THE SCENESTER: Couples Weekend

The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.

options

THE SCENESTER: Couples Weekend

POSTED: Friday, October 9, 2009, 9:00 PM

Filed Under: Movies Scenester

Admit it, you know you want more from this week's Movie Section.

Couples Retreat ' C-

First we have our dysfunctional couples ' : Couples Retreat didn't screen in time for publication, but I did you a favor and saw it anyway. Here's what I said:

Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau go way back, first starring together in 1996's Swingers, as young bucks ready to take Los Angeles by storm. Thirteen years later, the two have reached middle age, now at the top of their Hollywood game. But where Swingers thrived on freshness and energy, Couples Retreat is complacent. Jason Bateman and Faizon Love join Vaughn and Favreau as the XY contingent of a group of couples persuaded to go to Eden, a therapy retreat, by Bateman and onscreen wife Cynthia (Kristen Bell) ' two uptight PowerPoint lovers who convince their buddies that they won't have to take part in planned healing activities. Except when they arrive, as it turns out, it's all mandatory. They're faced with a choice: Stay in paradise and listen to some touchy-feely quack, or bail and head back to kids and responsibility? The couples stick to Eden and spend the next couple of hours doing everything you'd expect them to. I don't know what's more disconcerting: the fact that four genuinely funny men willngly play into their own typecasting (Vaughn as the fast-talking wiseguy, Bateman as a less-hilarious Michael Bluth), or that Vaughn and Bateman's onscreen wives look a fraction of their age and they think no one will notice.

Paranormal Activity ' B

' Then we have our haunted couples: You may remember how we demanded Paranormal Activity in Philly ' and then we got it! We sent Drew Lazor to a midnight screening and this is what he came back with:

It took first-time director Oren Peli just seven days to shoot Paranormal Activity in his own house, with a hand-held camera, two unknown actors and a measly $15,000 budget. Plenty of people are saying what he came up with is one of the most terrifying horror films of all time. That's an unfortunate overstatement in that it's created unrealistic expectations for this little movie that could, but it's unabashedly scary ' and it's worth seeing for multiple reasons, some of which aren't hair-raising at all. Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston, playing a couple named Micah and Katie, are embarking on an experiment: She's been deeply disturbed by a insidious presence her whole life, so her cocky day trader boyfriend leaves a high-end video cam rolling while they sleep to sate his curiosity. "Things" start happening ' and it's not long before the incidents begin increasing in volatility with each passing night. That's all you need to know to embrace that aspect of the movie, but Paranormal's biggest gifts come in the form of Sloat and Featherston's performances ' both do a superb job of fleshing out the throes of a couple in duress, scrambling from argument to make-up and back again with such gentle chemistry that you might mistake them for your actual friends.

The Boys are Back ' B-

Coco Before Chanel ' B-

Crude ' B

Meet Crude producer Michael Bonfiglio.

And don't forget to check the Repertory Film listings for your movie goodness!

gaga

Posted 2009-10-10 06:21:41

i do not think this great movie. Yesterday I watched this movie but i could not found any meaningful thing except great cast. It was awesome .of course this will not good for below 14s as it seemed to like sexy movie. 



Source

http://www.80millionmoviesfree.com

Posted by Molly Eichel @ 9:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Comments (0)

Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
What we're trying to do this weekend
SEXY TIME Q&A: I've never had an orgasm during sex with a man — and I'm 30!
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
ICE CUBE: In Memoriam: Joe Tartaglia
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
NOW SEE THIS: Transit cop arrests marijuana activist for alleged disorderly conduct.
Coming soon to Philly: Two cockamamie movie promotion schemes
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: The Archbishop meets the Geator, the Mayor goes suit shopping, Le Bec Fin fin.
NOW SEE THIS: Tim and Eric direct Terry Crews for Old Spice

About this blog

Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

Follow Critical Mass editors Patrick Rapa and Emily Guendelsberger on Twitter:

@mission2denmark | @emilygee

Search this blog:

Topics:

Blog archives:

May
April
March

February
January

Past Archives: