Odette Yustman | pinartarhan.com

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.

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And Soon The Darkness starring Amber Heard, Karl Urban & Odette Yustman.

Close friends Ellie and Stephanie (Amber Heard) are on a bicycle trip through Argentina. Their final stop is a small town, where the locals seem to either menacing, or worried that they are travelling on their own.

Stephanie isn’t particularly thrilled that Ellie (Odette Yustman) is flirting for the both of them. While she hooks up with a local, she tries to get the attention of Michael (Karl Urban) –another tourist- for Stephanie. Michael doesn’t seem interested, although he warns Ellie not to leave Stephanie alone.

The girls miss their bus the next morning. They go to a secluded area for exploration, a place that proves to be exactly the wrong time and place to have a fight with each other. Stephanie takes off, leaving Ellie behind. Ellie is too stubborn to follow. By the time she decides to meet Steph, it is too late. Ellie is abducted.

Steph realizes something is wrong but there is no one to trust, except for Michael- whose actions seem dubious and the policeman Calvo (César Vianco), who can’t have been more nonchalant about the whole thing.

With so many girls gone missing, is it possible that there is more than one villain? And will Steph be able to save Ellie?

While I have to admit the trailer is cooler than the movie, the movie is not bad at all. The major problem the movie is that even though it is not a teen-slasher (thankful for that!), the characters’ borderline stupidity certainly makes you feel like you are watching one. How stupid could Ellie be? And how idiotic could the seemingly rational and cautious Stephanie get when leaving Ellie alone? When looking for her on her own?

I can forgive characters acting stupidly during a fight or an escape but Ellie and Stephanie make so many things that make the abductor’s job so much easier. And as if we are not having enough idiotic decisions from the girls, Michael himself contributes to the crappy decisions.

It seems like screenwriters can’t write/re-write a movie (this one was based on the 1970 film And Soon the Darkness) with smart victims. They don’t have to be rational all the time, but it would have to be refreshing to see our potential victims be a little smarter.

But well, I guess if we go with the fact that there are many clueless people engaging in brainless activities, the movie shouldn’t be considered too much of a stretch.

It’s fun trying to guess who you should trust all the while seeing some nice and not-so-nice Argentina countryside.

Pop-corn thriller that is above mediocre. 6.5 for the effort. 1/10 to how well the characters’ brain works. Still, And Soon the Darkness makes one long and great commercial for “what not to do” during a girls-only holiday.