Recently, Balgavy pronounced that he loved the movie Music and Lyrics. As he said, he enjoys watching romantic comedies while eating dinner.This intrigued a few of us to watch it ourselves. Jim watched it last night and started an e-mail thread today.
Jim: OK, so I watched Music and Lyrics. And I kinda liked it! My favorite part was definitely the PoP video with Jason Street.
Me: i had to stop after 30 minutes. a terrible movie. did like the first 3 minutes though.
Mitch: I'm with Listmaker on this one- Drew is cute and I liked the video too but it was all downhill from there.
Jim: There were definitely some bad and even horrible aspects, but I thought Hugh Grant was funny. And I have always hated him (but I don't know if I've even seen any of his movies). Also, I admit I changed the channel a few times and I was cooking and doing other stuff around the house while watching it so I wasn't paying attention 100%. So that probably helped. But yeah, the 3-minute video was by far the best thing about it. And they played it again at the end credits, which maybe helped my favorable opinion. Honestly, it being a romantic comedy, all of which pretty much make me want to vomit, I only gave it a chance because Marc liked it. I'm just saying it was a little better than I would have expected from any movie like that. But now that you're making me feel crazy for being positive about it at all, I should probably deny that I ever said anything.
Me: oh my god jim, your writing here just convinced me that i liked the movie! shr watched the whole thing - fastforwarded though some of the boring parts. there was absolutely no chemistry between the 2 actors. you should see a good hugh grant vehicle and then compare it to this bad movie. maybe you just like hugh grant and were so pleasantly surprised by that fact that you overlooked how bad the movie was. drew barrymore's sister was hideous.
SHR: i normally poo-poo hugh grant (and french cuffs for that matter) as well, but found him utterly charming in this role. he's aged pretty well and can still shake it.
the amazonian lady from 3rd rock is really really scary. she looks like a crazy version of fergie and i think fergie is already crazy looking herself.
i ffwed through most of the singing parts, and like all of the crazy diapered diva mysticism too. instead of brad garrett as grant's manager, i would have liked to have seen willie garson!
Jim: Yeah that 3rd Rock From the Sun woman is horrible. She should not be in any movie. The "dark" lyricist or whatever was dumb. I liked that one of that girl's songs was called "Entering Bootytown." I think that went a long way for me. What else did I like about it besides that and the video? Honestly now that you are forcing me to think about it, yeah it was bad. But nothing else was on! I was trying to watch yet another Anthony Bourdain eating adventure but decided that I have reached my limit of that for now. I can't watch him eating anymore.
You'll notice in my first e-mail that I said I "kinda" liked it. Really I was just trying to say that Marc isn't totally crazy. But I guess I've failed at that now.
Me: still waiting for marc to chime in with a spirited defense!
Mitch: I'll shamelessly admit that I really like Hugh Grant, and I actually had reasonable expectations for this one. I've made no secret of my feelings about "The Remains of the Day," in which he has a small role, and I also am a sucker for "Four Weddings and a Funeral"whenever it's on USA or whatever channel - but that's also because I like the girl who plays his spunky roommate. OK, and even "Notting Hill" is a guilty pleasure. Maybe we should start a book club for cheesy HBO movies.
Marc: Listmaker - I will not be producing some "spirited defense." What's to defend? I have a weakness for romantic comedies (preferably, time-travel romantic comedies but I'm willing to overlook the lack of a sci-fi element in this film) and you only like them when there is "chemistry" between the leads. In the case of MUSIC AND LYRICS all the chemistry was between Drew and me.She is sensational. She lights up the screen and she's just a bit off, which allows viewers to imagine themselves as her friend - possibly out to save her from herself. I have no intention of ever watching this movie again. I will also note that I found the dialogue rather strong for this sort of movie but I can produce no concrete examples. I recall watching it thinking it is much better than most of the Lifetime For Women shit I normally watch. Perhaps I should have mentioned that I watched this one hungover on a weekend morning. It appealed to me in an "aww, isn't that cute" sort of way. I cannot help it if I have become a person I hate. It's not my fault I now like the cinematical equivalent of kittens dangling from branches posters that tell you to "hang in there."
Jim: You recommended seeing "a good Hugh Grant vehicle," what would you put in that category? Lair of the White Worm?
SHR: Mickey Blue Eyes?
Any other recommendations for Jim?
14 comments:
I was personally surprised by his performance in About a Boy but it may have simply been the haircut.
I am already willing to declare 2008 the year of the Youthlarge if she keeps pumping out stuff like this:
"the amazonian lady from 3rd rock is really really scary. she looks like a crazy version of fergie...."
I'll even forgive the french cuff bashing, its that brilliant.
I dont know how I feel about Hugh Grant - My favorite Hugh Grant performance is his admittance to solicitating a prostitute on Leno.
