149. Larry Crowne

What can I say? I love Tom Hanks! Julia Roberts isn't bad either. Still not as good as Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks but oh well.

So Larry Crowne is about a regular Joe named Larry who works at U-Mart. He is an excellent employee who works hard and has repeatedly won the employee of the month. Like many Americans, Larry goes into work one day to find out that he has been downsized. The reason the company gave is that Larry doesn't have a college education.

Without a job, Larry is forced to change his lifestyle and ultimately his life. He enrolls in classes at the local community college where he meets a burntout college professor (Julia Roberts) who teachs communications/speech classes and a group of zany friends.

The movie was pretty entertaining. You never knew what Larry's friends were going to talk him into doing next. Plus, Larry's neighbor is played by Cedric the Entertainer so you know that's going to make you laugh.

Final Verdict: Worth the money to see it at the theatre. Probably worth owning.

25. Life as we Know it

              Romantic Comedies come and romantic comedies go.  There are your good ones, You’ve Got Mail comes to mind. You have your bad ones, While you were sleeping comes to mind. So where does the Life as we Know it fall? LAWKI the chick flick starring Katherine Heigel and Josh Duhamel is new to DVD and therefore new to me.

                As far as plots go this RomCom is more unique than your typical RomCom Fare. The story follows two young SINGLE people who are living their lives.   The movie starts with this odd couple, Duhamel as Messer and Heigel as Holly, being hooked up on a blind by their two best friends. The two do not hit it off at all! IT is a disaster. In fact, they barely make it out the door before they decide to call off the date. The two continue to be in each others lives because of their friends. But they never hit it off and continue to NOT LIKE each other.

Duhamel, Heigl and Sophie

Through a series of sad and unfortunate events these two (who were named as God parents) end up as the legal guardians and caretakers of their friends’ orphaned baby, Sophie.  This is where the story takes off into typical RomCom-dom. They follow the same formula that most do and you know that there’s no way, not even a shadow of doubt that these two will fall in love while raising this lovely girl.  So to answer the question posed earlier. Where will LAWKI fall in the world of Romantic Comedies? For me it’s somewhere in the middle. It starts strong, but finds itself failing to finish strong. It ends up being stuck in the middle. But I will say it’s the first movie that I’ve liked Duhamel in.

Final Verdict: not worth owning but won’t be surprised if we end up owning it

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Other tidbit: Christiana’s favorite part is when Sophie poops in Messer’s favorite Boston Redsocks hat.

4. Made of Honor

Again. The magical movie box strikes again. Instead of enjoying one of the many 360 movies that I own and chose to buy, I am blessed to watch romantic and life changing Made of Honor.  So with that said, I needed to try and go into this with a positive attitude.  Instead of complaining that 3 out of 4 of my first movies have been chic flicks. Ugh.

Made of Honor.   I do like chic flicks. I really do. You’ve Got Mail, One Fine Day, Fools Rush In--all great movies. Made of Honor is good. Not horrible. I don’t particularly like either of the leads. Patrick Dempsey IS charming, after all he is the man just for Can’t Buy Me Love.  It’s a cute movie. It’s got its moments.  Kevin McKidd, who plays Colin, is delightful as the “other guy” stealing Hannah away. Like I said it’s not one of “my movies”.  I did find my self yelling at the TV when the dude wouldn’t let her eat the cake. I was like “DUDE! Shut up and let her have some cake!”

BUT! And I do mean BUT! The best part of this entire movie is Tiny Shorts Guy! The actors name is Kevin Sussman. Every scene he was in had me cracking me up. He stole most of those scenes. He is also on Big Bang Theory, where he plays comic book store owner Steward, and I love him there too. Watching the movie is worth it just for him alone. And he gives us the best line the movie “That boy’s got mad cow disease!” So funny . So I guess the final verdict is that Made of Honor is an average movie. There is nothing really special or unique about it. It follows the main formula for Romantic Comedies, but it’s not horrible. Is it worth owning? Not up to me, I didn’t buy it.  But I really really really hope the MMB gives me a break from chic flicks for awhile! 

Other tidbits:

-Loved seeing Kadem Hardison in a movie. Will always love Dwayne Wayne from a Different World!

-It’s always funny when Elizabeth Hasselbeck makes a cameo in a movie!