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Shallow Hal starring Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow

Posted on July 14, 2010 Written by ripitup

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Shallow Hal starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black
Shallow Hal starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black. Image via terraespiritual.locaweb.com.br

Shallow Hal is one really good movie. It is funny, but it is not always laugh-out-loud, let’s- get- as-crude-as-possible sort of movie. If anything, it just might be the gentlest thing the Farrelly Brothers ever did. Before I get carried away, here is the plot:

Hal (Jack Black) is a shallow guy. As much as you would sometimes want to call him a jerk, “shallow” describes him much better, as he is very in humane in shallowness. After all, he is a guy who just wants to be with as many hot women as he can. It doesn’t really matter whether he is a hunk, he just wants hot women. And while we- and I mean women- may not be that aggressive in showing it, we do want hot dates. Don’t give me that I’m- all- too –deep- for- this- line- of- thinking- attitude; even for a second. Just do me a favor and consider these two hypothetical options:

–          There are two men who want you. They are both good guys, fun to be around and you have loads in common. But one of them is not attractive at all in your standards. The other is gorgeous. Which one would you pick? Assume they both want you. Neither has a bad bone in their body. Admit, it you’d go for the gorgeous one. Some women would go the other way, not because they are deeper but because they wouldn’t feel secure, as their boyfriend would get so desired by other women and they wouldn’t feel comfortable. This is not deep. This is called having issues.

So, can readers of both sexes be honest with me? You can be a nice person and you can place all the importance you want on personality. But given the choice between pretty and ugly (pretty and ugly in your terms) and assuming everything else is equal, you’d choose pretty. It may not be a great human trait, but unfortunately it is sort of imprinted on us. Blame whoever, whatever you want but it is there.

So, Hal, despite being a totally average-looking guy, wants to date babes. And it is screwing with his life because a hot girl won’t generally go for Hal. Let me “shallow” here. The moment Hal started appreciating hotness over everything, all I could think was,” Dude, look in the mirror! You are way too short, you need to lose like 15 pounds, get at least 5 pounds in muscle, and you don’t exactly have the prettiest face!”.  Of course as you watch Hal and see him transform, you start to find him cute. Oh yeah, he can be sweet. He can look nice. Still, Jack Black or Clive Owen?  Answer me. Exactly.

And then there is his much less attractive and much more shallow friend Mauricio (Jason Alexander, aka George Costanza of Seinfeld). He is even worse than Hal. But something changes drastically when Hal gets stuck in an elevator with self-help guru Tony Robbins (played by Tony Robbins himself). Tony notices Hal is totally looking at the wrong things, but is a nice guy inside. So he sort of hypnotizes him into seeing only the inner beauty of people. So if a person is nice, she will look like a babe to him. She will look like a babe to Hal, even if she is ugly and/or very fat.

That’s why obese Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow) looks like an extremely fit woman with a really good body to Hal. Of course to everybody else in society, she is fat and not so attractive. Mauricio is terrified as he can’t understand the sudden changes in his best friend. So even though Hal is head over heels with Rosemary, Mauricio makes sure he finds a way for Robbins to take the whole thing back. But what happens if he can reverse it? Hal will see a fat woman whose personality he is in love with…Tough call, right? And yeah, she is borderline fat- not just plump or a little heavy. She is fat enough to have health problems due to her weight, fat enough to break some solid chairs and sofas.

Despite appearances, this is not a shallow movie. It is done by humane people with the deepest of intentions. We keep our own superficial tendencies in check and hope Hal will make the right decision- the right romantic comedy decision, that is- to be with Rosemary at all costs.

We all judge books by their covers whether we want to admit it or not. Farrelly Brothers just have brought a nice little twist to the thing. Yes, more often than not, we don’t care about the looks that much if we are in love. But how do you get past that until you are in love? Do you really need a hypnosis or just some faith? And what is the guarantee that person who is not beautiful in your sense of the word is not superficial? Would he/she still go for you if you weighed 100 pounds higher? 200 pounds higher? 100 pounds lower? With virtually no breasts? With no hair? With absolutely 0 taste in clothes?  Multiply and diversify the examples. But make sure you think about it….

