Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Directors: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Writer: Dan Fogelman
Starring: Steve Carrel, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Julianne Moore
Release Date: July 29, 2011
Length: 1 hour 58 minutes

This summer managed to spout two romantic comedies back-to-back featuring “It Girl” Emma Stone, Friends With Benefits and Crazy Stupid Love. The film incorporates a crazily diverse cast of talented actors like everyone’s favourite funny guy Steve Carell and making his comedic debut, depressing movie icon Ryan Gosling, who is romantically paired to teen sensation Emma Stone in her first adult role. Suffice to say, you have no idea what to expect with Crazy, Stupid Love.

Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the film tells a few interlocking stories of love in different generations. Carell plays Cal Weaver, a man who has just found out his wife has cheated on him and now wants a divorce. Making a fool of himself every night at a hip L.A. bar, the much younger ladies man Jacob Palmer (Gosling) decides to take Cal under his wing and reinvent his manhood, while he can’t stop thinking about the beautiful interesting girl he met, Hanna (Stone), who rejected him. While preparing herself for the bar exam, Hanna hopes her geeky lawyer boyfriend Richard (played by Josh Groban) will propose. Also, Cal’s 13-year-old son Robbie (Jonah Bobo) desperately pines for the love of his 17-year-old babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), who actually has a creepy huge crush on Cal.

The film is exactly what the title infers. Sometimes the situations the characters, most often Carell, find themselves in are completely crazy and absolutely hilarious. Dan Fogelman’s script is so unique and original that much of the humor completely comes from pure randomness that works within the confines of the film. When it doesn’t work, and we are watching pure slapstick, well, that’s when the film gets stupid.  We can only let ourselves believe so much absurdity before it just gets too unrealistic. Stupidity might mean bad writing. However, it does not mean you can’t enjoy it. Depending on your maturity level, you can allow yourself to enjoy some scenes of utter ridiculousness, like a random fight breaking out between four different men in the film that just makes you laugh. The humorous scenes of the film only cross that line of silliness a few times, though and that is why this film ends up being entirely lovable. Fogelman does not only write a refreshing hilarious script, but it is also extremely clever and real during the less ridiculous scenes of comedy. He creates such interesting, complex characters that flow and contrast each other perfectly and it plays so well onto the screen.

From the adorable geeky Hanna to the cute and uncomfortable Cal, his bold and shameless son Robbie, his self conscious immature babysitter to the womanizing but sweet Jacob, the film is filled with different endearing characters played terrifically by the odd cast. Steve Carell carries the film perfectly as the go-to unassuming character the audience’s heart stays with as we sympathize for him, one incident after another. Carell brings his comedic skills to the film with no issue but he also wonderfully shows his dramatic skills as an actor for the most of the film, as a man whose wife has unexpectedly asked for a divorce. In his first comedic role, Ryan Gosling shows that all of his skills as an actor are endless.  He is absolutely hilarious as the gorgeous womanizer and mentor to Cal. A pure natural to say the least, Gosling shows he is a whole other kind of sexy in comedy. He and Carell share a very strange but very enjoyable bromance, which mostly involves Gosling’s confident character harassing the meek and annoyed Cal in any way possible.

Gosling also shares an incredibly charming chemistry with Emma Stone, who just seems to be getting bigger in Hollywood. For whatever reason, once fame has reached them, many starlets lose the talent or skills that got them noticed in the first place, but Stone’s hysterical performances continue to hold the same power they did in her breakout roles. As she captivates the screen with her insanely adorable awkwardness, we can only hope she sticks around forever in Hollywood. Julianne Moore is another actress that never lets the audience down, with her funny but sad portrayal of a slightly self-centered wife. Thirteen year old newcomer Jonah Bobo is also very good in commanding his good portion of the film, making us laugh just as much as the adults, while model Analeigh Tipton is also very cute as his innocent babysitter. Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon and musician Josh Groban are also very funny in the few scenes they have on screen.

