Fired Up

“Fired Up” is essentially undiluted generic storytelling peppered by the odd effective moment of improve and lashings of acid tongued wit. In several small doses it might actually feel like a decent film but when digested as a full feature it’s a distinctly stark and barren experience. There are little oasis’s of comedic relief strewn throughout but overall “Fired Up” is an arduous trek through a harsh desert of predictable storytelling and teen movie templates. You’ll need to be something of a cinematic survivalist to enjoy the entire experience, that’s for sure.

Nick (Eric Christian Olsen) and Shawn (Nicholas D’Agosto) are the two most popular jocks in school, but another summer of an all male and intensely gruelling football camp doesn’t sound that appealing. So in a bid to create a more flavoursome season they decide to go to cheerleading camp, packed to the roof with hot girls with Nick and Shawn the only single and heterosexual guys on campus. They slot into their school team “The Tigers” and whilst most of the squad buy Nick and Shawn’s feigned enthusiasm captain Carly (Sarah Roemer) isn’t so sure. However as the camp kicks of and the inter school competition heats up she and Shawn begin to get close, much to the disdain of skirt chasing Nick. After enjoying his fill of woman by the camps halfway point Nick wants out but Shawn infatuated by Carly thinks they should stay and help their struggling team, leaving their friendship in an awkward position.

“Fired Up” would have been very much at home in the 80’s and late 90’s and now thanks to the success of 2007’s “Superbad” it looks like the current climate is set to be a staple in the teen movie timeline. The Apatow revival of the genre has kick started this pocket milking trend once more and whilst it will inevitably run out of its limited artistic steam and financial potential within two years, right now it’s cool to be making teen orientated flicks. “Fired Up” isn’t at the very nadir of the genre but it’s an utterly forgettable and borderline tedious experience, riddled with some minor moments of fun hi-jinks but mostly bogged down by soggy scripting and a patchy gag rate. Plus the performances are unsurprisingly a whisker short of average, never mind revolutionary.

One of the most distracting aspects of the film is the fact that the leading men are meant to be about 17 but in reality they’re either side of 30. D’Agosto is 28 and Olsen 31 and seeing as neither demonstrates much in the way of flair I have to ask why casting wasn’t done closer to age. I’m used to seeing 21 and 22 year olds play teenagers but that is at times visually acceptable, with the leading pair they haven’t been teens for at least a decade and it shows to the point of annoyance. Despite looking ridiculously mature for the parts Olsen and D’Agosto also fail to do anything remotely memorable with them, they’re chemistry is so-so but the comedy pratfalls and routines they ping around are absurdly half hearted. It goes without saying that the film fails to build Nick and Shawn into anything else but sporty clowns but what is more offensive is that the creative team also fails to make them likable. Nick in particular is a top grade asshole and not a character the viewer is likely to empathise with.

As the head of the cheer camp John Michael Higgins easily scores the films most assured and entertaining moments whilst around him other support slowly dies in the pulsating heat of mediocrity. Sarah Roemer was nothing more than a token babe with attitude in “Disturbia” and she replicates that here (Though “Disturbia” was a far superior film) whilst Anna Lynne McCord gives a fabulously lazy turn as a bitchy cheer nemesis. Other semi-famous names also feature including Danneel Harris (also guilty of playing teenagers at nearly 30) and Phillip Baker Hall, though none make much of an impression.

The jokes aren’t particularly inspired and the films attempts at irreverent improvisation often feel forced and stale. On a few occasions Olsen managed to display a modestly quick wit and cook up some sweet comedy relief but at other junctures he goes too far and sours proceedings with his unnecessary vamping. For a PG-13 movie I was shocked by how few poop and fart jokes “Fired Up” launches at the audience but it makes them up in tame penis references and over emphasised regaling of sexual conquest. Also for a movie in which are heroes are meant to be romantic dynamos all the viewer is treated to are a few make out scenes and implied oral sex, hardly the stuff that made Casanova legend.

