Flashback Friday: Someone Like You (2001)

It is easy to assume that the person you are with will be in your life forever. What happens when they leave?

In the 2001 romantic comedy Someone Like You, Jane Goodale (Ashley Judd) is living the life. She is the producer of a popular daytime tv talk show and is happily settled with Ray Brown (Greg Kinnear). Ray is the executive producer of the program. Then he dumps her.

In order to figure out what went wrong, Jane decides to do some research. In doing so, she becomes an icon and a voice for single women across the nation. Using her roommate Eddie Alden (Hugh Jackman) as a guinea pig, the results are not what she expects.

Jackman is hot in this film. I mean, smoking, mouth drooling hot.

Now that that is over with, back to business.

Overall, the film is entertaining. The narrative hovers enough outside of the boundaries of the genre that it has a decent level of uniqueness. The problem I have is Judd’s character. She is clearly an accomplished and capable woman. But that is meaningless unless she is coupled up with someone.

Do I recommend it? Maybe.

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Throwback Thursday: Van Helsing (2004)

In our fiction-crazy world, there are narratives that may seem like they are miles apart. The truth is that with a little tweaking, they can coexist beautifully together.

The 2004 horror/action-adventure film, Van Helsing, uses Dracula and Frankenstein as a narrative base while adding new flavors and colors that do not exist in the original texts. The title character, Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) is not the old man who some of us may remember from Dracula.

He is a monster hunter whose newest job is to stop Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) from using Dr. Frankenstein‘s (Samuel West) research and a werewolf for dangerous purposes. Joining him is Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), who has her own reasons to prevent the Count from seeing his plan to completion.

This is one of those summer popcorn movies that does not require a lot of brain cells. But that’s ok. It is fun, entertaining, and takes characters that we think we know in new directions.

Do I recommend it? Yes.

Flashback Friday-Scoop (2006)

In the world of journalism, an unsolved murder is like catnip.

In the 2006 movie, Scoop, American journalism student Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson) has a hot tip regarding the murder of fellow journalist Joe Strombel (Ian McShane). She follows the tip to doorway of British aristocrat Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman). But things get weird when Sondra begins to fall for the man who maybe Joe’s killer and begins to question if Joe might have been wrong.

Every filmmaker has at least one film where the tried and true becomes dull and predictable. Unfortunately, this is that film for Woody Allen. While his cast is stellar, they cannot make up for the fact that screenplay needed work.

Do I recommend it? Not really.

Flashback Friday-X-Men 2 (2003)

In the world of movie sequels, there are many that are released to the movie going public. But there are few movie sequels that not only stand on their own, but also advance the story forward.

One of these  movies is X-Men 2, released in 2003.

Taking off from where X-Men ended, X-Men 2 begins several months later. A previously unknown mutant, Nightcrawler, (Alan Cumming) has attempted to assassinate the President. In retaliation, the governments puts into a place a series of anti-mutant measures.  Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is trying to find out where he came from while Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) is trying to break her boss, Magneto (Ian McKellen) from prison.

Complicating things is William Stryker (Brian Cox), a scientist who breaks into Professor X’s school and take hostages, Professor Xavier included. Now both teams of mutants must come together to rescue the hostages.

Up until earlier this year when I saw X-Men: Days Of Future Past, I would have said that X-Men 2 is the best comic book movie ever made. But second place is still not bad.

What I liked about this movie is the mixture of the action and the drama. While this movie has the requisite heroes vs. villain scenes, it is much more complicated. This movie blurs the lines (especially within the mutant characters) of who is a hero and and who is a villain. The scene in the movie when Bobby comes out to his family (spoiler alert), who then rejects him, breaks my heart. The final scene of the movie (which I will not spoil for those who have not seen this movie) was on the greatest movie cliffhangers I had seen up to that point.

I recommend this movie.

Throwback Thursday Part III- Kate and Leopold (2001)

Hugh Jackman is one of the best actors of his generation. Not one to settle in one genre or one type of characters, Jackman has played badass Wolverine in the X-Men movie series, Peter Allen on Broadway in The Boy From Oz and in 2001, Jackman played the male lead in Kate and Leopold.

Leopold is a 19th century English Duke who, at the moment, is living in New York in the 1870’s. He has been informed that he must marry and marry well. His choices, despite his desire to marry only for love, are among the daughters of the highest level of New York Society. Kate McKay (Meg Ryan) is a single ad exec whose career is on the rise, but whose love life has been stymied by her less than sane ex boyfriend Stuart (Liev Schrieber).

They are brought together by Stuart, who discovered a spot just under the Brooklyn Bridge, where one may jump and land in another time.

Jackman and Ryan, known as the 90’s rom-com queen, have good chemistry.  Is the  story predictable? Yes, but most rom-coms are. The romance is leveled off in a good way by the comic relief brought on by Schreiber and Breckin Myer, who plays Charlie, Kate’s brother whose professional goal is to be an actor, but the career is not taking off as planned.

Do I recommend it? Sure, why not? Kate and Leopold is a cute movie. Sometimes we need a rom-com in our lives, and Kate and Leopold fits the bill.

X-Men Days Of Future Past: Best Comic Book Movie Ever

*-This review contains spoilers. Read at your own risk if you have not seen the movie.

The reviews X-Men Days Of Future Past have been nothing but glowing.

I can happily report that this movie is amazing.

In the future, a war has killed millions, both mutant and humans. To prevent this future from happening, Professor Xavier (Sir Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) to the early 1970’s. Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) is creating Sentinels that are targeting mutants. Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) is going to kill Dr. Trask, starting the war. If Wolverine can prevent Dr. Trask’s assassination, the war will not happen.

This movie is everything everyone has said and more.   All of the characters from the X-Men universe are included, even those that had been killed off in previous films.  It’s funny, it’s gut wrenching, it is truly the best comic book movie ever.

Hugh Jackson does the full monty (backside only) for a few moments.  I’m not ashamed to say that it was a very enjoyable few moments.

Stay after the credits, there is a very interesting scene.

This movie is a must see.