Tag: Susan Sarandon

Enchanted

MPAA Rated – PG
It’s 1:47 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Enchanted
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Amy Adams, Susan Sarandon, Patrick Dempsey
MPAA Rated: PG
Released By: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Release Date: 2007
Kiddie Movie: Maybe not 9 year old boys, but definitely the girls.
Date Movie: Even if you don’t have kids it’s a fun movie. Not too long and with a happy ending.
Gratuitous Sex: It’s from Disney. What do you think?
Gratuitous Violence: In a cartoonish kind of way.
Action: There’s some suspense more than action.
Laughs: Lots of them!
Memorable Scene: I liked when Giselle became “big citied” when she order the hot dogs with Prince Edward.
Memorable Quote: Nothing stood out.
Directed By: Kevin Lima

DVD Review:
When the movie “Enchanted” made its way to movie theaters I sort of balked at seeing it, as, well, I’m a 40 year old dude with no kids. Then I started hearing reports of how good it was, for both kids and adults, and then I did want to see it. But then as my Thanksgiving weekend kind of got turned upside down, I didn’t see any movies, but during our “Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up!” podcast, Stu Gotz mentioned that he really enjoyed seeing the flick. As such I added to my Netflix queue, and you know what, the movie was fantastic.

The story goes as the trailer shows – Giselle (Amy Adams) is a Princess in the animated world, and she is set to marry Prince Edward (James Marsden). The evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon), working to put the kibosh on the upcoming nuptials, dispatches Giselle to our real world in New York City. But Prince Edward is in love so he transports himself to New York City as well, and suddenly you have two lovable people from a Disney animated movie trying to survive life in the big city. The thing is that all is not simple for Prince Edward, as in the time period between Giselle and the good Prince’s arrival, Giselle has met single dad, Robert (Patrick Dempsey), and his adorable daughter, Morgan (Rachel Covey). Now sort of indoctrinated into our world, and able to round up what would be the grossest of critters to us, namely roaches and rats and pigeons, to clean Robert’s apartment, when Prince Edward does arrive Giselle begins to think some things might have to change because now she’s looking for a life after her “happily ever after” happens.

Yes, of course, you can see that Robert will fall in love with Giselle (and who wouldn’t?), there’s a foreshadowing that the good Prince might not actually end up with Giselle, and to bring the movie full circle, Queen Narissa shows up to finally put an end to Giselle, and in Disney fashion, she fails.

The movie is fascinating as Disney takes the rules of the Princess story in the animated world and translates them to the grit and grime of New York City, but what totally brings this movie into a fantastic realm is that Amy Adams is able to pull off playing an animated Princess in real life, and she deserves even more accolades than she received for her role.

If you’ve got kids you’ve probably already seen “Enchanted” in the theater, or via DVD, or probably both, but if you haven’t, I will say this is not one of those children’s movie with nothing for the adults, in fact it is just the opposite, and might even melt the hearts of the dudes who only like movies where a lot of stuff blows up. With that I’m giving “Enchanted” 5 stars out of 5.

As far as the DVD I was disappointed in the blooper reel, because those clips are usually my favorite, and once again we see why deleted scenes make their way to the deleted scenes extra. What was fascinating, at least for me, were the “making of” portions of the bonus material, especially how they filmed the cleaning of the apartment scene. The thing I didn’t need on the DVD bonus features was the section telling me that I suck because I don’t have a Blu-ray DVD player yet, as the Blu-ray version has a few more extras.

A super-solid rental if you’re just looking for a nice movie to snuggle with your honey on the couch, and if you’ve got kids, especially little girls who love Disney movies, you’ll probably have to buy it.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Elizabethtown

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 2:03 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Elizabethtown
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon, Jessica Biel, Alec Baldwin
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: 2005
Directed By: Cameron Crowe,

There’s a huge plus for this movie, namely the likes of Cameron Crowe being the Director, and it’s looking like a romantic comedy with a couple of twists.

It seems Drew (Orlando Bloom) made a big mistake at his working gig, his life is falling apart, and the only answer is to end it all. Then, to top it all off, his dad dies and he has to head to his hometown of Elizabethtown. On the way he meets a stewardess, I mean flight attendant, Claire (Kirsten Dunst), and now he has a buddy to vent with, and love ensues.

