Starring: Amy Adams, Matthew Goode

Directed by: Anand Tucker

Written by: Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont

I’ll admit that I was biased against this movie from the first time that I saw the trailer. In theory, a movie that takes place entirely in Ireland is an ideal way to spend 90 minutes. This is especially true if it is a romantic comedy that is half road trip and half colorful locals. However, the old romantic comedy plot device of up tight New Yorker meets gruff and bitter small town guy has been done to death. And worse, a majority of those stories were poorly executed. So even before the movie began to play, I was a bit weary. In my favor though, I had a rough week and was cheerfully looking forward to a little cheesy comedic escape.

The story is simple: New Yorker Anna (Amy Adams) has been dating her cardiologist boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) for four years. When Jeremy plans a special anniversary dinner that does not include a proposal, a frustrated Anna decides to take matters into her own hands. Based on an Irish tradition employed by at least one woman in her family, Anna decides to meet up with Jeremy in Ireland while he is there for a conference and propose to him on leap day. As you can imagine, Anna's travel plans do not go smoothly. In the vein of of a light weight "Romancing the Stone," Anna meets up with a grumpy man in Ireland named Declan (Matthew Goode) who resents her but desperately needs her money. The two set off for Dublin so that Anna can propose to her boyfriend, and Anna and Declan begin to bicker from the time they first set eyes on one another.

Though a fan of both Amy Adams and Matthew Goode, there is only so much they can do to spruce up a romantic comedy. This is especially true when the direction is as awkward as the direction throughout this movie. There were extra tight close ups when the shot called for a less intense angle, and there were long shots in a scene that required more intimacy. The direction also bounced between a hand held reality feel and something more akin to a travelogue.

On top of the direction was the weak script. There were a few genuinely good moments, but few were because the writing was good. It seemed as if most of the jokes had been recycled from a cheesy cable movie as if no one would have had the intense feeling of déjà vu as they sat threw the viewing like I did. Adams and Goode seemed to be working overtime to do what they could, but there simply was only so far the cast can go to bail out the ship. Though Adams and Goode had chemistry, the writing does not give you much of an inkling as to why they would remotely care for one another. Sure the old romantic comedy adage is that opposites attract but in this instance, it just did not seem like a rational conclusion. The only reason the audience can buy into the story is because Goode and Adams did have chemistry. So my hats off to them for trying to make this thing work.

There is something to be said for the fact that the movie takes place 98% of the time in Ireland and 98% of the dialogue is said with an Irish accent and yet I still felt compelled throughout most of the movie to wonder how much longer I would have to sit through it. I can easily find something positive to say about almost any movie, but I was having great difficulties thinking of things as I sat in that theatre. Perhaps under a different director with another pass made on the script then there could have been something good here. The casting was good and the simple plot a nice one, but there just wasn’t any meat to the tale. The movie felt lifeless and unfinished, like a rough cut or quilt one started sewing in the 8th grade. You can hope it will turn out fine, but neither one of those things will improve unless you work on it.

Unless you are home sick with a broken heart or just need a cheesy little film after a bad week, then I would not give this movie a look. If you do, keep your expectations low and your blood sugar skyrocketing with the euphoria of a sugary treat high.

I first watched this movie with my parents so many years ago. Romantic comedies are the kind of movies that I usually run from at full speed. They usually come across as movies that are more for women than anyone else. But “When Harry Met Sally…” is one of the few romantic comedies that broke past its intended audience to embrace a much larger audience than it had ever expected to get. It came out in the summer of 1989 (yikes! That’s almost 20 years ago!) when movies like Tim Burton’s “Batman,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” “Ghostbusters 2,” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child” were expected to reign supreme at the box office. But in the end (despite some exceptions), movies like this and “Dead Poets Society” and “Do The Right Thing” were films that people remember more than anything others. How nice.