The film cribs from “Bring it On” and expects a direct reference to said movie to excuse the theft, it might in legal terms but not in the statutory book of good entertainment. In terms of quality those movies are pretty much on equal ground, namely that they’re hit rate with quality gags is inconsistent and from every other stand point boredom is the most likely reaction. The most undemanding of viewers might enjoy “Fired Up” and its very slight roster of impressive material, forgiving the narrative shortcomings because it’s “just an airheaded cheerleading movie”. Well I’d just rather that type of feature didn’t exist in the first place, certainly that’s not what made John Hughes and Judd Apatow power this genre in their respective eras with such delicious success.

Director: Will Gluck

Writer: Freedom Jones

Cast includes: Eric Christian Olsen, Nicholas D’Agosto, Sarah Roemer, John Michael Higgins, Molly Sims, Danneel Harris, Anna Lynne McCord

The Romantics

The Romantics is a dramatic comedy film which was released to limited theaters in the U.S. on September 10, 2010. The film was written and directed by Galt Niederhoffer, who previously wrote the screenplay for Prozac Nation and directed Six Chicks in a Kitchen.The tagline of The Romantics is “A romantic drama about love, destiny and other events you just can't plan for.

Laura and Lila. Lila (Paquin) is getting married at her parents' Long Island spread; Laura (Holmes), her long-time roommate, is her maid of honor. One catch: Lila is marrying Tom (Josh Duhamel), the guy that Laura was deeply involved with in college, before Lila swept him away with both her charms and the promises of her parents' fortune. The catch (and it is wholly unsurprising) is that Tom, the groom, isn't sure he made the right decision. He still has feelings for Laura. 

But there are moments: like the one in which Laura confronts Tom after the rehearsal dinner, the night before the wedding, about why he broke her heart. Duhamel's Tom is the kind of pretty-boy jock who is used to getting what he wants and who believes it's his prerogative to have it both ways if that's what he desires. But Laura sets him straight in a scene that's blistering, thanks to Holmes.

The same is true when Tom reveals his indecisiveness to Lila. Paquin calmly flays him with words; she makes it clear that this is not something she'll put up with and that he needs to get his head on straight and get on with it.

And, eventually, there's the showdown between Paquin, secure in her rightness, and Holmes, who's been playing second-fiddle to Lila for as long as they've known each other. It's a terrific encounter, full of snap and bite as real feelings lead to sharp, pain-inflicting words. These two young actresses might as well be quietly spitting razors at each other. It's not a screaming fight - but it definitely is war.

Unfortunately, there's little else in The Romantics that rises to this level. Too little of this film deals with this unhappy triangle.Instead, Niederhoffer spends far too much time on the interplay between the rest of the wedding party, two married couples played by Adam Brody, Rebecca Lawrence, Jeremy Strong and Malin Ackerman. After the rehearsal dinner, much drinking and a half-assed skinny dip (half-assed in the sense that they swim in their underwear), they switch partners for easily predicted hijinx - except that none of them wind up in bed.

Paquin is also given a black-sheep brother played by Elijah Wood, who assays the role as though he expected there to be more bad behavior for him to enact. She also has a sister who has an unsurprisingly destructive encounter with Paquin's wedding dress. And her mother is played by the comically inventive Candice Bergen, who is given criminally little to do.

Honestly, I didnt quite enjoyed or liked the ending of the movie, simply because the havent showed anything after the rain they didnt showed if Lila still married Tom or did Tom married Laura. But all in all the movie was good it still embodied reality and I could still give it a 3 star rating.

The Romantics Casts and Characteristics are as follows:


Katie Holmes as Laura, the maid of honor at Lila and Tom's wedding
Anna Paquin as Lila, the bride
Josh Duhamel as Tom, the groom, who was once involved with Laura
Dianna Agron as Minnow,Lila's sister
Adam Brody as Jake
Malin Åkerman as Tripler
Elijah Wood as Chip,Lila's black sheep brother
Jeremy Strong as Pete
Rebecca Lawrence as Weesie
Candice Bergen as Augusta
Annabel-Jane Brooks as Patricia 


The movie is based on a novel with the same title written by  Galt Niederhoffer who also did the screenplay and directed the movie.

No Strings Attached

Fresh off the recent Golden Globe win for Black Swan, Natalie Portman returns to the romantic comedy genre with a twist on the ‘no strings’ relationship.  Along for the ride is Ashton Kutcher , as her would be mate.

