Movie Review Man of the House

Man of the House 

Directed by Stephen Herek 

Written by Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone, John J. McLaughlin

Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Christina Milian, Cedric The Entertainer, Anne Archer

Release Date February 25th, 2005 

Published February 23rd, 2005 

Some movies aren’t made to be remembered. Most movies, in fact, are not memorable. You’ve likely forgotten most of the movies that you have seen in your life. Does this mean those movies were bad? Not necessarily, but it doesn’t speak well of those movies. I would much rather have a memorable experience than lose two hours of my life to something that is not going to linger in my mind beyond the time I spent with it. All of this is to say that I saw and wrote about the movie Man of the House in 2005 and even revisited it for a podcast. And yet, when I tried to recall the movie, it was nearly impossible. 

Man of the House is such a desperately forgettable experience that trying to recall it is an effort, and probably not worth such effort. So, I decided to try an experiment. Without consulting my previous review and fighting with my own memory, I am going to try and recall the experience of Man of the House. Then I will actually watch this trivial movie while consulting my original and podcast reviews of the movie just to see whether I am capable of recalling a movie that does not ask to be remembered.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Intolerable Cruelty

Intolerable Cruelty (2003) 

Directed by The Coen Brothers 

Written by Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone, The Coen Brothers 

Starring George Clooney, Catherine Zeta Jones, Geoffrey Rush, Billy Bob Thornton, Cedric the Entertainer

Release date October 10th, 2003 

Published October 10th, 2003 

There are two unique qualities that mark Joel and Ethan Coen when working in comedy. The first is their writing, smart, funny, and slightly off-kilter surrealism tempered with sweet natured humor. The other is the look of their films, established with the help of cinematographer Roger Deakins. Consistent color patterns that have the same surreal quality of the stories they are background to. These two things are once again on display in Intolerable Cruelty, the Coen's skewed take on the modern romantic comedy.

George Clooney stars in Intolerable Cruelty as divorce lawyer extraordinaire Miles Massey, author of a prenuptial agreement so tough it's never been broken and is the subject of its own course at Harvard law. Miles' specialty is “impossible to win” divorce cases. Miles chooses cases specifically for the challenge of winning the ones no one expects anyone to win. Miles' latest case is that of Rex Rexroth (Edward Herrmann), a real estate millionaire who was caught dead-to-rights cheating on his wife Marilyn (Catherine Zeta Jones).

Marilyn, you see, hired a private investigator named Gus Petch (Cedric The Entertainer) to follow her husband and Gus now has videotape of Rex's infidelity. Obviously Rex is caught but with Miles as his lawyer, he somehow walks out of court on the good side of the settlement. In fact, Rex's now ex-wife got nothing. Nothing that is, except for the admiration of her husband’s lawyer.

Despite all of Miles' instincts about marriage and divorce, he is totally smitten with Marilyn and her shady search for gullible rich husbands. Even after she has married yet another rich dupe, a Texas oilman played by Billy Bob Thornton, Miles still can't help but fall for Marilyn. She, of course, has a few more surprises for Miles to come throughout this comedic story.

Intolerable Cruelty is a surprisingly conventional piece from the usually more off-kilter Coen Brothers. It is, in most respects, a romantic comedy and contains a number of the perfunctory touches of that genre. The coincidences and luck that are hallmarks of most romantic comedies also show up in Intolerable Cruelty, only slightly skewed by the Coen's snappy dialogue and bright colorful production design. The production design of the film is far better than most other films of the genre.

George Clooney and Catherine Zeta Jones spark some terrific chemistry but some of the film’s third reel twists undermine that chemistry with a little more detachment and cruelty than you want from a romantic comedy. Nevertheless this is still the Coen Brothers and the dialogue is smart and snappy and the two leads are more than equal to it. The good definitely outweighs the bad in Intolerable Cruelty. I'll take their version of the romantic comedy over any of the most recent releases in that genre.