Movies, Comedy
“50% percent of first marriages, 67% of second and 74% of third marriages end in divorce,” says Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri. Sometimes I hear arguments that the divorce rate is so high because people go into marriage without sufficient commitment. I don’t think that a large number of people say to themselves on the day of their wedding as if they are selecting a restaurant for evening: “If it does not taste good, I will simply go to a different restaurant after the entre.” Most people I know find divorce quite unpleasant. Especially when there are children involved, one never fully get’s divorced. Typically at least one of the partners is deeply disappointment that the idea of being together for the rest of the life did not work out. Not infrequently this let-down partner hopes that a miracle will happen and reunite the failed couple.It’s Complicated
Movies, Comedy
The trailer was a lot funnier than the whole film that was only mildly amusing. The subject, of course, is serious. Human beings are designed to have sex but some people are extremely shy and lack social skills to hook up. The entire premise of the film that at age forty you can lose your virginity strikes me as highly unlikely. I once met a 65-year-old virgin who shared with me his philosophy of sex. I came away with the view that once he had hit forty, his chance of losing his virginity had dropped to virtually zero. That is why he was still a virgin at 65. Yes, the tagline of the film is correct: “The longer you wait, the harder it gets.” The film felt too constructed because the hero gets lucky in the end. I don’t think that life is that kind for most 40-year-old virgins.The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Movies, Comedy
The Proposal is a lot better than I had expected after seeing the trailer for it. The short preview made it look like a silly film with a lame plot and stale humor. The heroine (Sandra Bullock) starts out a bitch. She is the chief editor of a distinguished book publisher in New York City. Showing how far women have come, she successfully harasses our hero (Ryan Reynolds). In an effort to avoid deportation from the U.S. because of a visa violation, she forces him to agree to marry her. Our hero goes along with her proposal not simply because he is weak but because he able to get something in return: The heroine agrees in return to promote our hero from her mere assistant to an independent editor at her publishing house. If you are up do date on immigration law enforcement, you will know that the IRS does not like it when you marry someone just to help them stay in the country.The Proposal
Movies, Comedy
There is a reason why in most films different people take on the roles of the writer, director, and the lead actor: Rarely is one and the same person equally good at all these jobs. Tropic Thunder stars Ben Stiller, and is written and directed by Ben Stiller. That was a mistake. When I saw the trailer a few weeks ago, my hopes soared. Perhaps Tropic Thunder was going to be as funny as There is something about Mary. Far from it, the new Ben Stiller vehicle only provokes a few laughs. The story (a film crew making war movie in Vietnam comes under real attack) is rather weak, a mumble jumble of ideas that Stiller had over the years. The best part of the movie was Tom Cruise, who plays a slimy, foul-mouthed, overly hairy Hollywood producer. Cruise steals the show from Stiller, even though he only played a minor character, in a sideline of film. I am not going to see another film written and directed by Stiller any time soon. Tropic Thunder
Movies, Comedy
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry reminded me of an episode of the Love Boat in the 1980s. After yet another romantic disappointment, a lady decides that she had it with men. She meets a notorious womanizer on the boat. To get the woman “into the sack”, the gigolo plays the role of a man who claims that he also never wants to start a new relationship. To make their commitment to abstinence even stronger, the womanizer proposes after a few encounters that they should sleep in the same bed andprove to themselves that they are capable of foregoing sex. The lady agrees, but her hand reaches over to his side of the bed before longThe next morning the love boat has a new romantic pair. Back to Chuck & Larry. Chucks wife has died and he no longer is entitled to spousal benefits from the City of New York, which would help his children in case he would also die. Chuck asks his womanizing best fried to pretend that he is his domestic partner.I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
Movies, Comedy
One of the big ironies of modern society is that we require people to obtain licenses for important and trivial tasks before we let them lose onto the world. I remember being told in my late teens. The of two most important decisions in life about choosing the right job and the right wife. For almost every job we need to demonstrate qualification before we can get hired. But when it comes to marriage anyone having reached the appropriate age can self-declare to be ready for the task of committing for a life-time. License to Wed thinks this to be ridiculous. The reverend Frank (Robin Williams) believes that a couple should first go through a rigorous program of examinations before they can be declared fit to marry. Sadie Jones (Mandy Moore) enlists reverend Frank to help her figure out whether Ben Jones (John Krasinski) is the right one. I thought that the film’s premise was clever but the execution left much to be desired.License to Wed
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