The plot unfortunately does follow a slight formula that can’t be missed, especially with a very cheesy and improbable ending, but by that time you have enjoyed yourself so much, it doesn’t faze you. This is a truly one of a kind sweet film that is completely crazy, stupid and lovable. The cast, writing, and directors all pull together to give you an odd kind of romantic comedy that is romantic, sad and will most definitely make you laugh. Crazy, Stupid Love is a gem that cannot be missed.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Director: Joe Johnston
Writers: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeeley
Starring: Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones
Release date: July 29, 2011
Length: 2 hours 4 minutes

One of the only popular comic book series to be untouched by film studios, Captain America is finally coming to theatres with the brooding Chris Evans from Fantastic Four and Push in the title role. One of the twenty comic book movies to come out this summer, Captain America: The First Avenger takes us back to 1940s New York, where the scrawny little Steve Rogers (Evans) desperately wants to fight in the army but keeps getting rejected from different stations. German scientist Abraham Erskine, played by Stanley Tucci, who sees Rogers’ eagerness and likability, eventually approaches him. He asks Rogers to be the first of many men to go through the newly created super soldier transformation with an original serum he has invented, much to the dismay of Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), who believes Steve is the wrong choice. Steve excitedly accepts and is thrown into the world he’s always dreamed of being in. However when an unidentified German assassinates Erskine and the super-soldier formula is lost, Rogers is put on a glitzy self-parodied tour across the country as Captain America, to promote war bonds. When he learns that his best friend Barnes’ unit was lost in battle against Nazi Johann Schmidt’s forces, Steve secretly teams up with the British commanding officer Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and the slick inventor and engineer Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) to find and bring back the troupe. However, Rogers is unprepared for what he will find when he lands on German soil, including the strength and power of Mr. Schmidt. Captain America: First Avenger is one of those movies that shows you, no matter how beautiful the special effects, the production design and the cinematography of the dazzling 1940s is, how vital a good script is. It’s easy to say, “well that wasn’t an amazing movie, but it was a lot of fun”, but that unfortunately can’t even apply to this film. The cheesiness and predictability of so many jokes and lines like when Schmidt asks Rogers “what makes you so special?” and he replies “Nothing. I’m just a kid from Brooklyn,” gets in the way of you being fully able to enjoy this gorgeous film. It’s all right to have a few zingers throughout a comic book movie, but you can’t let that be your basis of all dialogue so that it literally feels like your watching a movie from the 40s. This also means that all the talented actors in the film have to play up to the hackneyed conversation especially lead actor Chris Evans. People who are new to him, may not know his great down to earth performances in previous films like The Perfect Score, Push and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and will probably assume him to be a very cheesy bad actor, which he is not. He does what he can in Captain America: First Avenger, playing to the tone of the script, while British actress Hayley Atwell from The Duchess and BBC’s The Tudors, strongly holds her own as the outspoken hard dame Peggy Carter, the love interest of Rogers. Stanley Tucci is lovable for his few scenes as a fictionalized version of Albert Einstein while Tommy Lee Jones is great as the cynical and tough Colonel leading Rogers. Chris Evans had it tough being the hero of an incredibly old-fashioned clichéd script, but no one had it worse than Hugo Weaving who amazingly had to play the always-malicious villain, Schmidt, AKA Red Skull. All the evil threats and crazy excitement for taking over the world made me sympathize for Weaving, who took on the role and gave a performance just as absurd as the script. Despite all of this, the setting of the 1940s was absolutely stunning. The 8 art directors on this film as well as costume designer Anna B. Shepherd captured all the glitz and fun of the 1940s incredibly well in every single shot, so much so that it shielded the ridiculous script sometimes. With the beauty of Captain America, I thought it would be easy to swipe all the obnoxious lines away, but they were constantly impossible to ignore and makes me think “What a waste”. A waste of wonderful actors, a waste of extraordinary visual effects, and a waste of a beloved comic book story that cannot be redone. However much the script prevented the film from being good, it was amazingly not the worst part about it. The most agonizing element of Captain America: The First Avenger is that all the actors, writers, art and production designers didn’t do all that work for a movie but for a two hour introduction of Steve Rogers to 2012’s highly anticipated The Avengers. Sorry for the spoiler, but at the end of the film Steve wakes some odd 70 years later in present day still looking in his twenties and meets Samuel L. Jackson’s character Nick Fury from the Iron Man films. With that ridiculous ending, you can’t help but feel gypped out of seeing a real movie with a pre-cursor to another instead. All there is to say about this film is that it’s a real shame. Without pondering over what it could have been, I will advise you to see another better superhero film this summer, like X-Men: Origins because Captain America: The First Avenger is not it. 

