Valentine Marathon: The Proposal (2009)

I took it everyone enjoyed my marathon intermission yesterday.  However, time is flying by and I had to get back on with the marathon with a romantic comedy, The Proposal.

Director: Anne Fletcher

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Mary Steenburgen, Betty White, Denis O’Hare

Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) is the editor in chief of Colden Books, who is a Canadian waiting for her visa application.  When she left the country without the appropriate paperwork, her visa was denied and she has to be deported.  In a fluster of the moment, she decides to make her long time assistant, Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) marry her.  However, her immigration officer (Denis O’Hare) doesn’t believe them and schedules them for an interview to test them on their knowledge of each other right after they come back from their trip to visit Andrew’s family in Alaska to celebrate his grandma Annie’s (Betty White) birthday.

This is a hilarious flick.  I love Sandra Bullock.  I really do.  She’s an amazing actress and I’ve loved her movies since forever.  I believe I had talked about this back in December when I did the Christmas marathon and reviewed While You Were Sleeping.  I was watching this one and I thought it was slightly similar in the fact that it focuses on regaining the lost feeling of being part of a family.  Sandra Bullock may play a much more stuck-up role as Margaret but she just has this crazy funny moments that just made me laugh out loud.

Aside from that, we have Betty White.  She’s always the adorable and humorous grandma.  Don’t you want your grandmother to be like her? She’s just pure awesomeness.  Okay, I know I know…we also need to talk about Ryan Reynolds.  As much as he was crap as Green Lantern, he does play a wonderful rom-com actor.  And he is quite the handsome and charming man (especially on a physical level, he goes shirtless a few times).

This flick is quite the old and normal type of story line and it can get predictable but the characters really is the plus and leads it to higher ground.  It helps us appreciate the funny moments a bit more.  Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds have amazing chemistry to make this all the more believable.  This isn’t any new but its definitely a fun and comedic story that makes you feel good in the end.  That’s all I really ask for in a chick flick.  As much it sounds like I’m not very appreciative of this one, I do love it quite a bit because of its frequent moments to just pop out some random scene that make me roll over laughing.

What do you think about Sandra Bullock? Whats your favorite Sandra Bullock movie?

Christmas Marathon ends with Elf (2003)

In line with this, you can call me by my elf name- Cookie Plum-Pants.  Nice to meet you all.  I’m sure I can’t make any toys by the thousand at Santa’s workshop so I will result to testing for defective Jack in the Boxes and eating lots of candy. You can check out how to get your elf name HERE.  Lets start the last review in my Christmas Marathon!

ELF (2003)

Director: Jon Favreau

Cast: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen

Buddy (Will Ferrell) was raised in the North Pole at Santa’s workshop, mostly by Papa Elf.  After knowing that he is actually human, the reason why he can’t perform the elf responsibilities as well as the other elves, he learns that his father, Walter Hobbs (James Caan) is in New York City. He sets out to find his father and tell him about his existence and try to get him off the naughty list.  His habits are not the same as a big bustling city and he doesn’t understand the human ways. His ways leads to some humorous turnouts but also he searches for his true self in a city that has forgotten what Christmas spirit is.

This Christmas flick is always the finale of my Christmas marathon, mostly because its a really awesome movie and its one of my boyfriend’s favorites.  Its funny in a really silly way. I don’t usually buy a lot of that humor but for this, it manages to get quite a lot of laughs.  The more I see it, the more I enjoy it.  Will Ferrell is one of those actors whose humor isn’t always my type of humor, however, in this one, his role as a human raised in an elf world and adapting back to his own life really was amazing.  He did a fantastic job at it.  Humor is a very subjective aspect, what works for one person may not work for another, plus this one does it in a very nice family comedy.  Plus, it has one of my favorite actresses: Zooey Deschanel.  She’s just a sweetheart and when she sings “Baby, Its Cold Outside” or “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, its just so awesome.

Similar to Polar Express, its circled around Christmas spirit.  The concept of believing is the focus: If you believe, you don’t necessarily have to see it.  Christmas is getting very commercialized and I feel that more and more every year, so to me, this movie touches a very important aspect.  Family, humor, music and altogether Christmas spirit: just a great mix for a Christmas flick.

Sorry for the late review.  I got right to it after I had a moment.  Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas celebration with family and friends.

 

Christmas Marathon: Four Christmases (2008)

Yet another romantic comedy with a Christmas theme.  I’m a girl and in the last few years, this has been a big thing for me, especially when I get stressed at work, my focus doesn’t turn to action movies or suspense as much anymore.  Can you imagine having Four Christmases in one day? I celebrate Christmas on Dec. 24th and its been like that for the last few years.  I always work on Christmas Eve so thinking about running to four families in one day doesn’t even sound possible but then they probably did it on the actual Christmas Day.

So here we go.. with the next movie in the Christmas marathon.

FOUR CHRISTMASES

Director: Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses)

Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn, Robert Duvall, Tim McGraw, Jon Favreau, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Mary Steenburgen

Four Christmases is about Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) who are a couple who have been together for 3 years and because of their divorced parents resulting into four christmases, they go away every Christmas for vacation while giving them an excuse of doing charity work.  This Christmas, a thick fog has covered the city and all the flights are cancelled forcing them to visit four families throughout the day to celebrate Christmas.  The first stop is at Brad’s dad (Robert Duvall) and his two brothers Denver (Jon Favreau) and Dallas (Tim McGraw) – the house of crazy testerone-filled house.  The second is at Kate’s mom (Mary Steenburgen) who they call the house of cougars where we meet her sister, Courtney (Kristin Chenoworth).  The third stop is at Brad’s mom (Sissy Spacek) who is now with Brad’s former best friend.  The last stop is at Kate’s father (Jon Voight).  They learn throughout the day that they’ve done things alongside each other but never with each other and a bit more about their relationship. Whether they are actually right for each other.

This is an okay Christmas movie.  It gives us a very exaggerated version of life, I’d believe.  I’m not saying it doesn’t happen but the fact of hitting extremities.  It is entertaining at parts but this time around, I realized why I really hated this movie.  The main reason was Vince Vaughn.  Any Vince Vaughn fans out there, I’m sorry.  I just realized that he always gets casted as the self-centred man of the relationship who comes to realize that afterwards, then he changes.  This time around, I just found him whiny.  I was tempted to fast forward when he started talking, but I didn’t, of course.  However, this rom-com is supported with great actors and actresses and it does give us a nice ending, thats why I listed a more than usual list of cast up on top.  Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Mary Steenburgen are all great in what they are given to work with.  Deal is, I see this as a flat out romantic comedy and being set on Christmas day and giving us a scene on gift exchange doesn’t really mean its a Christmas-themed movie.  However, this movie did have a few laughs as the movie moved on.  It gave us a few nice sweet moments.  It talks about chemistry in a relationship and how much you know about the person you are with, and it does have hints of the importance of family.  It starts off with the mindset of “You can’t spell families without lies” but then it curves to make you feel a bit of the heartwarming family for a few moments and then ends up with the same in a way.

Honestly, I don’t know how to write up for this one.  I felt that the plot was a bit all over the place.  There were contradictions in how certain people reacted that I can’t seem to figure out as I’m writing this.   I don’t watch this in abundance because I’m not particularly a bit fan, even for Christmas, I feel that it doesn’t really have that much holiday feel.  So I’m not recommending this for Christmas or any time of year.  However, if you do enjoy Vince Vaughn and/or Reese Witherspoon, its an alright flick with a few good laughs.

So, has anyone else seen this? Are you a fan of Vince Vaughn? Maybe Reese Witherspoon?