I gave my mother the latest special edition of “When Harry Met Sally…” for her birthday back in February, and tonight after several months, she actually took it out of its plastic wrapping for all to watch. Actually, I can’t really get on my mom for that because I myself received movies from them, some of which I have not watched for years after having received them (sorry mom and dad). But anyway, let’s get back on track here. “When Harry Met Sally…” remains one of the greatest romantic comedies ever made. It’s “Annie Hall” for a new generation, full of wonderful performances and fantastic dialogue that we could use more of in the movies made for today.

The day we watched the new special edition of this movie was the same date of my parents’ 40th anniversary. They say they have forgotten how great this movie is. I have not.

The movie is really a most unusual love story in regards to how it starts and progresses throughout the film. We first meet Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright just after they graduate from college. They end up taking a long car ride from the home away from the real world (college) and into New York where the real world awaits them whether they are ready for it or not. From the outset, it seems like these two cannot stand each other to save their lives. Harry is convinced that men and women can never be friends because “the sex part always gets in the way.” Sally tries to rebuff Harry’s advances and sexist comments by attempting to be more open-minded, but this motivates Harry even more to make clear the truth as he sees it. When they finally reach New York, they part ways as they go their separate paths, thinking they will never see each other again. But we know that’s not the case…

Five years later, we catch up with Harry and Sally as they bump into each other into a flight going to Chicago for business purposes. Things have definitely changed for the two as Sally is involved in a serious relationship with some lawyer named Joe, and Harry is now engaged to be married and is very much in love. The relationship between these two has not changed much from when they first met, and Sally is still turned off by his cavalier attitude towards the opposite sex, even when it seems like it is all going to change. They finally part ways at the airport, thinking they won’t bump into each other ever again…

This brings me to the point that the movie’s screenwriter, Nora Ephron, made about the relationship between these two; they keep meeting up with each other at the wrong times in their lives. The first time when they were on the road and leaving college was the wrong time, and bumping into each other at the airport was also the wrong time. But the third time, which comprises the bulk of the movie, is definitely the most wrong time at all. We catch up with the two as Sally has recently broken up with Joe and says that she is “over it,” and as Harry goes through a painful divorce that seriously shakes him up. These two at this point have no business being in any relationship as they are mourning what they thought they had, but this time a friendship blossoms between the two, and they go from fighting each other to challenging each other to see if men and women can really remain friends even after the sex part gets in the way.

“When Harry Met Sally” was made back in the golden age of Rob Reiner who has since seen his movies (like “The Bucket List”) take a critical nose dive. His direction here is practically flawless as he brings us close up into the two lives of people who couldn’t be more different from each other. Their progression throughout the movie is very believable and feels almost effortless thanks to the truly inspired performances of the two leads, and the beauty of a screenplay by Nora Ephron. Even as it looks like the movie might get a little too broad for its own good, Reiner manages to keep it all together in a movie that is wonderfully romantic and incredibly hilarious. Reiner also populates the movies with short vignettes of absolutely true stories portrayed by actors, which makes you believe that just about anything is possible in the realm of love.

Billy Crystal a lot of times comes across as just Billy Crystal whenever he is in a movie, but he can be a very good actor given the right role. His performance starts off in quite a broad manner, but he goes from being a confident man in love to a man whose pride is seemingly broken forever when his wife leaves him. The pain in his face when he sees his ex-wife with another man while he and Sally are doing karaoke at the Sharper Image store gets to you. Billy’s acting is strong as he makes comes across as a man betrayed and not sure where to place his anger. The character of Harry Burns remains one of his very best roles in a movie to date.

Meg Ryan became a star with this movie and rightly so. No one else could have played the role of Sally Albright better than she could, and she is utterly lovable even when she gives the waiter instructions of how she wants her food that seems almost impossible to remember. You also have to give her almost all the credit for the diner scene, which became one of the all time great moments in film history, as she was the one who came up with faking an orgasm. She shows a lot of range in the movie in going from serious to giddy to heartbroken at a moment’s notice. Granted, this movie pretty much got her stuck in romantic comedies for a longer period than she wanted, but the love affair with Ms. Ryan after this movie did seem unstoppable.

