Monday, April 02, 2007

Expectations...

Got thinking about how expectations can affect someone's impression...

I was talking to some writer friends yesterday about how sometimes a book getting tons of "buzz" can generate a lot of negative backlash out there in blogland and on Amazon. "I heard this book was supposed to be really great. It wasn't that great."

And last night, holed up with a cold in a hotel room in Boston, I watched a couple of movies and had the same thoughts. The two movies were Because I Said So and Catch and Release.

I may be wrong here... but it seems to me that "Because" got more publicity/buzz than "Catch". I do remember seeing maybe one ad on TV for "Catch", but I don't think it got nearly as much hype or as many trailer spots in theatres.

Which did I like? Catch and Release. Don't know how much my super low expectations afftected me (or my strange infatuation with Timothy Olyphant) but I thought it was a really good film. Might be another example of those movies where they try to make it look like a comedy in the trailers/ads (focussing on Kevin Smith being a goof) when really it's very sad (but with a happy ending) movie about grief. And not just her grief. The men, too. Even Kevin Smith has a pretty dramatic and sad story line.

Very nice little movie. If you haven't seen it, check it out. (Whereas "Because" was just silly. It tried way too hard to be funny and just came off dumb to me and, well, desperate.)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved Diane Keaton in Somethings Gotta Give, so I'll probably rent Because I said So at some point. I'll rent Catch and Release, too, on your recommendation. I hope your cold got better and you ordered in some wicked room service!

Wylie Kinson said...

I wanted to see both, but perhaps I'll whittle that down to just 'Catch'. Nothing like spending 2 precious hours on a movie that just doesn't deliver.
Thanks!

Anonymous said...

It is going to be race as to which grows larger- my to be read pile or my to be watched...

Anonymous said...

LOVE the new look.
Very snazzy.

Maureen McGowan said...

Thanks Kimber. Not final yet. Need to get the hex code for the green I want to use...

Anonymous said...

Love the new look as well.

Haven't seen either movie...but I'm never catching up..

Maureen McGowan said...

Maia
I loved her in something's Gotta Give, too... And it was her who drew me to this movie... But she just came off as frantic and shrill and silly to me in Because I said So. Maybe it was just my mood that night.

I'm not sure whether the dialogue was bad or the direction or the acting... But I didn't believe the relationships between this family for a second. Maybe it's because they really didn't develop the Lauren Graham or Piper Perabo characters at all... so they'd just show up in these scenes and be in these conversations but there was no "sister" or "mother and daughter" feeling to the conversations... I mean, just because they're discussing intimate things, doesn't make them intimate conversations.

I did like the romance between Mandy Moore and the cute guy who played her love interest... And Diane Keaton's character arc was fine, too... but overall it didn't work. Maybe the sister characters were superfluous, distracting. It's really Mandy Moore's story with a subplot for Diane Keaton. the other sisters were just tacked on. Okay, I've just decided that was the problem. LOL

Anonymous said...

Maureen! Your blog had a makeover! Looks gorgeous. And somehow, very you.

And I, sort of guiltily, love Mandy Moore, so I know I'll be seeing that one eventually. I can't help it, I just find her adorable, even in the (several) terrible movies she's done. Loved her on Scrubs, loved when she randomly showed up on episodes of The Osbornes. I think it all goes back to Saved!...

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