Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

I have a question - when did Matthew McConaughey decide to strictly do these romantic comedies?

I mean, he has some quality films in his resume - namely Dazed & Confused and A Time to Kill - not to mention a lesser known film Frailty. But, for every one of those films he makes there seems to be at least three romantic comedies. Is it the southern drawl that brings the ladies in?

Anyway, here he is again in the film Ghosts of Girlfriends Past - which is an updated and modified version of A Christmas Carol.

McConaughey stars as Connor Mead, a high-profile photographer who has become a womanizer and basically modeled his entire existence after his Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas).

Mead heads back to his uncle's old house as his younger brother, Paul (Breckin Meyer) is getting married to Sandra (Lacey Chabert). One of Sandra's bridesmaids just so happens to be a woman that Mead dated and left - and was also his best friend as a child - Jenny (Jennifer Garner).

As he begins to get those old feelings again for Jenny, he is visited by three separate ghosts a la Ebenezer Scrooge.

For me, it was the ghosts that truly made this film passable. They were extremely funny - especially the ghost of girls past, Allison (Emma Stone). Allison was Mead's first conquest back in high school.

Of course, the rest of the film is rather predictable as we see into Mead's past to find out why exactly he became the way he did. And, is it possible that he can change just like Scrooge did in A Christmas Carol?

Again, most of these films - in different ways - almost always end up telling the same story, so nothing should be a surprise when the ending comes. However, some do end up telling the story in a good way - and like I said, the ghosts definitely made this film somewhat enjoyable, but without them it probably wouldn't have gotten as high of a grade (and no the grade was not planned).

Grade:

Great Escape Weekend

This past weekend, Erika took me to The Great Escape for our anniversary (yes, our anniversary was a few weeks ago, but this was the time we had to celebrate).

Things started on Friday when we said goodbye to Kasey (he was watched by Nana & Papa Reyell) and headed out to Lake George around 3:30 p.m. We arrived just after 5 p.m. and checked into a hotel right next to The Great Escape. Erika decided to take me out to dinner at my favorite restaurant Red Lobster - I knew she doesn't like seafood, so I tried to persuade her to go to Outback instead, but we didn't.

I hadn't been to Red Lobster in awhile, and in the past I had always purchased the shrimp platter. This time, however, that was not on the menu, so I got crab legs and shrimp. Erika got a spicy chicken alfredo - she didn't like it.

So, we went back to the hotel room and got some nice rest before our day at The Great Escape the next morning. The room was ok, but I was expecting more. There were marks on the walls and doors, we ordered a room with a large tub in the room, but it wasn't large enough - the bed was comfortable, but overall the room was just subpar.

With Kasey gone for the night, I was hoping to be able to sleep in the next morning, but Erika was wide awake at 7 a.m. So, we got ready and had breakfast before heading down to the park.

A few years ago, Six Flags took over The Great Escape - so we were hoping for things to be updated and fixed up - it wasn't. We didn't go on any of the water rides, but we hit all of the rollercoasters. I was just disappointed that things have not been updated or fixed up, plus a few rides have been removed. Basically, the only thing changed is the name and the prices went up.

Despite the fact that things didn't really go the way we expected, it was nice to spend the day with Erika - with Kasey around and being so busy all of the time, we don't get to spend too much time together, just the two of us - so that was nice.

Sunday was Father's Day and Kasey got me a razor and Sesame Street card (thanks Mom). We went to my parents for lunch and to give grandpa his card. Finally, we had a graduation party for Erika's cousin before we finally were able to go home.

I finished the day with mowing the lawn, watching the final hole of the U.S. Open then starting the Basketball Finals.

During the day yesterday, Erika and I did get a chance to watch Juno. We had been wanting to watch it for awhile now, and it finally showed up on Friday from Netflix.

She quickly pointed out that it reminded her a lot of Napoleon Dynamite which of course was due to the fact of the odd music and that it too was an indie film.

The movie itself wasn't as special as I was expecting with all of the hype, but overall was a pretty good movie. I was sort of disappointed with the ending, but I can deal with it. Jason Bateman and J.K. Simmons were very good in the film. Ellen Page and Michael Cera were both good as well, but I sort of despised Jennifer Garner's character - perhaps I was supposed to, I don't know.

Despite the over-hyping I will give this movie a 3/5 (in my old rankings). Check it out, it's worth a watch.

Movie Booms I

I must say that the total lack of television on now, thanks to most of the seasons being completed, I have found some extra time to dive into some movies I have been longing to see.

I posted a review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on Saturday, but I was also able to catch four other movies during this extended weekend.