And then again, there is the notion that we do want to be considered pretty, inside out. Who here wants to be considered ugly by the person they are attracted to? No one. You wouldn’t probably care if the rest of the world thought you were average, but the person you want, should think you are beautiful/handsome, right?

This is a lovely romantic/comedy/drama and a lot less crude than Me,Myself and Irene, The Heart Break Kid or There is Something About Mary. Even the fat jokes feel like they are there to make fun of Hal and not Rosemary. See this, no matter how you see yourself. No matter how you think others see you. You will feel good.

Other Movies of Peter and Bobby Farrelly


Dumb and Dumber starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels

There's Something About Mary starring Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon and Ben Stiller
There's Something About Mary starring Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon and Ben Stiller. Rated 7.2 on IMDB. Directed and co-writen by Bobby and Peter Farrelly. Image via klausen1976.files.wordpress.com
Me,myself and Irene starring Jim Carrey and Renee Zellweger
Me,myself and Irene starring Jim Carrey and Renee Zellweger. Directed and co-written by Peter and Bobby Farrelly. Image via images.amazon.com
The Heartbreak Kid starring Ben Stiller, Malin Akerman and Michelle Monaghan
The Heartbreak Kid starring Ben Stiller, Malin Akerman and Michelle Monaghan. As usual, directed and co-written by the Farrelly Brothers. Image via bloggang.com/

Back to Shallow Hal…

And yes, it has unrealistic parts. So what? It makes nice points, sometimes at the price of looking overly optimistic and/or naïve. 6/10 on IMDB. I think it should get at least a 7 for all the decent jokes (and there are many!), making amends for the way we are, showing how things should be and making you laugh all the same…

All posts on Gwyneth Paltrow

A Perfect Murder starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Viggo Mortensen and Michael Douglas

Iron Man

Iron Man 2 starring Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johannson, Mickey Rourke and Don Cheadle

3 Happy Celebrity Couples: Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher

Shallow Hal on Amazon.com

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Bobby Farrelly, comedy, dating, drama, farrelly brothers, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jack Black, Jason Alexander, movies, Peter Farrelly, relationships, romance, Shallow Hal, Tony Robbins

When To Leave a Relationship: You 12 Cues to Leave

Posted on July 8, 2010 Written by ripitup

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relationships, dating


This post has moved to my dating blog Dating and Relationships in the 21st Century.

 

 

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Filed Under: For Fun: Celebrities, dating, relationships and everything else Tagged With: Ben Miles, Coupling, dating, Gina Bellman, Jack Davenport, Kate Isitt, Men, Relationship, relationship advice, relationship issues, relationship problems, relationships, Richard Coyle, romance, Sarah Alexander, sex, threesome, threesomes, women

Coupling starring Jack Davenport, Sarah Alexander, Ben Miles, Richard Coyle, Kate Isitt and Gina Bellman

Posted on June 13, 2010 Written by ripitup

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Coupling starring Jack Davenport, Sarah Alexander, Ben Miles, Richard Coyle, Kate Isitt and Gina Bellman
Coupling starring Jack Davenport, Sarah Alexander, Ben Miles, Richard Coyle, Kate Isitt and Gina Bellman. 2000. Characters: On the bed are Susan (Sarah Alexander) and Steve (Jack Davenport). Staring, from left: Jane (Gina Bellman), Sally (Kate Isitt), Jeff (Richard Coyle) and Patrick (Ben Miles). Image from: http://i26.tinypic.com/2u6ec60.jpg

Now, all I have to say is that there are only three mistakes ever made about this show:
1) This brilliant sitcom, like many UK TV series, has too few episodes.6 -9 episodes? Are you kidding me? I keep coming back to watch the show again and again and all episodes through 3 seasons are downright hilarious. Too bad they didn’t shoot more.

2) The 4th season was a mistake. I am sorry, but taking Jeff (Richard Coyle) from Coupling? What were they taking. Think what could have happened if Matthew Perry a.k.a Chandler from Friends left. And put another actor as another character into the mix. Yep, it simply would suck.

