Monday, April 14, 2008

Movie Mondays - Sometimes What They Say is True!

Watched two movies this weekend. Tried to watch a little something that Mrs Titan might enjoy this weekend, so we watched Enchanted and License to Wed. One was pretty good and one was pretty crappy, and guess what, the critics were spot on this time.

Enchanted was a great, fun film. It is essentially the story of a Disney fairy tale princess who comes to the real world. Giselle, played perfectly by Amy Adams, is kinda like a combination of Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty all rolled into one. After a brief romance with a prince she ends up in New York City. This is, obviously, where the movie gets fun, there are big musical numbers with animals and people, and Giselle brings her idea of true, unconditional love to the real, cynical world of modern New York.

This really was a great film, but I do have one nit to pick about it. It seems as if every other romantic comedy or drama out there involves an engaged couple where one or both parties cheat. Usually the other person is a jerk to the main character, so, I guess that means that it is acceptable. Other times, like in the Notebook, or Enchanted, there is nothing at all wrong with the fiance(e). They are perfectly nice people, just not fleshed out characters. This seems to be a common theme and always seems to annoy me. For Enchanted, however, this was easy to over look as the film as a whole was great fun to watch and is very enjoyable, check it out!

License to Wed on the other hand was not so great. I ignored the critics to check this one out for a mainly one reason, the actors. This film stars Mandy Moore and John Krasinski as an engaged couple who have to go through a rigorous and intrusive pre-marital class before their pastor (Robin Williams) will marry them.

I actually have two things to praise this movie for before I get into it. First, I am a strong believer in pre-marital courses. Mrs Titan and I took one before our big day and more than anything it brought up issues and scenarios that we had not spent much time thinking about before we got engaged. In that sense it was nice to see a movie based on this important part of a marriage. Secondly, and shockingly, Robin Williams did not annoy the crap out of me. In any of his recent stuff I can't stand the guy. Did you see his American Idol scene? I wanted to gouge my eyes and ears out! Anyway, while he was (unintentionally) a terrible pastor, setting a bad example for children and his flock, his character was trying to help others and had none of the usual annoying habits of most of Williams' characters.

Now, what I didn't like about the movie was just about everything else. The characters really weren't all that likable. I think Jim Krasinski is pretty incredible in The Office, but he did not have much of that charm in this movie. Especially towards the end where he is frustrated with the class and resorts to breaking and entering and just being a jerk. Mandy Moore (great in How I Met Your Mother and Scrubs) is equally obnoxious, there really is no chemistry between these two. Robin Williams, while not annoying, was nothing special. Even though I did not have high hopes for this movie I was still disappointed by the two leads. Oh well, sometimes the critics can be right I guess!

I have a great week lined up for everybody, with Secret Invasion, and the return of The Office. Also, I have a special guest post on Thursday!

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