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 Life or Something Like It

Life or Something Like It (2002) 

Directed by Stephen Herek, 

Written by Dana Stevens

Starring Angelina Jolie, Edward Burns, Stockard Channing, Tony Shalhoub 

Release Date April 29th, 2002 

Published April 29th, 2002  

It seems there is a new Angelina Jolie story every week. Whether it's making out with her brother, entering into an ill-advised marriage or feuding with her celebrity father Jon Voight, Angelina Jolie can't do anything without making the papers. One is left to wonder, when will Jolie's movies become as notable as her personal life? Her latest work, Life or Something Like It, is another step in the wrong direction, a film only notable for the fact that it is worse than her last film.

Life finds Angelina Jolie under a poorly fitting blonde wig as Lanie Kerrigan, a TV features reporter at a Seattle TV station. Like any conventional movie character Lanie has it all, looks, money and a wealthy baseball star boyfriend. Indeed life is perfect, until her boss reteams her with her ex-boyfriend, a cameraman named Pete (Edward Burns). Lanie and Pete had some sort of previous relationship though the film is unclear about what exactly happened, we do know they don't like each other, which in movie parlance means they will end up together. (That, by the way, is not a spoiler. If you didn't know they were ending up together please purchase my book Romantic Comedies for Dummies).

Lanie and Pete argue and fight until they do a story about a street performer who some believe can tell the future. Tony Shalhoub plays Prophet Jack who tells Lanie she has only a week to live. Lanie does the only thing any rational person could do in that situation, she believes him. If a crazy homeless guy told you that you were going to die of course you would believe him, right?. From there the film devolves into your typical romantic comedy cliches without providing one original moment.

I can't say I was disappointed in Life Or Something Like It, going in I knew what I was seeing. I had hoped that an actress of Angelina Jolie's talent could provide a more interesting performance even in such a conventional romantic comedy. She doesn't. And what of Edward Burns, wasn't this guy supposed to be something special? Since his debut in the surprisingly good Brothers McMullan, Burns had been hailed as the next Woody Allen. He has yet to show the talent that was expected of him.

Director Stephen Herek, who's RockStar has become a guilty pleasure movie for me, returns to his genre safe work that helped ruin Eddie Murphy's career (Holy Man). Herek has the same lame crowd-pleasing instincts that mark the worst Hollywood hacks. Nothing challenging, nothing different, everything safely market tested for proper effectiveness. Honestly this kind of filmmaking turns my stomach.

Say what you will but I am tired of this cookie cutter Hollywood swill like Life Or Something Like It. I realize that not every film can be a genre buster but shouldn't every movie aspire to something other than just box office?