3) Remaking this show? Are you nuts? Remaking shows a decade later is one thing. Remaking a British show in The USA, just failed. It might have worked for The Office. I didn’t like the original and I didn’t care for the American version. But Coupling?  That show is very British yet very universal. Still, it is impossible to recreate the comic chemistry and timing with other actors.

Coupling has actually a very simple premise. 3 women, 3 men. They have all dated or will date one another at some point. While the everlasting and the more sensible couple remains to be Susan and Steve, the conversations and events will have you crying out of laughter.

Because with coupling, romance takes a very backseat to comedy. It is about sex, relationships and the eccentricities of these 6 characters. While Susan (Sarah Alexander) and Steve (Jack Davenport) have less quirks, Jane (Gina Bellman), Sally (Kate Isitt), Jeff (Richard Coyle) and Patrick (Ben Miles) provide enough weirdness to make your day. And don’t even think Susan and Steve are any less hilarious.

What’s so special about these characters? Well, it is the script and the acting- but let me start with Jeff. I suspect that he is probably almost everyone’s favorite character. Any sane girl would want to date Steve. But Jeff is…entirely in a league of his own when it comes to advice, views and philosophies on dating. I’ll provide you with some of the Jeffisms. The show’s fans will have a great time remembering and others might realize they should watch this show at once. If you think Jeff’s not funny, you really don’t need to read the rest. Of course plain writing won’t do Richard Coyle any justice, but will give you a rough idea.

“Unflushable”:  Season 1, Episode 1 (These are terms coined by Jeff, not episode titles)

Jeff: (on Steve not being able to break up with girlfriend Jane): Steve..Do you know what I call this type of woman? You know, the one you can’t get rid of?

Steve: Is this going to be tasteless? Am I going to be ashamed to be your friend?

Jeff: It’s a technical term. A harmless expression.

Steve: Alright. Hit me.

Jeff: Unflushable.

Steve: Turn around and walk away, Jeff.

*The Zone: Season 1 Episode 1

Steve (on how Jane “made” him have sex with her): She just leans over, looks me in the eyes and says “I’m wearing stockings.”

Jeff: No!

Steve: She had never worn them before. Not once in the entire relationship. I’d begged!

Jeff: But, Steve, you are entitled to her stockings!

Steve: Am I?

Jeff: Yes! You’re still in the zone!

Steve: The what?

Jeff: The boyfriend zone! This is the telling off period. You still have a lot of stuff in her flat, you might still have a wedding to go to together and you’re under joint headings in your friends’ address books?

Steve: That means I’m entitled to see her underwear?

Jeff: If it comes up! That’s the rules of the zone. Good luck in there.

Steve: You are a strange and disturbing man, Jeff.

Jeff: Thank you.

* The Sock Gap: Season 1, Episode 2

Jeff: OK. Have you thought through your foreplay yet?

Steve: What do you mean foreplay?

Jeff: What do you think I mean? I mean when exactly do you take your socks off? My advice is to get them off right after your shoes and before your trousers..That’s the sock gap! Miss it, and suddenly you are a naked man in socks! No self-respecting woman will ever let a naked man in socks do the squealchy with her!

Patrick: That’s your foreplay tip? Socks?

Jeff: Many men have fallen through the sock gap, Patrick!

*The Reason for celebrity marriages: Season 1, Episode 2:

On thinking about somebody else during sex…

Susan: Is it absolutely necessary to think about somebody else?

Jeff: I mean everybody does. That’s why there are so many celebrity marriages. If you fantazise about somebody else during sex and so does your partner, and those two people you are fantasizing about  happen to meet while you are still doing it, they are bound to sense something, aren’t they? They are connectiong on like a virtual plane. So can you imagine what it was like when Posh first met Beckham? They were the epic center of a non-stop, nationwide virtual shag there! There is no wonder she got pregnant!

****

That’s Jeff for you. Oh, his gems are endless. The other are funny in different and original ways.

