SURVIVING CHRISTMAS - Been watching my fair share of DVD movies. Last night, went thru an hour and a half of harrowing comedy with "Surviving Christmas" starring Ben Affleck. He has this really wooden expression (the kind that fits the title role in "Daredevil") that's not really fun to watch.C onsidering this is a comedy, it was really a stretch. The storyline is at best, absurd (about a millionaire ad agency owner who decides to rent out the family who lives in the house where he grew up for the holidays and ended up falling in love with the daughter).
Like Keanu Reeves (hoped I got the spelling right) in "Sweet November," this supposed-to-be-ad agency creative is one heck of a wooden character who wouldn't even be considered for a junior position in any respected ad agency. Funny how movies portray creative presentations, as if clients are stupid enough to accept these uncreative creatives. Heck, I wouldn't plunk a single dollar on that eggnog creatives ben was proposing at the beginning of the movie. But I digress.
WIMBLEDON - Kirsten Dunst is always fun to watch. It's kinda a stretch to make believe she can be a serious tennis player but hey, the story's good. In the tradition of Working Title films as well as English (read: british) comedy movies, this one has a strange but appealing sense of humor to it. What I liked best about the movie is that it didn't trivialize the athlete as a person. It was so real in portraying the journeyman athlete as a person struggling with emotions and physical pain, love of the game and hopelessness for life after a sports career. Too often, we tend to dismiss athletes as mere game players. But in reality, it's much more than that. Paul Bethany, while not the drop-dead-gorgeous kind of lead, is funny in the hugh grant tradition. It's really nice to watch movies apart from the usual Hollywood drivel.
Like Keanu Reeves (hoped I got the spelling right) in "Sweet November," this supposed-to-be-ad agency creative is one heck of a wooden character who wouldn't even be considered for a junior position in any respected ad agency. Funny how movies portray creative presentations, as if clients are stupid enough to accept these uncreative creatives. Heck, I wouldn't plunk a single dollar on that eggnog creatives ben was proposing at the beginning of the movie. But I digress.
WIMBLEDON - Kirsten Dunst is always fun to watch. It's kinda a stretch to make believe she can be a serious tennis player but hey, the story's good. In the tradition of Working Title films as well as English (read: british) comedy movies, this one has a strange but appealing sense of humor to it. What I liked best about the movie is that it didn't trivialize the athlete as a person. It was so real in portraying the journeyman athlete as a person struggling with emotions and physical pain, love of the game and hopelessness for life after a sports career. Too often, we tend to dismiss athletes as mere game players. But in reality, it's much more than that. Paul Bethany, while not the drop-dead-gorgeous kind of lead, is funny in the hugh grant tradition. It's really nice to watch movies apart from the usual Hollywood drivel.
