Gary Wolcott's "Mr. Movie" column has appeared in the Tri-City Herald since 1992. The Tri-City native now lives in Portland, Ore., and watches about 250 movies each year. This member of Portland's association of movie critics, Far From Hollywood, believes movies are made to be seen on theater screens and should be seen there and not on television screens. Have a question for Mr. Movie? Click on "Add Comment" below. Mr. Movie has joined Twitter. Follow him here.
Romantic comedies — long-distance or not — are plentiful and predictable.
This Drew Barrymore star vehicle is no exception. The "Long" in long distance just happens to be Justin Long. His character lives on the East Coast, Barrymore’s is on the West. Love means negotiating for a middle and negotiating in the middle will not leave you — like Barrymore — longing for Long.
Having lived more — here’s the word again — “long”-distance relationships in my personal life than a human being ought to experience, I can tell you they usually don’t end happily.
But this is a rom-com and rom-coms end happy — even the rare one that is R-rated. Rom-com — or romantic comedy — for the uninitiated is like everything else in this text-happy society, two words shortened and bonded together. If only the movie was chopped and shortened.
Going the Distance — sorry but the puns are irresistible — is too long.
Barrymore is always charming and watchable. So is the easy going Long.
Christina Applegate nearly steals the movie with a terrific turn as Barrymore’s smothering sister. Sit-com star Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) also has a blast tossing off some quite funny lines about relationships.
There’s his work, Applegate’s and a quite funny sex scene on a table — and that’s about it.
Film buffs know director Nanette Burstein from two fascinating documentaries, The Kid Stays in the Picture and American Teen. She’s wonderful in that medium, but not in this one.
Here’s hoping Going the Distance is to generate funds to finance the next great documentary — and that the documentaries were not so Burstein could do a film such as this.
Going the Distance — alas — fails to go the distance.
Mr. Movie rating: 2 1/2 stars
Rated R for mature themes, brief nudity. It opens Friday, Sept. 3 at the Carmike 12 and the Fairchild Cinemas 12.
5 stars to 4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen
4 stars to 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it's your type of movie.
3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on video.
2 stars to 1 star: Don't bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself.
Anna Faris is the insecure Ally Darling, and relationships never seem to work out for her.
On her way home after just being fired from a job — and just before the pathetic Ally ends up sleeping with the boss that fired her — she reads an article about the number of lovers women have for their entire life.
'Contraband' a rare January movie that doesn't tank
Studios dump movies in January.
This month is when the biggies released between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day begin to fade and the studios begin dribbling award-worthy art films out to smaller markets.
Adam Sandler is still doing them and usually within five minutes of the beginning of a movie. Hard to believe isn’t it? And he doesn’t stick with just one. Sandler’s form of “humor” can be found twice, thrice, sometimes even four times in a film.
Prepubescent boys find a toot a hoot. By the time you’re 15, fart jokes are pretty much passe. Maybe it’s Sandler’s signature. Modern comedians tend not to use them. Billy Crystal is one of the few. He’s simply marvelous. A lot of old-time comedians did. Jimmy Durante said goodnight to Mrs. Calabash. Bill Cosby’s signature is, “Hey, hey, hey.” George Burns told his lovely bride to, “Say goodnight, Gracie.”
Battelle club brings in Welles-narrated 'F for Fake'
This week's featured film, brought to you by the Battelle Film Club , is F for Fake — a 1973 documentary whose anchor subjects are Orson Welles and writer Clifford Irving.
The author rose to fame for writing Fake a biography of a-then famous French art forger Elmyr de Hory. Later, Irving’s great claim to fame became a fake of his own — a biography of legendary recluse, millionaire Howard Hughes.
Welles, who lied about his credentials to get acting jobs early in his career, has his own story. It’s the best broadcast fakery of all-time, the 1938 Mercury Players War of the Worlds .
CBS Films' haunted-house tale "The Woman in Black" will likely creep to the top of the domestic box office with an expected opening gross of around $15 million.
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