
Paramount - Paramount
Release date: 2006-06-27
DVD
Director:Tom Dey
Actors: Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Bartha, Bradley Cooper
Adult Humor, Adult Situations, Battle of the Sexes, Brief Nudity, Color, Comedies, Comedy, Comedy Video, English, Feature, Feature Film-comedy, Frantic, Goofy, Light, Men's Friendship, Mothers and Sons, Movie, Opposites Attract, Profanity, Romance




I enjoy this movie more and more when I watch it. You either love it or hate it like opera. There are subplots and the parents are precious. I wonder if this movie isn't based on some real life situations since most of the movie has characters that are similar to people I have met in real life. Even I have had to move back in with my parents for a while. Face it, who doesn't want to get naked if the opportunity presents itself. Who hasn't had thoughts of wanting to get rid of pesky animals? Who doesn't know people who are geeky, aggressive, silly, unpredictable? In other words, plan to watch this movie with an open mind and have fun with it.
THE GOOD
As I've seen other reviews mention before while skimming through this page, Zooey Deschanel was the best part of this movie. In fact, her escapade with the mockingbird made for the most entertaining scenes of the flick. If the fat (the main plot) were to be cut away from this movie, you'd have an entertaining short film starring Zooey Deschanel that would go over way better with most audiences than this film did. There are some good parts to this movie, but those expecting more than your basic cliched rom-com will be sorely disappointed. Matthew McConaughey does a fair job as leading man, but all of the cast--Zooey Deschanel included--seems to be trying to do their best with a script that is, at best, a mediocre effort with a few good moments.
THE BAD
Sarah Jessica Parker. I've never seen her in another role, so I can't make a sweeping statement about her as an actress, but she was pretty awful in this role. Other than the plot itself, the major issue I had with this movie was that I didn't buy the romance... and that's all due to Parker's performance. McConaughey did a fine job in selling the romance, but I got the vibe with this film that Sarah Jessica Parker was just going through the motions with this role. Another thing that was quite bad about this movie but not horrible enough to fall into the "ugly" category below was the overall plot. The idea that parents would actually pay a woman to make their son fall in love with him (with the intent to dump him as soon as the 'job' was done) just to get the son to move out of their house is more ridiculous than any other aspect of this film. It's played for comedy, and it just doesn't work--logistically or ANY way.
THE UGLY
The editing and direction is atrocious, and quite possibly some of the worst I've seen in a major motion picture. There is absolutely no scene-to-scene continuity. In one scene, a character could be moving their hands in one direction, and as soon as the next shot comes up, the character's hands are elsewhere, when not even an instant is supposed to have passed. It happens many times during the course of the film and really rips the viewer out of the story. I'm not asking for great or even good direction, because this isn't that kind of a movie--but you'd think that a professional film would at least make an effort to come across as, oh I don't know, professional.
5/10