Claire helps Drew get through his bad times, Drew falls for Claire, and love is in the air.

This looks like a good movie for the both of everyone, and Cameron Crowe is pretty good at making movies that don’t get too sappy for the dudes yet just sappy enough for the dudettes, and this movie is already getting a little buzz for a statue nomination for one of those statue nomination folks.

That’s it for this preview! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Anywhere But Here

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 1:54 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Anywhere But Here
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Susan Sarandon, Natalie Portman
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Kiddie Movie: Too young or a boy and they won’t get it.
Date Movie: She’ll probably make you take here anyway.
Gratuitous Sex: Some talk.
Gratuitous Violence: Nah.
Action: Nah.
Laughs: Chuckles.
Memorable Scene: The ending.
Memorable Quote: Here’s a few – Ann’s cousin Benny: “Boobs are beautiful.” Ann to Benny: “You put the wood to Suzy Goodman!” A conversation with Ann & Peter: Peter – “I wanna kiss your lips.” Ann – “What for?” Peter – “I don’t know.”
Directed By: Wayne Wang

I planned on seeing three or four movies this weekend – “Dogma,” “The Messenger,” “Anywhere But Here,” and “Being John Malkovich.” I really wanted to see “Dogma,” sort of wanted to see “The Messenger,” was looking forward to “Being John Malkovich,” and figured I would see “Anywhere But Here” just to add another review. Then, low and behold Big Cooter sends me a review of “The Messenger” so I didn’t need to see that one, Stu Gotz tosses me a “Dogma” review so so much for having to see that one, and I was relegated to seeing “Anywhere But Here” or the Malkovich movie. So, what’s wrong with this picture – Single guy, thirty something, by himself, going to see “Anywhere But Here.” I tried to justify it in my mind by saying Susan Sarandon is still hot and Natalie Portman has a killer smile, but I felt kind of weird on the latter because Natalie played a mid-teen for most of the movie and liking her killer smile just didn’t seem right. Anyway, what about “Anywhere But Here?”

I kinda figured I wouldn’t have too much to relate to this film, it being about a mom and daughter, and, well, I was kind of right because there are usually only things a mom and daughter can share, and this movie hit on most of them. But there was a side that I think most people can relate to and that’s the interaction of a parent and a kid. In “Anywhere But Here” you’ve got Susan Sarandon as Adele, the mom who doesn’t want to waste any more time in Wisconsin, thinks her daughter, Ann (Natalie Portman) can be a star, packs up leaving her second husband, daughter in tow, and drives her Mercedes to Beverly Hills. They meet up with a realty agent who sets them up in the crappy side of Beverly Hills (that’s all they can’t afford), but still able to go to the right schools. Ann hates it and continually threatens to leave her mom, maybe find her real dad, and get on with her life. Adele gets a job at a school, kinda inner-city (a huge culture shock for her), and struggles to pay the electric bill. So, for a couple of hours, we get to see the mother/daughter relationship. Some happy times, some “hate you” times, and just, well, a good story of how as much as you may hate her, your mom is still mom and there is that bond that can never be broken.

There’s more to the story than that I guess, probably more along the lines of how Adele is annoyingly optimistic 98% of the time and how Ann is trapped wanting to live her own life but mom wants her to live the life mom planned out. It’s a story of growing up, letting go, and just kind of figuring out about life.

Susan Sarandon is fantastically annoying in her role as Adele. I couldn’t stand her most of the time and almost hoped for Ann’s sake that Ann would run away. But, she did have her moments as “mom” that you know she just wants the best for her daughter, unfortunately forgetting to ask her daughter what she may want. Then there’s Natalie Portman as Ann, dead-on as the teenage girl struggling to love her mom as mom, and just trying to get through to her that sometimes the parent has to realize their motives aren’t what will make their child happy. She gets embarrassed in front of her friends (haven’t we all), she makes fun of her mom (haven’t we all), and she just wishes her mom was dead sometimes (haven’t we all), but deep down she loves her.

Alright, from a “blow things up” guy’s perspective, you’ll probably hate “Anywhere But Here.” But, it is a touching movie (how’s that from the sensitive, new millennium kind of guy), the acting is great, and I think even as a dude you can relate to the underlying story of a parent who has a dream for their child that, well, doesn’t match the child’s dream. In the end it’s 4 stars out of 5.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!!