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Movie Review: Playing it Cool
Mar. 10th, 2015 01:36 pmOkay, this movie stars Chris Evans, and I was anxious to see it, because I thought it looked funny and enjoyable. This movie was most similar to "What's Your Number" in terms of being a romantic comedy with Chris in a leading role.
I've been waiting and waiting for this movie to come out, to no avail. Finally I found a partial version of it on youtube and decided to just watch it. I greatly look forward to watching a not-pirated copy, cause it was a very low quality copy and the beginning and end were chopped off. ): Still, it was better than the big fat nothing the so-called distributors have served us up so far.
Caveat, I went into this wanting to see Chris Evans in a comedy, and lo, I was not disappointed. I've seen a review online that had nothing but hatred for this film but I don't agree at all. It had flaws, don't get me wrong... it was't like I was super compelled by the two main characters -- they are not Steve and Bucky after all! :P
The most imaginative and different part of the movie was that Chris plays a screenwriter, so he is always imagining himself playing in different roles when people tell him stories. Therefore, you get to see Chris Evans dressed up in all kinds of different costumes, which is always fun.
Was this a dudebro role? Not precisely. He was a pure dudebro in Scarlett's film, The Nanny Diaries. There was very little to that character at all. He was something of a dudebro in What's your Number, but had some psychological development; starting out as someone Chris himself described as essentially selfish, and became a person you could care about in that movie. (I haven't seen the Perfect Score yet, but I'd guess he is a dudebro there.) In Cellular, quite young, he was a dudebro forced into the role of an action hero, which I enjoyed very much. In London, he was a dudebro driven mad by his solipsistic need to be told that he matters (a strangely compelling movie!) So in this movie, he holds up the weight of the movie on dudebro shoulders. He is told by Mackie to write a romcom (as far as I can see, Mackie has just two short scenes in this film, so not much). He denies the existence of love, so he's not sure he can write a romcom. Then he meets a woman at a party who is irreverent and sassy and looks him in the eye, and he is sure she is the perfect woman for him, and obsesses about her for the rest of the movie.
The film's biggest flaw is that you are never sure about the woman. What makes her so perfect? Why should she be the one to overcome all the obstacles in his personality to falling in love? she just does, says this movie, besides, she is so pretty. It is one of those annoying cases where pretty carries most of the weight of the argument.
Chris's character has some fun friends, amongst them best friend Scott, played by Topher Grace (who believes in Love), Luke Wilson (who is married but doesn't think much of romance), Aubrey Plaza, who is very funny and likeable as a bad performance artist and is his one female friend, plus his old Grandad, who is pretty cool. Patrick Warburton also has a fantastic small part. (He will always and forever play The Tick in my head!, tho, you know, he is also Brock Sampson, so, wow!!)
There was a certain danger that this movie might devolve into London, in that, Chris stalks the girl and will not take no for an answer. Chris's Heart is a chainsmoker who appears when he is feeling crushed, but there are no pounds of cocaine in this film, which is good. To be honest tho, are the feelings in this movie any more real than in London? Not really. It is a romcom, and despite the fact that it is all about being skeptical about the rules of romcom, it does not succeed in breaking those rules -- more, it finds itself conforming to them. The people who hate romcoms shouldn't watch this movie. I don't care one way or the other about romcoms (Action Adventure SF and Heist flicks are my idea of a good time) but I like to watch Chris Evans, so, I liked it.
I really wanted Chris to end up with Aubrey Plaza in the end. There's something about the intrusion of his dreamgirl into his life that doesn't make a lot of sense. Andy Dwyer's romance with the weird, fun April Ludgate is one of the best things about Parks and Rec, which saw that Andy could move beyond sweet pretty nurse Ann to the goth chick who hates everything, and it could be MAGIC. Cap could take a lesson from Starlord I guess.
The final moral is in the trailer, so I guess it's not a spoiler:
"Love is confusing and it's terrifying and ninety-nine times out of a hundred it doesn't work, but if we have even the slightest chance of being that one time, I'm willing to regret you for the rest of my life."
If therefore, you remain unconvinced that they are right for each other, you are meant to at least root for them to take the risk.
