Music and Lyrics

Music and Lyrics

I wanted to really rip this movie to shreds, but I really can’t hate the film that much. Yeah, it is certainly a chick-flick, so it has all the trappings of a chick-flick. Unusual girl meets unlikely popular guy and they learn things about themselves when they’re with each other. They fall madly in love, knocking countless boots in the process. They break up and fall in love again just as the movie ends. Hey, J-Lo has been doing this shit for years and making tons of money. So, what makes this movie any different from the rest of the chick-flicks? Nothing, nothing at all… However, I didn’t hate this movie for recycling the formula. I sort of liked it in a strange way. (Please don’t question my manhood.)

Hugh Grant is a washed up pop star from the 80s, trying to become famous again through songwriting. He performs at malls and hotels to crowds of ladies in their early to mid-forties, which I found funny. (Hey, I dig the MiLFs too.) Drew Barrymore comes into his life as ‘The Plant’ girl, and he discovers that she is good at writing lyrics. He convinces her to help him write the next song for the Britney Spears-like singer played by the cute Haley Bennett. (There’s one scene with Bennett doing a strange sexually charged Buddha dance number worth seeing alone, actually there are two scenes.)

Like I said, the movie isn’t great or powerful, but I enjoyed the moments when Barrymore and Grant work together to make a song. These were the moments when the story worked for me. Barrymore has almost worn-out her cute but wacky, and free-thinking girl in her acting career. Mr. Grant plays the same charming character in every movie he’s in, and this movie isn’t any different. I can’t say anything bad about the guy. It’s not because I think he’s a good actor, but because he’s too damn charming, and I’d feel bad about talking ill of him.

I would have never seen this movie in the theater, but at home it isn’t that crap-filled like many of the carbon-copy J-Lo movies. The only way I’d watch this movie in the theater was if a hot chick asked me to watch it with her, and she’d have to pay for my ticket…

Movie Grade: C-

Hugh Grant’s Charm: B+

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Grant: “Do you have to put the subplot about me picking up a nasty hooker and getting caught into the script?”

Barrymore: “Think of it as method acting.”

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Grant: “It feels like I’ve been doing the ‘famous guy/girl’ meets normal lover plotline for years now.”

Semaj: “Because, you have. American Dreamz, Notting Hill, come to mind.”

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Brad Garrett: “Listen, I’m not the only sitcom actor in this damn movie, Hugh. Isn’t Roseanne Barr in the movie? ”

Grant: “You idiot, that’s Kristen Johnston!”

Brad Garrett: “Don’t tell her I said that.”

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I got nothing. How can I come up with a witty caption for this picture?