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Originally printed 10.05.06 in the Eureka, California newspaper The Times-Standard.
School for Scoundrels
Durant: Why this movie? Why this screenplay? Why?
With talent like Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Stiller, David Cross, Sarah Silverman, Luiz Guzman and Horatio Sanz you would think that this would be the comedy hit of the millennium.
But it wasn't.
I've seen this movie before and they weren't even blatant enough to change some of the words in the title, ..Dirty Rotten Scoundrels... And ..Shopgirl.. and a hundred others before.
Two guys try to viciously outwit each other for the attention of an innocent love interest.
Complete with twists until the end, but it was predictable and all those names I listed above, aside from Thornton, appeared to be restricted.
As a director, I say let those guys loose and you'll have a movie that would have been better than this. I would rather watch two hours of outtakes than this movie again.
The one positive is that there's hope for Jon Heder. Though he still played the lovable dorky loser, he wasn't Napolean Dynamite.
I chuckled a couple times, but most of the time I was looking at my watch.
Rating: M (For Jon Heder shaking the Napolean curse)
The Libertine
Faulk: Mental note: This is one of those naughty movies that a guy can watch with his wife while still making her think that it's all about culture and cinema. Damn this double life.
It's a period movie, and it shows a playwright using his wits and pen to get into the pants of every girl in London. And while to some that may sound like a good time, in classical England it was also a quick ticket to various types of venereal diseases.
Ouch.
Johnny Depp does a great job in this flick, and I'm not just a committed Depp fan. Seriously, ..21 Jump Street.. was cool, but after that? ..Secret Window.. should have stayed a secret. The actress who stole the show played the Earl's wife, Rosamund Pike. She was beautiful and easily displayed a broader range of emotion than any other actor in the movie.
Rating: XL
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11:20 PM
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