Seriouly, I liked him in American Dreamz (I loved the entire movie actually) I hated Music and Lyrics and I didnt see it on Cable I wasted money renting the darn thing
SHR Cracked me up with the 30 rock/fergie comment too!!!
I love Hugh Grant, so much so that I was late to Marc's board game party because I was watching Love Actually for the 9,372nd time since its release on DVD. I also love French cuffs. As for Music and Lyrics, I just added it to my queue.
Jim - Try Two Weeks Notice. It's the same movie as the Wedding Planner and Miss Congeniality, neither of which are particularly good, but I don't know how to stop watching them all the same.
"I now like the cinematical equivalent of kittens dangling from branches posters that tell you to "hang in there."
This is a greast line!
i'm going to amend my comment on french cuffs. i hate when they are like this, sticking out all stupidly. http://f.screensavers.com/OMS/img/407/hugh_grant_music_215.jpg
and this is from the scene where i thought HG really shook it!
http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2007_Music_and_Lyrics/2007_music_and_lyrics_003.jpg
Movies for Jim? Anything with Rush or Chris Farley would do.
I was very worked up when I wrote about MUSIC AND LYRICS. I know "cinematical" is not a real word.
um...Notting Hill? Even though the end was beyond cheese, I still really liked it. But then again, I also liked Music & Lyrics so keep that in mind when evaluating any of my opinions.
I saw Music & Lyrics by myself and Jason made fun of me...but just the other night, he stayed up late watching it on tv, long after I had already gone to bed...he could not pull himself away.
I too watched L & M. I'm not sure why, but I kind of enjoyed it, in that I didn't hate it and/or change the channel. I do like Drew though.
It's a period piece, but Impromptu is one of my all-time favorites. Hugh plays a weak, consumptive Frederic Chopin to Judy Davis' George Sand. It's fabulous!
I loved Impromptu when I saw it in high school, though I was in my British high-minded drama phase, that was the movie that made me love Hugh Grant. My love has dwindled over the years, and I haven't seen Music and Lyrics, but About a Boy is one of my favorite movies that I don't tell people is one of my favorite movies. I don't have a romantic comedy recommendation for Jim, but I just watched Biloxi Blues on cable and I was enchanted. Michael Dolan, the actor who played Hennessey was a dead ringer for Mr. Flood. Of course, I can't find a picture to confirm this. (too lazy to sign in, Shawn)
this is claire, adam's gf, who forced adam to watch music and lyrics in the theater. it is awesome. There are many songs throughout which are funny.
adam also likes sci-fi romance AND ACTUALLY WANTED TO WATCH the one with a magical mailbox / keanu reeves / girl from speed.
Mickey Blue Eyes is hilarious. Hugh Grant + Jimmy Caan = comedy gold!
This is Adam, Claire's bf, and it's true. She "forced me to watch" Music and Lyrics, but not really, because, like Balgavy, I have a weakness for rom-coms and I like Hugh Grant. I liked him in "Notting Hill" and "Bridget Jones's Diary" (the first one; I didn't see the sequel). I have not seen "Four Weddings ..." though, and Claire says I should because that's the ne plus ultra of Hugh Grant rom-coms.
It is true that I also have a weakness for time-travel rom-coms (TTRC) and time-travel romance (TTR) movies, but that does not necessarily mean I like them -- just that I watch them. "Somewhere in Time," with Richard Chamberlain and Dr. Quinn Medicine woman is the quintessential time-travel romance, though I liked "Il Mare" (the Korean original of "The Lake House," which I still have not seen but have heard that Keanu and Bullock have surprisingly good chemistry in). "Kate and Leopold" was a dumbass movie but I enjoyed it because it was TTRC.
I also think that when you are talking rom-com, you MUST talk about that little bobbit of a thing with floppy blond hair ... um ... what's her name ...oh! Meg Ryan. Though she is now past her prime rom-com years*, I'm still holding out hope for a Meg Ryan–Hugh Grant rom-com. Though I don't know if the world could handle this obvious and potentially awesome pairing.**
* Yes, I know it's sexist that Meg Ryan is past her prime rom-com years while Hugh Grant still makes them, but such is Hollywood. Though I think they could do a sort of aging-person divorcée rom-com that might work. Although, since MR got that crazy plastic surgery, she just looks weird and not cute.
** Another obvious why-didn't-it-happen-sooner comedic pairing that went off to GREAT effect, IMHO, was Eddie Murphy–Steve Martin in "Bowfinger." That movie is great, and I feel like it is criminally overlooked. It surprised me that those two had never been in a movie together until then. (On that note, I don't think Morgan Freeman–Jack Nicholson had ever done a movie together before "The Bucket List," but that pairing seems L-A-M-E.)
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