FEATURES
By Michael Sragow and Michael Sragow , michael.sragow@baltsun.com | December 11, 2009
Ernst Lubitsch's 1932 "Trouble in Paradise" series soars on gossamer wings, thanks to the dashing words of screenwriter Samson Raphaelson. The star, Herbert Marshall, asks a waiter, "If Casanova suddenly ... turned out to be Romeo ... having supper with Juliet - who might become Cleopatra. ... How would you start?" The waiter replies, "I would start with cocktails." Marshall, playing a suave con artist, is about to fall in love with an impudent thief, played by Miriam Hopkins.
FEATURES
By Chris Kaltenbach and Chris Kaltenbach,Chris.kaltenbach@baltsun.com | July 24, 2009
A battle-of-the-sexes romantic comedy in which extreme opposites eventually attract. Now there's something you don't see every day. Well, actually, you do, and The Ugly Truth offers yet another variation on a theme that had been worked to death back in the days of Laurel and Hardy. The only difference here is that the disparity is taken to bawdy, stereotyped extremes that are often offensive, occasionally funny but mostly just tired. Poor TV morning-show producer Abby Richter (Katherine Heigl)
FEATURES
By Michael Sragow and Michael Sragow,michael.sragow@baltsun.com | July 24, 2009
The hero of (500) Days of Summer, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), works at a greeting-card company, where he's a whiz at creating slogans such as "I Love Us." He's given up on his professional dream of becoming an architect but not on his dream of finding true love - and he reckons he's lucked into it when his boss hires a comely, quizzical assistant named Summer (Zooey Deschanel). She likes Tom, she really likes him. But she doesn't believe in love at first sight, or even second or third sight.
NEWS
By Michael Sragow and Michael Sragow,michael.sragow@baltsun.com | July 3, 2009
Whatever Works makes more of a demand on a viewer's willingness to suspend disbelief than movies about vampires or giant robots. Would a dewy-fresh Southern gal named Melodie St. Anne Celestine marry a New York City curmudgeon named Boris Yellnikoff - especially when he's played by Larry David in an amateurish bluster sure to curb anyone's enthusiasm? It's easier to believe that the lovely and talented actor who plays Melodie, Evan Rachel Wood, in real life has coupled with Marilyn Manson, the shock rocker.
NEWS
By Chris Kaltenbach and Chris Kaltenbach,chris.kaltenbach@baltsun.com | June 2, 2009
He's Just Not That Into You ** (2 stars) Starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson Directed by Ken Kwapis New Line Home Video $28.95 ($35.95 Blu-ray) Watching a bunch of self-pitying beautiful people is never as much fun as Hollywood makes it out to be. But at least the writers of She's Just Not That Into You manage to work in a few good lines for its photogenic cast. That, and it makes Baltimore look not only good, but hip. Essentially, HJNTIY follows nine eligible Baltimoreans as they struggle to connect, generally without much luck.
NEWS
By Michael Sragow and Michael Sragow,michael.sragow@baltsun.com | February 13, 2009
Isla Fisher plays Rebecca Bloomwood, the title character in Confessions of a Shopaholic, as a woman whose hand-eye coordination works at top speed only when she's grabbing for a sale item. The funny idea behind her performance is that she's so distracted by hot dreams of buying stylish goods for bargain prices that she can't keep brain and body working together. You never believe, even in a fantasy way, that Bloomwood could stumble into a job at a Manhattan-based financial magazine for a Conde Nast-like conglomerate.