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NCIS Los Angeles starring Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J

Posted on May 12, 2010 Written by ripitup

NCIS Los Angeles starring Chris O' Donnell and LL Cool J.

I feel a bit like a hypocrite that I like NCIS Los Angeles. Not because I like the original NCIS starring Mark Harmon (which I do by the way) but I joked so much about the whole CSI franchise going on. You have CSI New York and Las Vegas and Miami…Hell, maybe they even made a 4^th one I don’t know about. I joked that what’s the point in giving a show branches? Well, it turns out I don’t complain that much when you like the branch’s actors and love the city its taking place in. Yes, I am in love with California and I like Chris O’ Donnell, so its like NCIS is tailored to me.

NCIS-a.k.a- Naval Criminal Investigative Service-is all about crimes related to the navy as the title suggests. The Los Angeles team has agents G. Callen (Chris O’ Donnell), Sam Hanna (LL Cool J.), Kensi (Daneila Rush) and Dominic (Adam Jamal Craig), psychologist Nate (Peter Cambor), the computer/tech guy Eric (Barrett Foa) and their boss Henrietta (Linda Hunt).

The premise is simple: a navy-related crime is committed, NCIS director assigns them the case, our computer expert gives/searches/hacks info, Nate gives them a psychological profile and agents provide their expert insights. Hetty always has some warning to do, like don’t bleed to NCIS wardrobe…

While the banter between members aren’t exactly original, it is almost always funny. I especially love the relationship between O’ Donnell’s and Cool J’s characters. I mainly knew Cool J as a rapper and this is either the only lead role I ever saw him and I have to admit, he is good. Callen and Sam Hanna have good chemistry as partners in crime-solving and their relationships is funny. Hett y is quite a character and frankly Eric is so far the only cute tech guy I see in a tv show. Kensi is gorgeous and smart. Dominic is the newbie who is not all that interesting and frankly, I don’t care much about Nate’s profiling either. After watching House, Castle and The Mentalist, he frankly gives the most uninteresting insight about our criminals.

All in all, this is one fun detective/criminal show to watch if that’s your thing. I like the genre and as I mentioned I am mad about Los Angeles and I l am an O’ Donnell fan. The cast is good. This show is not for the seekers of extremity or originality but a fun crime show to enjoy. While it is not very addictive, it is really fun. I actually crossed my fingers for more seasons .

Also on Chris O’ Donnell:

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The Bounty Hunter starring Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston

Posted on May 11, 2010 Written by ripitup

The Bounty Hunter starring Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston. Image from: http://temptu.files.wordpress.com

Milo Boyd (Gerard Butler) is well…a loser. An ex cop who got out of the force, he is now working as a bounty hunter. His job is to catch people who jump bail. He is mocked by cops and he does have a gambling debt. However his next assignment puts a huge smile on his face: He has to catch his ex-wife Nicole.

Nicole (Jennifer Aniston) is a successful journalist who is cursing the day she married Milo. She loves her job and she is after a huge story. One lead causes her to miss her trial and now Milo is after her.

If only that were simple…The bad guy has caught Nicole’s snitch and he is now after her. Then there are the debt collectors who are after Milo. And there is the struggle between Milo and Nicole- who might not just hate each other as they claim…

When I first the movie was being made, I couldn’t wait to see it. After all, I don’t mind Jennifer Aniston being in movies (it is a Friends thing) and I am a huge fan of Gerard Butler. Then the movie came out and people were so quick and ruthless in bashing the movie that I was half-scared that it would be a disaster. But hey , it is always best to see the movie and judge it yourself and I have to say I genuinely enjoyed it. Honestly, It has its downs:

– It has its mediocre moments and its fair share of clichés.

– Oh, it also has a character that’s supposed to be funny but all he did was irritate me. This character is called Stewart (Jason Sudeikis). Stewart is Nicole’s colleague and he is such a big loser that Milo seems like the ultimate catch in his worst moment, including the time he is wearing the world’s ugliest shirt and short pair! Normally ,I love Jason. He is my favorite cast member at Saturday Night Live. You might like to check out youtube for the 300 spoof- where Gerard Butler makes fun of his character King Leonidas and Jason plays his right arm. Hilarious. But Stewart is just unnecessary.

– The music dominates some of the scenes too much. It is not that the songs are bad but the scenes are funny on their own but the music seemed determined that it wanted to steal the scenes from Butler. That was weird.

– Sometimes you do want the movie to make up its mind on whether it wants to be a romcom or an action comedy or whatever.

That being said, it definitely has its ups:

– Gerard Butler. It is so much fun watching him as a loser than slowly building his charm and gain his confidence back. He doesn’t mind making an ass out of himself and he sure doesn’t seem to mind if he doesn’t look the least bit good-looking. But obviously he does. He is an actor and he wants to play different characters. Sure, you saw the sweet loser Milo character before but it is still different to Gerard’s other characters. Plus, Milo is fun to watch. Most of the time.

