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Techtite's Movie Reviews! |
"Not fantastic though certainly not infuriatingly dull, either, for every guy who owes his girlfriend a 'chick flick' date." --from the review ------------- Sidebar :: ------------- The Dempsey Paradox. It's been said before, though I never said it in a review, so why not print it for once? It's always interesting to see a movie with Dempsey in the romantic lead, for anyone who remembers him as the teenage "nerd" in about half a dozen teenybopper flicks of the late 80's and early 90's. Man; what a strong marriage and fatherhood can do for a guy's confidence, eh? Yeah it's been said a lot already. I just wanted to say it again...
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Made of Honor
A Review by TechtiteIt must be hard to make films during the pre-summer season. Try too hard to reinvent the wheel and you annoy people, because they went to your movie expecting something similar to the movie they saw a week ago. Conversely, if you make your movie into a typical cookie-cutter popcorn flick, the majority of critics berate you for being a "typical" popcorn flick. The best idea for a popcorn flick is somewhere in between: take your movie formula from multiple movies and hope everyone loved the movies you ripped off saluted. In this case, you have a movie that might as well be titled My Best Friend's Wedding Where 27 Dresses Weren't Needed Because The Maid of Honor Is a Dude. Well...that's original, isn't it? Well to me it was. It was also surprisingly entertaining.The premise is something straight out of romance comedy fairy tales. Tom (Patrick Dempsey) is the typical guy with very slow romantic reflexes, who just now realized his female friend of 10 years, Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) is a total hottie. The bad news: he learns this when she left for an extended business trip overseas. The good news: she's just about to come back to New York City. So he decides to tell her as soon as she returns...only to have her surprise him with news of her engagement to some guy named Colin (Kevin McKidd, who sci-fi buffs will remember from the vastly under-appreciated time travel series last fall, "Journeyman"). In the real world: Tom blew it. Not in the movies, however. Go get her, Tom! Let's jump to the reason for the movie title: Hannah wants Tom to be her Maid of Honor. No, please; don't ask why. Yes, there's no way any groom would allow his bride to choose a male friend as her maid of honor. Nor would the bride's closest female friends, for that matter. This is immaterial. It's a romantic comedy, after all. Whether the premise makes any sense in the real world is about as important as someone insisting that Star Wars is illogical because there's no sound in space. Well, yeah, there's no sound in space, though listen to a few minutes of John Williams' excellent orchestral score, and that reality check flies out the window. In this case you have a romantic comedy starring the adorable Monaghan (Mission Impossible 3), and Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy). When it comes to cute movie couples, who needs logic? The rest of the story goes like this: Tom agrees to be maid of honor, though only so he can attempt to sabotage the wedding, moment by moment, and perhaps get Hannah to fall in love with him along the way. If this sounds like a story with an obvious ending: I'm pleased to tell you that you're right. Yes, many a romantic comedy tries to be "novel" and surprise you with a dimwitted twist at the end. There's only one word for such comedies: box office disasters. In a crazy world, it's actually good news when I tell you this story is predictable...though in a very fun way. It's true enough that the cliché "leave your mind at home" is getting old, when defending a mindless yet enjoyable movie. To me this is like berating someone for not finding any nutritional value in fast food. Yes you'd be better off with healthier food. No; that doesn't make it less fun when you eat your favorite fast food, enjoying every delicious bite along the way. That's Made of Honor to a "T." Nobody would've ever mistaken Dustin Hoffman for a woman, though Tootsie was still funny. Nobody would ever believe Julia Roberts could be passed off as a hooker, nor would said hooker be whisked off her feet by Richard Gere, though that didn't stop Pretty Woman from becoming box office gold. Yeah; I know this is an unfair comparison, because Made of Honor will hardly be a box office bonanza. Yet when people complain about how silly the movie is: do I really have to remind them it's a romantic comedy? Just have fun! Conversely, it is actually the parts of the movie that are too "realistic" that drag the film down a few pegs. For one: Colin is hardly a bad catch. This is perhaps the one aspect of the story where "it's only a movie" doesn't quite cut it. Didn't she love Colin at all? So basically the idea is that she agreed to marry Colin because it just felt right at the time. That's not as easy to accept as, say, Hannah going lingerie shopping with Tom. Yeah, see; she sees Tom as a platonic friend who'd be the best person to tell her what looks sexy on her, like lingerie. That's easily shrugged off, however, because it's a funny moment of the movie, no matter how whimsical. The fact Colin is a nice guy who's inevitably going to be totally heartbroken? That's not as easily shrugged off, really... I still liked this movie enough to recommend it. Why? Because I'm a guy and this "chick flick" was enjoyable to watch, mostly thanks to the adorable Monaghan, and some really funny moments. If you are a woman and you want your relationship to work: suggest Made of Honor as your next date movie. If you're a guy and you owe your girlfriend a "chick flick" date: you can do much worse than Made of Honor. It's hardly Shakespearean, and yet it's simile fun that will make for a fun date movie for both sexes...and in a world where they're planning on releasing a sequel to The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants, that's pretty rare!
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