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mnasidica
Reviews
Something Borrowed (2011)
incredibly disgusted by this movie
I watched this because I've always been a fan of GG. I think she's pretty in a less conventional way, but definitely prettier than Kate Hudson.
Which brings me to one point. This movie was one of those ugly duckling movies without the ugly duckling. Rachel (GG) admits that she "never thought a guy like you would end up with someone like me..." as if she has three heads or a skin condition or something equally appalling. She has none of these things. She's pretty, she has a good career, and the only major personality flaw she has is the inability to be proactive (which shouldn't be a problem since her love interest is the EXACT SAME WAY). Yeah. This is a terrible movie with absolutely no action in it until the very end. We don't even get to see the scene where Darcy is dumped.
Adding to the incredible coincidence that neither Rachel nor Dex know what to do in this incredibly obvious situation (we know Dex has some mommy issues, but that wasn't really explained... I can't remember anything his mother said or did, aside from a few woeful looks). The only person we hear any reason from is Ethan, and by then we all want to smack some sense into the main characters.
What bothers me incredibly about this movie is that it basically drives loyalty between "best friends" straight into the ground. Not only does Rachel sleep with her best friend's fiancé, she doesn't TELL her best friend her mistake, she sleeps with Dex again, encourages Darcy to marry this guy who is cheating on her and doesn't love her, and then contemplates telling Dex that Darcy cheated on HIM. Who is getting majorly screwed over here? In all the mixup and emo WHAT DO WE DO action (or lack thereof), it's easy to forget who is being hurt the most.
Uh oh. The script writers went a little too far...
IN COMES...villainizing! It's a common trick in cinema to demonize characters so that we stay rooting for the main character. This was very overdone in this movie. At first Darcy had a few good traits that you could see, but it wasn't long before she become entirely RIDICULOUS as a character. By the end of the movie, we discover that she's also been cheating on Dex this WHOLE TIME...AND...she's pregnant. She had to do something a bit worse in order for us to forgive Rachel. In doing so, the depth of Darcy was lost - and everyone has depth, let's not fool ourselves. Obviously the movie wasn't about her, it was about Rachel, but it sends the message that it's okay to screw your best friend over as long as she's doing it too - and when does that actually happen? It also sends the message that it's okay to wait on a man to leave his fiancé and to not give up too soon, because he might have a REALLY GOOD REASON. Wrong. If a man isn't leaving his wife, he's not going to, so you just better move on. Those are the cold, hard facts. AND, if a man is cheating on his fiancé/wife/girlfriend with you, he's going to do the exact same thing once your relationship with him gets a little rocky (that is, if you ever make it to a relationship). But seriously - once a cheater, always a character. Obviously his morals are not fantastic. If he loves you, he'll leave her, if he doesn't, don't bother waiting around. You deserve better.
Ethan was the only character that seemed to agree with this philosophy. I really wanted the movie to end with Rachel going off with someone else, someone who knew what to do from the beginning and didn't stand weakly by and take forever to figure out that love is more important than his father's glare.
I hated the weakness of these characters. I hated the message. I hated the necessity of making Darcy's character unbearable so that we won't end up despising the main characters for their despicable actions. What's worse is that no one was punished for the horrible betrayal that took place in this movie - they were rewarded.
Frozen (2010)
surprisingly suspenseful!
i was not expecting much from this film. i had just seen buried, which was a whole lot of terrible, and expected the entire movie to be boring simply because of the premise of being "trapped" somewhere. i was so wrong.
near the beginning of the movie the characters have a conversation about jaws, and i thought, "well it can't get that bad at least." it did. really fast.
for those of you who say that wolves are not in new england, uh... since when? there are lone wolf sitings all the time... and if there's one wolf, there are more. wolves are pack travelers and pack hunters. lone wolves are not usually dangerous. yes, wolves are rare, but they exist in that region and are perfectly capable of smelling blood. it makes sense that it takes place in new england, because wolves aren't as numerous as they are in other regions and the ski resort *might not* have fences protecting the area around the ski lift if wolves are infrequent visitors.
the man leaving them up on the ski lift being unbelievable is also ridiculous. people have gotten left behind on scuba trips in exactly the same way - which is less excusable, since the person on the boat should realize that two or even one person is MISSING. if there's a misunderstanding or a mistake in protocol, it can happen. unlikely, yes, rare, yes, but not impossible. things in movies don't happen all of the time, it just shows incidences when things do and CAN happen... which makes the movie all the more terrifying.
admittedly, toward the beginning, i had low expectations. i didn't like the characters. i didn't like the whole young yuppie attitude and the jealous best friend dynamic and i anticipated outcomes early on in the movie and thought the whole thing would be predictable. it wasn't. i loved, loved the shot they had near the beginning when all the lights were being turned off behind them and the viewer realized something BEFORE the characters. i think that is something effective and rarely done well in movies - it's never believable.
yes, the entire time i was thinking "omg do THIS, do THAT", but never once did "rope clothes" come into consideration. i did think that the guy should have lowered himself off the ski lift to knock 6-7 feet off his fall rather than JUMP... and maybe land a different way than straight feet first like that... but in that situation, i don't know that i would have fared much better. i also thought that the guy climbing across the cable should have taken off his coat and used it as something to slide down the cable with... but it probably wouldn't have worked with the cable being sharp and not really smooth or sloped enough for material to slide easily. there really was not much they could have done, which was the terrifying part.
i definitely agree that the "don't let her look" part was chilling. i think the guy should have tried fighting more (he just kind of cowered), but i don't know if i'd be that brave facing a wolf. i hear the actor got a little spooked himself doing that scene. at first i thought that bears might play a part, but was surprised when wolves excelled at being just as fearsome. wolf scares in movies never seem to work, but i will never look at a wolf the same way again. i think reviewers who don't believe they would have chased lynch are very wrong - wolves aren't stupid. they know he's bleeding, and they know he came from the same place their last meal did. why wouldn't they go for it? his main mistake was laying down on the board and not trying to stay standing so to maintain some height advantage... he probably looked more injured than he really was.
all in all this movie was amazing. i was not bored once. it's stayed with me to the point where i made this account for the sole purpose of leaving this review. the acting was not at all contrived (i was actually most impressed by lynch's character - he was not at all likable at first, but he was the one i wanted to live by the end). the boyfriend got a little lost and i got more grasp on who he was by lynch in the aftermath of his death in that one story he told about them meeting as kids. the movie was very touching in parts, too, and i liked the little bonding lynch and the girlfriend were able to achieve without it being too cheesy or unrealistic.
i DEFINITELY recommend this movie. it doesn't end the way you want it to, but when does it ever? i will go skiing again, but i will not bribe the ski lift guy to let me go up when it's about to close. that goes without saying.