Netflix A-Z: Love Wrecked (2005)

As we are slowly approaching the halfway point of this first round of Netflix A-Z, I’m looking back and questioning some of my choices.  After all, I guess there are always something in the deep dark areas of my mind of why I push away watching a certain movie on my list.  I mean, I see it there all the time but then, something just says no. Love Wrecked is on the list because I enjoy Amanda Bynes in She’s the Man but then a few other movies where she is in supporting roles (for example, Hairspray & Easy A). In main roles, I’m still looking for one I enjoy as much as She’s the Man.

So, here we are.  I’m not sure about anyone here so let’s take a deep breath and press play! Let’s go! 😉

Love Wrecked (2005)

Director: Randal Kleiser

Cast: Amanda Bynes, Chris Carmack, Jonathan Bennett, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Jackie Long, Joey Kern, Lance Bass, Kathy Griffin, Alfonso Ribeiro

On a Caribbean cruise, Jenny is marooned on a beach with her rock and roll idol. Deliriously in love with the idea of time alone with him, she manages to hide the fact that they’re a stone’s throw away from their resort.-IMDB

I guess the description up there is fairly accurate. I’m going to say this right now and finish the thought in the opening paragraph.  Amanda Bynes’ movies have always a very similar feeling to it and as I was putting together that part on the top, I realized what it was. All her movies, other than She’s The Man or the supporting roles ones, are really great as background noise.  Like I’d put it on in the background while I do whatever chores. You don’t need a whole lot of focus but its a little bit of entertainment when you walk past the screen and look at it for a little bit.  Its not a bad thing.  Some movies are great for that and I appreciate them for that. Love Wrecked definitely falls into that category.  Its with a young cast that I knew from various teen shows and I was in my late teens 10 years ago.  I’ll refer to those as we look at the performances further down.

Love Wrecked is pretty thin in plot.  It plays on the exaggerated ignorance of rock stars.  Its a lot of stupid troupes and very teen-related things going on.  Nothing exciting happens a lot and its almost mocks the whole fan-girl thing. Actually, not almost, it really does.  The best thing about this one is the scenery because its shot in Sun Village Beach Resort in St. Lucia, I think. Its nothing particularly special but its harmless in a way.  There were some moments where it was just a little too much and over the top with the reactions and the acting.  It might appeal to the  younger audience and get a few laughs but its nothing memorable.

Looking at the young cast, Amanda Bynes is just being her usual acting persona.  Whether in She’s the Man or Sydney White, in the leading role, she pretty much does the same reactions and over the top silliness.  I personally enjoy Amanda Bynes when she was doing these movies so it doesn’t bother me so much.  This one is definitely more in the Sydney White league.  I guess, what makes the difference is a better script and this one didn’t have that.

On the other hand, the boys here are pretty interesting choices.  Chris Carmack who plays the rock star was in The OC. At least thats where I remember him from.  He was never a favorite character for me but he did end up in a few movies after his role in the show doing teen movies or even Butterfly Effect 3, I think.  I didn’t see that one.  He’s okay.  He isn’t really my type of guy so I didn’t even sense his appeal.  Plus, they made him extremely stupid and he was doing these ridiculous things that made me cringe from the cheesiness.  I don’t even know if that was intentional. The other guy, Ryan, played by Jonathan Bennett, who is this girl’s  best friend who obviously has a crush on her and is the decent good guy underdog choice here is a pretty nice role.  I actually like Jonathan Bennett.  He was in Mean Girls playing the main guy there.  In this one, I like Ryan because he was really shy and cute.  His character had something nice.  Because of that, it got me a little more interested in the movie and found the calmer moments with him and Amanda Bynes’ character nice.

I’m a little sad that this movie was so sub-par because the director here is Kandal Kleiser.  C’mon, I just raved about his earlier work a few months ago.  He’s the guy who did Grease! Thinking about Grease makes me want to watch it on repeat, then x amount of years later, he decides to do Love Wrecked? I just can’t think of why.

Overall, Love Wrecked is nothing special.  Its forgettable and cliche and sometimes over the top in a rather annoying way.  I didn’t hate it but I wouldn’t go back to watch it mostly because I’m sure I’ll forget about it in a few days. The acting was a little awkward and the story was a little boring but hey, the Caribbeans definitely are pretty.  While there were some mildly funny parts and some cute chemistry near the end, and I like the cast here somewhat, I remain indifferent to it.

On a ending note, I can’t even remember the name of Amanda Bynes’ character…I think it was Jenny. Haha!

Have you seen Love Wrecked? What did you think?

