jk-332 Reviews

Latin Lovers (1953)

Pretty Actors, Unpleasant Characters

[2/10 · 2 September 2020]

I can't believe I watched the whole thing. As attractive as Ricardo Montalban was at that age (very), as pretty as Lana Turner was (very), as fun as Louis Calhern and Jean Hagen were (very), it's still hard to watch when Lana Turner's character comes off as a spoiled baby, Ricardo plays an arrogant jerk who keeps pushing her around, and John Lund's character is just as arrogant and pushy, as well as smug. None of the three is anyone you want to watch or root for in a romantic relationship, and none of the three has motivations that make a lick of sense.

From Time to Time (2009)

A lovely time travel film

[9/10 · 21 April 2012]

I hadn't heard a thing about this movie when it came out, but seeing Maggie Smith and Dominic West and Hugh Bonneville in the cast, I had to give it a try. I loved time travel books a lot when I was young and I wish I'd known about the book series this comes from, because it would've been perfect for me. I loved the look and the tone of the movie, with just enough adventure and mysteries to solve to keep me riveted. Yes, the tone is a bit somber at times, and I wasn't crazy about Alex Etel's performance as Tolly (he's fairly wooden), but it really moves well and there are enough other characters to focus on, so overall, I quite enjoyed it. Maggie Smith isn't as fun as she is on Downton Abbey, but few things are that amusing, after all. Dominic West, Pauline Collins, Hugh Bonneville, Timothy Spall and Harriet Walter are wonderful in smaller roles, while Eliza Bennett and Kwayedza Kureya, both new to me, are charming as the children in the Regency era. I also have to say that I loved the fashion in the past, with both Carice van Houten and Douglas Booth looking especially dishy in those clothes. I would say this is definitely a children's movie, but also good for adults who are children at heart (like me).

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)

A Really Annoying Movie

[3/10 · 1 November 2009]

The premise of the movie was okay (and I did enjoy fast-forwarding to see how they worked the Dickens parallels in) but the main character (Connor Mead, played by Matthew McConaughey) might as well have been on the Lucy Show for how many terrible, awful, irredeemable things he did. It made the entire movie SO annoying.

I also didn't enjoy how vapid most of the female characters were, or the idea that anybody and everybody would fall into bed with such a sleazebucket. He just wasn't attractive, to be honest. Daniel Sunjata's character was 100 times more interesting.

Jennifer Garner, Breckin Meyers and Michael Douglas were all fine, but not enough to salvage an otherwise really unpleasant movie.

Down with Love (2003)

Really fizzles down the stretch

[4/10 · 1 October 2009]

I actually liked the gimmick (sending up the old Rock Hudson/Doris Day movies) and the way they set it up in the beginning. Loved the costumes and the set design, and, as others have noted, how they tried to match the style of the originals. But the storyline really fell apart pretty quickly, and especially as we wound toward the end and there were suddenly layers upon layers of new story added. Like, WHAT? I found the whole payoff to the story beyond redemption.

I guess, overall, I would say the movie came off charmless and forced, and there was no chemistry between Zellweger and McGregor. Plus he didn't look at all like the hunks of that time period. (Too small, for one thing -- think Rock Hudson and James Garner. Or even Dean Martin. They're all tall and more muscular.) I also thought that RZ and EMc seemed to be playing in two different movies, neither of which would've been anywhere near the 60s.

I agree that David Hyde Pierce brightens the movie every time he shows up. It's just that there's not enough DHP to save the whole movie.