Friends With Benefits

Director: Will Gluck
Writers: Will Gluck, Harley Peyton, Keith Merryman, David A. Newman
Starring: Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis
Release Date: July 22, 2011
Length: 1 hour 49 minutes

Up and coming director Will Gluck of last fall’s success Easy A, takes on the done to death premise of “friends having sex without personal feelings, who then unintentionally fall in love” and somehow makes it incredibly refreshing in this summer’s Friends With Benefits. The film starts off with a headhunter named Jamie Randall (Mila Kunis), who recruits website designer Dylan Sanders from L.A. for a job designing GQ magazine’s website in New York. After being won over by Jamie’s efforts, Dylan moves to New York for the job and the pair quickly become good friends. Both coming out of long terrible relationships, Dylan with his crazy ex Kayla (Emma Stone) and Jamie with her insensitive ex Quincy (Andy Samberg), and both missing having sex, they decide one night they will sleep together without any emotions and without any judgment. As Jamie and Dylan continue their unromantic relationship though, they inadvertently become closer and find it hard to pretend they don’t actually have feelings for each other and don’t know how to deal with the fact that they unexpectedly do. Gluck, who co-wrote the film as well, takes old scraps and makes them new and fun again with the unbelievably clever and hilarious script of Friends With Benefits, with co-writers Harley Peyton, David A. Newman and Keith Merryman. The characters are written so intelligently that it’s as if we are seeing this used plot happen to real believable people for the first time. There is nothing left to waste in this film with every scene being filled with witty dialogue and no room for boring clichés. The characters interestingly have to make fun of and discuss the unrealistic elements of romantic comedies for us to really see this film as a completely original and well-done romantic comedy. This actually makes the audience really appreciate the beautiful authentic shots of New York, like Central Park, Times Square, and the real Grand Central Station. Things like production design are sometimes side swept in importance of a romantic comedy because it’s often just all about the two leads but Michael Grady shows that cinematography is equally effective in every genre of film. There has been a lot of interest in the fact that Friends With Benefits resembles the film No Strings Attached, which came out earlier this year, in January. Premise-wise the films are identical, but when it get’s down to the actual quality and room for originality in the film, Friends With Benefits trumps No Strings Attached hands-down. While writing the script, Gluck apparently pictured Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake in the roles they eventually ended up playing, and for good reason. The two share an undeniable chemistry equally strong in both comedy and romance. It’s hard to find a good romantic comedy duo, but Kunis and Timberlake wittily bounce off each other’s humor amazingly and perform wonderfully in the dramatic sequences of the film as well. They easily override Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher and are the most memorable romcom pair since Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in 2009’s The Proposal. Kunis and Timberlake are superb in carrying the hilarious film, but are well supported by the enormously talented ensemble cast. Patricia Clarkson is hysterical as Jamie’s free-spirited horny mom while Richard Jenkins is fantastic as Dylan’s dad suffering from Alzheimer’s. Woody Harrelson is random and wildly funny as Dylan’s gay friend and co-worker and Jenna Elfman is great in her both funny and serious performance as Dylan’s sister living with their dad. All romantic comedies and most comedies have those moments approaching the end of the film, where things get serious in the plot and more often than not these comedic writers are not in their element. Instead of just being realistic, these scenes are quite aggressively “dramatic” and instead of flowing with the film, contrast against it completely. That is why Friends With Benefits so beautifully stands out from other funny films because it does not switch genres 3 quarters of the way through. Instead, you realize the film was never a strict comedy, just a funny film and now the characters are facing the reality of their situation without it being dead serious. The film has a perfect blend of romance, comedy and drama and has a hell of a cast to boot. Gluck’s Friends With Benefits is one of the greatest romantic comedies to come to theatres in a while and by far, one of the best films of the summer. Do not miss out on this incredibly enjoyable movie. 

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Director: David Yates
Writers: Steve Kloves, J.K. Rowling (author)
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson
Release Date: July 15, 2011
Length: 2 hours 10 minutes

