New Year's Eve

 New Year's Eve (2011)

Starring Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Hector Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sarah Paulson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, Hilary Swank, and Sofia Vergara

Along with James Belushi, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Matthew Broderick, Cary Elwes, Carla Gugino, Cherry Jones, John Lithgow, Ryan Seacrest, and Nat Wolff

Directed by Garry Marshall

Written by Katherine Fugate

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: F

Movie Review - Killers

Killers (2010)

Starring Ashton Kutcher, Katherine Heigl, Tom Selleck, and Catherine O'Hara

Directed by Robert Luketic

Good Lord...Movies this awful don't come along too often.

Seeing as how I'm not a fan of either of the two leading actors in Killers, I'm not quite sure why I rented it, but I did and I forced myself to sit through the dreck.

Honestly, it's not even really worth talking about.  The characters are poorly developed, the script is paint-by-numbers bland, and the the direction is tv Movie of the Week style.  The whole thing is a mess.  The only thing saving this from a complete and epic failure is that I was moderately entertained by Tom Selleck and Catherine O'Hara as Katherine Heigl's parents.  That said, even they were saddled with a ridiculously bad subplot by the film's end.

I mean, let's face it.  Look at the poster to the left...is there anyone who actually thinks that the movie could be good based on that?  You've got Heigl going "This is a gun...I'm a woman...How do you work this darn thing?  Teeheehee...giggle giggle."  And then you've got Kutcher going, "Who is this prissy chick?  Why am I saddled with her?  Why am I even in movies?  Doesn't anyone know I can't act?"

Avoid at all costs.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - Life as We Know It

Life as We Know It (2010)

Starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel

Directed by Greg Berlanti

So, sue me, but I have a soft spot for a good romantic comedy.  While Life as We Know It may not bring anything new to the table, it was a thoroughly enjoyable little flick that provided more than enough laughs to make this a worthwhile watch.

When one-year old Sophie's parents die in a car crash, their will specifies that guardianship of Sophie falls to their best friends Holly and Messer (Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel).  Needless to say, Holly and Messer had never gotten along, but now they must come together in order to raise this cute-as-a-button little girl.  It's probably not difficult to see where this story is gonna go (although, for a while, I foolishly thought the movie may veer onto a different route, but I was mistaken).

Despite the fact that this flick follows many of the standard romantic comedy clichés, it works mainly because of kid.  Triplets Alexis, Brynn, and Brooke Clagett are the stars of this picture and anytime one of the trio is on the screen as Sophie, you can't help but smile.  Both Heigl and Duhamel really come alive in any scene with Sophie and I found them both surprisingly warm and charming.  I really was expecting neither of them to be able to carry this film, but they proved to be quite successful in winning me over.

Unfortunately, where the film lags a bit is in the scenes where Heigl and Duhamel's Holly and Messer explore their relationship with one another.  The second half of the film which focuses much more on the adults rather than the kid isn't nearly as interesting or enjoyable as the first half.  And let me put a moratorium on scenes in which older people smoke pot (or in this case bake it in brownies) in order to relive their youth.  Like last year's It's Complicated in which Meryl Streep and Steve Martin lit up a joint, smoking pot to comedic effect irritates me immensely for some reason.  I'm no prude, but this is just a little movie-going quirk that I have that angers me.  Funny drunks I'm okay with, but funny druggies just doesn't make me happy.  And the thing is this was a plot point that was 100% unnecessary.  It didn't add a darn thing to the movie.

Still, I've got to say that I enjoyed Life as We Know It.  Yes, I know it's nothing groundbreaking, but I laughed a lot more here than in any movie I've recently watched.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - The Ugly Truth (2009)

Starring Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler, Bree Turner, John Michael Higgins, and Cheryl Hines
Written by Nicole Eastman, Karen McCullah Lutz, and Kirsten Smith
Directed by Robert Luketic

***SPOILERS AHEAD...THEN AGAIN, IT'S NOT LIKE YOU CAN'T GUESS THE ENDING OF THIS ONE.***

A friend has a theory that women like to watch movies with characters crazier than them because it can make them feel better about themselves -- an "I'm better than her and if she can get a man, I can get a man" kind of mentality. While I haven't seen as many flicks as him this year, I think he may be on to something with that theory.

The same thing happens here -- Katherine Heigl plays Abby, a morning news show producer, who is ridiculously out-of-touch with men. The film starts out with her on a date that is so unbelievable it just set her character off on the wrong track. Anyway, the morning news show is floundering in the ratings and her boss hires misogynistic "relationship expert" Mike (Gerard Butler) to host a segment called "The Ugly Truth" on the show. Abby's unhappy because she thinks Mike's a jerk, but in order to show Abby that he knows what he's talking about, he helps the unlucky-in-love Abby snag a man. Abby falls in love with the guy, Mike get jealous...there's witty repartee leading to sexual tension between them...you don't need to be a genius to know what's going to happen.

And that's the problem with the flick. In the end, it follows every romantic comedy cliché in the book. There was no surprise...I was really hoping it wasn't going to end the way it did, but I should've known better. And Heigl's character is a mess. She's a smart executive, yet has no social skills while on a date, admitting to doing a background check and ridiculing her date for ordering bottled water instead of tap water? That was the one of the opening scenes with Heigl's character and it just set me off on the wrong foot with her.

However, despite my issues with the main character, everyone surrounding her is top notch. Gerard Butler is really funny. He's given some deliciously dirty, nasty, and inappropriate lines to spew and he does it perfectly. Add in a cute performance from Bree Turner as Abby's assistant, and two absolutely winning roles from Cheryl Hines and John Michael Higgins as the sexually frustrated morning show news anchors (who also happen to be married), and it's a shame that the main character couldn't have been more convincing. Still, it's these four actors mentioned in this paragraph that elevate this movie and make it much better than it deserves to be.

Unfortunately, what really brings the movie down the most is that I can't understand in the slightest why Abby and Mike would end up together in the end. What does she find attractive in him? I mean, I guess it's that he can love her for who she really is (that's what the movie wants us to think, anyway), but, without a doubt, he's a prick.

If I learned anything from this movie, it's that I'm too damn nice. I need to wrestle with chicks in jello in order to find true love, I guess...

The RyMickey Rating: C-