Is January the same kind of cinematic dumping ground as late summer? What else could explain the * relentless * repetition of the commercial pimping the Ben Stiller and Jennifer Anniston movie “Along Came Polly”? Apparently the highlight of this movie, the acme of the hilarity it offers, is a scene where Ben Stiller attempts to unclog a toilet with a mop. This is certainly what * I * want to see in my light romantic comedies.
I guess they’re trying to tap (or make it seem as though they’re tapping) the same combination of gross humor and romance that made “Something About Mary” a hit. But as near as I can tell from the commercials (and this is as close as I ever intend to get to the movie), it looks like the “Friends” curse remains intact – if a light comedy contains any member of the cast of “Friends”, then it’s a “wait until it’s a 2-dollar rental” film.
Well, we’ll have to respectfully agree to disagree on the quality of these fine films. Rotten tomatoes doesn’t give any of the following a very good rating. Although I sort of enjoyed The Whole Nine Yards, I think that none of these movies really attain the status of a * good * movie. The Whole Nine Yards gets a 42%.
But my first reaction to seeing the promos for Along Came Polly was “can’t Ben Stiller do a movie without any gross-out factor?” Seems like that’s all he does anymore. I never saw Permanent Midnight but I believe he was supposed to have been very good in it.
Ben Stiller is a very funny man. His HBO show in the early 90’s was pants-pissin’ at times. He’s made some funny movies. Mary, Meet the Parents, Flirting with Disaster is a great film, even Zoolander is funny.
Actually, it’s worse. The lowest of the low get scraped off the studios’ remainder shelves between the middle of January and the middle of February (for which Valentine’s Day permits a brief window for romantic comedy product). There are very rare exceptions (The Silence of the Lambs, for one), but the fact that we remember the exceptions sort of underlines the rule. Anyone recall sitting through Supernova?
Here’s a list of what’s being released in January '04. If you disregard the Academy Award contenders that are platforming out from narrow to wide release (e.g. Big Fish, Monster, etc.), and the handful of extremely limited arthouse showings (e.g. Osama), there’s hardly an interesting title in the bunch. I’ll reserve judgement on The Big Bounce, solely because it’s directed by George Armitage (Grosse Point Blank, Miami Blues), and The Butterfly Effect, which is arriving with tantalizing buzz despite being toplined by Ashton Kutcher.
But other than that: Chasing Liberty is yet another paint-by-numbers romcom starring an “adorable” pop princess (though Mandy Moore has displayed enough charm even in the shitty movies she’s done to make me start to wonder if she deserves better material). Torque is The Fast and the Furious on two wheels. Mindhunters is the latest overheated wannabe-suspense schlockfest from Renny Harlin, number six on the list of the ten worst directors regularly getting work in Hollywood; it was supposed to be released months ago but has been held back for this “special” period. You Got Served is a hip-hop “hey kids let’s put on a show to save the fill-in-the-blank” movie; it’ll be amusing to imagine Mickey Rooney busting verbal and poppin’-and-lockin’.
February looks better, but not by much; Paramount is finally biting the bullet on the Meg Ryan boxing flick Against the Ropes, for example.
Oh, and Finagle, I wouldn’t rate a single movie on that list as being better than marginally mediocre airplane fare. Sorry.
And Zero Effect! (I so want to see a sequel to that)
I’ve never seen an episode of Friends, but there are other movies I’ve enjoyed with Friends cast members (besides the already-mentioned Office Space, The Good Girl, The Whole Nine Yards and Rock Star).
Clockwatchers (Lisa Kudrow) - A dark comedy about working in Temp Hell. Also with Toni Collette and Parker Posey.
The Opposite of Sex (Lisa Kudrow) - Another dark comedy about a bitch (Christina Ricci) who disrupts her brother’s life.
Hmm, looking at the IMDB Friends lists, I see that after those it gets pretty thin. David Schwimmer was pretty good in Breast Men. Scream with Courtney Cox was fairly decent. Matt LeBlanc seems to have the worst non-Friends resume.
Jennifer Aniston seems to have the best list. Also, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Jennifer Aniston is the voice of the mom, Annie Hughes, in The Iron Giant. That alone would be enough to endear her to me, just as it did Vin Diesel.
Still, I have no interest in Along Came Polly unless it gets stellar reviews. I even like Ben Stiller, but the previews just make it look disgusting.
