Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)

Movies every night, eh? Not sick of my reviews yet I hope! I’m trying to keep them assorted and last night I worked on the pile I had stacked on the side of my table and pulled up this romantic comedy Bridget Jones’s Diary.  I have never read the book of this.  Seems like there’s so many adaptations out there that I have actually read the source material.  This has Colin Firth and I love him 🙂 Plus it has Hugh Grant and he can be quite charming at times…Okay, let me get out of the swooning mode and to the review..

Director: Sharon Maguire

Cast: Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent

Bridget Jones is a early 30s girl who hasn’t dated very much and works at a publishing company. Every year on her mother’s annual party, her mother tries to match her up with single men.  This year, she sets her up with a childhood companion (who she does not remember) and is a barrister called Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).  When he turns out to be a disagreeable and rude divorced man.  She leaves in despair and she decides to start a diary to document her resolutions where she vows to stop drinking, quit smoking and lose weight.  At this time, her charming but not very respectable boss Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) shows an interest in her and sends her some provocative emails (which she returns) and eventually they go out for a dinner date.  As they grow closer, she also learns that he is actually seeing a woman and is engaged to her.  Afterwards, she quits her job and starts working as a TV presenter and its at this time,  she seems to be noticing Mark around her social circles more and more frequently and secretly find him more attractive.  When Mark starts showing interest, Daniel also returns to show his affections as well.  Due to past issues, they both end up fighting for her affections.

This has most probably shot up to my top 10 favorite romantic comedies if I had a list of one.  Its funny, quirky, witty and at times silly British humor which I love mixed with a cute and silly romantic adventure.  This movie is a gem.  Its just so fun to watch and I found myself laughing and giggling and doing all these girly things throughout the movie.

I`m not much of a Renee Zellweger fan.  I haven`t followed a lot of her movies but this role made me completely praise her. It looks that it would’ve taken a lot of courage to do this role.  Bridget is a role thats hard to do because she had to expose a lot of craziness. The character itself was a girl that would binge alcohol and smoke a lot, but at the same time she was somewhat of a ditz.  She was looking for a man who would just love her the way she was as an average girl.  Renee Zellweger did this amazingly.  She was funny, quirky and extremely likeable.  Her reactions and the things that she did was sometimes hilarious.  Her chemistry with both Hugh Grant’s Daniel and Colin Firth’s Mark was awesome. Plus, I felt connected with her character quickly into the movie. Thats always a good thing 🙂

I’m just going to start with Hugh Grant.  I like him a lot of roles however I’ve never really seen him as a guy who was all about fun.  He felt somewhat pretentious. I’m guessing his role needed that because he’s supposed to be somewhat of a person scared to commit to long-term however, he was also seeing two women at the same time.  Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant played off each other well and the chemistry was really fun to watch as they engaged into a more fun and sexual relationship.  However, we could see that he was the man that she first resolved to not date and hoped that he wasn’t like that.

The chemistry between Colin Firth’s Mark and Bridget was different.  It was a building of emotions.  Things were slower as they got to know each other better.  Colin Firth is a charming actor as always.  He just plays the quiet and analytical character.  He’s a gentleman who doesn’t talk bad of others and somewhat holds in his feelings until they explode.  I guess Bridget is his exact opposite so he becomes attracted to her.  This is what makes the fight between him and Daniel is so much more hilarious. Funny thing though, is that I never quite understood why I’m so into Colin Firth’s characters.  He always looks so…serious, I guess, but I think its the way he emotes with his eyes.  Anyways, I love the man, just can’t pinpoint why.

I love this rom-com and highly recommend it.  Such a fun flick to watch packed with lots and lots of laughs.

What’s Your Number? (2011)

I needed a light-hearted rom-com to kick start the weekend.  What’s Your Number? was what I happened to pull off my shelf.  All my movies that I haven’t seen happen to be dramas or action and I just wasn’t in the mood for it.

