ON DVD
Love and Other Drugs
Handsome and charming pharmaceutical rep Jamie (Jake Gyllenhaal) falls head over heels for radiant free spirit Maggie (Anne Hathaway), and together the two people who never thought they would fall in love discover that their intense chemistry is more powerful than any drug on the market. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Director: Edward Zwick
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria, Josh Gad
Release Date: Nov 24, 2010
Rated R for Strong sexual content, nudity, pervasive language and some drug material
Runtime: 1 hr. 53 min.
Genres: Drama
Review:
Love and Other Drugs is a madding type of film. The first act starts off strong and sharply written and well acted. The second act features a massive tonal shift, becoming dreary and overly serious while the last act become a paint by the numbers sugary sweet romantic comedy with each of the usual tropes being touched as they round for home. It’s so incredibly imbalanced across the board that you could almost make a case for different people liking different parts of the movie while hating as a whole. Part RomCom, part satire, part sex comedy, it’s the type of film that you couldn’t pin down if you tried. A real shame as there’s some strong material hidden in there and it’s mostly wasted, along with strong turns from it’s mostly naked leads.
C-
Skyline
A series of blindingly bright lights appear all over Los Angeles, mesmerizing the citizens of the city while luring them to an uncertain fate in this sci-fi thriller from sibling filmmakers Greg and Colin Strause. As speculation regarding the origin of the mysterious lights runs rampant, a Los Angeles entrepreneur (Donald Faison), his best friend, Jarrod (Eric Balfour), and Jarrod's frightened girlfriend (Scottie Thompson) struggle to resist temptation as they seek out the source of the luminous threat. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Director: Colin Strause, Greg Strause
Cast: Eric Balfour, Brittany Daniel, Neil Hopkins, David Zayas, Donald Faison
Release Date: Nov 12, 2010
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, some language and brief sexual content
Runtime: 1 hr. 40 min.
Genres: Suspense/Thriller
Review:
Pretty much anything would be an improvement over the Strause Brother first film, Alien vs Predator Requiem, and I supposed Skyline counts as something. Visually impressive but impressively inert and flaccid, Skyline gives you nothing outside of a few nice FXs. The plot and characters are both incredibly stupid and uninteresting. The cast looks visibly embarrassed, some looking as if they just want to be killed off as soon as possible just so they can cash their check and forget they ever did this film. The plot freely borrowing from other alien invasion films to give us the most generic of plots. The Strause Brothers are more concerned with showing off their cool alien designs and want to leave you marveling at the effects, hoping you’d be so mesmerized you wouldn’t notice your brain and wallet being sucked dry.
D-