Anyway, if you watch it, let me know how you liked it! And, if it ever gets a DVD release, please let me know!!!
I've been waiting and waiting for this movie to come out, to no avail. Finally I found a partial version of it on youtube and decided to just watch it. I greatly look forward to watching a not-pirated copy, cause it was a very low quality copy and the beginning and end were chopped off. ): Still, it was better than the big fat nothing the so-called distributors have served us up so far.
Caveat, I went into this wanting to see Chris Evans in a comedy, and lo, I was not disappointed. I've seen a review online that had nothing but hatred for this film but I don't agree at all. It had flaws, don't get me wrong... it was't like I was super compelled by the two main characters -- they are not Steve and Bucky after all! :P
The most imaginative and different part of the movie was that Chris plays a screenwriter, so he is always imagining himself playing in different roles when people tell him stories. Therefore, you get to see Chris Evans dressed up in all kinds of different costumes, which is always fun.
Was this a dudebro role? Not precisely. He was a pure dudebro in Scarlett's film, The Nanny Diaries. There was very little to that character at all. He was something of a dudebro in What's your Number, but had some psychological development; starting out as someone Chris himself described as essentially selfish, and became a person you could care about in that movie. (I haven't seen the Perfect Score yet, but I'd guess he is a dudebro there.) In Cellular, quite young, he was a dudebro forced into the role of an action hero, which I enjoyed very much. In London, he was a dudebro driven mad by his solipsistic need to be told that he matters (a strangely compelling movie!) So in this movie, he holds up the weight of the movie on dudebro shoulders. He is told by Mackie to write a romcom (as far as I can see, Mackie has just two short scenes in this film, so not much). He denies the existence of love, so he's not sure he can write a romcom. Then he meets a woman at a party who is irreverent and sassy and looks him in the eye, and he is sure she is the perfect woman for him, and obsesses about her for the rest of the movie.
The film's biggest flaw is that you are never sure about the woman. What makes her so perfect? Why should she be the one to overcome all the obstacles in his personality to falling in love? she just does, says this movie, besides, she is so pretty. It is one of those annoying cases where pretty carries most of the weight of the argument.
Chris's character has some fun friends, amongst them best friend Scott, played by Topher Grace (who believes in Love), Luke Wilson (who is married but doesn't think much of romance), Aubrey Plaza, who is very funny and likeable as a bad performance artist and is his one female friend, plus his old Grandad, who is pretty cool. Patrick Warburton also has a fantastic small part. (He will always and forever play The Tick in my head!, tho, you know, he is also Brock Sampson, so, wow!!)
There was a certain danger that this movie might devolve into London, in that, Chris stalks the girl and will not take no for an answer. Chris's Heart is a chainsmoker who appears when he is feeling crushed, but there are no pounds of cocaine in this film, which is good. To be honest tho, are the feelings in this movie any more real than in London? Not really. It is a romcom, and despite the fact that it is all about being skeptical about the rules of romcom, it does not succeed in breaking those rules -- more, it finds itself conforming to them. The people who hate romcoms shouldn't watch this movie. I don't care one way or the other about romcoms (Action Adventure SF and Heist flicks are my idea of a good time) but I like to watch Chris Evans, so, I liked it.
I really wanted Chris to end up with Aubrey Plaza in the end. There's something about the intrusion of his dreamgirl into his life that doesn't make a lot of sense. Andy Dwyer's romance with the weird, fun April Ludgate is one of the best things about Parks and Rec, which saw that Andy could move beyond sweet pretty nurse Ann to the goth chick who hates everything, and it could be MAGIC. Cap could take a lesson from Starlord I guess.
The final moral is in the trailer, so I guess it's not a spoiler:
"Love is confusing and it's terrifying and ninety-nine times out of a hundred it doesn't work, but if we have even the slightest chance of being that one time, I'm willing to regret you for the rest of my life."
If therefore, you remain unconvinced that they are right for each other, you are meant to at least root for them to take the risk.
Anyway, if you watch it, let me know how you liked it! And, if it ever gets a DVD release, please let me know!!!
