The Vow

I had no problem going to see The Vow for a few reasons. My wife wanted to see it, and I love movies. Plus Rachel McAdams!! Until recently Channing Tatum would not have mattered, but I have grown a profound respect for the actor who is gonna be the face of cinema for 2012. Every time I see him act, I like him more. He has range, and I'll admit every time I see the trailer for 21 Jump Street I wanna see it more and more. Back to The Vow. I knew a little about it, while at the same time, I knew everything about it. Two very attractive married people have a car wreck and she no longer remembers him. There, now you know the basic plot. Where will it go from here is the real question. It does a great job of flowing. The opening scene is a rather impressive car accident, and then from here our pretty couple are in the hospital. He's banged up, she's in a coma and then  we get a very interesting narrative that will be called back to every 20 minutes or so. I was only 20 minutes into the film when it was very easy to see how good of a film this was going to be. All they had to do is execute the plan the writers had drawn out. They did exactly that. I still don't know why critics crap all over romance films? All films of that genre I automatically compare to The Notebook. This one is no different. Chemistry. I always talk of chemistry between the actors and Tatum and McAdam's have great chemistry. They must be madly in love and then strangers in the blink of an eye, and they pull it off wonderfully. Leo (Tatum) and Paige (McAdams) have known each other for 4 years and have been happily married for an unknown length of time when she is taken from him. Anyone who has been in Love, Married or not, can have a deep sympathy with this film. These two go from being as happy as humanly possible to never having existed (in her mind anyway) and Leo does not know if he will get her back. The worst part is she doesn't have amnesia. She just doesn't remember the last 5 years. She still thinks she is engaged to someone else. Her parents, played brilliantly by Sam Neill and Jessica Lange, step in to save the day, though this is not what Leo wants, Paige just wants to be with the people she does know. As wonderful as Tatum is, McAdams is the true winner in her performance. She has to be Jekyll and Hyde and she does is so effortlessly. If you have ever been in love or loved anything for that fact, then The Vow will strike a chord with you. I enjoyed it immensely and was anxiously awaiting the final outcome. Would Paige fall into her old life and disregard her marriage to Leo or would she go out on a limb and believe this stranger and his stories of their epic love? What a fantastic film for Valentine's Day, that above all else, will help you to realize something as precious as True Love should never be taken for granted.

...And for the ladies, I present RATINGS...I mean Channing Tatum 

NBM rates The Vow - Phenomenal

P.S. I Love You

I'm gonna get back to writing for the ladies, but I will say this supposed "chic flick" blew me away with it's originality, dark subject matter, and superb acting. I will be the first to say how unattractive I think Hilary Swank is. In fact I tend to call her horse-face most of the time. It's hard for me to watch her on screen and get past her unattractiveness. In fact she is an awesome actress, but her "put 'em" is more better suited for roles such as Million Dollar Baby, where she is suppose to get it punched in. P.S. I Love You needed an actress of her caliber to make it believable. It follows the story of two young people, Holly (Swank) and Gerry ( Gerard Butler) and the love that blossoms between them. She meets him while on holiday in Ireland. He is the perfect guy and their whirlwind romance is quickly concreted in the nuptial form. Unfortunately Gerry is taken from her rather soon after. He had an illness that he could not beat. About a month after his passing, Holly receives the first of a years worth of personal letters, messages, anniversary gifts, and birthday presents that Gerry had the forethought of scheduling to help her with the closure aspect. At first it seems to make it worse, almost a rehashing of her pain. The letters and notes are very personal and often deal with Holly's long term issues of "going for it", and living life to the fullest. Each recording and letter and message ends with the words P.S. I Love You. Even in their marriage she was terrified of stepping out of her comfort zone. About 6 months into these constant reminders of Gerry, one of her confidants begins to fall for her. Daniel (Connick, Jr.) continues to push, but not in that mean, inconsiderate disrespectful way, but in the classy way. She just doesn't see him that way. The letters provide the best kind of guilt for Holly to break out of her shell. The guilt of her dead husbands final wishes. It's a brilliant film that is extremely heart felt, and it does one thing very well. It makes the entire male race look like a bunch of jerks, because until you watch this film you would have never thought about doing any of the wonderful things Gerry accomplishes from beyond the grave. His ultimate goal was to make sure that she would be able to move on with her life without him and be ok with her decisions. One of the most unselfish acts ever. He may be the most considerate man on Earth. A little to good if I do say so myself. It almost leads me to believe he may actually have what the Doctor's call a "mangina". BTW: Best funeral ever. That's exactly how I would want it....in a bar.

