IT'S COMPLICATED

 Synopsis: Two-time Academy Award® winner Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin star in this hilarious look at marriage, divorce and everything in between.... Two-time Academy Award® winner Meryl Streep, Steve 

Martin and Alec Baldwin star in this hilarious look at marriage, divorce and everything in between. Jane (Streep) has three grown kids, a thriving Santa Barbara bakery and an amicable relationship with her ex-husband, Jake (Baldwin). Now, a decade after their divorce, an innocent dinner between Jane and Jake turns into the unimaginable - an affair. Caught in the middle of their rekindled romance are Jake’s young wife and Adam (Martin), a recently divorced architect who starts to fall for Jane. Could love be sweeter the second time around? It’s… complicated! From writer/director Nancy Meyers comes the comedy that critics call 'laugh-out-loud funny' (Rex Reed, The New York Observer).


Review:  It's not complicated. It's simple. The movie is a stinker.

I am not usually a fan of "romantic" comedies. It has to be special, quirky, and a somewhat realistic scenario for me to enjoy it. I had high hopes for this one because it's by writer/producer Nancy Meyers who also wrote and directed Something's Gotta Give starring Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Now that's a pairing that worked. It's called chemistry and Streep and Baldwin have none. 


Together they are unbelievable, stiff, and awkward. A movie should make one get lost and forget they are watching something make believe. All the actors in this were too smiley and robotic. It had no flow and was boring to boot. Streep needs to stick to her drama roots and Baldwin needs to stay put at 3rd Rock. 

 
BOTTOM LINE: NO LIKEY

The Crazies

Synopsis: Imagine living in a small town where everything is safe and happy…until suddenly it isn’t. Imagine your friends and neighbors going quickly and... Imagine living in a small town where everything is safe and happy…until suddenly it isn’t. Imagine your friends and neighbors going quickly and horrifically insane. In a terrifying tale of the "American Dream" gone horribly wrong, four friends find themselves trapped in their hometown in The Crazies, a reinvention of the George Romero classic directed by Breck Eisner from a screenplay by Ray Wright (Pulse, Case 39) and Scott Kosar (The Amityville Horror, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre).

David Dutten (Timothy Olyphant) is sheriff of Ogden Marsh, a picture-perfect American town with happy, law-abiding citizens. But one night, one of them comes to a school baseball game with a loaded shotgun, ready to kill. Another man burns down his own house…after locking his wife and young son in a closet inside. Within days, the town has transformed into a sickening asylum; people who days ago lived quiet, unremarkable lives have now become depraved, blood-thirsty killers, hiding in the darkness with guns and knives. Sheriff Dutten tries to make sense of what’s happening as the horrific, nonsensical violence escalates. Something is infecting the citizens of Ogden Marsh…with insanity.




My expectations of  The Crazies was close to zero. I must admit that I had no idea it was a remake of a George Romero film. Romero is known for his zombie horror flicks and his zombie classic Night of the Living Dead. The movies I've seen by Romero are not my cup of tea. He set a new trend with N.O.L.D. by showing the zombie chewing and tearing at their victim's flesh - i.e. high gore. I need a good story to engage me. Gore. Meh. 

Had I known The Crazies was a remake of a Romero film I would have assumed  the film would feature zombies. That said, it was a big surprise to realize that's what the crazies are - zombies. These poor town folk are infected when a plane containing a biological weapon crashes in a marsh that feeds into the towns water supply. The closer one is to the main supply the sooner he or she is zombified. 

I thought the movie was entertaining enough as long as you don't ask too many questions. There are more plot holes than a slice of Swiss cheese. It helps that the main characters, Timothy Olyphant (The Perfect Getaway) and Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black), are easy on the eyes. Yes, there is a trend: Timothy Olyphant = hot. 

Bottom Line: Likey       


So you tell me what are your favorite zombie flicks?