Amazon Holiday

Thursday, February 4, 2010

When in Rome


Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A workaholic curator (Kristen Bell), who doesn't believe in love, picks 5 coins out of a fountain of love, in Rome, and is surprised to find the previous owners of those coins (Danny DeVito, Will Arnett, Dax Shepard, Jon Heder, & Josh Duhamel) chasing her around New York, like crazy in love puppy dogs, who will do anything to impress her. Really? Not a single one of the coins that she picked was tossed in by a woman? I find that unlikely.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Will Arnett, Danny DeVito, Jon Heder, Dax Shepard, Anjelica Huston, Alexis Dziena, Kate Micucci, Peggy Lipton, Bobby Moynihan, Luca Calvani, Keir O'Donnell, Kristen Schaal, Lee Pace, Judith Malina

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: PhotobucketStop! I might almost have given this a yellow light, only because I know there are people, like my friend Stacy, who have less discriminating taste, and don't mind when a movie has glaring flaws, so long as it's cute. Thankfully, Stacy was with me at this screening, and she hated it. If Stacy doesn't like it, nobody will.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Mostly after you leave the theater, and you challenge yourself to think of a single thing about it that made any logical sense. Not only were the coin tossers all men, they were all American men, who happened to be in Italy that day, and in New York two days later, with a psychic knowledge of Bell's name and whereabouts at any given time.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: If you cry at cliches, this movie is one... only without the tear-jerking parts.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: I'm going to go ahead and give it a Razzie for the hair department. I don't know if they give Razzies for hair, but someone on that set thought it was a good idea to put Kristen Bell's hair in a pony tail at a fancy Italian wedding. Yeah, the kind of pony tail you wear to go jogging, or to brush your teeth.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Kristen Bell acted like a girl who would turn away Josh Duhamel, so that probably took some heavy sense memory work. And Josh Duhamel acted like a wuss, who would come back to a fairly average girl like Bell, no matter how many different ways she rejected him and walked out on him. Since I'm pretty sure he's never experienced anything like that in his real life, I imagine he had to dig pretty deep to figure out what that might feel like, too.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: You almost feel sorry for the director on a piece like this, because where the script is lacking, he has to make it up. Like, for example, when the writers forget to put in the romance, the director has to make up for it with that old standby: the slow motion stare... "Oh," you will think to yourself, "They must be in love at first sight now!"

Q: How is the story/script?

A: It really would've been nice if there were even one single moment based in some kind of reality. One believable thing sprinkled in... Or maybe at least a joke once in while. Is that too much to ask?

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/when-in-rome/33121/trailers

Back To TopAddThis Social Bookmark Button

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw the trailer for this which was an extended scene (like they did for THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA trailer). The scene where Bell tries to break a vase at a wedding. Man it was horrible. If that was the 'best' and 'funniest' scene they could pull to sell the movie, I figured the entire thing would be pretty bad.

You should get hazard pay for this one. Either that or make Stacy buy you a pinkberry. (Not that it was her fault, but...)

-rp

Monique said...

Stacy did cover my ticket (she had a free pass), so at least we didn't pay to see it.

But I should get hazard pay for having seen 3 red lights in a row! That hasn't happened since you went on that streak back in April of 2008, with Pathology, 88 Minute, & Deception.

Anonymous said...

Worst. Streak. Ever. (You had to remind me.)

I saw CREATION. I agree with a lot of your review but liked how the story about his daughter dovetailed with ideas in his book. Still, it was better than any of the films in my loser streak.

Now I mourn for the following films that weren't nominated for Best Picture: STAR TREK & (500) DAYS OF SUMMER.

xo
--Russ

Monique said...

The people who nominate the Oscars don't know what the hell they're doing. Star Trek was the best movie of the year, hands down.

Anonymous said...

You should give STAR TREK the Movie Reviews by FAQs Best Picture of 2009 Award. (If it needs more than just your vote, I'll give it mine too.)

Winner!

--Russ