Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration

After finding out that Christopher Guest had a new film out with the same cast as he always does (how the hell did I miss that he had a movie out after A Mighty Wind?!) I hurriedly moved it up to 1st in my queue in Netflix.  Another movie with Catherine O’Hara and John Krasinski?  What joy! What bliss! I love them both.  I did a little research before because I thought it was weird this movie had been released in 2006 and I had never heard of it.  hm. 10M dollar budget?  hm. only 6M in box office world wide. not a good sign.

And found out afterwards I should have followed my gut instinct that there was something a little off about this film.  This movie falls far short of expectations.  Granted I have high expectations because Christopher Guest is brilliant and hilarious, and his acting honestly was pretty great.  I can never figure out until I’ve been staring at him for like 10 minutes which guy is Christopher Guest, he changes so dramatically from film to film.  But the rest of the plot was long and boring, with the key characters not as exaggerated or developed as in his other films.  I mean, waiting for guffman, I loved all the characters, their weird quirks…these same actors in this movie I just thought were kind of annoying and disappointing.  In the end, though there were a couple of funny parts to it (I mean, you still can’t erase the fact that you do have Jane Lynch, Eugene Levy and Rick Gervais in the film) my brother and I both agreed this was not really worth money to see it in the movie theater or at home, it’s just kind of a long, boring, seemingly endless waste of time…$1

If you heart For Your Consideration:

Recommendations from …:
Waiting for Guffman
Bullets over Broadway
A Mighty Wind

Away we go

I had a hard time writing this review. I don’t really have anything to say about this movie.  It’s kind of like a pregnant version of Garden State, with not-quite-as-likeable characters.  Speaking of Garden State, does Dax Shepard from Parenthood (possibly better known from Punk’d) remind anyone of Zach Braff?  Maybe it’s just me.  Back to the matter at hand…

I mean, I love John Krasinski, so of course I thought he was likeable, but far more likeable in the office.  The girlfriend, played by Maya Randolph, bordered somewhat irritating.  not quite irritating, but almost.  It had quick, fast, witty dialogue, as you might except from David Eggers and his wife, who co-wrote the screenplay, was amusing, entertaining and passed the time, but besides that was kinda bleh.  Forgettable and unmemorable, except in the fact that it inspired me to write my own movie about an early 30 something that travels around the country like a vagabond, searching for the perfect place to live, we’ll see how that turns out.  In essence, it was not bad, but not great.

 

I wanted to write a review about this movie because I had such high hopes for it.  It has a kinda indie flavor, fun actors, is about travel so i thought I’d really like this.  Redeeming factors, besides John Krasinski was a hilarious Maggie Gyllenhaal and Allison Janney.  I also happen to love Catherine O’Hara so it was nice to see her in a toned down version of her much reprised slightly offbeat and cooky mother figure.  It was sweet, and was fine, but fell short of expectations…$4

If you heart Away we go:

Recommendations from …:
Garden State
Wristcutters
Juno