M is next! Any guesses?
Honestly, I’m a little worried about my choice…

Sydney White (2007)

I did a little research on those Snow White adaptations and apparently this modern day flick called Sydney White is also a spin-off.  Amanda Bynes may not be all that right now but in her She’s the Man days, she was quite fun to watch on screen.  With that said, I turned on Sydney White, got myself a glass of fizzy sparkling juice from Ikea and sat back to relax. My expectations aren’t high so all I ask for is some form of entertainment.

Let’s see if they can pull it off 😉

Sydney White (2007)

Director: Joe Nussbaum

Cast: Amanda Bynes, Matt Long, Sara Paxton, Jack Carpenter, Jeremy Howard, Crystal Hunt, Adam Hendershott, Danny Strong, Samm Levine, Arnie Pantoja

Every fairy tale eventually gets retold in the modern day high school or college environment.  Sydney White is set in university and fraternity houses and all that jazz.  When Sydney White goes to college as a freshman through a scholarship, she is following her mom’s footsteps.  However, Rachel, the president of the house doesn’t like her and when her initiation/pledge tasks is over, she was left outside with nowhere to go.  Luckily, the Vortex, housing a bunch (seven) of dorks/nobodies on campus takes her in.  As she tries to get them to rebel against Rachel and all the oppression they get by becoming school council, she leads them by changing their abilities a little bit by bit and hopefully gain back some rights for their “house”.

I’m not going to lie.  Sydney White is a rather ridiculous retelling of the Snow White story.  Maybe its so ridiculous that I ended up laughing a lot, probably at the movie.  Still, entertaining level very much there.  This time around, we don’t have an evil stepmother but rather some evil girls/”sisters” who want to destroy her.  Instead of the seven dwarfs, we now have the seven dorks.  Campus is the “castle” and the king is not royalty but a common plumber. There’s quite a bit of twists and sometimes these modern reimaginings are a little crazy and out there and the puns are kind of eye-rolling worthy but the effort to entertain through absurdity is always there.  Some might think its lame…and there definitely are some of those parts.

 And well, the prince, right up there, is okay.  He’s a good enough looking guy to carry the part.  He was pretty funny also. His part worked out good.  Like most Snow White princes, he didn’t have to do much, right? I guess.  Okay, enough about the prince.  all he has to be is a pretty face with a little personality and I was alright with it.

What I’d like to discuss is Amanda Bynes.  I haven’t seen a bunch of her movies, not that she has all that many but after this movie, I’d confirmed one thing: Amanda Bynes has one sort of acting thing and if you enjoyed her in She’s the Man, then you might enjoy her here because its pretty much an extremely similar version.

However, the most entertaining is always the seven dwarfs or dorks or whatever version you want to call them here.  These guys have all different personalities and their own little issues and its kind of a secret we learn bit by bit just like Sydney does and they  make the movie pretty funny at times.

As with any of these college things, its about change.  Our heroine in modern times is always someone who fights for change in some sort of status quo.  So look, Sydney White is the modern version of Snow White set in university and there’s some entertaining bits and some creative little play on the original and there’s a good looking prince.  Amanda Bynes does her thing and its all rather predictable and even some kind of lame puns.  Its a mixed basket.  I probably won’t go and watch it again but for a one time thing, its okay.  I didn’t hate it but I’ll probably forget it a few days later (as I have because I’m finishing this up on the cruise and I can’t seem to remember the Prince’s name and its charging me per minute here so I don’t want to bother to look it up.)

Have you seen Sydney White? What are your thoughts on Amanda Bynes?

Easy A (2010)

I have no idea how I haven’t watched this movie again in the whole 2013.  I guess I just didn’t as I was busy discovering new genres.  Attached with the fact that the past weekend in THIS post, I claimed it to be my feel good movie, you already know what to expect in the review but still, lets get on with it 🙂

Director: Will Gluck

Cast: Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley, Dan Byrd, Thomas Haden Church, Cam Gigandet, Lisa Kudrow

Olive (Emma Stone) is a normal not very popular student at school.  One day, when her extremely religious classmate, Marianne (Amanda Bynes) overhears her claiming to her best friend, Rhiannon (Aly Michalka) that she had lost her virginity with a college guy, the rumor spreads quickly.  With this, she sees that these rumors gives her a new social attention in the school that she enjoys and she ends up using these rumors to bring more attention on herself even though it came with a rather tarnished reputation.