Jane loves creating stories about how she is a bisexual even when she is not, especially when she wants to excite a guy. She is very “unflushable”, persistant and downright weird. She is sort of attractive too, so her romantic life does get action, even though almost all her actions are mentally questionable. Sally is a beautician and loves youth. She freaks out at the idea of unnecessary smiles causing wrinkles on her skin, so she only smiles to single men, for instance.

Patrick thinks he is godsend to women. Even thought I can’t see what is particularly attractive about him, he is the one with many conquests. It is like Joey in Friends or Barney in How I Met Your Mother. It just works in the context of the story. And Steve…As cute as he is and comparably very normal and sweet compared to Jeff, he also has a tendency to freak out a lot, at the weirdest instances. And while Susan is normally the sexy, independent, sexually active woman every man dreams about, things change a bit when she is in a relationship. But then a relationship, especially a serious one, gets the best of almost anyone…

Sex and The City had a fairly female audience. In Coupling, you get the best jokes about sex, weirdest and most original dialogues about dating (thanks to the writers and Jeff), funny situations, physical comedy and more. The area that it is superior to Sex and The City is that it is purely funny with no drama involved and it includes lots of reality for both men and women. Like when Sally overhears Jeff trying to give Steve advice on foreplay, she is taken aback. She asks “Do they know about that”. And of course, they don’t…What Jeff means is that Steve shouldn’t be late to take his socks off and that he should call -whoever he fantasizes about sex- Susan. So there won’t be hell to pay if he says another girl’s name… Now, these two shows are very different in format and genre and I wouldn’t give up on either. But it is nice to have such a hilarious yet truthful sitcom on relationships where you can sit with friends of both sexes and laugh together…

Coupling on Amazon. com

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Filed Under: TV shows Tagged With: Ben Miles, comedy, Coupling, dating, Jack Davenport, Kate Isitt and Gina Bellman, relationships, Richard Coyle, Sarah Alexander, sex, sitcom, TV shows

Sex and The City The Movie (2008) starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Catrall and Kristin Davis

Posted on June 11, 2010 Written by ripitup

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Sex and The City movie starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Catrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis
Sex and The City movie starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Catrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis. Image: thecia.com.au

I saw this really bad review on IMDB. I had already seen the movie and enjoyed it so the review realy caught me off guard. Sure, you don’t have to like the movie but this viewer had given it the lowest score possible, called it thrash and named the characters selfish, self-absorbed, superficial and so on. My first question was: Was this viewer a male? While I have some male friends who liked Sex and The City as TV series, the majority of the show’s audience is female. After all, the show is about 4 girls’ sexapades, friendships and romantic experiences while they hang out at New York’s poshest places and spend a fortune on their clothes. Now, while the show may not be a deep one and can’t relate to all women, it sure as hell appealed to strong, independent career women who were like these 4 or who just wanted to be like them. So I wondered if the viewer had seen this really original and daring show at all.

Talking about a strictly movie perspective, I may not have exactly fallen in love with the movie. 4 characters’ love lives, occasional work trouble and their friendships is not every screenwriter’s dream script. However, I am not just a girl who stumbled on this movie. I am a fan of the show who loved and watched all 6 seasons of the shows and identified at least some characteristics of the characters.

If you are interested in the back story or trivia, you can visit the show’s profile page.  Here I will tell where each character ended up:

*Sex and The City is originally a best-selling book written by Candace Bushnell. The show tells the story of Samantha (Kim Catrall)- a totally promiscuous, sexually adventurous man-eater who is also a successful career women running her PR company. She has no limits or reservations. And while she couldn’t have cared less about family, kids and other traditional expectations, she eventually fell in love with young actor Smith (Jason Lewis).

* Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is every feminist’s and cynic’s nightmare: She dreamed of the big white dress, the fairy-tale wedding and the perfect husband. And while most women could understand her romantic fantasies, even her best friends were amazed as Charlotte left her art career to stay at home and work at a family. They were even more fazed when she changed her religion because the love of her life (Harry- played by Evan Handler) said he couldn’t marry a non-Jew. So she changed it and married Harry. And since they couldn’t have children,they adopted a Chinese baby.

