Priceless

First Hit: This was both fun and serious and worth the price of admission.

Audrey Tautou and Gad Elmaleh did a wonderful acting job to make this film thoroughly enjoyable with a slight edge of seriousness thrown in for good measure.

Audrey plays Irene a woman who finds wealthy men, sleeps with them and is rewarded with baubles and goodies. What she is looking for is one of them to marry her so that she will be “set for life”.

The film begins with her receive a gift from one of her targets on her birthday and despite the day of celebration, he falls asleep early and she is left in the room wondering what to do. Bored and hurt she wanders down stairs to the hotel bar and meets Jean (Gad Elmaleh).

She mistakes him for another rich guest and not the bartender he is. He doesn't tell her and they end up getting drunk together. They slip into one of the rooms and spend the night.

Jean is immediately smitten and realizes Irene isn’t going to even look at him if she finds out he’s just the bartender, bellhop, general hotel staff. So he hides his identity.

The next year when Irene visits the hotel, Jean does a great bit of becoming a guest while he is working the dining room where Irene is to be seated. They meet up in the bar again because her man falls asleep. This time Irene gets caught and her engagement is off. So she finds Jean thinking he's really rich but when she finds him he has to confess he’s not what she thinks he is.

Although he tries, Jean realizes he cannot afford Irene because she spends all his money within a week of being together. Broke, Jean gets tapped to be a kept man by a rich woman. Irene, decides to help him by coaching him on how to get the most bling and baubles for the time he spends with this older woman.

This is a well paced film that poses a question, in a light hearted way; what would you do for security, for happiness?  This film, through its deft and clear writing and direction, poses many questions, including: What would it be like to be one of these older rich gentlemen?

Overall: This was a very enjoyable film with excellent acting, direction, and pacing.

Leatherheads

First Hit: Despite its attempt at being cute period piece, it a pleasant and droll frolic with little to say and nothing to tell.

This may become the shortest review I’ll ever write.

George Clooney does sarcastic manly debonair cute well. Renee Zellweger does smart-aleck quick wit cute well.

When George (playing Dodge) and Renee (playing Lexie) have screen time together the film is entertaining and has sparks. Their banter is fun.

There are some other comic relief scenes in the film that kept me laughing and engaged from time to time but I found this film a bit predictable and in the end it turned out to be a mediocre piece of fluff.

The premise is that professional football is a small losing business. Teams go bankrupt by the week. Dodge comes up with an idea to promote a college player who is extremely popular because he is a war hero, has sponsors and is good looking as well. A deal gets made and pro football is on its way with people showing up to watch. Lexie’s job is to ruin this former player war hero with the truth and publish it in the newspaper.

Overall: This film is rather lifeless and Renee and George’s banter weren’t enough for me to pay to see.

Run Fatboy Run

First Hit: This is a very lighthearted romp with little substance and not much of a story to tell.

Simon Pegg plays Dennis a somewhat hapless security guard for a upscale clothing store.

The film begins as he bolts from his wedding to Libby (played by Thandie Newton) who is very pregnant with their child.

The remainder of the film takes place 5 years later when he realizes he made a mistake by running out on Libby. However, Libby is dating a wealthy super jock who intends to marry her, take care of Dennis’ and Libby’s boy, and run a marathon.

Dennis who has run away from most of his responsibilities and has rarely finished anything in his life but decides that if he can run the marathon, Libby might take him back because he will have proven he’s changed and is committed to making things work.

David Schwimmer directs this film as a lackluster comedy with a very middle of the road evenhandedness. There isn’t much to spark any real seriousness nor is it truly funny. There are some funny and sweet bits including scenes with his landlord, best friend, and his son yet they are few and far between. There isn’t anything to sink your teeth into so, in the end, the film passes by and is basically forgotten within a few days of its viewing.

Overall: This is a mediocre film although there are some entertaining scenes during the actual running of the marathon.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

First Hit: This is a delightful funny period piece with great sets and excellent acting from both Amy Adams and Frances McDormand.

Amy Adams, playing Delysia Lafosse, is absolutely delightful, fun and engaging as a high energy socialite who is playing three men against each other hoping to find an engagement or arrangement that will make her famous and wealthy.

Miss Pettigrew, played by Frances McDormand, is an out of work governess/nanny looking for another job. She has reasons as to why she’s lost all her previous jobs but the agency just cannot risk placing her any longer.

Miss Pettigrew finds herself on the streets of London with a stolen lead from the agency. Going up to the gorgeous flat as identified from this stolen lead, she knocks on the door and finds herself face to face with the high energy Delysia.

Delysia immediately asks Miss Pettigrew the time and realizes the flat’s owner will soon be home and the place is a mess and someone isn’t awake yet. Miss Pettigrew’s first task is to wake Delysia’s boy who, Miss Pettigrew soon finds out, is really a grown naked lover.

Miss Pettigrew makes her mark with Delysia by being quick on her feet by helping her deal with the three men in her life and becomes anointed as her social secretary.

What Miss Pettigrew does is teach Delysia to listen to her heart and move away from making herself available to men just to advance her career. Miss Pettigrew also finds joy along the way.

Overall: Both actresses are great in their roles and play off each other extremely well. This is a light hearted film and some of the sets are extremely well done and bring to life the 1930s.

Semi-Pro

First Hit: There are some truly funny vignettes holding together this mediocre film.

It’s probably not a good thing that I am not a Will Ferrell fan and reviewing a Will Ferrell film.

Like most of his movies, I find the juxtaposition of him as a person and the character he plays to be problematic. The most prominent of these is an underlying anger within him which he expresses overtly in his films while attempting to pass off as comedic.

Something about this anger being expressed in this way, just doesn’t work for me. In this film there are several moments showing this; one is during the meeting with the other basketball owners.

His anger (yelling and chair slamming) isn’t funny, nor is it real to the film but seems real to him – Ferrell. However, there are in all his films, including this one, some very funny scenes which bring up spontaneous laughter (I liked the outfits for the underwater sea halftime show – very funny).

The characters I enjoyed were Andre Benjamin as Clarence “Coffee” Black, Andrew Daly as Dick Pepperfield, and Will Arnett as Lou Redwood.

The brief premise is that Ferrell as Jackie Moon who sounds like Barry White sang a song his mother wrote called “Love Me Sexy” which has some horrible lyrics like “lick me sexy”. From the proceeds of this song he bought an ABA basketball franchise in Flint Michigan call “The Tropics”.

The league is going to merge with the NBA but only four teams will be part of the merge. Jackie convinces the ABA owners that the fairest way to select the teams to merge is how well they perform not their attendance or professionalism. He brings in a washed up star named Monix (played by Woody Harrelson) to help the team.

They do come together as a team, win some games and finish fourth but don’t make the NBA grade based on the other criteria.

Overall: A mediocre film with some truly funny bits but not enough to stay fully engaged.