Waiting... and Two For the Money
Waiting…
To paraphrase the movie itself, "If you want to see this movie you have to ask yourself one question: How do you feel about nearly full-frontal male nudity?" It is an R rated comedy, no doubt. The language and the humor and the situations cover the need for THAT rating. But the nudity is almost ALL male. One funny shot of female frontal nudity (bottom only) done totally for laughs just like the male nudity. It’s interesting that with all the sex scenes there isn’t MORE nudity.
Anywho, I just wanted to get that out of the way.
I saw this cause it fit well into my schedule for the day and cause Ryan Reynolds, Justin Long, Anna Farris, Dane Cook and the Guzman are all in it. That was enough for me. It’s about the staff at a VERY Bennigan’s/TGIFridays/Fudruckers/Applebee’s style restaurant and follows the Clerks formula rather well, it’s one day, has alot of characters surrounding our primaries, has all the different character types and has tons of sex jokes. Throw in Star Wars and Jaws references and it would’ve been Clerks 2. It’s funny. It’s disgusting. It’s mildly endearing. It could’ve easily been better just by fixing some timing issues with the jokes and trimming some here and there to allow for quicker pacing OR develop some storylines better. I know, I know… it’s a silly comedy but I still like SOME plot.
The sound sucked in my theatre so I missed most of the soundtrack, though the listing at the end looked good. I also missed several jokes and tags so I probably will see it again to catch those. It’s a fun way to spend 90 minutes. And yes, you heard me… 90 minutes! Wow… I was amazed that they made a comedy that wasn’t 2 hours long. Stupid Farrally Brothers. I know I go off on running time a lot… but only when it is TOO long or TOO short. Nowadays, movies tend to go too long but there was a time back in the 80’s and early 90’s when a comedy over 90 minutes was seen as a bad choice. And for many of them, this was true. But all too often you would have a great comedy that could’ve been longer and given more time to really develop and get its stride but the all-important 90 minute mark ruled all. Now that studios seem to have let that slide, we end up with movies that just meander all over the place and have no real focus. That’s just as bad!! Anywho, back to the movie.
It’s fun and it’s relatively harmless and has some attractive women and men playing around and some characters that are just plain fun. You may not ever eat at any of the similar type restaurants ever again but you can at least laugh here.
And anyone who has WORKED in one of those, let me know if you had similar tales.
Two for the Money
I saw this one more because it started earlier than Greatest Game Ever Played than because I really wanted to see it. I mean, I DID want to see it but after all the early reviews I got worried. See, I don’t really like sports and like those who like sports TOO much even less. And this was a SPORTS FAN movie, really. It’s about betting and gambling and addiction and greed and all that, too, but first and foremost it’s about loving the game of football. Which I don’t. I DO, however, love watching Pacino act. And holy hell… the man lets out all the stops. It’s similar on the surface to Devil’s Advocate in that he finds a lil, poor farmboy, basically, who has a gift he can exploit and brings him to the big city to show him the high life. Matthew McGonaghey (sp?) is a very under appreciated actor. Probably because of his accent and that he was just a bit TOO good looking. Like Brad Pitt before Twelve Monkeys. Matty boy tried to show many sides with some interesting choices like Frailty and the dragon movie but he was still relatively ignored. He should NOT be ignored anymore. He holds his own with Pacino. In fact, the two of them together are mesmerizing. And when Jeremy Piven is on screen with them, it gets even BETTER. But I like Jeremy… more in comedic roles but still… I just like him.
We watch Brandon (Matthew) go from being innocent (compared to the others) to trying to keep from falling as far as his "mentor". We see his struggle with both himself and his feelings of abandonment. We see Pacino fighting to keep his own addictions from ruining his chance at a legacy.
And Renee Russo… oh, she is STILL highly doable. And even if you don’t find her physically attractive, watch this flick and tell me you wouldn’t want her to be your wife!
I have no idea why the critics are tearing this movie apart. I was into this movie for the run. I was waiting to see what happened. I was worried for the characters and wondering what they would do to get out of the mess they made for themselves.
I was invested.
That’s all I can really say.
I gave a shit about these people. And they felt like people. That’s how I established my top three choices for what’s playing… Serenity is number one for having great characters and a great plot… second is History of Violence for doing the same with characters but being too dramatic for some. I place Two For the Money as number three. It was a fine movie, well-structured and shot very well. The acting was spot on and the characters were at times heart breaking and at others you were hoping someone would beat the holy hell out of them. Isn’t that the point of good characters?
