I have been shamefully absent from my blog-writing duties this past week or so and as a result have ended up with a plethora of films to write about and a lot to say; so I’ll try and break it down into digestable chunks.
The first two are ‘Jersey Girl’ and ‘The Ugly Truth’. What can I say I had a moment of weakness and conceded to a chick flick night. It happens to the best of us. Neither were particularly amazing, Jersey Girl was a sweet, mildy entertaining romantic comedy. Ben Affleck’s performance is just fine as both a slick record executive, and a sentimental single father. Liv Tyler is ok, but nothing really memorable, although I did enjoy her on stage performance at the end and her line “I’m kinda crushin’ on you right now, Trinke”. Jennifer Lopez is good for the short time she plays Affleck’s wife, but its hardly a deep or challenging role; her death is still emotional even though we all knew it was coming. Although I found Affleck’s angry reaction a little too formulaic. Raquel Castro is remarkably unannoying as the daughter; there are times when she plays it a little too cute and the reactions are clearly forced but mainly she was a refreshing departure from overly cutesy stage school kids. Again though there was a part where I felt the film slipped back into dangerously average when Ollie Trinke and Gertie have an argument and she shouts ‘I hate you’, I get that this happens, believe me I’ve even said it when I was younger, but nearly every scene like this involves a kid telling their parent that they hate them. Although I did rather enjoy Ollie’s “I hate you right back you little shit” retort.
Kevin Smith appeared to be creating something quirky and diverse, but had a few cliche moments. You get the idea Kevin had all the right intentions, but stepped slightly over the line, it was sweet but also sentimental and saccharine in some instances;
“Gertie: Thank you, daddy. Ollie: Anything for you, Gert. You know why? Gertie: Why? Ollie: ‘Cause you’re the only thing I was ever really good at.” But having said this there are some genuinely funny lines and original moments. I particularly enjoyed the “cameo” from Will Smith. The Fresh Prince sets Affleck straight and basically sets up the resolution of the movie and its practically impossible not to like a bit of the smooth-talking Smith; “Will Smith: What’s your daughter’s name? Ollie: Gertrude. Will Smith: Damn why’d you do that man?”
There are overly contrived plot points, like how the interview and the talent show just so happen to fall on the same day but take it with a pinch of salt and it makes for a charming-ish chick flick, which sometimes is all we need. Date movie? Yes. Great movie. No.

The same can be said about The Ugly Truth, although this was a far worse offender. I did laugh out loud for several prolonged amounts of time during the film, specifically during the orgasmic pants restaurant scene and we can all enjoy a little crude, sexist humour once in awhile. HOWEVER, the characters are so 2D in this film I’m surprised they could stand up. Katherine Heigl’s Abby is so ridiculously uptight and controlling its rather unbelievable. You could see the ending from a mile off and I really dislike Gerard Butler, but again its watchable. Although I might have lay off these mediocre rom-coms for a while or else my salt intake is going to be way above the daily recommended amount.
I apologise for the above attempt of humour, I guess these films have rubbed off on me more than I would have liked.