– Some viewer reviews claimed that Jennifer is so bad in this that she should completely stop making movies. Oh, give me a break! There is nothing about her character that requires anything more than Jennifer gives to the role. Who do they suggest played Nicole? Meryl Streep? It is a simple role. Jennifer was OK.

– It has some really funny scenes: The golf course chasing scene, Jennifer’s hijacking a bicycle cab or Gerard’s method of rescuing Jennifer from the thugs… Don’t worry, it has more. I just don’t want to spoil it for you.

– Have you seen the movie Bird on a Wire? It’s made in 1990 and it features Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn in the leading roles. It is not rated high on IMDB (a mere 5.4) but it is one of the most entertaining movies I have seen and one of my favorite movies from Gibson. It is also a mixture of action/comedy/romance and follows the story of ex-lovers. Even the storyline is quite different, as they try to save their lives and sort things out, they also realize they are not over each other. Watching The Bounty Hunter, I realized it is in the tradition of Bird on a Wire and I love that movie. Yeah, Bird on a Wire is a tad more original and a little funnier but it doesn’t change the fact that The Bounty Hunter is also all about mindless entertainment, out there to show you a good time. And it does. And that’s what matters.

It is currently 5.1 on IMDB. It has its 5 moments and it has its 7. I’ll give it a 6.

Other Posts on Gerard Butler:

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5 Reasons to Love Gerard Butler

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Posts on Jennifer Aniston

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Hollywood Stars in Friends

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5 Reasons Why Every Writer Should Blog

Posted on May 10, 2010 Written by ripitup

This post has moved to my blogging/writing site. You can read it here.

The Bachelor starring Chris O’Donnell and Renée Zellweger

Posted on May 8, 2010 Written by ripitup

The Bachelor starring Chris O' Donnell Renée Zellweger. Made in 1999. Brace yourselves for something very romantic and very funny. Image from filmamerica.com

The opening credits start in wide open land with lots of horses running wild. Our narrator/lead character

Jimmy Shannon (Chris O’Donnell) starts his story by telling us that every man (in America) is Mustang (the horse, not the car) at heart. He is too. He is also a happy bachelor who loves dating a variety of women without having to think about getting married. One day he meets Anne (Renée Zellweger) and even though he is still not even dreaming about marriage, he is happy just being with that one women. After a year of bliss, his luck starts to change. All his friends have been getting married inevitably Anne uses the ever-dreaded word “future”. He is the only single guy left in his circle. He decides to do the inevitable and screws up big time. But then something even more dreadful happens- his grandfather dies and leaves him a $100 million. What’s dreadful about it? Jimmy needs to be married in a certain time frame, be married for at least 10 years and have 10 children. What the ****? “Poor” Jimmy proposes to Anne again, screwing up more time. Anne leaves town to visit her folks and Jimmy has no choice but visiting all his exes one by one, a highly diverse list of women who include a feminist, an over-bearing one, a cop, one who is all business, a stockbroker, an opera singer…

So Jimmy spends a lot of time proposing to one wrong woman after another and failing to be engaged, until his friend comes with a “brilliant” idea that’s very entertaining for us the audience and a total nightmare for Jimmy….

The Bachelor is a typical romantic comedy but I am saying it with love and affection. I really do like this movie. I love the idea, the actors, the scenes and the dialogue. Sure, as a modern woman I resent the idea of all men being portrayed as commitment-phobic and women crazy about marriage. I resent the idea that all women see marriage as bliss but men as a nightmare. It might be true for a lot of cases but hey times are changing a little. But who cares? The casting is perfect. If any other guy was giving you all the talk about Mustangs, a girl might be pissed. But hey, it is Chris O’ Donnell. One of the cutest and prettiest actors to date, he lights up the screen and even in his desperate moments, he doesn’t annoy you. He makes you laugh. Put an average guy in there and you would say “Oh, screw you, who would want to marry you, anyway?”. This is a romantic comedy meaning it is (unfortunately) targeted mostly at women and I am being honest.

Brooke Shields and Mariah Carey make very fun appearances. Even though I don’t like Mariah Carey at all, she was the perfect choice as the over-the-top opera singer.

It is a fun romcom with all the regular amount of cheesiness. But the funny bits are really funny and the romantic part is romantic. So if you like the genre, suspend your cynicism for the duration of the film and have fun.

Other Chris O’Donnell Posts

The Three Musketeers starring Chris O’Donnell, Kiefer Sutherland Charlie Sheen

NCIS Los Angeles starring Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J.

Mad Love starring Drew Barrymore and Chris O’Donnell

All Posts on Renée Zellweger

11 Actors, 11 Drastic Weight Changes for Roles: With Christian Bale, Jared Leto, Renee Zellweger

4 Good Movies with Awesome Soundtracks: Shoot ‘em up, Jerry Maguire, Reality Bites and Vanilla Sky