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Coming Soon:Bad Teacher starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel & Justin Timberlake

Posted on March 13, 2011 Written by ripitup

Bad Teacher starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel & Justin Timberlake. Coming in June.

Bad Teacher is a summer comedy that will start hitting the theaters at the end of June. So let’s see what it’s all about:

Cameron Diaz is in fact a ridiculously inappropriate junior high teacher who values only herself and money. She believes she’s too good for the school’s gym teacher Jason Segel and when she begins her man hunt, she goes after the new instructor Justin Timberlake. Of course judging by his ex, she believes that she can only get him after a major boob surgery. So she decides to go after the bonus too, a reward given to the best teacher. But she now has to win over Lucy Punch, who is.. well, a better teacher.

Can she win the money and the guy?

Bad Teacher looks entertaining but I’m not sure it is funny enough. It’s a fun premise but a movie has to be really, really funny when it’s centered on characters that you don’t care about at all. And while gorgeous, Cameron Diaz doesn’t play a likable character.

I really enjoyed Jason Segel in Forgettting Sarah Marshall and I love you, Man but he doesn’t seem to have enough punch lines here. He only made me giggle when he called his student “Hey, Twilight” . Well, the kid’s hair is very Twilight’s Edward Cullen-ish.

Oh, and I am not ready to embrace Justin Timberlake as a leading actor yet. Yes, he is an OK actor and his acting hurts less than his music, but the lead? I guess the writers thought it would be a fun touch casting him as the guy Cameron strives to get, as Cameron already got Justin – from 2003 to 2006. They dated for 3 years. The attraction to Justin is something I’ll never get, as I like my men (and my male celebrities) tall, well-built & manly.

Directed by Lawrence Kasdan’s son Jake Kasdan. Written by Gene Stupnitsky, Lee & Eisenberg, whose credits writing credits include (American) The Office series and the Jack Black comedy Year One.

Let’s see if this is a good movie with a mediocre trailer. The trailer is available on imdb.com

Other Cameron Diaz Movies & Posts:

Knight and Day starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz

The Box starring Cameron Diaz, James Marsden and Frank Langella

My Sister’s Keeper starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Patrick & Abigail Breslin

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

10 FUNNIEST MOVIES EVER: Laugh Till Your Ribs Hurt

Cameron Diaz Trivia

Other Jason Segel Movies & Series:

Forgetting Sarah Marshall starring (&written by Jason Segel)

How I Met Your Mother – Comedy Series

I Love You Man starring Jason Segel & Paul Rudd

Other Justin Timberlake Movies:
The Social Network starring Jesse Eisenberg. Featuring Justin Timberlake

The Resident starring Hilary Swank & Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Posted on March 7, 2011 Written by ripitup

The Resident starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan & Hilary Swank. Feat. Christopher Lee & Lee Pace. image via movie-area.com

Juliet (Hilary Swank) is a pretty and successful ER doctor who has just left her cheating husband Jack (Lee Pace). After some apartment-hunting, she finds the perfect place: a spacious flat with an amazing view, at a price she can afford, and with a gorgeous landlord named Max (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). And as it turns out, it is all too good to be true…

Her only neighbor besides Max is Max’s strange grandfather (Christopher Lee), who seems a little too worried that Juliet is living all alone. And Juliet is starting to feel something is wrong too- she feels like she is not alone, but dismisses the though as paranoia. She also decides to listen to her best friend (Aunjanue Ellis)’ advice and flirt with Max. But Juliet is not over Jack and well…Max has a much darker side that he has so far been able to keep from her….

I’d been waiting for The Resident for months. I am a really big fan of Jeffrey Dean Morgan, as well as Hilary Swank and Lee Pace. I was also pleasantly surprised to see The Mentalist’s Madeleine Hightower – Aunjanue Ellis – as the cheerful sidekick, encouraging her best friend to have great rebound sex. This was a fun little contrast to her high-rank CBI officer character in The Mentalist.

