tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18439960.post8600050130613012107..comments2024-03-23T21:46:50.843-04:00Comments on the passionate moviegoer: Renée's One and Onlyjoe baltakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11467420961490314339noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18439960.post-36075701283108548522009-09-16T15:59:38.585-04:002009-09-16T15:59:38.585-04:00Joe: I'm with you on DOWN WITH LOVE. In some ...Joe: I'm with you on DOWN WITH LOVE. In some ways I'm a perfect audience for it - I grew up with the Doris Day flicks, enjoy genre tweaking and love a good romantic comedy. But I found it hard watching a story in which every moment was in quotation marks, so to speak. I think in a lot of ways the talented people involved hit what they were aiming for. I only question why they bothered to aim. It comes off as a spoof of a style that was borderline spoofery to begin with.<br /><br />Ultimately, I think there's more entertainment value in simply rewatching the old Day/Hudson movies. They're dated in a fun way, and you bring your own sense of irony to it. The double entendres were risqué for their time, but are so mild now that they're funny on a different level.<br /><br />What was the pitch for Down with Love? "Hey, let's make a Day/Hudson movie, only with dirtier jokes." If I were the studio exec, my response would have been, "Okay, but why?"<br /><br />That said, Zellweger was super as usual, and the end credit sequence showed that the film might actually have worked as a full-on musical.jbryantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18439960.post-51009615662498736252009-09-16T14:02:23.180-04:002009-09-16T14:02:23.180-04:00Monica-
I didn't really forget it. I just do...Monica-<br /><br />I didn't really forget it. I just don't like it - or like it as much as I would like to like it. Peyton Reed is a good filmmaker and Renée and Ewan made a terrific film couple, but I just found "Down to Love" to be too condescending towards the material to which it was allegedly paying tribute. It seems to be laughing at the Day-Hudson comedies.joe baltakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11467420961490314339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18439960.post-17878213445524760752009-09-16T13:33:54.185-04:002009-09-16T13:33:54.185-04:00Joe-
Don't forget about Renée's turn as D...Joe-<br /><br />Don't forget about Renée's turn as Doris Day in "Down with Love," a more obvious choice than "New in Town"!Monicanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18439960.post-70379802232246608012009-09-16T11:22:36.269-04:002009-09-16T11:22:36.269-04:00wwolfe- I find that, in general, modern movie aud...wwolfe- I find that, in general, modern movie audiences prefer contemporary-set movies. Anything before 1990 seems to confuse them. Honest. I'm not kidding. And costume pix seem to succeed commercially only when they contain something anachronistic - such as Johnny Depp's "Pirate" flicks.<br /><br />BTW, I like just about everything about "Leatherheads." A tangy little comedy.joe baltakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11467420961490314339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18439960.post-44378397903671638572009-09-16T11:18:52.691-04:002009-09-16T11:18:52.691-04:00Yours is the first positive comment I've read ...Yours is the first positive comment I've read about "Leatherheads." As someone who finds himself guiltily enjoying this movie, including Zellwegger's performance, when it pops up on HBO, it's nice to find someone who enjoys at least some aspect of it. My hunch is that Clooney did too good a job capturing the spirit of an era that seems completely, almost bizarrely out of sync with today's world. For anyone with little knowledge of that era, the movie must have seemed puzzling at best and nutty at worst. Really - how do you fit Harold Lloyd into a Kurt Cobain world?wwolfenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18439960.post-57333227447318104062009-09-15T22:44:20.001-04:002009-09-15T22:44:20.001-04:00And let's not forget "Nurse Betty" o...And let's not forget "Nurse Betty" or "Deceiver"!joe baltakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11467420961490314339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18439960.post-74856787184261305192009-09-15T22:08:33.511-04:002009-09-15T22:08:33.511-04:00I adore the sheer affectlessness of Zellweger'...I adore the sheer affectlessness of Zellweger's acting. I think she performs memorably in everything. You don't mention her early work but let's put in a plug for "Empire Records," "The Whole Wide World," "A Price Above Rubies" and "Love and a .45."Blakenoreply@blogger.com