This was the first movie I became fully aware of who Emma Stone was. Sure, I remembered her from House Bunny and realized she was in Ghost of Girlfriends Past, but this one placed her on the map in my book.  She’s funny and sarcastic and this movie is just so my type of humor.  I had a great time with it. Since then, Emma Stone has been one of my top 10 favorite actresses.  I really think she can do no wrong.  I even revisit some of her roles and I realize how she might be the shining part in a not so good movies (like for Ghost of Girlfriends Past).  Of course, the movie itself has a great tone.  It was smart, witty humor and payed tribute to great teen comedies, you know, John Hughes era.

Honestly, I love the whole cast in Easy A. After my long girl crush talk on Emma Stone, lets look at the rest of the cast.  We have in a rather smaller supporting role, Thomas Haden Church and Lisa Kudrow.  Both are very good at creating funny moments even when they are really trying to be serious.  We have the before crazy mode Amanda Bynes.  The one I do love quite a bit.  She plays a fully devoted religious girl and she was quite funny, especially her whole talks and attacks with with Emma’s character Olive.

We have some awesome young actors that I like, Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley.  That guy slowly grew on me as I watched Gossip Girl more.  I really should finish up the last 1.5 seasons.  Penn Badgley is not a bad looking guy but what he has is a charm to him and I like the vibe he gives off in his roles.  In this one, he didn’t have a huge role since Easy A was more of a teen comedy than a romantic one so the focus wasn’t on the guys.

I really think that the cast and the characters are the life of any kind of comedy so I’m going to focus on that.

Moving along, Olive’s family is fabulous as well. I love Stanley Tucci so much, who plays Olive’s father.  The man is a genius. He breathes life into any role he is given.  Seriously, pick any role he’s done and if I’ve seen it, I’ll remember it because he’s just so awesome.  Him and Patricia Clarkson, who played his wife was such fun to watch.

So yes, did you get that this movie was fun and funny? I’m pretty sure you did. These late nights of finishing up the TESL course has ironically zapped most of my vocabulary out of my mind.  Easy A is an awesome teen comedy and one that I totally recommend.  If you haven’t seen it, check it out! I promise you’ll have fun, well, the majority of you.  Emma Stone is amazing and the movie itself just so fantastic 🙂

What do you think of Easy A? Are you a fan of Emma Stone?

Robots (2005)

Its been a while (or so it seems) that I saw an animated movie.  My boyfriend picked up Robots the other day to replace the copy that was lent out and not taken care of upon return.

Director: Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha

Voices: Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Robin Williams, Jim Broadbent, Mel Brooks, Stanley Tucci, Amanda Bynes, Greg Kinnear

Rodney Copperbottom (Ewan McGregor) has always been used to being put together from birth from second hand parts but he isn’t scared to dream big because BigWeld Corporation’s owner Bigweld made him believe that “you can shine no matter what you’re made of.” As he grew up, he kept trying to make something that could be useful and then be able to show it to Bigweld (Mel Brooks).  When he finally succeeds in making a little gadget and decides to head out to the city, he meets Fender (Robin Williams) and his sister Piper (Amanda Bynes) who introduces him to the Rusties.  What originally starts out as a dream becomes a bit more complicated when he realizes that Bigweld is no longer running the corporation himself but rather it was Ratchet (Greg Kinnear) who with the help of his mom (Jim Broadbent) wants to turn the robot world to only have the choice of purchasing new parts and destroy all the spare ones.  With the Rusties, Rodney needs to find a way to change things back to how they were.

Robots is a super fun animation supported by awesome vocal talents. My favorite part of this flick has to be Robin Williams in the voice of Fender.  Robin Williams started his career almost on being able to do all these voices, at least thats how I knew him.  In this one, he is possibly one of the funniest component of it.  As much as the story is just a simple story, the fact that they try to incorporation puns and good dialogue pushes this story forward to be one of the better animations that I have seen.

Rusties

On a visual, the characters are done very good. Also, the scenes and design of the Robot City is actually very nice to look at it.  There is one particular part that I always love is the roller coaster type and in this one its like a ride to get from point A to point B.  I would faint if technology ever got to do transportation that way, but it was fun to watch especially paired up with the vocal talents of Ewan McGregor and Robin Williams.  Plus, the Rusties had a range of different with very personable characteristics and personality traits.

 

I always take a look at the villains to see if they are convincing.  In this one, it is an animation meant for children so they really make it fun and not completely in the evil zone. Ratchet was somewhat of a Mommy’s Boy where he was really a puppet for his mom, Madam Gasket’s evil plans.  I don’t know the deal with Madam Gasket and how she came to be so bitter, especially since her robot husband isn’t really in the best position (literally) probably thanks to her.  These villains brought a different vibe to the movie, maybe not completely evil but it gave us a few extra laughs as well!

