The Couch Potato Report – May 10th, 2008
This week The Couch Potato Report peels two films that just were not made for me, and two others that were.
I have said this before, and I am sure that I will say it again from time to time – not every film made can be enjoyed by everyone.
Specifically, not every film that is made is one that I will, or can like.
Now, there is a difference between movies that are bad, and movies that have some merit, but I – and maybe you – just aren’t the audience for.
Hopefully, we all find films that we love, be they comedy, action, adventure, romance, horror, or animated, be we woman, man, boy or girl.
This week, I have two movies that I am sure somebody will love, but that body is not me.
Not at all!!
I’ll start with this week’s Hot Potato, the Canadian made film HOW SHE MOVE – about a high school student who is forced to leave her private school to return to her old, crime-filled neighborhood where she re-kindles an unlikely passion for the competitive world of step dancing.
Nope, not for me at all!!
HOW SHE MOVE is well made, I didn’t necessarily have a problem with the writing or the choreography, and the young cast were all competent enough actors…but whether it is HOW SHE MOVE, STEP UP, YOU GOT SERVED, or any of the many other films in recent years that take a young man or woman who is heading toward the wrong side of the tracks, and gives them a second chance in life simply because they learn how to dance…these films do nothing for me.
They don’t invlove me, they don’t move me, and they don’t entertain me…but they might for you…so if they do, then HOW SHE MOVE might satisfy your needs, otherwise, step away from it…you’ve been served!!
Alright, I lumped HOW SHE MOVE together with the rest of that type of dance films to illustrate that they are not for me, but when it comes to teh genre that this week’s next film resides, I admit it, I do love romance films – be they romantic comedies or romance dramas.
But even within that genre, there will be some occasions when I do not love a movie or two, and that is the case with what I think is a failed romance drama – the name of this one is P.S. I LOVE YOU.
In this movie, Hilary Swank from MILLION DOLLAR BABY and BOYS DON”T CRY is a woman who is madly in love with her husband, and then he dies from a brain tumour.
However, in the midst of her grief, on her 30th birthday, she gets a taped recording from him.
After that message ends, and the letters start to come in, she starts to live and laugh, and maybe even love again, even though she has a broken heart.
Now, the issue that I had with this film was that I wasn’t able to get past that fact that while the husband was dying that he would use all of his remaining time to arrange and organize and plan not just the delivery of the letters, but the HUGE events that surrounds each one.
Now I am a huge fan of Hilary Swank and think she is one of this planet’s most beautiful women, and there are moments in PS I LOVE YOU that are very, very touching, and at times it did engage me.
But as a whole, this two-hour and six minute film did nothing for me. The romance and heartbreak seemed real enough, and the actors including Gerard Butler, Kathy Bates, Harry Connick Jr., Gina Gershon and Lisa Kudrow were – for the most part – all very good, but as much as I wanted to like the movie and these characters, I just didn’t care for it…or them.
And that is why I say that it just wasn’t a movie for me.
Is it a movie for you? Perhaps it is, but not every film made can be enjoyed by everyone, so if this seems like a film that you would like, then good luck!
So I don’t recommend either PS I LOVE YOU or HOW SHE MOVE, but I am a huge fan of this week’s next two releases, both films from the ninties, both now available on DVD in new Deluxe Editions.
And I will start with YOU’VE GOT MAIL…, now this is a romance film that I love!
Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan star as two rivals in business who hate each other when it comes to the work that they do, but fall in love anonymously over the internet.
Younger folks may watch this film and wonder why they are emailing each other and not just having an online chat using instant messaging or iChat, but since those options weren’t available to the majority of us when this film came out ten years ago, they are using what they had.
And yes, it has been ten years since YOU’VE GOT MAIL came out.
This new DELUXE EDITION of the film features several great retrospective looks back at the movie, but most of all it contains the film and the chemistry that Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan share on screen.
Yup, ten years later, I still love this one!!
And twelve years later, I still really love TWISTER!!
This still great film is about people who chase tornados, and it features some great special effects of storms and the things that get obliterated by them.
The new TWO DISC SPECIAL EDITION of TWISTER features a wealth of features about the science of real tornados, and several that look back at the movie, and some of it’s most memorable moments, including the “cow scene” where a cow goes flying past the stars, as it is caught in a funnel cloud.
That is good stuff!!
The TWO DISC SPECIAL EDITION of the still great action film TWISTER, the DELUXE EDITION of the filled with chemistry YOU’VE GOT MAIL, the failed romance drama PS I LOVE YOU that was made for people other than me, and the Canadian made film HOW SHE MOVE – that was also NOT made for me are all available now on DVD.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
The great Canadian film DANCE ME OUTSIDE debuts on DVD; and so does SEASON THREE of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE!
Also next week, Matthew Perry plays a chronically depressed screenwriter in NUMB.
Six characters embody a different aspect of Bob Dylan’s life and work in I’M NOT THERE.
And THE GREAT DEBATERS is the second film from DIRECTOR Denzel Washington.
I’m Dan Reynish. I’ll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
For now, that’s this week’s COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I’ll see you back here next time on The Couch!
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