Unforgettable

First Hit:  Unforgettable was completely forgettable. The beginning is OK, there is some suspense with Julia Banks (Rosario Dawson) leaving her job, packing up and heading to Los Angeles from San Francisco. There are questions in her expression as her best friend and former boss gently nudges her about how she’s feeling. Her friend continues to reaffirm that Julia is always welcome back to San Francisco. This seemed to set up that Julia is wounded from her past.

We learn that Julia has been a battered woman, and her two-year restraining order on her ex-boyfriend, Michael Vargas (Simon Kassianides) who is out of jail for his past actions, is ended. She’s headed to LA because she met and fell in love with David Connover (Geoff Stults). David has a wonderful daughter named Lily (Isabella Kai Rice) who is the result his broken and difficult marriage with Tessa (Katherine Heigl). When Julia and Tessa meet, it is obvious that there is something not quite right with Tessa.

Tessa still pines for David and will do anything to get David back, and this sets up the most mechanical, predictable back and forth confrontation between Julia and Tessa, with Lily and David being the foils they use.

Each scene is predictable, whether it be in the police station when Julia is being interviewed, when Tessa demands that Lily act a particular way in front of everyone, and when David trying to keep the peace between all of them.

I don't like when there are scenes in films that have no closure, don't add to the film's plot or direction, or are forgotten about as the film moves along. If you're going to put a camera on it, then make sure it is complete, has value or gets completed later in the film.

One such scene is seeing Julia carefully pack her suitcase, put the suitcase on the roof of the car. During her trip to LA, the suitcase falls off and her clothes scatter. This includes a special hat given to her by her best friend. We never get closure on this and we're left with lots of questions. Did she care about losing all her clothes? Did she care about the hat? Where did she get clothing when she got to LA?

As the film moves along and suspense winds up, I became more disinterested. It was taking way too long to create suspense and it was way too probable.

Dawson was OK as the battered woman trying to make her life better and embrace a positive relationship. Thought that her dialogue with Lily was really strong and created an effective relationship building sequence. Heigl was very effective as the slightly twisted, controlling and uptight woman who’s past reflected her character. Stults was OK and I don’t know if the part was bland or he was bland. It just seemed that he would have had more energy towards what was transpiring. Rice was perfect. She showed this by the different ways she acted towards and reacted to Julia and Tessa. Kassianides was very effective as stalker. Christina Hodson and David Leslie Johnson wrote this screenplay. Although there seemed to be enough material, it seemed either overwritten or poorly conceived. Direction by Denise Di Novi was in error for being mechanical in its presentation. Meaning, nothing was surprising. Additionally, Di Novi was in error for trying to put too much into the film and move away from; saying more with less.

Overall: I couldn’t wait for this film to end.

New Year's Eve

First Hit: I don’t know how Garry Marshall created such a vapid film about a great subject with great actors.

New Year’s Eve is a perfect subject and so many things can or don’t happen on that infamous night of nights.

Here we follow various people and their experience of this storied night. You’ve got Tess and Griffin (played by Jessica Biel and Seth Meyers respectively) in a race to win $25K for having the first baby of the new year against Grace and James (played by Sarah Paulson and Til Schweiger respectively).

You have Ingrid (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) who is a homely, afraid and not living her life. She breaks away, quits her job and hands her to do list to Paul (played by Zac Efron) who is a bike messenger. They climb on his scooter and he, being creative, finds ways to deliver all of Ingrid’s dreams in one night.

Then there is Kim (Sarah Jessica Parker) who works all the time and is very protective of her daughter Hailey (played by Abigail Breslin) who wants to be trusted to meet up with her friends. Kim tells her "no" but Hailey steals out of her room anyway and heads down town with Kim desperately following and trying to find her.

There is Laura (played by Katherine Heigl) a caterer preparing food for the most famous and luxurious New York New Year’s Eve party where the entertainment is being provided by her former boyfriend Jensen (Jon Bon Jovi).

Also there is Claire Morgan (played by Hilary Swank) who is in charge of the famous ball drop and who is linked to a dying Stan Harris (played by Robert De Niro). There are more many more stars in this movie but to be quite frank this is what killed the film. Too many actors vying for limited shallow parts having limited characteristics and story lines..