Emma and Adam meet by happenstance, not once, or even twice but three times over the span of 15 years all set to some great topical music from the timelines they each represent.  Each run in is flirtacious and teases you with an obvious kismet that Kutcher & Portman pull off seemingly easily.   In their mid to late twenties, when Emma is deep into her medical residency at a California hospital and Adam bides his time as a B crew member on a ‘High School Music’ type TV show, the two re-connect.   Emma’s life is hectic and harried and her ideal relationship with Adam is nothing more than quick and easy sex with no obligations on either side.  The two blindly convince each other that they can handle it and the obvious sparks ensue.  Mix that with an R rating which grants you the serious side of passion, and a truly funny bit involving the camaraderie of women during menstruation and you see how the movie sold itself.

Portman is amazingly good in this film and not just in the looks department.  Even when there’s lull in the story and the obviousness of the next phase plays out, she makes it look good – an heir of almost airy in the delivery of every line.  I felt her passion in the job she held as an MD in a hectic ER and how she truly felt when she ultimately saw the value of the relationship she was toying with.  Kutcher I can’t say the same for.  He’s definitely playing a grown up and I applaud his effort in the 3rd act, but its just not enough for me to see past his tall whimsical persona.  Lake Bell (TV”s The Practice) takes a great turn as a speedy, obsessed co-producer on the show.  Hyper, attune, sensitive and womanly – she put together a great package for the character.  Kevin Kline returns to Director Ivan Reitman’s side playing supporting character Alvin (Adam’s Dad).  I love Kline for the varied roles he played including one of Reitman’s previous solid comedies ‘Dave,’ but he’s wasted here.  Playing an aging TV sitcom star that floats between a bevy of young corsets is a waste of his talent.

If you’re a fan of Portman (as I am) you’ll find her on display in all her glory.  For those who are thinking you’ll see her nude, relax, there is no nudity in the film despite its rating.  A couple rear rump shots of the stars is all you get – don’t’ look for anything more titillating.

No Strings Attached is a decent romantic comedy for a curl up on the coach movie night, but not necessarily for $20+ for you and your date at the multiplex.  You’ll definitely find sporadic laughs and Portman will shine during the slow spots, but films like this make me wish studios would expedite the dual-release of films both in multiplexes and streaming to these high definition boxes they’re making us buy.  This film would be perfect for a Friday night on the couch.

Blue Valentine

Blue Valentine is a painful analysis of a marriage that begins on a cloud of pure romantic love, only to collapse miserably six years later. Dean (Ryan Gosling), the blue-collar husband incapable of changing or comprehending why everything has gone wrong.

 The wife Cindy (Michelle Williams), who once dreamt of becoming a doctor, finds herself barely able to be in the same room with her husband.

Blue Valentine is a love story about falling out of love, following the marriage of Dean and Cindy as they move through critical highs and lows: the first moment they fall in love, and the realization that comes when everything is over and there's no chance of recovery. This is an extremely painful film to watch. It's the joyful promising beginnings and the sad irrevocable ending.

The story begins in the present and through flashes, the audience get to see the way they were. We draw comparisons and analyze the differences, the same way people do when they remember a failed relationship. There were so many wonderful moments. Where did it go wrong?

Dean makes the best effort he knows how to save their marriage: he books them into a seedy fantasy motel which Cindy obviously doesn't want to go. The audience can feel her frustrations, crying behind closed doors. They both drink until they can't stand up anymore and they both fell on the floor. Dean tries to revive the passion in his wife by trying to make love. But the passion in Cindy has long been gone.

Blue Valentine is a great movie with defining raw performances from two brilliant young actors, who carried the weight of a heavy drama on their shoulders like the real pros they both are. Their relationship looks and feels so real. What is so impressive is the dual performances of the actors, who seem like entirely different people as the film flashes from the past to the present and back. They go through both physical and emotional transformations during the six year period of the film: Williams from shy and adorable to sad, sullen and 15 pounds heavier, and Gosling from charming young lad full of life to bland father beaten down by life with a receding hairline.

