and gives me a hug — because he likes it too.