Director: Mark Mylod

Cast: Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Ari Graynor, Chris Pratt

One day, Ally Darling (Anna Faris) reads an article that the national average for the number of men that women sleep with is 10.5.  Seeing that she has neared almost twice the national average with her number being 19 (and this means she has a possibility of never getting married), she proclaims that she will not sleep with any other men until she finds the right one to fill in the slot of 20.  With her sister, Daisy’s (Ari Graynor) wedding in the planning stages and discussions with some friends, she comes up with the idea that she should go back and take another look at her exes to see if she can spark something with them, as to not raise her number.  At the same time, she asks for the help of her neighbor, Colin (Chris Evans), who not only has tracking skills, but is not serious about romantic relationships.  The search for her exes, with Colin’s help, turns out to be a lot more than she expected.

This is a movie that falls in the enjoyable level for me.  Its somewhat of a guilty pleasure not only because its a romantic comedy (and an R-rated one at that) but because Chris Evans is amazing eye candy.  He is 90% naked or in his boxer briefs almost in all the shots.  And when he isn’t naked, he is extremely dreamy and charming to look at.  I’m going to admit right away that he makes this chick flick better than it actually is. He gives some nice little moments and some funny ones and sometimes, when they capture his charming looks on screen it just sweeps me  away.

Searching for the exes

On the other hand, I’m not a huge fan of Anna Faris.  From what I’ve heard, she got popular from the Scary Movie franchise.   I have watched none of them and do not intend to ever do it.  Feel free to tell me if thats true.  However, I have seen her in House Bunny.  She seems to like to engage herself in roles where she gets mildly revealing and/or naked.  I think in an interview, they called her daring.  She has some cute moments here and there in this flick however, she doesn’t engage me into the movie mostly because of the way she talks.  I think its just her voice bothers me and sometimes, she has forced smiles and expressions.  I guess its just her acting isn’t very natural to me.  Not exactly sure how to describe it, but then at the same time, she has an awkwardness that can sometimes be cute and humorous.

Cute chemistry 🙂

As far as chemistry goes between Anna Faris’s Ally and Chris Evans’s Colin, there was some here and there.  One of my favorite scenes was this basketball faceoff scene.  That part was awesome.  Well, and I can’t decide if its Chris Evans or the chemistry that they had but they had some hot moments when they were on-screen together. Like the one above this paragraph…

Another reason for guys to watch this, if you want to see her naked…

I’ve never sat around and compared my “number” with anyone nor have I ever wanted to share that even to start with.  It seems a private matter, so I’m not exactly sure if that’s such an impact on a relationship, but if you do think it important, then I’m sure this flick could have some appeal.  It does have some silly and comedic moments.  I had a few laughs and its mostly mocking the flashbacks of her past boyfriends.  Its cheap humor though, nothing witty about what they do with it and sometimes, it was plain strange.

What’s Your Number? is an enjoyable romantic comedy.  Some cute moments, some humor and lots of sexy Chris Evans with his beautiful eyes to look at.  That’s enough for me and fitted into my Friday movie night mood.  Sometimes, its all about fulfilling my guilty pleasures 🙂

My 10 Favorite Romantic Comedies! (Happy Valentine’s Day)

I’d like to start off by wishing everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day! If you’ve already celebrated that you had a really awesome one!

People who know me would consider me a romantic, but the most girly interest I may have is watching romantic comedies.  I love watching them all the time.  This list is made up of 10 of my favorite romantic comedies.  My boyfriend pitched in two that he really enjoyed (which are also my favorites). At the end I’ll put down  which ones he would sit down and watch with me willingly.

I usually enjoy doing movie marathons for certain events in the year.  This year I didn’t do a Valentine’s Movie Marathon because I’m doing one of my whole movie collection but if I were to have one, here’s what it’d look like!