Things started off on Saturday, when on one of the movie channels I noticed that Next was about to start (I am one of those people that can't watch a movie he has never seen, unless it's from start to finish), so I decided to record it and watch it when Kasey went up for his nap.

Next stars Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel. Cage is Cris Johnson, a Las Vegas magician who just might be the real thing. Johnson has this ability to see into the future - but only two minutes ahead and only things involving himself.

The only occurrence of him seeing further into the future involves Liz Cooper (Biel), whom Johnson believes is part of his destiny.

The FBI, however, led by Callie Ferris (Moore) is trying to lure Johnson into helping them find and stop a group of bombers. Johnson, though, just wants to remain normal and resists - until Cooper is kidnapped by the bombers.

I was actually pretty interested in the film, Cage is always hit or miss with me, and he was pretty tolerable here - I was not too impressed with Moore as the FBI agent, however. The movie flowed pretty well - that is until the ending, which I felt ended much too soon. It was a pretty interesting play of events, but I was looking for me.

I would have to give this movie a 3/5 thanks to the disappointing ending.

Sunday night I managed to finally watch a movie I had been interested in seeing since it was in theaters.

The Kingdom revolves around a single incident in Saudi Arabia that involves two U.S. government agents. The agents, who had been stationed at a Saudi Arabian base, were killed when a bomb went off.

The movie stars Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and Chris Cooper. Foxx plays Ronald Fleury, who without permission, sneaks himself and three other members of his team into Saudi Arabia to help track down the culprits behind the bombing.

Once there, however, the crew is not allowed to touch anything or go anywhere without supervision - until Fleury gets permission from one of the local princes.

It's hard to explain this movie without truly giving something away, so I will just say that the movie has a lot of action - a few squeamish scenes - and the acting is pretty top-notch. Bateman plays Adam Leavitt, and his character gives some much needed comedy to a very dramatic situation. I give the film a 4/5.

The third movie of the weekend was more of a television movie. I had actually heard that this movie was going to be on during an interview on The Mike O'Meara Show and thought it might be worth a look.

Recount premiered on HBO during the weekend. It stars Kevin Spacey, Ed Begley Jr., Tom Wilkinson, John Hurt, Denis Leary and Laura Dern.

The film is about the 2000 presidential election year between Al Gore and George W. Bush. I have never been a very political person, but this proved to be a very interesting movie.

The entire movie is focused on the state of Florida during the election, a state that proved to give the election - and the presidency - to Bush. Spacey stars as Ron Klain, an attorney for the Gore campaign, who trying everything in his power to find out the correct results of the election.

For those who might not remember, the state of Florida had a series of issues when it came to it's election. A handful of people, believing they were voting for Gore, accidentally voted for Pat Buchanon. Other votes were cast, with what is called a hanging chad (or a punch that didn't go all the way through).

Thanks to this, many votes for Gore were uncounted and thus gave Bush the presidency. There were so many twists and turns to this situation - which basically all came down to the decision of Florida's secretary of state, Katherine Harris (Dern), who decided not to count those that were uncounted. Harris is a Republican - perhaps that had something to do with it.

Like I said I am not too political, but this movie certainly had me enthralled. Imagine what could have been? Would we be in the situation we are now if Gore would have won? Very interesting. My lone complaint is I was hoping the filmmakers would have interviewed the actual lawyers and participants on the two campaigns. I was very interested to hear what say James Baker (Wilkinson) had to say about Bush now - eight year later. Nevertheless, I still give this movie a 4/5.

The final movie I was able to watch this weekend was Breach starring Ryan Phillippe, Chris Cooper. Laura Linney, Gary Cole and Dennis Haysburt.

Phillippe is Eric O'Neill, an upstart in the FBI, who is given his first real assignment as an agent. He is to work for, and investigate, Robert Hanssen (Cooper), an intense, religious, computer intelligence officer.

Hanssen has supposedly been selling off American secrets to the Russians for years, and before his retirement in two months, the FBI is looking to bust him. Phillippe is forced to outwit one of the most intelligent officers he has ever met - and actually begins to like him.

This movie was based on a true story. Hanssen is reportedly the worst spy in the history of the United States. The capturing of Hanssen was the one and only assignment for O'Neill, as he decided to pursue law after the long ordeal.

Breach was an interesting movie which kept me involved, but it didn't have much action - and the 'spy games' used in it weren't as involved as I would have liked. However, it was a good watch so I give it a 3/5.

There you have it - hopefully there will be more of these Movie Booms throughout the summer - as I try to get caught up on the many movies I want to see.