My Super Ex-Girlfriend - a review
I've been thinking of going to see a movie for several days. What I landed on, mentally, was a viewing of Monster House a CG animated movie about a house and monsters and three little kids and… uhm… okay, I don't really know what it's about, I just recall really liking the trailers I've seen for the movie when I've gone to see other movies over the past couple of months. So, when I went to see a movie, I was thinking I'd see that one.
The problem came not in going to see a movie, but rather in the cost of seeing Monster House last night. They wanted to charge nine bucks to watch the movie in 3D. Now, I am all for various retro-advancements in the cinema attending experience. I mean, come on, it's not as though 3D is some new technology… but to charge nine dollars for one movie seemed quite out of hand and out of place to me. So, I went to be backup movie, My Super Ex-Girlfriend and paid less money to watch that movie.
Truth told, I wasn't expecting much. For some reason when I watch trailers I just get this weird notion of what movies will make money and which ones won't. That doesn't mean that a flop at the boxoffice isn't going to be something that I end up enjoying… but more that people just aren't interested in watching that movie. The theatre I watched it in last night was not full, nor even close to being full, so there was plenty of seats and lots of boys and girls and girls and girls sitting around.
It seemed that after the movies "official" start time they ran trailers forever. I know, I know, they always run trailers forever. However, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest had trailers go for about twelve minutes; Superman Returns had trailers go for about fourteen minutes (yes, I am anal about timing these things) but last night I stopped paying attention to the time commitment of the trailers after fifteen minutes. I've got to tell you, going to movies and paying to sit and watch trailers for fifteen to twenty minutes isn't my idea of good entertainment. Maybe the studio's or theatres are trying to shove some advertising in on a movie that isn't going to make it at the boxoffice, whatever, but I hate sitting through all those when I can go online and watch trailers and I am really only at the theatre to watch the movie I paid to see and not trailers and advertisements for movies I couldn't care less about, most of the time.
With that said, Disney's new CG intro to their movies was amazing on Pirates and I almost thought it might've been worth the price of admission. Not really. But it was pretty neat to see. Nice to know that the Disney Corp is putting money into their brand.
Now, with all of that said, My Super Ex-Girlfriend wasn't as bad a movie as most reviewers said (which leads me to believe that most reviewers are watching far too many movies), nor was it as good as the actors that played various parts in the movie. Basic premise: Guy meets girl on subway, helps girl out, she rewards him by going to dinner with him; girl ends up being G-Girl (you never find out what "G" stands for) and eventually shares secret with guy and then grows insanely jealous of guy and hot blonde coworker.
Now, for a superhero movie it blows. Not very good at all. And for a romantic comedy. It blows. Not very good at all. Which leaves us… uhm. Nowhere. And yet, the movie wasn't as bad as all that. Luke Wilson plays the romantic lead, dude, Matt Saunders. He's the one who starts dating G-Girl, played by Uma Thurman. Matt Saunders is really in love with Hannah Lewis, played by Anna Ferris, and then you have Rain Wilson playing Vaughn (a cheap knock-off of most of Vince Vaughn's characters in movies). Oh, and don't forget Eddie Izzard, the cross dressing comedian, who plays Professor Bedlam or Barry.
The backstory to G-Girl is kind of interesting. Two geeks spend time together in high school. On the night they are to consummate whatever they want to call their relationship (not quite love) a meteorite streaks through the sky and lands near where they were trying to get it on in the back of an ugly car. Jenny (G-Girl) runs to see what the meteor is all about, touches it, and WHAM! she becomes G-Girl. This scene was fun.
Now, the audience in the theatre laughed at all the right places. I did not. I didn't really see what was funny over what they were laughing about. In fact, I found a lot of the movie rather long and somewhat boring. When you get G-Girl's backstory it is told by G-Girl. However, there is a point where I thought Barry (Professor Bedlam) could've had a backstory moment where you get more of what happened that night. It would've made the movie far more interesting… and yet… not.
The movie is full of moments like that. Especially toward the end as G-Girl is exacting her revenge on the man who allegedly cheated on her (Matt). However, watching the movie wasn't painful. I wouldn't say, "Go right out and watch it," but if you are looking for some cheap entertainment for the price of a matinee or at a dollar theater, saying one exists near you, then I'd suggest watching this movie. Either that, or wait until someone else rents or buys it on DVD and watch it then. I was going to say I loved Uma Thurman in Proof but remembered she wasn't in that movie… then I went to see what movie I have liked her in and discovered that of the movies she's been in that I have been willing to see, I haven't liked her in any of them.