But let’s not forget the great supporting cast in this movie who are every bit as good. Carrie Fisher finally comes out of the “Star Wars” shell that threatened to define her career more than anything else to portray Sally’s best friend, Marie. Carrie’s character has this thing for married men that won’t ever seem to deter her from pursuing despite the odds NEVER being in her favor. She is great as we see her get all excited when she finds one of the men in her index is married, and she makes a mark to not forget him. Then you have the late Bruno Kirby (he is still missed) who plays Harry’s best friend, Jess. When Bruno and Carrie’s characters get together, it is a comedy high point as they ditch their friends for a night alone. Things never do seem to go as planned.

What makes this movie so enjoyable is how examines the question of if men and women can truly be friends, and in the answers it comes up with. This is one of those romantic comedies that can be for both men and women and is not like the shallow romantic comedies today like “Failure To Launch” or “Fool’s Gold” among others. It broke through the perception we had of these kinds of movies and how the audience for it was bigger than we realized at first. It also stands as a testament to unrequited love and how it can finally be requited. We should all be so lucky.

Almost 20 years after its initial release, “When Harry Met Sally” more than deserves its place as one of the best romantic comedies ever made. It’s still a great movie after all these years, and one that is impossible to forget (and I am not just talking about the orgasm scene).

**** out of ****

You’ve got to hand it to Eddie Murphy; in movies where he plays multiple roles, he is brilliant in getting so much into character that he almost disappears completely. You don’t think of Eddie playing himself in these roles at all. You see him being the characters. With the help of makeup artist Rick Baker, he has managed to pull off this feat in movies like “Coming To America” and “The Nutty Professor.” Last year, they got to work together again in “Norbit,” and Baker has again received an Oscar nomination for his work which is simply designed to add to Eddie’s characters. This is further proof that your movie doesn’t have to be any good to get an Oscar nomination.

I have heard nothing but crap about this movie, and yet it was still a big hit at the box office. Even “Pluto Nash” had to better than this! “Norbit” is one of the most uncomfortably awful experiences that I have ever had watching a movie. It’s right up there with “Mommie Dearest” in extremely unpleasant experiences. It is racist, endlessly cruel, and watching it made me sick and nauseous. Now, it takes a lot to offend me, and I feel like I can take anything in after awhile. The fact that I managed to sit through this whole movie and not turn it off is what I would consider a testament to my endurance. I thought running Cross Country in high school was tough enough, but this movie takes the cake for grueling challenges.

Watching it, you have to wonder what was going through Eddie and his brother Charlie’s minds. Did they really think any of this would be funny? Did they realize how cruel they were being to different people? Can you believe that this shit got a PG-13 rating instead of an R? This is one of the last movies you should ever take your kids to! It is a waste of time and talent, and I can’t believe that Eddie chose this movie to be the follow up to his Oscar winning performance in “Dreamgirls.”

The movie starts with Norbit introducing himself and tells of how he came to be. This leads to the first scene where we see a speeding car driving by an orphanage that’s out in the middle of nowhere, and the driver opens the door and simply tosses baby Norbit out. That is not funny, that is stupid. Then we meet the owner of the orphanage, Mr. Wong (Eddie Murphy, again), who discovers baby Norbit outside his orphanage and takes him while saying that he is an “ugly baby.” That is also not funny. Norbit spends much of his young life in the orphanage, and is later befriended by a cute girl named Kate. They are as close as kids can be until she is adopted and taken out of Norbit’s life.

We see Norbit again a few years later where he is being beaten up by twins on a playground, and then saved by a heavyset girl named Rasputia who makes it clear that she is now his girlfriend no matter what. Norbit keeps saying in his voiceover how close they are, but we the audience know better. They end up getting married, and it is a loveless marriage that Norbit would love to escape from if he had the courage. But then he meets up again with his friend Kate from the orphanage (Thandie Newton) who is engaged to a man (Cuba Gooding Jr.) who we quickly see is up to no good. Will Norbit and Kate come together and rise above all that is holding them back? What do you think?