 

Robots is full of laughs, little puns, a lot of uplifting fun and entertainment, but aside from all that, it has some nice heartwarming moments involving Rodney and his parents. It also had some nice moments when the Rusties and Bigweld decided to join forces to get back the reins of the corporation to bring Ratchet to an end.  Another part that I really liked was the positive messages behind it to dream big and that it doesn’t really matter where you come from, its what you make yourself out to be. Very encouraging message! Thats always a plus in animations 🙂

This is apparently from the same creators of Ice Age and I thoroughly enjoyed this one more!

What about you? Did you see this? Do you think Ice Age is better than this one?

Wrapping up the Valentine’s Marathon: She’s The Man (2006)

There was a bundle of movies that was supposed to be in the original list, but it came to the point that I realized it should be a romantic comedy to end off the marathon.  Why? Because its supposed to be happy.  I don’t want to end this bawling my eyes out or telling you about some bittersweet romantic story.  I can do that some other time this year.  The movie I was supposed to watch was A Walk to Remember but I’ve bumped that back for now.  My boyfriend was going to sit with me through a movie so might as well choose one that both of us knows that we enjoy.  By the way, I only have this because I stole it from his movie stash and never gave it back. But still lets take a look at it…

Director: Andy Fickman

Cast: Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum, Laura Ramsey, Vinnie Jones, Robert Hoffman, James Kirk

Viola (Amanda Bynes)  is part of the Cornwall women’s Soccer team and is a really good soccer player.  When the women’s soccer team is cut and the men’s soccer team won’t let her join, she has to find another way.  When she comes home, her mother is trying to convince her to be a debutante.  When she dodges that, she goes up to find her brother Sebastian (James Kirk) getting ready to leave to London and skip school for 2 weeks to pursue his passion in music and he asks Viola to call in to his new school Illyria to make up a reason for his absence.  Suddenly, she gets an idea to disguise her brother for the two weeks so that she can beat the Cornwall’s soccer team to prove to them that she’s as good as them.  She asks her friends to help turn her into a guy.  When she starts school, pretending to be a guy turns out to be harder than she expected especially when this affects her social life and her chance at getting into the soccer team as well.  At the same time, her hot roommate, Duke (Channing Tatum) is also part of the soccer team and when she gets put into 2nd string by their coach (Vinnie Jones).  Duke  likes the hottest girl in school, Olivia (Laura Ramsey) but doesn’t know how to approach her.  When he sees that she gets along with Sebastian, Duke asks for help in exchange for getting her into first string in the soccer team by the Cornwall game. Caught between trying to get to first string on the soccer team, not getting caught of disguising as a guy, being pursued by her brother’s ex-girlfriend and not letting her mom suspect that she’s taking her brother’s place and at the same time fulfilling her expectations as debutante..the situation gets a bit more complex.

I really had no expectations when I saw this a few years ago. Its possibly one of the five romantic comedies that my boyfriend will watch and NOT roll his eyes at.  This movie is just full of laugh out loud moments.  Even though I know what happens already and this is possibly the third or fourth time I’ve seen it, I still just can’t help but laugh so hard that I get tears in my eyes.  Its just full of silly moments and the absurdity of how anyone would just laugh at a guy that acted like that (even if she was just pretending).  I don’t know how others feel about this movie but to me and my boyfriend, it gears towards our type of humour.

This is possibly the best that I’ve seen Amanda Bynes.  I’ve seen her afterwards in Hairspray and Easy A in supporting roles.  This one really is just hilarious.  And plus, Channing Tatum practically one of his first roles where he’s taking somewhat of a leading male role.  As much as I didn’t like Channing Tatum a lot in his beginning roles, this one I actually like.  He’s just so adorable with his reactions when he starts getting all not sure how to act around the girl he likes.  And as much as I don’t usually swoon over actors, I mean Channing Tatum is pretty hot in this.

Apparently this was based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.  I’ve never read of it and I don’t really know the story either.  Maybe I should find time and read some Shakespeare…although its going to take a whole lot of time to finish and understand what I just read.  It could be a refreshing read though.

This was the perfect way to end my Valentine’s marathon. Laughing and enjoying myself to a nice romantic comedy that didn’t shower you with too much lovey-dovey scenarios but more on the lines of just being silly fun.  If you’re into that sort of dumb silly humor, you should check it out.  No guarantees though since humor is the tricky thing that differs to each person’s taste!

What type of humor are you into? What is your favorite comedy? Is Channing Tatum a yes or no?

Just a side question, do you enjoy these marathons? Is there one that you’d like to suggest for me to do some time?

One more special post in a few hours and I’m going to give you all some peace! Have fun!