But my fondness of the cast unfortunately couldn’t stop me from getting bored. The movie was off to a slow start, which I attributed to tension-building. But Juliet’s getting spooked in her house over and over again, with floors cringing… got old really quickly. Lee Pace didn’t really have much to offer as Jack is nothing more than a mundane, cheating husband trying to take his wife back. And Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s badass skills were certainly wasted as Max. Max, while turning out to be very creepy (and pathetic at that), is not scary at all. And a thriller/horror film needs a scary, compelling villain who is supposed to nail us to our seats and not bore us.

I know Morgan can pull off a badass because he did brilliantly as The Comedian in Watchmen. The Comedian, supposedly a hero, shot a pregnant woman without blinking because she was getting on his nerves. Now, that was spooky.

The Resident’s Max had an interesting background, only implied at. I wish we had seen his past, and scarier insights. But like many thrillers, The Resident failed to gave us smart “victims” as well as a smart villain.

To sum up? The Resident is a mediocre thriller, at best I wasn’t rooting for anyone in the movie as Juliet was “unforgiving” enough to move to a 3800/month apartment, only to get back with Jack – but not before she unsuccessfully tried to have sex with Max…Ouch.

It can be watched for the love of the cast, I guess but only if you lower your expectations. Currently rated at 5.4 on IMDB.

Fun notes:

– Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilary Swank co-starred previously in the romantic drama/comedy P.S.I Love You. Also in P.S. I love you, Swank was trying to have rebound sex with Jeffrey Dean. However this time, her marriage was over because her husband died. The husband was played by Gerard Butler.

– Lee Pace is a Golden Globe nominated actor. He played a transgendered nightclub singer in a true story.

Also on Hilary Swank:

P.S. I Love You starring Gerard Butler, Hilary Swank & Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Also on Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Supernatural starring Jared Padalecki & Jensen Ackles feat. Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Watchmen starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Akerman, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley and Patrick Wilson

The Accidental Husband: Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Gerard Butler, Richard Gere and Jeffrey Dean Morgan: Allure of the Older Guy

40 Somethings That Would Make 20-year-olds Jealous

Also on Lee Pace

Lee Pace Trivia

Possession starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lee Pace and Michael Landes

Soldier’s Girl: A Haunting True Story starring Lee Pace and Troy Garity

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day starring Amy Adams, Frances McDormand and Lee Pace

The Fall starring Lee Pace and Catinca Untaru

When in Rome starring Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel. feat. Lee Pace

The Good Shepherd starring Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie & Lee Pace

All Good Things starring Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst & Frank Langella

Posted on March 2, 2011 Written by ripitup

All Good Things Starring Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst & Frank Langella.

David Marks (Ryan Gosling) is the rebel son of the billionaire real estate investor Sanford Marks (Frank Langella). While David’s brother Daniel (Michael Esper) has embraced the corporate and rich lifestyle, David is just happy getting high and dating the beautiful Katie (Kirsten Dunst) whose warm and middle-class upbringing couldn’t have been more different to David’s. David’s father is cold, ambitious and used to getting his way. So it doesn’t take long for him to convince David that Katie will only be happy if they have a comfortable life.

So David starts working for his dad. And Katie begins to get to know the more dangerous side of David. David, as a kid, has witnessed his own mother’s suicide and has found a way to bury all the fury. But as Katie wants to have kids and later follow her dreams of being a med student, we get to see a side of David that even makes his father seem mild and kind in comparison.

Will Katie be able to save this marriage with an increasingly unstable David? Or better yet, will she able to save herself?

All Good Things, as stated in the beginning of the movie, was inspired by a true missing person’s story that still remains a missing person’s case today. Katie’s disappearance is not a twist to be spoiled, as the trailer and the tagline spell it out for us: the perfect love story until it becomes the perfect crime…

And while All Good Things is not a perfect movie, the crimes committed in the film, as well as Ryan Gosling’s performance are indeed perfect. This is a mystery/drama with some thrilling aspects that get its spookiness from the transformation of David. Of course the sane and the smart viewer will eventually deem Katie for being stupid and naïve for staying that long, and eventually bringing it on herself. After all, David’s actions started becoming alarming the moment he started listening to his dad…

All Good Things’ pace sometimes requires patience. The tension the movie is building threatens to become boring, although it never does. Obviously, this is not a film to watch to have a simple good time. But no matter how depressing it is, it is a story well-told with good actors.