NBM rates P.S. I Love You - Phenomenal

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Love & Other Drugs

Lets start off with a few details. This movie is very ADULT. Love is for all the love that takes place (sometimes graphically), and the other drugs are not illegal narcotics, but in fact highly touted pharmaceuticals. Jamie (Gyllenhaal) is a failure in every aspect of life, while is younger, unattractive, fat brother just sold his company for $35m. While not feeling well about his short comings he decides to pick a profession and stick with it. At the point the only thing he has ever been awesome at and consistent at is landing women. Enter drugs: He applies to be a pharmaceutical rep, which basically means he has to try and get the Doctoral community to use his company's drugs rather than someone else's. He sucks at this job too, but he is good with people and since most of the people he needs to get through to in order to get some face time with the high and mighty doctors are women, Well he has a few parlor tricks. Being Mentored by the brilliant Oliver Platt, their conversations alone are quite entertaining. After being constantly shown the door by the "Big Gun" in the medical field (Hank Azaria in a bit of a tone downed role for him), he goes to some desperate measures to get his then wonder drug on the shelves. He works for Pfizer and they are pushing Zoloft to replace Prozac. He schemes and finally gets the Doctor to spend some time with him. In his office he meets Maggie (the very non princess diaries version of Anne Hathaway.) She is a 26 year old in stage one of Parkinson's disease. She lives fast with no attachment. She figures without attachment she cannot be abandoned. She meets her match with Jamie. At first it's a relationship based first on lust, then on his desire of not being rejected. He is not used to women rejecting him and he doesn't know how to deal. He pursues and eventually the lust transforms into something neither of them wanted. As for his work, he basically got his teeth kicked in the entire time he had to sell Zoloft, then it happens.... Viagra is invented by Pfizer and he lobbies to be the lead carrier and distributor of the new wonder drug for his company. He goes from zero to hero over night. He is able to sell the one thing he considers himself an expert at. On the other side Maggie is getting worse. I don't know if worse is the right way to describe it, I think that it may be the first time he has seen her this bad and it scares him. His view towards life changes at the annual Rep Convention in Chicago. Another convention was happening across the street and Maggie sneaks away. It's a Parkinson's convention. People with it tell stories about survival and how to cope/thrive. This is where Jamie asks a question he shouldn't have. I understand why he did. It all comes down to being naive. From this point on the story goes from a sexy fun loving romp to a dark spiralling path of self destruction. Now, being the "great" guy he is, he decides to find a cure. His non stop going puts strain on her and him for that matter. This movie is nothing like I expected, but was way deeper and very real. As I said earlier it was made by adults for adults. No children should watch this film, unless you feel like explaining a great many things turning a 2 hour movie into a 4 hour movie. It did a great job of appealing to men and women. On the other hand it was marketed poorly. Even when it was done, My wife and I discussed that the previews suggested nothing of what we just saw. It is a hard movie to categorize. It's romantic comedy, drama, human interest, and regular comedy.

NBM rates Love & Other Drugs - Phenomenal

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The Time Traveler's Wife

Every once in a great while a movie comes along that exceeds expectations. This film did that for me. It did it on a few different levels. I actually saw it in the theater on a date night, and didn't really know what to expect. What I was worried about was the confusion aspect. From the trailers I had seen, and articles I had read, it just seemed like it would be a good book, but not a good movie. Movies tend to have a lack of details necessary to the story to account for time. Back and forth, in and out of dimensions Bana's character Henry has no control of when or where he goes, it just sort of happens. Sometimes he goes into the future, sometimes the past, but the amount of time he is in limbo and away from his life with Clare (Rachel McAdams) is always undetermined and begins to take it's toll on their marriage. However this was written was so good, the audience didn't have to concentrate on thinking about what was happening. It just made sense. I don't know the formula used, but there are several other films that could use a dose. Every time Henry fades away, he ends up in a different time, naked and alone. He has to figure out where he has landed, and then he has to get clothes and survive. Not necessarily in that order. The film goes into a whole different direction when they decide to have a baby. It is a fundamental part of the film, but I'm not going to spoil any of that for you who haven't seen it yet. I say, yet, because I am well aware of my audience's loyalty to the truth I speak, and I do appreciate it. It has been constantly playing on HBO this month and I tend to watch bits and pieces of it every time I come across it. Great story, great direction, and great acting make this a must.

NBM rates The Time Traveler's Wife - Phenomenal

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The Notebook

Here's another one for my lady friends out there in blog land. The Notebook may be one of the greatest love stories ever to be adapted, even more so than Han and Leia. Not a better movie than Star Wars, but a better love connection. Classic story of poor boy meets rich girl, and won't leave her alone, no matter how pretentious she acts, until she agrees to go on one date with him. Unfortunately for Noah (Ryan Gosling) it can only last through the summer, so in Ally's mind it was nothing but a short term fling, but for Noah it would never end. (Not in a creepy stalker way, either). He did what he set out to do, and made her fall madly in love with him, much to the dismay of her parents. This story has been done a hundred times over, but there's something in the way that this one is delivered that really grabbed me. Yes I know, its a chick flick, but there is no shame in believing in the power of love, and enjoying it along the way (plus it had a pretty steamy scene, enjoyed by all). The title characters have to fight through much adversity. Many things come between them. Noah goes off to war, Ally becomes a nurse, they fall away from one another, and she becomes engaged to a war "Hero" with lots of "Old " money, as they say. her parents are thrilled, but there is a little part of her that wonders, what if it had ended up differently. Noah, on the other hand, never gave up on her. I mean, he wasn't celibate, by no means, but no girl he was ever with was Ally, and that was and would always be his mentality. He also grew one killer beard that I am envious of still today. It also feels real to me, how they hate each other, fight like dogs, and then kiss and make up. That's how life and love work, there's no perfection. It's my wife's number one movie, and when she watches it, I don't mind to sit down and watch it along side her. To this day it is still very entertaining. Anyone who has ever been in love, or lost their loved one will enjoy this nostalgic film. It takes place mostly post WWII, which is a great time period to set a movie in. There is something so unique about that time period, that I enjoy watching. With a great supporting cast featuring James Garner (Jim Rockford), James Marsden (Cyclops), and Kevin Connolly (Entourage's "E") this film rounds out nicely. Does it end the way it should? Watch it and make your own decision. If you are a dude, and think you shouldn't watch this movie, I say, Man up. It should be seen at least once by everyone. Just my opinion.
NBM rates The Notebook- Phenomenal

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