Starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, and Michael Douglas
Written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore
Directed by Mark Walters
I am certainly not opposed to a good romantic comedy. Love, Actually and Sleepless in Seattle are two favorite films of mine. Both those films have characters that you can latch onto and root for in their quest for love.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past has no such character. McConaughey's sleazebag lothario, Connor Mead, has had his share (and many, many other men's shares) of women. He loves 'em for a night, then leaves 'em. He's only played the wooing game with Jenny (Garner), a childhood pal whom he's grown up with and always kind of "crushed on." Connor and Jenny meet again at Connor's brother's wedding and the sexual tension between the two resurfaces. Unfortunately for Jenny, it appears that Connor hasn't changed his ways.
At the wedding rehearsal dinner, Connor gets visited by his equally sleazy Uncle Wayne...the only problem is that Uncle Wayne (Douglas) is dead. Connor's uncle tells him that he will be visited by three ghosts who will show him how to be a better man (a la Dickens' A Christmas Carol).
Admittedly, I laughed out loud a few times. But there was very little reason shown at all for Jenny to have fallen for this scumbag...so her desire to get back together with Connor seemed implausible (granted, she didn't really desire to get back together with him, but she definitely still had feelings for him which boggled my mind). I can't get past the premise that any woman would fall head over heels for this guy. He's a dick. Do women really want to be treated like garbage -- tossed out after one use? (Maybe I'm missing the point of the dating game, if that's the case...)
The movie is helped by decent performances, although no one is better than average. Garner is fine as essentially the straight man of the piece (she really has very little to do comedically). Douglas is over-the-top as Connor's mentor-ish uncle, but he played the role for all it was worth. There are decent supporting turns from Breckin Meyer and Lacey Chabert as the wedding couple (although Chabert was forced to play the stereotypical Bridezilla). McConaughy was fine, but I really felt like he was playing himself. Nothing new brought to the table.
The RyMickey Rating: D+
Lol so you'd go see this with thomas and not me (granted i saw it already but still). you two make me laugh. and no, girls do not like grabage, well unless they are nuts so no youre not missing the point of the dating game, at least not in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThere's a solidarity there since he convinced me to see every movie this summer (what the hell was I thinking?)...We figure (and I realize I'm totally putting words into Thomas's mouth here) if he's gotta see the crap and I've gotta see the crap, we might as well watch it together and be able to talk back to the screen while we're doing it.
ReplyDeleteIt's 'cuz he's so dreamy...or some crap like that.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's because he thinks happiness is dill pickles?