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Swing Shift starring Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn

Posted on May 25, 2010 Written by ripitup

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Swing Shift starring Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Ed Harris and Christine Lahti
Swing Shift starring Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Ed Harris and Christine Lahti. Image from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f0/Swing_shift.jpg

Kay Walsh (Goldie Hawn) is happily married to her husband Jack (Ed Harris).When World War II strikes, Jack has to join the navy and Kate is left alone. Kay finds a job; after all almost all plants are need of extra labor after most men go off to war. Women are not made all that welcome by some of the men. Kay tries her best to do her job and makes a new friend called Hazel (Christine Lahti). Her new “leadman” Lucky (Kurt Russell) also is really nice to her. Well, it is more like he is smitten by her. He keeps asking her out and she keeps turning her down. But eventually, she gives into his charm. Along with her friendship with Hazel and Hazel’s romance traffic, her guilt about her own affair and work life, her life gets very busy. And her husband is due home any day…

This is one harmless, sweet movie. It is not memorable. It is by no means bad, but I was misled into thinking that it would be a romantic comedy with few dramatic touches (I am blaming it on IMDB’s genre labels). It has some funny moments. It has some romantic moments. But with all the war background and the relationships….something is missing. Of course watching Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn is never boring. And Kay’s husband is played by Ed Harris. It is weird seeing Ed with hair, I’ll give you that (well, he had more hair in 1984). Academy was more impressed with the Hazel character than I was as she was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

5.8 on the IMDB. Sounds just about right. Directed by Jonathan Demme.

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Christine Lahti, comedy, drama, Ed Harris, goldie hawn, Jonathan Demme, Kurt Rus Russell, Swing Shift

Overboard starring Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn

Posted on May 17, 2010 Written by ripitup

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Overboard starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell
Overboard starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Image from: http://media.avclub.com

Joanna (Goldie Hawn) is a very rich and spoilt woman who is on a cruise on her own yacht, traveling with her equally spoilt husband (Edward Herrmann). She wants to have a closet built so she hires carpenter Dean (Kurt Russell). When she is not happy with his work, she doesn’t pay him and pisses him off. However Dean gets his chance at sweet revenge when Joanna has an accident. She has fallen overboard and is suffering from amnesia. She is in the hospital. So Dean goes to visit her, claiming she is her wife. Joanna has nowhere else to go.

However soon after Dean introduces her to the rest of his family (4 really naughty young children), she wishes he never found her. According to Dean, her name is Annie and she is a typical housewife. Anne’s life turns into living hell as the children are on the game with their father and make her chores harder than they already are. But Annie proves that she is tougher than anybody realized. And the hostility starts to turn into something else. She fights for the kids’ behalf and she even stands up to Dean on their behalf. The children start loving a woman around and Dean…well…he starts falling for “Annie”. “Annie” also falls for him. Dean can’t tell her the truth. With her encouragement, he starts a new business and his family seems complete. But surely, Annie’s memory can comeback any second.

This is a classic romantic comedy written by Leslie Dixon and directed by Pretty Woman and Valentine’s Day director Gary Marshall. Goldie Hawn’s mother is played by Katherine Helmond who you might remember from the sitcom Who’s The Boss? (1984-1992) where she played the hip and flirty mother or from the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond where she guest starred as Raymond’s mother-in-law.

I am calling it a classic because well…even the whole amnesia thing might sound overdone, it wasn’t that overdone in 1987. This is a really funny film that gets romantic at the right intervals and what might have come off as sappy is more than compensated by the laugh-out-loud comedy.

Plus, I really have a thing for the fun movies of the 80s and 90s and both Goldie and Kurt have been among my favorite actors and on &off-screen couples. They have been together since  1983. Goldie has made some really entertaining movies including Bird on a Wire with Mel Gibson. Her partner Kurt also starred alongside Mel Gibson in the movie Tequila Sunrise, also starring Michelle Pfeiffer.

The movie is rated 6.3 on IMDB. 7 from me.  And yes, I am usually positively biased towards Kurt’s and Goldie’s movies. I grew up watching that stuff.

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: comedy, Edward Herrmann, Gary Marshall, goldie hawn, Katherine Helmond, Kurt Russell, Leslie Dixon, Overboard, romance, romantic comedy

The Bounty Hunter starring Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston

Posted on May 11, 2010 Written by ripitup

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The Bounty Hunter starring Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston
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.

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Posts on Jennifer Aniston

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: action, Bird on a Wire, comedy, Gerard Butler, goldie hawn, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Mel Gibson, romance, Saturday Night Live, The Bounty Hunter

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