It�s 11pm and I should be in bed. But eh what�s a few moments of sleep lost between friends and blogs right?
So Tommy came up today and we traversed the streets of L.A. gorging ourselves on far too much food starting with El Compadre on Sunset and then bookending it at Yankee Doodles on 3rd.
Saw 2 movies today (by no means a record but still a hefty sum within the short time frame we had).
One was the BREAK UP starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston.
THANK GOODNESS Vaughn is back doing what he is best at! He sings as he spouts those crazed witty run on sentences that got everyone cheering him on when we first saw him in SWINGERS. This is what Vince Vaughn was meant to do, RANT. He has that nice guy charm trapped in a pompous A-holes body and he does a great job of just zinging one liner after one liner toward Aniston. I am going to assume most of his dialogue was impromptu. It sounds like every interview or story you hear about the guy, crass and fast, how they got through a take without laughing is beyond me).
The story follows Vaughn and Aniston�s brief courtship and moves into what is supposed to be a wonderful relationship. But one night a fight breaks out. One of those innocuous fights that we�ve all had with significant others (okay maybe just me). It starts out over something small but then builds till finally this avalanche of unresolved emotion and resentment come tumbling down. They perfectly exaggerate the differences between men and women enough to show the ludicrousness of our genders and the miracle that we can even co habitate to begin with. I cringed at many of the conversations that were being played out on screen and it�s closeness to personal realities that I�ve taken part in.
The misunderstandings, seeming betrayals, acute paranoia, ahhh yes the joys of breaking up with someone.
Aniston is lovable, Vaughn is lovable. The movie plays like a follow up to Swingers. That type of post adolescent angst that can only be found courtesy of living in the reality of maturity.
Great side characters. The ever faithful Favereau is there, plying his trade as Vaughn�s straight man as per usual. Cole Hauser in a non bad guy role gives a great Vaughn like monologue about Vaughn being a domesticated cat that now must go back out into the alley�but the alley�s changed my friend, oh how it�s changed.
Vincent D�nofrio, who is one of the best actors in existence is there, for reasons I don�t know why. I mean I love the guy in just about anything but here, his quirks, his intensity was.. he was just�out of place.
It�s not a feel good romantic comedy, not in the sense that most would think of it as being. But it was good. It was an adult film about people that care about each other but being hurt beyond the point of reconciliation.
There is a bright side, as the song near the end points out (�I can see clearly now the rain is gone..�) giving a whisper of hope aside from the clich� Hollywood ending.
Go See it
RUNNING SCARED. � No, not the one starring Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal. This one stars Paul Walker (who I want to hate but keeps pulling out these tiny roles that I actually like him in) as a low level mobster who is tasked with getting rid of some guns that link another mobster to a hit on some dirty cops. The gun is stolen and we follow the trail of the gun and Walker as he attempts to get it back before he is killed.
There might be more F Bombs in this movie than in Scarface. Come to think of it there actually might be more violence in this movie than Scarface.
I�m not saying that the story is as epic or as well done as Scarface, what I�m saying is that this is NOT a bad movie.
When Tommy first told me to see it I scoffed (and I�m sorry for that). I thought it looked pretty crappy by the trailers end and when I went to look for it at the theater it had disappeared.
But don�t let it disappear off your radar. If you like quick and quirky camera work, fast paced, twists and turns, this is the one. Ultra violent it actually played like a condensed episode of 24 minus the censors.
Like I said this is not a film for everyone. Nudity, vulgar language and violence, violence, violence (now I know Dabb will be renting it). But what it has is great characters, crazy situations and enough tricks that kept me wondering what was going to happen next.