Biel had a couple funny lines as a pregnant wife. Meyers was mediocre as Biel’s husband. Paulson was the better pregnant wife as was Schweiger as her husband. Their story was more interesting. Pfeiffer was hard to watch as she played Ingrid too close to the chest. Efron was the best of all the actors and he made the film interesting. Parker was useless to watch and was uninteresting. Breslin was OK as the teenage girl wanting to experience her first New Year’s Eve kiss. Heigl was alright as the jilted woman. Jovi was more or less just being himself, a musician. Swank was in the worst role I’ve seen her in, in quite some time. De Niro gave the worst dying person act I’ve ever seen on film. His eyes were too alert and his actions too fast to be on his death bed. Katherine Fugate wrote a painfully soft, sophomoric, and generic script. Marshall’s direction shows he needs to retire. How can one direct so many wonderful actors (and there were more that I didn’t mention) into a wastefully sentimental uninteresting film.

Overall: This film goes for the easy sentimental story and in doing so made me wish it was over sooner than later.

Life as We Know It

First Hit: We all know the end before it begins, yet it was presented well enough to enjoy.

Katherine Heigl does have talent. And as Holly Berenson she plays a single successful small business owner who doesn’t date much and has friends who like to set her up.

Although not all her talents are on display in this film, many of them are; which include, she is funny - she has a nice sense of timing in her pointed barbs. She also does a scene as having had too much to drink which came off fairly well, she cries well - it feels real and not manufactured, she effectively displays an air of being intelligent and she is attractive.

All of these are limitedly displayed in this film, but one senses there is more to her than what is in this film. Conversely, Josh Duhamel (as Eric Messer) showed a lack of depth in both the character as well as the energy he brought to this part. I’m not sure who would have been a better co-star but I think a stronger match for Heigl would have made a stronger picture.

The basic plot is that their close friends die and leave them their child. They move into the deceased parent’s house and start raising the child they were given while also attempting to live their own lives. As they begin to realize that the parents aren’t coming back they begin to take on the challenges of making a life for themselves and the child.

The scenes of the child Sophie (played by Alexis Clagett, Brynn Clagett and Brook Clagett) are fun and realistic. I especially liked the scene when she first started to walk and she was walking/running with a diaper and tennis shoes on – perfect. They eventually break up but we all know they’ll get back together and eventually they do.

However, the way the script was written it wasn’t very strong or pointed.

Heigl is very good and very believable in her role. Duhamel wasn’t strong enough to do this role justice, it just seemed too lackadaisical. Josh Lucas as Sam the pediatrician was great and actually made the film more believable. Greg Berlanti directed the film in a mixed way in that some scenes were strong (Heigl and Duhamel being interviewed by the social worker) while others were rather weak (neighbors coming by unexpectedly).

Overall: Entertaining enough and definitely a Sunday afternoon bit of enjoyable fluff.

27 Dresses

First Hit: If you watch the first 20 minutes, then watch the last 20 minutes you will realize that this film went from mediocre to bad.

This film starts at an OK and at an amusing pace with Katherine Heigl (as Jane) running between two differently themed weddings in one night.

Because Jane is a bridesmaid in each of these two weddings, she must change dresses in a taxi while she flits between the weddings. After this segment, we drop into her working world as an assistant to Edward Burns as her boss of an outdoor sporting company whom she loves and admires.

Now we have the set up, she loves weddings and she is hopelessly in love with her boss and cannot tell him. Her sister, Tess, comes for a visit and snags Burns quickly by flirting shamelessly and lying about her lifestyle. This slowly pisses Jane off but the last straw is when her sister creates Jane’s dream wedding for herself.

Jane eventually exposes her sister as a fraud to fiancé, family and friends, then tells her boss of her love for him and then discovers she loves someone else.

Overall: I know this film was billed as a comedy, but it is hard to do comedy when the main character must be hurt, sad and crestfallen all the time. This film has few comedic moments and was poorly conceived, crafted, and executed.