Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Serendipity is as serendipity does

Ooohhh, you’re all in for a treat today!

I’ve decided to branch out; see just what I can do with this whole blogging thing. To that end, when my good Myspace friend Jen approached me about doing a co-blog, I decided to get down with the get down.

The main reason for doing this? Because Jen is a great blogger, a great writer and very skilled at opening up conversations and tackling tough topics, (like sloppy kissers and gels that are sold to tighten vaginas. If she combined both those topics into one blog she’d probably have her own talk show by now). It was (get ready for the cheesiness) an honor to be asked to co-blog with her. I just about creamed my pants. Twice.

Then we just had to decide what kind of co-blog to do. Harkening back to my old journalist days, I thought that we should both review movies; the twist being that we pick movies for each other that we normally wouldn’t watch ourselves, (unless the chance of getting some poontang was involved –in my case at least-). I picked Kids (1995). She picked Serendipity (2001). That’s right people, I was forced to watch a romantic comedy. Oh, the horror.

Serendipity stars John “I can’t do a non-romantic movie to save my life” Cusack, Kate “The patent leather-wearing vampire” Beckinsale, Jeremy “Droz” Piven, and a bunch of other white people who aren’t as funny as they think, (little bit of trivia for you: Leo Fitzpatrick, the protagonist of Kids, actually has a scene in this movie. What a coincidence!)

Now, typically I’m not a fan of rom-coms, (as we in the biz like to call them) because their premises are so farfetched. And, of course, this one is no different. It starts off with Cusack and Beckinsale accidentally meeting at Bloomingdales’ while they’re both trying to buy the same pair of gloves, (which is weird because she wants to buy them for a guy and he wants to buy them for a chick.) They’re both in relationships, but that doesn’t stop them from sharing a moment and going out to eat ice cream, (did I mention that it’s December? Why do people eat ice cream in the winter?)

They share a wonderful evening together, but Beckinsale’s character, (Sara) says that it was the wrong time for each other to meet and refuses to give him her number. Her thought process being that if fate really wants them to be together then it will set everything up for them. She sees signs in everything, which, for some reason makes her more endearing to Cusack, instead of revealing her for the psycho chick that she is. She makes him put his name and number on a five dollar bill and she puts her info in an old book. The plan is to send those bits of information out in the world to see if they come back. Brilliant right?

A few years later they’re both on the verge of marrying other people, but can’t get that one glorious night out of their heads. So, they stupidly decide to risk or lose everything they have, (and they both have good lives) to find each other, though their last encounter was years in the past and amounted to just a few hours.

The whole movie is just them looking all over NYC for each other and arriving someplace mere seconds after the other one left. It gets really annoying. Finally, in the end, both of them just blow off their significant others and find each other just before the credits. It’s very heart-warming. (Could I have used the word “other” any more in this paragraph?)

As far as rom-coms go, it’s not too bad, (it’s no Along came Polly, or Failure to launch, is my point). I especially like how they don’t spend any time together at all except for the beginning and ending of the movie. That way they get to avoid the whole cliché that most rom-coms have, (you know what I’m talking about, the relationship is based on some kind of stupid lie, or hidden secret, and when the truth is revealed one person leaves the other and it takes some near-insane act of romance to get that person back, usually involving running through an airport) and I could groove on that. But there’s just one huge glaring problem for me when watching this. Mainly, it’s the fact that both people were so willing to flirt and perhaps cheat when they were already in relationships. Also, (and this is something I’ve learned in life) if somebody is willing to dump another for you, then what’s to stop them from one day leaving you for somebody else? Stealing somebody from another person is no way to start a relationship. I don’t trust women who bounce around, always looking for the BBD. That’s ungroovy. Basically, the people we’re supposed to identify with in this flick are nothing more than would-be cheaters.

But enough of my rambling, go read Jen's Blog. The words of a better writer. She has a very interesting take on the movie she had to watch. A movie she’ll never forget. Oh, and a little hint for the guys out there, as crazy as it sounds, Kids is a great date movie. Don’t ask me why, but it always works. Enjoy!

2 comments:

cB said...

you should have watched wimbeldon. its much better. but as for kids, i hate that movie. as much as i hate... oh, many other things.

as usual, keep up the goodness!!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.