It’s been fourteen years of extraordinary books and ten years of consistent films, an important era for many of the loyal fans touched by this now classic series. J.K. Rowling’s ground breaking world is finally being closed with this last installment and after all this time, the big question is did director David Yates (who in many people’s opinions, screwed up the last few films) get the last two hours of the Harry Potter period right? It’s finally time to tell. In part 1, we left off with Harry, Hermione and Ron making it out of the Malfoy mansion alive, with four more horcruxes to go. For those who don’t plan on watching Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 before seeing this film (which I do not advise) and do not know what a horcrux is, I will explain. In order to keep his immortality, the brilliantly evil Voldemort divided his soul into seven pieces and put them into various things, each at the price of one death, therefore Harry must find and demolish each one for Voldemort to be truly destructible. The first film is considered a road movie, with the three main characters traveling through their corrupt magical world from one dangerous place to the next as drifters looking for horcruxes. In Part 2, the trio plans on retrieving Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup, believed to be in Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault at Gringotts Bank. This is their one last risky pit stop before arriving at Hogwartz for a full outbreak of war against the death eaters (Voldemort’s followers). This makes Harry Potter and The Death Hallows: Part 2 essentially a war movie with the absolute thrilling battle that defines the magical world’s history, taking up most of it’s time and it makes for a hell of a creatively exciting film. If you have read my previous reviews, you know I have been less than overwhelmed by Yates’ previous adaptations and felt that if Part 1 didn’t feed that satisfying Harry Potter hunger inside me, Part 2 was unfortunately bound to follow. By some incredible blessing, I’m guessing coming from Rowling herself, I was so amazingly proved wrong. With the immensely riveting and outstanding plot of the last half of Rowling’s seventh novel, it would take a complete idiot to screw the adaptation of it up. As long as that person stays true to the novel, which they will with the knowledge of hundreds of thousands angry fans in the back of their mind, nothing can stop this film from being truly incredible. Although he usually likes slow, thoughtful scenes of silence David Yates finally rises to the occasion of making excitement and thrill very important in this last film. He carries his beautiful artistry from previous adaptations to this one, making every individual shot a unique beauty. Something the Harry Potter films have nailed since the beginning have been superb special effects like no others and they often go hand in hand with that excitement and climactic feel. The lack of climax or excitement in the last few installments may have been majorly affected by the lack of quick special effects, but in a war movie, they crucially come in to play and beautifully at that. Fan or not, you are so much more compelled by their creative wand fighting as opposed to people violently beating each other up. With the high adventure reigning through our veins often, there is a balance with Rowling’s poignant writing translated magnificently onto screen with the phenomenal cast. Daniel Radcliffe gives the performance of his career with his last 2 hours of a role he’s had for more than half his life. Radcliffe plays Harry, who many wouldn’t believe is a vastly complex character, to beautiful perfection. He has grown up with the character so closely, seeing the changes within him, just as he has in himself for ten years and it makes for a remarkably convincing performance in his final hour. His counterparts, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint play to the gravity of the last film as well, giving their best performances yet. Watson as Hermione Granger, is no longer the dorky know-it-all and Grint as Ron is no longer the stupid lovable best friend. All three young actors’ abilities are tested in some very intense and heartbreaking scenes in the film and all have the strength to finally show the extent of their skills. They as always, are marvelously accompanied by what seems like all of Britain’s adult actors including Ralph Fiennes, who continues to give one of his best performances as the incredibly smart callous and relentless Dark Lord Voldemort. His menacing performance in the Harry Potter films is arguably right up there with his performance as a different kind of villain in Schinder’s List. There are so many incredible performances in this film, including Maggie Smith as the caring but strong Professor McGonagall, Helena Bonham Carter as the heartless wicked Bellatrix Lestrange, Robbie Coltrane as the hugely lovable oaf Hagrid, Julie Walters as Ron’s strong-minded mother, Mrs. Weasley and finally the captivating Alan Rickman as the unmoving, daunting Severus Snape, that shows his true colours in this last film. Every actor in the final film changes their performances slightly to reflect the enormity of the plot that will change their character’s lives forever. Those who are opposed to fantasy, or never cared for magic, witches or wizards, need to know that this film is no longer an innocent children’s story adaptation. The government, the Ministry Of Magic, being overtaken by Death Eaters creates a very disturbing and remindful tone to the movie that many won’t see coming. Citizens are forced to worship him, must abide by his new uncompromising rules and finally he will torture and or exterminate any witch or wizard he finds who is muggle (non-magic) born. With a number of distressing deaths of important characters, we are truly shown that as the characters have grown up, so has the magnitude of the central conflict of the story. The last three quarters of this film finally determine the fate of this seventeen-year battle between Voldemort and Harry and the fate of the world they live in as well. Whether you are a die-hard fan or not, you feel every second of that severity and importance in the worrisome question mark hanging over the film. You do not need to be a fan of the series in the slightest, and you will be immediately won over by the thrill and moving qualities in this extraordinary film, however fans of the novel might have more of an emotional reaction to the film. As the series and characters who people grew up with finally turn the last page, people will most definitely find themselves crying to that famous tune of doo du doo doo, doo doo doo in the last minutes of the film. Even writing this review, I find myself getting nostalgically teary for this end of an era as we finally see the characters we grew up with together finish their story. Although I never thought I’d say it, this is the best Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the best Harry Potter film and perfectly tops off a series of the most imaginative and touching films that will forever be known as classics. 