* Successful, and cynical lawyer Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) finally married her on and off boyfriend and the father of her baby/bartender Steve (David Eigenberg). And even if it killed her to leave Manhattan, she moved to Brooklyn so that her kid could grow up in a nice house with a garden instead of a small apartment.

*And the show’s leading character/narrator/writer of her own newspaper column Sex and The City/author of bestselling books/ shoe-addict Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) finally married the love of her live John, a.k.a Big (Chris Noth). After a very turbulent love affair that took many levels and forms, trials of friendships and break-ups, Carrie and Big finally got together for good.

  • Carrie and Big decide to move in together and buy the dream house. They even decide to take it to the next level and get married. Her career is also on the rise as she is working on her third book. It is time to say good-bye to her flat and plan a wedding. As Charlotte “lends” Carrie her friend/wedding planner, Carrie get carried away with all the glamorous ideas. And to Big’s concern, she wants him as involved and excited as she is. However Big is older than Carrie’s 40 years and he has been married twice before. And nothing would make him happier than just to go to the city hall to get married.
  • Samantha has moved in with Smith (Jason Lewis). He has finally got the fame and the career he craved for so Samantha has moved to Los Angeles with him, also working as his PR manager. And while Smith is gorgeous, thoughtful and nice, his primary concern is to make his career successful and permanent. And Samantha is homesick. Big time. She misses New York, her regular hang-outs with her three best-friends and she is missing the good old days when she wasn’t in a relationship. It doesn’t help that Smith is away a lot and her next-door neighbor is a hunk whose sex life sees as much action as Samantha’s used to have.
  • Charlotte is still blissfully happy with her husband, adopted daughter Lily  and beautiful little dogs. In fact she is so happy and her life is so perfect, it’s scaring her.
  • Miranda’s world comes crashing down when Steve admits that he has cheated on Miranda. She doesn’t care that it has happened only once. She doesn’t forgive Steve and taking their kid Brady, she moves back to New York.

Carrie’s life comes chrashing down when Big leaves her alone right before the altar. Even though he tries to make up for it, this disappointment is too much for Carrie. So the story follows as the girls try to balance their lives with trying to get Carrie back to life. Can she handle being without Big? Can Big survive without Carrie? Can Miranda ever forgive Steve? Can Samantha ever get used to living in L.A?

As I said, if you look at the screenplay alone and not the TV show, the story might seem like plain and ordinary that happens to be set in glorious settings. However, for a lot of fans of the show, the movie gives more time with the characters that we never wanted to say goodbye to in the first place. We wanted to see if  a-happily-ever after was possible for Carrie and Big. It was fun watching Samantha as she turned into a ticking bomb, trying to keep her sexual appetite under control. It also took years for Steve to make Miranda to believe in love, them as a couple and in him as an individual. Miranda screwed up many more times than Steve did during the course of the show. For the first time, Steve screwed up big time.  And Charlotte still is as tuned to her friends’ lives and problems as always.

The magic of the show lied in New York, Carrie’s wardrobe, her weekly columns, the adventures of tall/dark/handsome charm of Big, the perfect one-liners and much more. Sure, Carrie spends more money on shoes than any woman should (I mean $500/a pair? Seriously!) and she probably loves Loui Vitton or Manola Blahnik as much she loves Big…Charlotte is way too traditional and family-oriented. And Samantha? As much as girls do tend to talk about their sex lives in detail, I am not sure how many women go as explicit and vulgar as Samantha.

But these characters worked.  The chemistry was good, the jokes were good. The situations were all too familiar among most modern single women, not just New Yorkers. The supporting cast did a marvelous job and the shown was like a really cool fashion statement. I am a week away from seeing the second installment. And I am looking forward to it. Remember,Sex and City has three lead roles: The 4 girls,sex and New York. And we love that combination.

Buy Sex and The City on Amazon.com

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Candace Bushnell, Chris Noth, comedy, Cynthia Nixon, dating, David Eigenberg, drama, Evan Handler, Jason Lewis, Kim Catrall, Kristin Davis, marriage, movies, relationships, romance, Sarah Jessica Parker, sex, Sex and The City

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