If you want to see a movie that is entertaining, do not see this movie - this movie is painful to watch. Also, do not see this movie if your relationship is going downhill, it might hasten the fall. If you want to see two outstanding actors deliver unforgettable performances and the sheer genius of a brilliant director, then go see Blue Valentine. You will love this movie.

Gosling and Williams are just brilliant here. They both flesh out these characters in incredibly compelling-yet-realistic ways. They make Dean and Cindy characters who are both relatable and interesting on their own. This, of course, makes their clashing all the more painful to watch.


The movie was a different kind of love story.

Tangled

 This Disney movie, based on the story of Rapunzel reminded me of the classic animated princess movies.  Many of the animated movies released in recent years have two levels of humor and dialogue, one for the parents and one for the kids.  This movie was directed at all ages, without any hidden or double meanings.  The setting was beautiful, the animation very well done, and the characters strongly developed.  The story was a classic tale of good versus evil, castles and princesses, and of course, love.  

The voice of Rapunzel was done by Mandy Moore and her portrayal stood out in this movie.  The other performances were good, but none that made as much of an impression as Mandy Moore’s, which was believable and expressive.  One of the other things about this movie that was reminiscent of the classic princess movies was the music.   The music for the movie was written by Alan Menken and sounds like it could easily be in a Broadway musical.  One of my favourite scenes in the movie has Rapunzel and her love interest in the movie singing and dancing around a public square with villagers and their children joining in.  This scene brought to mind Disney movies past like Beauty and the Beast, where Belle danced and sang her way around town!  The music added lightness and depth to the movie and Mandy Moore’s singing voice was a great fit to Rapunzel’s character.

One of the central themes in the movie Tangled is following dreams.  When Rapunzel expresses her fear of what will happen after she finally has her dream come true, Flynn, her love interest in the story, tells her that she can then find a new dream.  This statement is true for all of us.  Dreams are important, but once our goals are achieved, we must move on to find new dreams and pursue those.  

Another element to this story that is sure to be enjoyed by most children, especially young children, are the horse and pet chameleon, who are both well developed characters. The film is also available in 3D.

Disney’s Tangled is really a nice, feel good movie.  This animation of the classic Rapunzel fairy tale had enough new innovation to keep it interesting, but held true to the heart of the story.

Black Swan

A 2010 American Psychological thriller film that stars Natalie Portman (Nina Sayers), Vincent Cassel (Thomas Leroy) and Mila Kunis(Lily) and Winona Ryder which is directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Combine the wonderful sounds of orchestral music with the delicate beauty and undulating movements of the ballerinas along with the indelible images that cinema provides for us and we get a truly ambitious film that is a mixture of poetry, sex, feverish dream, nightmares, and psychology. But most impressively it is an innovative fusion — of cinema and ballet — that has been rarely seen in the film medium. Here is one of the most complete films in recent memory. A film well in accord with what makes a film great, ingraining in its foundation a surplus of great performances, visionary direction, emotional music, and surprises emerging from a unique script that is not afraid to approach the unconventional.

Resembling a “Red Shoes” on acid, “Black Swan” takes the idea of giving one’s all for art to a morbid extreme. Applying the gritty handheld technique he successfully employed in the working class environs of “The Wrestler” to the rarefied domain of classical ballet, Darren Aronofsky swooningly explores the high tension neuroses and sexual psychodrama of a ballerina on the brink of simultaneous triumph and breakdown. With Natalie Portman, in the demanding leading role, equaling her director in unquestioned commitment, the central issue for the viewer is how far one is willing to follow the film down the road to oblivion for art’s sake.

A scene from Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.”

The opposite end of such overwrought preoccupation lies in Alfred Hitchcock’s famous remark to one of his leading ladies who was becoming far too anxious about her performance: “Ingrid, it’s only a movie.” Certainly, the truth must lie somewhere in between; sometimes art just happens as if by alchemy, but more often it requires passion, obsession and giving yourself over to demons and dark instincts.

