Hunter Grayson and I have what we charitably refer to as wildly diverging movie tastes, which is how we ended up seeing One Missed Call on my birthday last year and The Hitcher the year before that. But every once in a while we have to make a deal. Today's compact: Baby Mama for him, Prom Night for me.
While Prom Night didn't quite live up to its schlocktastic trailer, even not knowing ahead of time that it also starred Scott Porter (who might die!) and Idris Elba (WHO HAD FUCKING BETTER NOT), I had two hours of hysterical giggling pretending Brittany Snow was her skinhead character from Nip/Tuck. Prom Night isn't bad enough to be a comedy, but there are some massively entertaining cuts (the juxtaposition of a jaunty tune on the dance floor and the evisceration of a teen promgoer on the floor above is delicious) and it sports a head-scratchingly awesome cast. I could've watched them gut each other for hours.
Baby Mama just pissed me off. I decided I love Amy-and-Tina (and the promise of Prom Night after) enough to set aside my genre disdain. This was a mistake. Surprise: When you're not on a stage in front of a live studio audience, QUIT IT WITH THE DAMN MUGGING ALREADY. It bugs the hell out of me when Tina veers in that direction on 30 Rock, but at least there she's got the occasional justification of looking straight at the camera. Here, they're both tripping all over themselves trying NOT to do it, and failing, and it shows, and it sucks. It's a romantic comedy, you two, and we KNOW you're smarter than the script, but maybe when you've got a scene running longer than 2:45, maybe try acting a little, TRY to sell it? Romany Malco is stuck playing the doorman and he ran circles around the both of you. Stick to short form, ladies.
And the rest of you, skip both of these and see Forgetting Sarah Marshall instead. Twice.
Was compelled to see BM this weekend (instead of 5th, 6th and 7th rounds of draft - oh horror!!!) and must confess it was worse than anticipated. Your review appears to be quite insightful.
Plan on seeing FSM with girl so named with whom I went out about 10 years ago. While I've been over her for a while (I keep telling myself) in "that way", we remain friends and have been trying to co-ordinate a double movie date with spouses in tow.