No Strings Attached

Last year it seems movies about young beautiful people having uncomplicated sex were all the rage. I saw at the theater some Timberlake/Kunis movie that was just awful, I still chide my sister in law for picking that one out.

This movie starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. The movie starts with them at summer camp and Adam finding out that his Dad is leaving his Mom. Even at a young age Emma is not good with " feelings" but consoles him in an awkward way.

They run into each other at college at a fraternity party and eventually find themselves both living in New York where she is a medical resident and he works on a kids television show.

As the movie takes off Adam has been dumped by his girlfriend and after hitting what he calls rock bottom calls Emma in a drunken state and ends up waking up at her house. Not knowing where he is or who he was with all the roommates in the house pretend to have had sex with him and then Emma appears. He learns he called her, did a strip tease and passed out. Soon, however, something does, but Adam learns after that she does not want a relationship.

The movie is predictable. Sex buddies becomes their relationship. They start to develop feelings. Hurt feelings ensue. Make up and reconciliation and then the movie ends with them facing starting a real dating relationship.

The acting is better in this, not so much focus on the sex scenes, and the movie works. Not Shakespeare by any means but the movie works. Portman is very attractive and as moronic as he may be in real life Kutcher is hard not to like in this role as well.

Ted

This past spring I saw the the trailers on Youtube for the movie Ted and thought it looked a little interesting. Clearly the movie was nothing very edifying. Still some of the movies that I saw when I was a teenager and in my early twenties were not the kind you write home about.

The premise of the movie is sweet. A young boy in a suburb of Boston grows up and has trouble making friends. A funny scene right away has a young boy getting beat up by other neighborhood kids but they all stop, the beaters and the beatee to inform the boy, John Bennett, to go away and get lost.

For Christmas that year the boy gets a stuffed teddy bear, bigger than most, and he loves it. One night he wishes that the bear could be alive and they could be best friends forever. The next morning he wakes up and the bear is awake. Once the boy gets over the shock he is thrilled. Nothing special in this scenario, we have seen premises similar to this many times.

Fast forward 25 years however and the movie is very different than the sugary versions we have seen. Ted now is sitting on the couch next to John getting stoned. Ted, voiced by Seth McFarlane, is obscene, vulgar and rude. F this and F that are his very famous words.

Seeing a stuffed bear acting rude, getting stoned and swearing is funny, for a minute. There are surely lines and moments in this movie that made me laugh. There are also many scenes where my wife sitting next to me mouthed an OMG and made me feel guilty for subjecting her to it.

Mila Kunis plays John Bennett's longtime girlfriend. She has a successful job and is convinced that John is being held back by his stoner teddy bear. See, the movie is really little different in this way than many other movies we have seen where the girl does not like the best friend and issues an ultimatum. It is just in this case that ultimatum is about a teddy bear.

Have I seen dumber movies? Surely. Is Mark Wahlberg and his accent perfect for a loser from Boston? Yes. Is it funny to see the bear walking, cursing, and yes having intercourse? Actually yes, in places, very funny.

So my wife was mortified that she took our son to the movie, being R Rated he needed us to take him. It was pretty over the top in some of it's jokes. Still he did not look too scarred and he said he enjoyed it. I would not go see it again but I did laugh out loud once or twice. That must be worth something. And as I told my wife it surely was not as bad as Friends with Benefits.

Mila Kunis appears now to be the it actress. I am sure it does not translate to me. She is cute and appealing but for me at least there are quite a few actresses that are more easily seen in the girl next door role or girlfriend roles. Of course most of them probably would not do a movie like Ted.

So when it comes out on video, enjoy it, just make sure you do not expect too much. Prepare yourself as well for this, it has made a ton of money and a sequel would not be hard to do.

Friends With Benefits

Every once in awhile you see a movie thatmis just......Awful. This would be one of those movies is it painful because there is too much sex and nudity.For the first time in my life i would sa yes. It was not erotic or sensual it was just squirmy. Justin Timberlake is lkable.He always is. Mila Kunis is attractive in her exotic way..

The movie is predictable in the exteeme, not that most moview are not but this one is painfully so. The only scene in the movie that had value is when Timberlake's character joins his alzheimers riddled father in removing his pants in a resteraunt. Even that scene you see coming.

Awful implies purposfully bas. But this is a bad movie, a very bad movie.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

This movie was my most recent " I cannot sleep what's on HBO" find. I remember when it first came out and all the talk was of Jason Segal and his full nude scenes. And he did. But after you got over that the movie was good.

Playing Peter a composer dumped unceremoniously by his girlfriend Sarah Marshall ( Kristin Bell ) Segal is the star of the show. His everyman looks and natural likability carries the film. Kristin Bell is cute and attractive but her character is not likeable, although she does become more sympathetic when we hear of the rut Peter was in pre breakup.

Mila Kunis form That 70's Show is good as the hotel hostess who starts a relationship with Peter but for me the real surprise was the role of Aldous Snow played by Russell Brand. I had only known of Brand as the nasty comic host of MTV video awards and as Mrs Katy Perry of late but he was quite funny and likable in his role as Kristin Bell's new man.

Nothing unpredictable in this movie but at 1230 at night it was well worth a few chuckles.

Rating: 6