The plot of “Norbit” is as predictable and old as they come. We all know how it’s going to end, and we have to wade through a lot hideous crap to get there. Norbit himself is a sweet little nerd as portrayed by Eddie, but the characters in the movie are nothing but cruel to him. You have to wonder how Norbit could have stayed so sweet in a world that is so utterly hateful to him. The fact that he didn’t go crazy in high school is amazing. While Eddie is charming as Norbit, he also plays two other characters that are the polar opposite.

Mr. Wong is a triumph of makeup design in that you cannot at all recognize Eddie as he fashions an Asian accent that adds to his latex exterior. But the character of Mr. Wong is so blatantly racist and cruel to Norbit, that it’s a hopeless wonder to figure out how and why Norbit would stay in touch with him over the years. Wong even makes it clear late in the movie that he is a racist, but why bother saying so when that is so blatantly clear? Is this supposed to excuse the filmmakers for creating him in the first place? I always get annoyed when groups of people protest or boycott a movie because they feel the characterizations are demeaning to them; as if one person in a movie should be the representative of an entire race of people. I usually don’t see that being the case in many of the movies I have seen, but a very strong case can be made here. You can’t help but come out of this movie feeling that Eddie has serious issues with Asians.

But that is nothing compared to the most infamous character that Eddie brings to the movie. Rasputia, a 400 or so pound woman with disgusting flaps of cellulite hanging out from everywhere, is one of the most repulsive characters to come out of any movie I have ever seen. From the trailer, I was under the mistaken assumption that Eddie Murphy would give a brilliant comic performance. But there are absolutely no redeeming qualities in this character because Eddie doesn’t even bother to bring any to her. She is a hateful bitch who abuses everyone around her and who has absolutely no sympathy for her long suffering husband who she treats like absolute crap. Why is she even with him anyway? Does treating Norbit like shit and running over dogs with her car give her the only joy she can ever have? Do people like this actually exist? After watching this train wreck of a comedy, I shudder to think so.

In addition, you have Eddie Griffin and Katt Williams playing a bunch of pimps looking to make money on just about everything in sight. There is no real point to having these characters in the movie, none that I can see anyway. There is an especially insulting scene halfway through the movie where they are strolling around a county fair and decide to take over a kissing booth. They make the woman doing the kissing their new “ho.” The next thing you, this white woman who is the ticket taker for the booth decides she wants to be a “ho” too. Yeah, right! Nobody can be that stupid. Naïve maybe, but never that stupid.

And then we have Cuba Gooding Jr. in a role that is another tired reminder of just how far his career has fallen since he got the Oscar for “Jerry Maguire.” He plays the devious fiancé to Thandie Newton’s character who joins in with Rasputia’s brothers, who are neighborhood thugs taking money from store owners, in a scheme that will involve taking Kate’s money. In all fairness, he was very good in Ridley Scott’s “American Gangster,” but it doesn’t change the fact that after he did “Norbit,” he went on to star in the Eddie Murphy-less “Daddy Day Camp” which met with empty audiences and chirping crickets. Watching Cuba these days makes me sad. What happened to that great actor we first saw in “Boyz N The Hood?”

If anyone deserves to come out of this movie unscathed, it is Thandie Newton as she is an ethereal presence here. She is ever so lovely as she is in just about everything she does, but I can’t help but wonder what attracted her to this project in the first place. Was the opportunity to work with Eddie Murphy so irresistible that she didn’t even bother to look at the script? She must have so many other projects that she could have chosen from. But then again, this movie wastes the talent of everyone involved and not just her.

Seriously, I find it hard to believe that there could have been a worse movie to come out in 2007. I managed to avoid most of the crap that was inflicted on the movie going public, but this one I just had to witness for myself. A lot of comedy can be found in stereotypical characters and behaviors, but there has got to be a way to do it with intelligence and wit. There’s none of that here. When Eddie did his remake of “The Nutty Professor,” it could have easily been offensive to fat people at the least, but it had a lot of heart to it and managed to make a point that we cannot be what others want us to be. There is nothing to be gained here from “Norbit,” and there is no warmth to be found. Watching this movie is like hearing nails on a chalkboard.

