No Strings Attached

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A guy and a girl (Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman) decide to use each other for sex, without any expectation that it'll go anywhere.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Kline, Cary Elwes, Greta Gerwig, Lake Bell, Olivia Thirlby, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Jake Johnson, Mindy Kaling, Talia Balsam, Ophelia Lovibond, Guy Branum, Ben Lawson, Jennifer Irwin, Adhir Kalyan, Abby Elliott

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. Everybody knows that when you don't have any expectations, that's when things go well. And everybody also knows exactly how this story is going to go well. But what it lacks in conflict, suspense, and surprises, it makes up for in utter cuteness.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: More than a lot of romantic comedies, but less than a lot of R-rated comedies.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It's all too predictable to get you crying, but when Kevin Kline tears up it's actually one of the better laughs.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Most Authentic Performance by an Actress in a Romantic Comedy. I don't know what it is that Natalie Portman is doing, but it just works.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Ashton Kutcher finally found a leading lady who's prettier than he is! Also, beautiful guest performance by Lake Bell. What she does in this movie isn't as obvious as she makes it look.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: I once had a directing teacher who said that 90% of a director's work is having good taste in material. And that's what Ivan Reitman does best. I know this because I've seen an s-load of his movies, and I can't remember a single shot from any of them. Okay, that's a lie, there is one shot I remember-- but who could forget the slow pan, in Twins, over to Arnold Schwarzenegger's starry-eyed grin, after the first time he has sex?

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The premise holds together by a string because Ashton Kutcher is clearly in love with Natalie Portman from the first, second, third, and forth time they meet. So when they say things like, "Let's keep doing this until one of us starts to have feelings for the other," it rings completely false because he already has feelings for her. Meanwhile, her excuses for not getting more involved with him are convoluted, contradictory, and mostly very thin.

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: The line from the trailer where he says he can't date her because she's his oldest friend is not in the movie. This is not a friends with benefits situation, because they were never friends first. I kept waiting for the part where they would be friends, and it never came. This lacking element caused me great confusion about why they weren't giving a relationship a shot, since they were already in one.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: No Strings Attached Trailer

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Going the Distance

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A couple (Drew Barrymore & Justin Long) meet in New York, when she has only 6 weeks left before she moves back to San Francisco, but they fall in love anyway, so they decide to try a long distance relationship.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Christina Applegate, Ron Livingston, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Jim Gaffigan, Kelli Garner, June Diane Raphael, Rob Riggle, Sarah Burns, Natalie Morales, Matt Servitto, Leighton Meester, Kristen Schaal

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Go! As far as romantic-comedies go, this one actually has comedy in it.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: Much more than the preview leads you to believe. But be warned, it gets pretty raunchy at times. Even when it's girls talking... and I know that many of you are hyper-sensitive to hearing girls talk about some of the things that girls actually talk about.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It's sad that it's so much easier to fall in love with someone when you know they're leaving and you don't have any pressure to get into a serious relationship. But it's also stupid because you actually get your heart broken twice as hard that way.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Most successful film starring a couple who is actually dating, since the 1950s (I'm referring back to Lucy and Desi, of course.) Although it may be because they broke up before filming commenced... or maybe they're still together. No one seems to know the latest on this, but it's certainly better PR if they at least pretend to be together until the film passes $100 million at the box office, because you feel like you're getting a glimpse into their real life as a couple.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: As charming and funny as Justin Long is as the MAC guy, he's just not a leading man. Drew Barrymore is even more cute and disarming than usual, despite the fact that she has the laugh of a 60-year-old alcoholic. And Charlie Day is the new Zach Galifianakis.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Let's put this in the "You go, girl!" category. Nanette Burnstein, who has multiple awards for documentary directing, but has never directed a fictional script before, could have fooled me.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: Apparently Geoff LaTulippe's original script made the "Black List," which is Hollywood's unofficial list of the best script each year that didn't sell. Knowing this, you can imagine my surprise when I found out in the Q & A, that the first thing the director did was to hire two different writers to rewrite the script completely, and then have the actors improvise most of their dialogue. In turn, I can imagine your surprise at the fact that I'm still surprised that the script got rewritten, even though I should get by now that this is pretty much true of every single movie that has ever gotten made in Hollywood. Then again, while I don't know what the Black List script was like, I did like this version.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/search/going%20the%20distance/trailers

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