Currently 6.4 on IMDB. Fair enough.

Fun notes:

– Kirsten Dunst played a vampire when she was 12. Her sires/parents were vampires Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise and the movie was Interview with the Vampire.

– Saturday Night Live’s Kristen Wiig has a small role in the film.

You Again starring Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Odette Yustman & Sigourney Weaver

Posted on February 28, 2011 Written by ripitup

You Again starring Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Odette Yustman & Sigourney Weaver

Marni (Kristen Bell) has transformed herself from the ugly and unpopular high school girl to a beautiful and successful PR professional. Since she is pretty certain her awful high school days are way over, she’s more than happy to return home for the wedding of her older brother Will (James Wolk).

So she gets the shock of her life when she finds out that he’s marrying Joanna (Odette Yustman), the very girl who made Marni’s life hell all those years ago. What’s more shocking and disturbing for Marni is that Joanna claims to have become a much different and better person and Marni!

Poor Marni has no allies in the house as her mom Gail (Jamie Lee Curtis) wants her to embrace the now and forgive Joanna’s past. Of course Gail’s optimistic “past is past” attitude disappears when she meets Joanna’s aunt Ramona (Sigourney Weaver). As it turns out, Ramona is the very woman who made Gail’s prom a nightmare. And it is Gail’s turn to be frustrated, as Ramon is the ultra successful, ultra-rich, very pretty multi-lingual owner of a hotel chain. And everyone adores this cool aunt, including Marni.

Can mother and daughter keep it together until the wedding? Or will disaster follow as Marni is pretty determined in proving to everyone that Joanna hasn’t changed at all?

You Again is a romantic comedy from 2010, with the emphasis on comedy. It is really fun for the most part, although some things just don’t add up, even for comedy’s sake. And the first half of the movie is a lot more fun than the second. Still, it is a great cast. We even have Victor Garber as Marni’s father and Betty White as her grandmother. Remember Victor Garber as Jack Bristow, a.k.a Sydney’s dad from Alias? If you don’t, please watch him in one Alias episode at least. Then you’ll know why I like watching him in a comedy so much.

I really found Gail’s lack of empathy – even after she finds herself as frustrated as her daughter- hilarious and very humane.

On a note: Could the wedding planner be more annoying and Tim (Kyle Bornheimer) more of a loser? And am I the only one who thought Joanna’s rehearsal dinner show totally stupid and not romantic?

It could have been a little more original if Marni didn’t get her high school crush (Sean Wing) in the end (it is not a spoiler, and u know it!), but hey, all in all, it is a very entertaining effort. It is not a should-see, but a could- see. And its biggest fault is that Betty White’s role wasn’t Betty White enough.

Fun notes:

– Dwayne Johnson has a very small but entertaining part as the Air Marshall

– 70s and 80s duo Hall& Oates make an appearance as themselves.

– Both Sigourney Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis have co-starred with Mel Gibson in different movies. Sigourney Weaver co-starred with him The Year of Living Dangerously and Jamie in Forever Young.

Currently 5.4 on IMDB.

My verdict: 7 for the first half, 5.5 for the second.

More on Kristen Bell

Veronica Mars starring Kristen Bell, Teddy Dunn, Jason Dohring & Enrico Colantoni

When in Rome starring Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel

Couples Retreat starring Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Kristen Bell, Kristin Davis, Malin Akerman and Jason Bateman

Forgetting Sarah Marshall starring Jason Segel, Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Russell Brand

Serious Moonlight starring Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell and Justin Long

33 Actors From My Generation – Actors Born in the Years Between 1980-1990

More on Sigourney Weaver

Snow Cake starring Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman & Carrie-Anne Moss

More on Odette Yustman