In this charming flick for chicks, and basically any woman seeking entertainment in the fulfilling sense, Diane Lane off her successful Oscar nominated role in “Unfaithful” takes a much lighter approach this time around with this fun-filled satisfying romp worthy of watching. Based on the book from Frances Mayes, the charming Lane plays Frances, a woman who is basically a sort of socialite around the town, but her life is basically cut down when her husband (whom we never see) divorces her, leaving her for another woman. A wreck and with no clue as to what to do next, she moves into an apartment in a divorcee complex next to a man who sobs on a nightly basis. Her friends, a lesbian couple decide to give her a trip to Italy, she refuses not ready to get into the social scene yet, but much to her surprise, it’s a gay tour.
Tag Archives: Road Trip
About Schimdt (2002)
Based on the novel by Louis Begley, Warren Schmidt is your average workaday middle-aged man with the nameless face who has just retired from his Insurance company after years of service. With an uncertain future ahead of him, he’s managed to evaluate what he’s done with his life. When his wife Helen suddenly dies, he begins to realize that maybe he hasn’t achieved everything he wanted in his life and seeks out to look for his soul once and for all and hopes to convince his daughter not to marry her fiancé. This film is such a real and breathtakingly down to earth portrait of a middle-aged man who’s reached the end of his road regarding life and accomplishments to reach. Prolific actor Jack Nicholson (nominated for best actor) who is at his best when he’s not being Jack Nicholson gives a melancholy excellent performance as the pathetic Warren Schmidt who basically takes life and family for granted.
Waking Up in Reno (2001)
For a film with such a great cast like Natasha Richardson, Patrick Swayze, Charlize Theron, and Billy Bob Thornton, it’s hard to believe this is such a bad film. The great cast manages to make due with the horrible script and directing including Theron and Richardson who are great as best friends who discover one another and their personalities. What’s worse is this is not just a bad film but a bad comedy and what makes it a bad comedy is that the script and antics performed by the actors force no laughs from the audience and basically will leave the audience with a stone cold face.
Crossroads (2002)
Ah, those summer times when you and your friends went across country with a stranger to get a record deal in L.A. Anyway, In pop music star Britney Spears’ debut performance, she plays shy girl Lucy who graduated from high school and one night decides to take up a pact her and her ex-best friends made up when they were toddlers. That night, all three girls in ruins take up on their pact and one of them decides to go across country on a road trip to land a record deal in a contest from a record company.
Bubble Boy (2001)
I was skeptical going into “Bubble Boy,” but as I was finishing it, I must admit it won me over mainly for its eccentric tone and “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” inspired flights of fantasy and surreal. Jake Gyllenhaal (in a goofy doo that admittedly tries too hard to gauge laughs) plays Jimmy, a boy who when he was born did not have any immunities. He’s a generally lonely boy with a very overbearing mother who protects him from the outside world as he lives in his bubble watching everything go by.
He then meets Chloe as played by Marley Shelton who begins to teach him about the world and she eventually falls in love with him. But Jimmy keeps her from truly touching him, which she wants more than anything. Eventually, she meets another guy who she tells Jimmy she’s going to marry him. Jimmy knows this guy is wrong for her, but he doesn’t stop her. Now, still in love with her, Jimmy breaks free from his bubble and goes on the road to Niagara Falls to keep her from marrying. In a protective bubble he meets a whole cast of freaks, bikers, and a cult who thinks he’s a god. Will he be able to stop the girl he loves from making the biggest mistake of her life?
“Bubble Boy” is a very niche comedy with an odd sense of humor that’s more about personal limitations we set for ourselves, more than turning the illness of the bubble boy in to a caricature. The way Jimmy perceives the world is something you only see in cartoons and I found it quite funny. Though “Bubble Boy” is mainly a comedy, it has a ton of heart and tries to build a fun adventure out of the drive Jimmy has to seal hi romance with his girlfriend. I won’t argue “Bubble Boy” is a masterpiece, but it’s a fun and oddly entertaining twist on the road trip film. While it won’t make Jimmy in to the next Pee Wee Herman, it at least aspires for off the wall fun.
Neal Bailey’s Top 10 Films of all time
10. HIGH FIDELITY (2000) (Starring: John Cusack, Jack Black) – I don’t like romantic comedies, I really don’t, but this movie was a romantic comedy told from the honest and thus sexual perspective of an adult man, trying to decide whether to give up on a girl or try to win her back. It’s also the story of a niche geek, which I am, struggling to decide whether to keep his hobby even though it makes him an outcast, or come to terms with it and profit from it. I generally don’t like Cusack, but here, he turns in a banner performance, and if you’ll recall, this is the first place that Jack Black really started shining on…good stuff.