As every one of his films has demonstrated, Aronofsky is a serious, driven director interested in discovering and charting outer boundaries and “Black Swan,” which opened the Venice Film Festival and will move on to Telluride and Toronto, is no different. Natalie Portman’s Nina has poured her entire life’s energy into ballet, at the expense of all else. A grown-up girl who hasn’t lived, she still shares a small Upper West Side apartment with her suffocatingly adoring mother (Barbara Hershey), has childhood stuffed animals all over her room, has never had a serious relationship (her choreographer suspects she’s still a virgin) and seems to have no friends.

Nina may be the most tightly wound character I’ve seen in a movie since Peter O’Toole’s homicidal Nazi in “The Night of the Generals” 43 years ago. Often sweaty, given to unnaturally tense little intakes of breath (the soundtrack emphasizes this), plagued by rashes on her shoulderblades (where swans’ wings would sprout) and prone to poking, cutting and splitting her skin and nails, she is often told she should relax, that she’s way too uptight.

More to the point, she’s probably afflicted by sexual hysteria. Up for the lead in a new production of “Swan Lake” at Lincoln Center (where much of the film is set), Nina is told by the imperious French choreographer Thomas (a wonderfully commanding Vincent Cassel) that he’d cast her at once if all she had to dance was the White Swan; the insidiously seductive Black Swan, he fears, may be beyond her reach. To find out, he provokes her, taunting her to seduce him, to show him she has what it takes.

Nina wins the role without having to go that far (although many of her sister dancers believe it anyway) and practices relentlessly, to the point of breaking. When one star is born, however, a previous one must pass by the boards, in this case the aging Beth MacIntyre, played with an almost frighteningly credible neurotic intensity by Winona Ryder that sets the bar high for Portman to match.

Pushing herself into Nina’s life in a different way is company newcomer Lilly (Mila Kunis), who’s as loose and uninhibited as Nina is frigid and constipated. At first offering herself up as a friend, Lilly morphs into a conniving rival, at least in Nina’s mind, which brims with paranoid fantasies. Lilly also becomes a source of potential erotic pleasure, to the point where an intense girl-on-girl encounter seems to provide Nina with the physical breakthrough she’s needed, even if, again, this was just a figment of her dangerously accelerating imagination.

Life as We Know it

Heigl stars as Holly Berenson, a woman whose best friend, Alison (Christina Hendricks), dies in a car accident along with her husband, Peter (Hayes MacArthur). The couple leaves behind a will, stipulating that Holly raise their 1-year-old daughter along with Peter's best pal, Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel). If you can't guess what happens next, well, you probably haven't seen the thousands of commercials that have been airing recently, have you? Holly and Eric hate each other, yet they stifle their loathing and move into a sprawling mansion in order to watch the little tot grow up. Still, when the baby goes poo-poo, the pair almost lose it. Will these two ever work things out? Will they ever get together? There's nothing worse than a predictable romantic comedy, and this is as obvious as it gets. Also, Eric goes from the worst dad on the planet to the best faster than you most of us can say "you're grounded." If there's one positive thing to come from Life as We Know It, it's this - the entire family will finally agree on a movie's suckiness. It's not funny, the plot is ridiculous, and the 115-minute running time feels like five hours. The film will also give a family a whole two hours of dinner discussion at the least. Of course, there's one aspect of the film dads can enjoy - Christina Hendricks' two babies. This romantic comedy has a long, unfunny build-up to a car crash in which a married couple are killed, leaving the victims' best male and female friends as the designated guardians of their one-year-old daughter. The woman, Holly (Katherine Heigl), is the fashion-conscious owner of a gourmet food boutique called Fraiche, the man, Eric (Josh Duhamel), is a slobbish director of sports programmes at an Atlanta TV station, and they purport to loathe each other. Their problems with nappies, baby food, minor illnesses, sleeplessness, cohabiting in the deceased couple's home, coping with work and so on are always predictable and rarely funny. To me, the chemistry going on between Heigl and Duhamel was about as exciting as that between Ann Widdecombe and Anton Du Beke Child friendly? Life as We Know It tells the story of two dimwitted people whose best friends die in a car accident. The couple leaves behind a 1-year-old tot and their will demands that their two friends raise her together. Once living under the same roof, the pair realize that poop grosses them out and they thoroughly hate each other. The film contains some sexual scenes, drug use and swearing.