Romantic Comedy

Look Who’s Talking (1989)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Look Who’s Talking (1989)

Director:

Amy Heckerling

Writer:

Amy Heckerling

Starring:

John Travolta

Kristie Alley

Bruce Willis

Blurb:

After a single, career-minded woman is left on her own to give birth to the child of a married man, she finds a new romantic chance in a cab driver. Meanwhile, the point-of-view of the newborn boy is narrated through voice-over.

Thoughts:

Here’s the thing, I’m not a fan of Look Who’s Talking. I don’t hate it. I just don’t care one way or another. It exists. I own it, though, because when I found out I was pregnant with my first child, I consumed a lot of media about babies and pregnancy. So I bought the digital version of the movie. Now, I can’t get rid of it. I could pretend like it doesn’t exist in my library, but once again, my Lawful Good personality won’t allow me to do it.

A young, naive Kristie Alley gets knocked up by a client who is clearly, to anyone else, using her for sex. She catches him “cheating,” goes into labor, and John Travolta is her taxi driver to the hospital. Their romance blossoms from there.

Alley’s character is one of those women who are high maintenance. Her temper is volatile, and she’s always right despite proof to the contrary. Travolta’s character is one of those men who like all of those things despite being the opposite. On top of all of that, Alley is somehow a helicopter parent and a neglectful parent. She reads all the books, does all the recommended things, and also leaves her toddler with strangers and an old man with dementia. She’s always swinging between two extremes.

The movie is fine. It’s a romantic comedy with a mildly disturbing opening credits scene.

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Set It Up (2018)

Set It Up (2018)

Director:

Claire Scanlon

Starring:

Zoey Deutch

Glen Powell

Lucy Liu

Taye Diggs

Plot:

Two corporate executive assistants hatch a plan to match-make their two bosses.

Review:

I like romantic comedy’s but lately I haven’t seen a trailer for one that’s remotely interesting to me. I thought Set It Up had promise, but ultimately Charlie, Glen Powell, was not an appealing male lead. Honestly, the movie was more of a redemption story for his character than a romcom. I guess you could say love changed him, which is bullshit, but whatever.

Harper, Zoey Deutch, was fine. Really optimistic and naïve, but alright, I guess. The supporting cast was better, though, Taye Diggs character was horrible. Apart from a couple side characters, there were not really any good men in this. Sure Charlie “redeemed” himself by not letting Lucy Liu marry a cheating asshole, but then he looked around to see if Harper saw him do it. So was he doing it because he’d changed or because he wanted the girl?

2/5

 

The Big Sick (2017)

The Big Sick (2017)

Director:

Michael Showalter

Starring:

Kumail Nanjiani

Zoe Kazan

Holly Hunter

Ray Romano

Plot:

Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his family’s expectations, and his true feelings.

Review:

He handled the call to the parents pretty well.

All of the funny bits from the trailer were shown pretty early.

Holy cow this movie is two hours long?

Alright, so I could tell that they had connected before her coma, but I didn’t get that they had fallen in love. I could even understand him spending all that time at the hospital even though they weren’t in love, but I don’t know it just seemed kind of weird that he realized that he had such strong feelings for her while she was out.

I liked her reaction to him changing things on her. I also liked that he didn’t try and force the issue. Basically, he did what you should do when you’re rejected.

The movie was cute, but it didn’t live up to my expectations. It dragged a bit in the middle, but I liked the beginning and the end.

3/5

Naked (2017)

I do not suggest googling Naked Netflix Movie for an image search

Naked (2017)

Director:

Michael Tiddes

Starring:

Marlon Wayans

Regina Hall

Dennis Haysbert

Plot:

Nervous about finally getting married, a guy is forced to relive the same nerve-wracking hours over and over again until he gets things right on his wedding day.

Review:

I love repeat day story lines and I really liked the idea of this one, but I felt like the writing and execution was lacking. I still have no idea if Wayans was living just one hour over and over or if it was more. In the movie he says one hour, but there is no way he could have done everything he was supposed to in one hour. The church bells also had something to do with it, maybe he was the only one that heard them? But that isn’t right either because he asked the minister about stopping them. It would have taken nothing to properly explain but it wasn’t.

The movie was supposed to be a romantic comedy, at least I think it was, but there wasn’t enough of either. I was supposed to think that Wayans grew up and became worthy of his girl, but the thing is he was already clearly in love with her and she already loved him so why did he have to “grow up” for their friends and family?

This was a romantic comedy for men and lacked many of the things I expect in that genre. The romance was glossed over and I honestly didn’t laugh once. It was overall a disappointment.

2/5