(Please note that these are not in any particular order)

LETTERS TO JULIET

 

Not only is the story very cute, its also about all the things we’d like to have.  Some crazy romance goose chase looking for a long lost love while a younger love is developing.   Along with that, its paired up with a lot of happy love songs from Colbie Caillat in the background.  Every time I finish watching this movie, I just feel absolutely fantastic.

 

 

THE PROPOSAL

 

 

Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock is really a combination that cannot be a disaster.  I’m a huge Sandra Bullock fan and this movie was so hilarious.

 

 

VALENTINE’S DAY

 

I don’t think this one needs a whole lot of explanation.  Valentine’s Day to watch on Valentine’s Day seems to be reasonable.  Aside from that point, this movie was pretty  lighthearted.  I particularly loved Anne Hathaway’s character as she brought this crazy humorous take to her story.  In general, this movie was extremely fun to watch.

 

 

P.S. I LOVE YOU

 

I’m still a bit confused as to whether this can be considered a romantic comedy but then I did find the movie rather funny.  For sure, the beginning wasn’t as funny.  We all know losing a loved one is not funny but then the way she had to do everything she was told to pick herself up was a very sweet on the part of her husband.  The point of romantic comedies is to live through a situation that you’d hope could happen to you.  In this case, it wouldn’t be being widowed relatively young, but to be able to have someone who would have thought through so much because of his love, that he’d want you to move on and be happy after he had passed on.

 

27 DRESSES

 

This is possibly Katherine Heigl’s best romantic comedy.  She’s done multiple after but this one was pretty good.  I’ve personally watched many times and I still always like to watch it.

 

 

 

CLUELESS

 

The modern day Emma movie adaptation.  I first saw this movie in one of my English classes called Movies and Cinema and we were reading the book Emma.  I was never a fan of romantic comedies nor Alicia Silverstone but this movie was hilarious.  Maybe its because it had an amusing take of the story and of growing up and finding true love.  It was a very funny and uplifting movie to watch.

 

 

LIFE AS WE KNOW IT

 

This is one of my most recent romantic comedy additions.  Another Katherine Heigl movie with Josh Duhamel.  I found this movie quite entertaining.  Getting thrown responsiblities before they were ready and dealing with it step by step.  About how people can grow up and change to adapt to sudden situations in life, I think its a very encouraging movie for anyone.

 

 

MY LIFE IN RUINS

 

I had a debate over this one or My Big Fat Greek Wedding but this one won.  I liked this movie because the actor was just crazy.  You had never imagined what the guy was like through the whole movie, then unexpectedly she falls for him.  Turns out the guy that looked horrible in the beginning  becomes this charming man.  It shows us how love is unexpected and comes when we least expect it to.

 

 

Finally, my guy’s pick (because we all know despite loving watching romantic comedies with the girls or watching all the action movie with the boyfriend, its important to have him willingly sit next to you and enjoy a nice romantic comedy once in a while).

JUST GO WITH IT

 

This is another new addition to my movie collection and I watched it recently with my boyfriend and he totally loved it.  Adam Sandler usually makes pretty decent comedies.  Although, that is more the case in his older ones such as Spanglish (I’m not completely sure if there were other romantic comedies though).  I don’t really know how to describe this movie without sounding repetitive but this movie was downright hilarious.  The whole cast was fantastic and the dialogue was just absolutely great.  It was definitely fun to watch. We all need a good laugh.

 

HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS

 

Kate Hudson and Matthew McConnaughey had crazy connection in this movie.  This movie really was a great trip.  How much can a guy take before you reach his breaking point in a relationship?  Although I’m not sure any girl would go to that extreme because if they did, they would be pretty scary stuff.

 

 

So my Valentine’s marathon had started in January when I did end up watching most in these movies before today (Valentine’s Day)! Okay, its a bit late!  its technically not Valentine’s day anymore, but what better to match the season than to give fantastic choices of rom-coms.

I’m always up for more romantic comedies suggestions as they are one of the best solutions to relieve stress in my life.  Seeing my list, how many of you would agree with my choices? What are yours?