Blithe Spirit (2020), Leslie Mann, Dan Stevens, Studio Canal
Starring Dan Stevens, Judi Dench, Leslie Mann and Isla Fisher, at the heart of new comedy/romance Blithe Spirit is a love triangle.
Directed by Edward Hall, the triangle begins when a writer asks a spiritualist medium to hold a seance to help solve his writer’s block. But instead, the spirit of his deceased wife arrives and subsequently complicates matters for him and his current wife.
I’m looking forward to fully taking in the humour and all that stylish attire.
Emilia Fox, Callie Cooke, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Julian Rhind-Tutt, James Fleet, Simon Kunz, Adil Ray and Stella Stocker also star.
Starring Steve Coogan, Isla Fisher, Asa Butterfield and David Mitchell, Greed is a new Michael Winterbottom-written/directed satire about the world of the super-rich.
Set in the celebrity-filled world of luxury fashion, the comedy/drama is centred on the build-up to a sixtieth birthday party in Mykonos, Greece.
A part of me wants to see this for Coogan’s character’s teeth alone. Mostly, however, it’s the humour that has me interested. That and an inside look into the life of the super-rich.
I wonder who this is really based on/inspired by.
Shirley Henderson, Jamie Blackley, Sarah Solemani, Pearl Mackie, Enzo Cilenti, Shanina Shaik, Polly Kemp and Asim Chaudhry also star.
Confessions Of A Shopaholic (2009) is a P.J. Hogan-directed comedy/romance about Rebecca (Isla Fisher), a college graduate who lands a job as a financial journalist. Rebecca’s job requires that she provide financial advice to others. The only thing is, she doesn’t quite have her own finances together.
Being in the mood for an ‘easy viewing’ movie experience that doesn’t ask too much of me, that’s a key reason I watched Confessions Of A Shopaholic. It’s certainly not the best romantic comedy out there. Yet it has some charm.
My favourite moment in Hogan’s film features John Goodman. Particularly when his character is seen dancing, and it’s the punch line for one of the jokes in the movie. I also quite enjoyed Kristen Scott Thomas’s character as the Editor-in-Chief of a fashion magazine.
As for the fashion, there is a certain purple frilly top/dress seen towards the end of the movie that I liked. However, something tells me that, had I also fallen in love with more of the clothes featured, perhaps the whole film experience would be that little bit more memorable. Instead, it was more like a mixture of scenarios that brought to mind similar situations that I’d already enjoyed watching in other movies.
Whether you’re a shopaholic or not, there’s probably a little something to appreciate in Hogan’s film. Even if that thing is the general existence of movies that don’t ask too much of you.
Keeping Up With The Joneses (2016), Zach Galifianakis, Isla Fisher
I sat down to watch Keeping Up With The Joneses without any grand expectations, and that’s probably the best way to go into it, should you choose to do so.
Starring John Hamm, Gal Gadot, Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher, I must say that I found this Greg Mottola-directed action/comedy only mildly funny.
There are indeed a couple of moments that made the experience less regrettable. The first being the nicely executed snake scene in the Chinese restaurant. The second is when Galifianakis’s character makes a joke at the expense of the British. It could be that I found it particularly hilarious because the United Kingdom is home. It’s more likely though, that it’s Galifianakis’s excellent comic timing and delivery. Beyond these two scenes, everything else about Keeping Up With The Joneses just felt like cheap filler because it wasn’t that good.
Keeping Up With The Joneses (2016), Gal Gadot, John Hamm
One last good thing Mottola’s movie did is remind me that Wonder Woman (2017), my most highly anticipated movie of 2017 will be here in not too many months. I for one cannot wait to see its star Gal Gadot do her thing.
The Movie My Life 