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I Love You, Man (2009)
Great Potential Ruined by Filth
This movie had enormous potential, both material and acting ability. Paul Rudd is a complex and talented actor. This movie has some very funny moments. However, (and, I should have suspected this to be the case in ANY R-rated COMEDY) these funny moments, and the movies vast bulk of POTENTIAL, were steeped and mired in an all-pervasive vulgarity, licentious behavior and rude, crude and obnoxious "jokes." For those who care about such things, God's name is also abused too many times to count.
These things are INEXCUSEABLE in a COMEDY that would have been funnier WITHOUT all this impure trash, tripe and sacrilegious additions which have been "hung on" to this movie and seem to be without any merit other than to "smut up" the movie. Apparently Hollywood thinks this type of tripe necessary. Hollywood doesn't learn very quickly.
One would THINK the dollar signs from "The Passion of the Christ" would be enough to get their attention, and signal that quite a majority of folks prefer more wholesome entertainment. One may think that, but one would be wrong. Hollywood doesn't seem to be ABLE to learn that lesson, no matter how much money movies like that make.
If they remade this movie and even toned it down to normal everyday* behavior and language, this COULD BE quite a good movie. Until then, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
*(I know they cry realism to defend this type of execrable refuse, but I do not know anyone who acts and talks in this way, and certainly not to this degree--and as a physician, I am acquainted with quite a range of human behaviors!)
You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)
Great Talents and Gifts, Abused
I would like to point out that I think Adam Sandler is a great comedic and acting talent. He has displayed it before. ("50 First Dates" comes to mind.) However, it is a shame that he abuses his talents so effusively and intolerably as he does in this movie.
With the talents involved, this should have been a much greater movie. In my opinion, even its frequent laughs and its flirting with an admirable "Dropping of old hatreds/Peace in the Middle East" theme, are not enough to redeem the serious base impurities in which this movie is so thoroughly steeped.
The movie's premise is rich with promise: THE premiere, elite Israeli commando fakes his own death in order to pursue his dream of becoming a peaceful hairdresser of all things! The premise itself is worthy of a good laugh. This caricature is largely well executed and, considered independently from the movie's flaws, exhibits a great comedic ability on the part of Mr. Sandler and others responsible for it.
Unfortunately, the movie is also rampant with extreme, at times graphic, impurity and the banal scatological (bathroom) humor worthy of the most anal obsessive 8 year-old. This style of humor unfortunately drowns out the far greater and more enjoyable humor of which Adam Sandler is capable, and even periodically displays in this movie.
Furthermore, the sexual mores (actually, the lack thereof) in this movie are EXECRABLE. The title character literally humps everything that moves in this movie (and a few things that don't). Unfortunately, this statement is not a hyperbole.
No character in this movie, male or female, seems to care—despite being completely aware—that the Zohan is having sex with LITERALLY every woman who will hold still long enough. Even though at one point the Zohan flirts with the idea of monogamy, no one has enough dignity in their own person to even MAKE NOISES at requiring monogamy with them.
All religious standards aside: Are those who made this move COMPLETELY unaware of the rampant AIDS, hepatitis and other STD epidemics that have swept the world in the last 40-50 years since the sexual revolution? I am no prude. In fact, as a Catholic Christian, I see and understand sexuality within marriage to be a GREAT gift from God. As a physician I see and deal with a full range of human behaviors every day. Unfortunately I also have to deal daily with the consequences of my patients' misbehaviors, frequently the misuses of the gift of sexuality. I help patients deal with the ramifications of these abuses on a daily basis as well. This movie is downright irresponsible in this regard, EVEN IF one takes the sexual misbehaviors of its characters as a hyperbole.
An aside here, to Lainie Kazan and Charlotte Rae—WHAT WERE YOU THINKING (?) when you took your parts in this movie! How far have you fallen?! Shame on you! You are both far, FAR better than this. Stop it!
Friends with Money (2006)
I want my hour and a half back!
Utter waste of time! I watched this movie for free (someone else rented it) and I still felt robbed! This movie seemed a crazy mixed up mess and I still didn't know what good I can make of it. Don't get me wrong--I like the actors, especially Anniston, Germann and Cusack. However, without good writing, good actors are merely expensive.
There was no discernible plot, so critiquing this movie is going to be a bit of a challenge. If it can be said to have a plot, it is something along the lines of "LIFE'S A MESS--FEEL FREE TO DESPAIR AMONGST YOURSELVES." Any relevance of this movie can be tied to the havoc which selfishness and materialism can wreak on people's lives. Even (generously) considering this angle, the movie still falls short.
Please save yourselves 90 minutes which can be used for far more interesting and pleasant things like root canal, or a weekend life insurance seminar!
The Sweetest Thing (2002)
New Low? Not hardly . . .
Unfortunately this movie does NOT set a new low for trash from Hollywood--although it does try very hard. However, combined with its lack of plot, an almost complete lack of any good humor whatsoever, this movie is one I wouldn't watch again to save my soul.
Three women engage in incredibly boorish and self-indulgent behavior. The song about too-large members was quite gratuitous. The "glory hole" scene was entirely execrable, incredibly unnecessary, completely unrelated to the plot and without redeeming value whatsoever. Its only reason for inclusion seems to be to add to the putrid pile of impurity of which this movie is an absolute wellspring.
Only the fact that this movie flopped at the box office gives me any hope whatsoever for the taste of the movie-going public.