The movie is also another in a long line of examples of how empty-headed the MPAA is when it comes to rating movies. This movie did originally get an R rating, but it was brought down to a PG-13 after an appeal. WHY???!!! This movie is definitely not for kids, let alone anyone else. I certainly don’t want my nieces exposed to this crap if I can help it. Meanwhile, the MPAA continues to give NC-17 to movies with intelligence and daring. Oh the hypocrisy!

Will Eddie ever live this piece of shit down? Time will only tell on that one. He has certainly bounced back from other disasters like “Pluto Nash” and “I Spy” among others. But the fact that he was so involved in the writing of this movie makes me wonder about him as a person. Does he really believe all the things his characters say and do in this movie? I sure as shit hope he doesn’t pass this same form of intelligence onto his kids.

Yes folks, there is nothing more depressing than a comedy that does not make you laugh.

ZERO out of ****

Movie Rating: 2

Film Rating: 1

This movie was upsetting. It wasn’t because the trailers for it had all the humor of a blender baby smoothie factory. It wasn’t because I saw it by myself and the ticket taker guy gave me the look they usually give to people who go to chick flicks by themselves either. No, this movie was upsetting because not only did I not hate it, I kind of liked it a little bit. Well, the middle part anyway.

The premise is that little Jane had to overcompensate when her mother died and act as a surrogate mother to her little sister Tess. An obsessive compulsive with a need to take care of everyone, Jane’s vice is planning weddings for people. Currently she works for George, a young, smart and ecologically dreamy boss who is polite and kind to her but fails to notice her. If one has moony eyed Katherine Heigl attending to one’s every whim, how could you fail to notice her as a viable dating option? Especially when George seems to be a nice guy who doesn’t date much. I mean, Heigl is like an Amazon woman. How could he miss her?!? Of course, considering George is played by Ed Burns, how could she want him anyway?

When Jane finally intends to tell George how she really feels about him, enter her sister Tess onto the scene. Tess has an immediate connection with George and he falls for her even though everything he loves about her is what is great about Jane, not Tess. So while her sister and her love interest fall in love and get engaged, Jane sits idly by, biting her tongue, never telling her sister or George exactly how difficult it is to plan a wedding for them. Still, wedding planning is Jane’s compulsion and with her need to act as a mother to Tess anyway, she can hardly say no. Meanwhile, a handsome writer named Kevin (James Marsden) enters the scene and is instantly smitten with Jane. His attempts to woo her are shot down even though she clearly has the inability to say no to anyone else. It is immediately obvious that the two will be together.

Romantic comedies rarely stray from its formulaic DNA and the predictability factor can be a nice comfort when one is feeling low or sad or rejected. But when you are not feeling one of those things, then it can just be grating. A lot of this movie was predictable and painful to sit through. When you know what is going to happen and the sappy music rolls in on cue, a romantic comedy can be a very irksome way to spend a couple hours at the movie theatre. However, I was pleasantly surprised in the middle part of the movie. Why? Because it was not without its charm. Marsden and Heigl had a very nice friendly kind of chemistry going on here. I did not feel passion between the two but I definitely felt a kinship. For me, that is a more honest love story than two people who just want to claw at each others genitals on sight anyway. So I was little surprised and delighted with the courtship in the middle.

There were a few actual funny lines too. Not a lot, but enough for me to give this movie an extra notch on the grading scale. It was most fortunate that the least funny parts of the film found their way to the trailer. It might scare off most people from seeing the movie, but it made the movie eminently more watchable than I expected it to be.

Heigl isn’t a bad comedian if a tad over the top at times. She is very lovely on screen and it is quite nice to see a leading lady with a little meat on her bones as well. When she eats food on film, I don’t get the image in my head of her vomiting it out after the take ends like I do with a lot of actresses I see. Still, Heigl tends to play rather shrewish women, which should be of a little concern for her. It is for me.

Over all, it isn’t a terrible little comedy. It isn’t really good either. The end is schmaltzy and almost ruined the movie for me, but if it pops up on cable, I might linger for a bit. Worth a cable viewing, but I don’t think it is really worth laying out cash for.