Horrible Bosses

Director: Seth Gordon
Writers: Michael Markowitz, Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley
Starring: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis
Release Date: July 8, 2011
Length: 1 hour 38 minutes

A trio of brilliantly talented comics, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day and Jason Bateman star in a comedy about a group of friends who after having enough at their respective stressful jobs, attempt to kill all three of their respective awful bosses together and end their misery. Kurt’s sweet elderly boss Jack Pellit, played by Donald Sutherland, dies unexpectedly and leaves his childish coke addict son, Bobby (Colin Farrell) in charge, who on the first day advises Kurt to fire all the fat people in the office. Nick (Bateman)’s psychotic boss, Dave Harken is the kind that calls him out for being two minutes late to their day of work that starts at 6:00am. After months of Nick overworking himself for a promotion, Harken announces instead of promoting someone else to the position of Vice-President, he will be performing the jobs of VP and President of the company from now on, merging the positions. Dale’s sexually harassing boss, Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Anniston) constantly touches him and walks around naked, even though she knows he’s engaged. When it reaches an all time high for all of them, the three decide they will kill each other’s bosses to make each other happy. However, it might be harder than they expected to perfectly murder all three of them without any evidence, being first-timers and all. Anyone can put three hilarious actors in a movie with a ridiculous premise and call it a comedy, but it almost never works. The reason being, those hilarious people can’t exactly do what they’re good at, when they are forced to stick to a script, something most of them aren’t used to. There’s no point in putting them in a movie, if they can’t really perform their job, doing improv. As witty or clever as a script can be, nothing is refreshing as doses of natural improvisation from trained comedians. As absurd as the plot is for Horrible Bosses, the cast makes it a real gem of a comedy. Comedy star Jason Bateman leads the pack of murderers, once again playing the sanest character in a comedy, for the audience to relate to. SNL’s Jason Sudeikis, who’s becoming a rising film star in this year’s Hall Pass and A Good Old Fashioned Orgy, plays the constant horny flirt and newcomer Charlie Day (who starred in Going The Distance with Sudeikis), steals almost every scene as the lovably innocent and terrified member of the group. Together, their humor bounces beautifully off each other and makes for a film that literally has you laughing in every scene. The creative improv and conversation brings laugh after laugh from the audience, making you choke on your breath. Sudeikis, Bateman and Day have differently successful humors that contrast perfectly and make for an amazingly lovable tribromance. They not only work well with each other, but with each of the actors that plays their insane bosses as well. Jennifer Anniston gives possibly her funniest and by far, her most adventurous performance yet as an unstoppable maneater who will oddly not give up on her quest for Dale. Although going without improv, Anniston is incredibly entertaining as the manically sexy dentist, Julia and her scenes with Day were simply golden. Kevin Spacey shows off his impressive comedic skills as another psychotic boss, Dave Harken who repeatedly bowls us and Nick over with his outrageous requests. Bateman and Spacey share remarkable scenes of ridiculousness together that have a more formal distaste between boss and employee. The usually gorgeous and brooding Irish actor Colin Farrell shows his versatility and gives one of his few hysterical performances as the disgusting addict boss, Bobby Pellit of Kurt. Sudeikis and Farrell also share some interesting dialogue since Pellit is treating his position with the utmost power. Jamie Foxx gives one of the most memorable performances in this film with his few scenes as a mysterious thug fresh out of jail, Motherf***er Jones, who attempts to help the boys in their endeavour. Although I said earlier that the cast made the film what it was, so did director Seth Gordon. It takes a very comfortable, very trustworthy director to let his cast go all out, but that’s what Gordon did. His known encouragement for improv in the film, gave him the opportunity to capture some pretty precious comedy moments that rarely appear in movies of the genre. His directorial skills show us what all nonsensical comedies could turn into, with someone like him in the director’s chair. With Gordon and the phenomenal cast, this will, without a doubt, win everyone over within the first five minutes. Horrible Bosses is by far, this summer’s best comedy and one of the most original comedies to come out in a long time. 