To paraphrase the movie itself, "If you want to see this movie you have to ask yourself one question: How do you feel about nearly full-frontal male nudity?" It is an R rated comedy, no doubt. The language and the humor and the situations cover the need for THAT rating. But the nudity is almost ALL male. One funny shot of female frontal nudity (bottom only) done totally for laughs just like the male nudity. It’s interesting that with all the sex scenes there isn’t MORE nudity.
Anywho, I just wanted to get that out of the way.
I saw this cause it fit well into my schedule for the day and cause Ryan Reynolds, Justin Long, Anna Farris, Dane Cook and the Guzman are all in it. That was enough for me. It’s about the staff at a VERY Bennigan’s/TGIFridays/Fudruckers/Applebee’s style restaurant and follows the Clerks formula rather well, it’s one day, has alot of characters surrounding our primaries, has all the different character types and has tons of sex jokes. Throw in Star Wars and Jaws references and it would’ve been Clerks 2. It’s funny. It’s disgusting. It’s mildly endearing. It could’ve easily been better just by fixing some timing issues with the jokes and trimming some here and there to allow for quicker pacing OR develop some storylines better. I know, I know… it’s a silly comedy but I still like SOME plot.
The sound sucked in my theatre so I missed most of the soundtrack, though the listing at the end looked good. I also missed several jokes and tags so I probably will see it again to catch those. It’s a fun way to spend 90 minutes. And yes, you heard me… 90 minutes! Wow… I was amazed that they made a comedy that wasn’t 2 hours long. Stupid Farrally Brothers. I know I go off on running time a lot… but only when it is TOO long or TOO short. Nowadays, movies tend to go too long but there was a time back in the 80’s and early 90’s when a comedy over 90 minutes was seen as a bad choice. And for many of them, this was true. But all too often you would have a great comedy that could’ve been longer and given more time to really develop and get its stride but the all-important 90 minute mark ruled all. Now that studios seem to have let that slide, we end up with movies that just meander all over the place and have no real focus. That’s just as bad!! Anywho, back to the movie.
It’s fun and it’s relatively harmless and has some attractive women and men playing around and some characters that are just plain fun. You may not ever eat at any of the similar type restaurants ever again but you can at least laugh here.
And anyone who has WORKED in one of those, let me know if you had similar tales.
Two for the Money
I saw this one more because it started earlier than Greatest Game Ever Played than because I really wanted to see it. I mean, I DID want to see it but after all the early reviews I got worried. See, I don’t really like sports and like those who like sports TOO much even less. And this was a SPORTS FAN movie, really. It’s about betting and gambling and addiction and greed and all that, too, but first and foremost it’s about loving the game of football. Which I don’t. I DO, however, love watching Pacino act. And holy hell… the man lets out all the stops. It’s similar on the surface to Devil’s Advocate in that he finds a lil, poor farmboy, basically, who has a gift he can exploit and brings him to the big city to show him the high life. Matthew McGonaghey (sp?) is a very under appreciated actor. Probably because of his accent and that he was just a bit TOO good looking. Like Brad Pitt before Twelve Monkeys. Matty boy tried to show many sides with some interesting choices like Frailty and the dragon movie but he was still relatively ignored. He should NOT be ignored anymore. He holds his own with Pacino. In fact, the two of them together are mesmerizing. And when Jeremy Piven is on screen with them, it gets even BETTER. But I like Jeremy… more in comedic roles but still… I just like him.
We watch Brandon (Matthew) go from being innocent (compared to the others) to trying to keep from falling as far as his "mentor". We see his struggle with both himself and his feelings of abandonment. We see Pacino fighting to keep his own addictions from ruining his chance at a legacy.
And Renee Russo… oh, she is STILL highly doable. And even if you don’t find her physically attractive, watch this flick and tell me you wouldn’t want her to be your wife!
I have no idea why the critics are tearing this movie apart. I was into this movie for the run. I was waiting to see what happened. I was worried for the characters and wondering what they would do to get out of the mess they made for themselves.
I was invested.
That’s all I can really say.
I gave a shit about these people. And they felt like people. That’s how I established my top three choices for what’s playing… Serenity is number one for having great characters and a great plot… second is History of Violence for doing the same with characters but being too dramatic for some. I place Two For the Money as number three. It was a fine movie, well-structured and shot very well. The acting was spot on and the characters were at times heart breaking and at others you were hoping someone would beat the holy hell out of them. Isn’t that the point of good characters?
posted by wmjwatson at 12:51 PM
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