And, boy, did it. I saw it for free and I feel screwed. Ben Affleck plays this uptight guy (creatively named "Ben") who's about to get married to Maura Tierney, only through a series of mishaps that will be familiar to anyone who's seen Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, he has a little trouble getting from New York to Savannah to make the wedding due to "forces of nature" in the form of a hurricane and Sandra Bullock, who we know straight off is a wild girl because she wears enough eyeliner to give Zorro a run for his money, and wild rock music plays when she appears. And you just know that, in Hollywood Formula #12, sassy Sandra with her kooky joie de vivre will transform cringing, play-by-the-rules Ben into a free spirit, while he'll give her much-needed solidity. Actually, I'm assuming that's what happens, because I walked out after the first hour. One of the few ways I talked myself into seeing this is that Steve Zahn has a supporting role -- he showed up in the first ten minutes -- and not only was he not funny, he looked like Peter Frampton -- and then not again for the next hour, and I got tired of waiting for him to reappear.
Mainly, I just couldn't stomach the lowest-common-denominator humor any more. This is a movie meant to entertain even those without a shred of wit, but it just doesn't cut it for those of us who like our jokes to be, oh, say, FUNNY. I didn't smile, much less laugh, once during that hour -- even Zahn, who usually starts me grinning as soon as I see him, couldn't do it this time. (Wait, I take that back -- I laughed once, when this guy started singing "Against All Odds" in a falsetto. But there's no way that can NOT be funny.) Rarely does one find a "romantic" "comedy" so completely charisma-free. And such crassly shameless product placement! Ben and Sandra bond during an all-night gambol in a K-Mart; even during a plane crash, Ben manages to flail his laptop so that the Apple symbol is never obscured. All right, so now I'm just looking for things to complain about, but you get the picture.
But don't get this picture. To quote Bart Simpson (I think): "I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks AND blows."
Back to homepage
Reviews A to F
Reviews G to L
Reviews M to R
Reviews S to Z
Search