Monte Carlo

Director: Thomas Bezucha
Writers: Thomas Bezucha,
Starring: Selena Gomez, Leighton Meester, Katie Cassidy
Release Date: July 1, 2011
Length: 1 hour 49 minutes

It’s time for the beloved teen sensation Selena Gomez to get her own movie, and the dozen she’s done for the Disney Channel do not count. She stars in Monte Carlo, with Gossip Girl actresses Leighton Meester, Katie Cassidy and Glee’s Cory Monteith. The film tells the story of Grace, a loser diner waitress whose been saving up money to go to Paris after she graduates with her older co-worker, Emma (Cassidy). When her older step-sister Meg comes in from New York to the graduation, both girls are shocked and not appeased to hear the parents are sending Meg with Grace and Emma, who Meg hated in high school. None of the three girls seem to be enjoying the trip, Emma, because she’s missing her trucker boyfriend Owen (Monteith), Meg, because she’s stuck on a trip with two people she does not get along with and Grace because the cheap hotel, cheap tour and cheap trip all around is not fulfilling her long dream. However, when they escape the rain into a fancy hotel, they see a snotty, rich lookalike of Grace, who they find out, is Cordelia Winthrop Scott (also played by Gomez), a British heiress who has left her paid suite to go elsewhere. In an effort to brighten Grace’s spirits, Meg and Emma convince a protesting Grace to stay in Cordelia’s suite for the night. However, when they leave the hotel in the morning, they are swarmed with paparazzi and are forced to duck into Cordelia’s limo, only realizing later they are on their way to Monte Carlo. They quickly decide they’ll have to continue on with the charade a little longer and do, after experiencing how much fun an heiress’ life can be in Europe. Soon though, it hits them though, (and maybe a little late) that they might be found out and could possibly go to jail for breaking multiple laws. Now, an adult probably won’t recognize the familiar story, but as a sixteen year old, I can clearly identify two prominent Hilary Duff movie premises inside this unoriginal movie. The main one being The Lizzie McGuire Movie, where Lizzie goes on a trip to another European city (Rome) on a graduation trip, where a blonde Lizzie is recognized by all Italians as their brunette pop sensation Isabella Parigi. At least they were at least creative enough to change the hair colour between the two characters. The second movie that stands out in Monte Carlo’s plot is A Cinderella Story, also starring Hilary Duff. The resemblance is the terrible setting both girls are in before they experience something better, a diner. Both gorgeous girls play people who have to deal with fellow high school students that make fun of them when they wait on their table but it’ okay because they both make friends with people much older than themselves also working at the diner. To steal a premise from a movie is annoying, but to steal a premise from another teen sensation’s movie eight years ago is just completely lazy. Unfortunately, the parts that weren’t copied from another movie were just bad clichés anyways, so the movie didn’t really have much novelty at all. That little act of plagiarism kind of cost the movie all of it’s credibility, but as far as enjoyment of the film goes, it can easily be classified as a guilty pleasure chick flick. There is a cute romance between Grace and Theo (played by French actor Pierre Boulanger), a son of a philanthropist, who is hosting Grace as Cordelia as well as Meg’s relationship with Riley (Luke Tracey) an Australian stranger, she coincidentally meets multiple times during the trip. All three actresses perform well for what the movie is, meaning they played to the cheesiness of the movie perfectly without being bad actors. Selena Gomez was great as the hopeless and likable teenager that 12 year olds can look up and relate to while Leighton Meester was very good as the uptight twenty something whose Mom died a long time ago, having affected her greatly while Katie Cassidy gave the most enjoyable performance as the confident and friendly high school dropout who is nervous to her hillbilly boyfriend that wants to marry her. The director and co-writer of this film, Thomas Bezucha, wrote and directed a wonderfully enjoyable family Christmas movie in 2005 called The Family Stone, starring Sarah Jessica Parker. You could consider this quite a step down for the filmmaker, which is sad to think about. If you’re looking for a cute guilty pleasure, it’s still an entertaining film. If you’re a younger than thirteen, you’re not registering any of the negativity toward this film anyways. Otherwise, you probably already know to not waste your time on Monte Carlo.