Movie Moment: What's Your Number?

Although my expectations for What's Your Number? were pretty low, I still managed to be disappointed when the bf and I rented it last weekend.  The bf, on the other hand, had even lower expectations but said that it was better than he'd thought it'd be, generously adding that it "had its moments."

Maybe I'm just getting jaded.

Early in the movie Ally Darling (Anna Faris) gets fired from her marketing job, a gig about which, as we later discover, she was lukewarm, only to be confronted by a Marie Claire article on the bus ride home that proclaims she's slept with too many men (19) to land Mr. Right.  (I could digress into a diatribe about my love-hate relationship with women's magazines but will respectfully refrain, as this post already teeters on the precipice of sour).  Things go from the proverbial bad to worse as Ally is catapulted into her sister's bachelorette party, where she learns that she has indeed slept with more men than any of the other bridesmaids.  Thus disheartened, she jumps on the bar and vows that the next guy she sleeps with will be her future husband.  Fast forward to the next morning, which finds her in bed with her former boss, who's played by that ever-so-snarky antithesis of Mr. Right, Joel McHale.   

With nothing but time on her hands, unemployed Ally launches what can only be referred to as a full-fledged stalking mission in which she tries to track down each and every one of her ex-boyfriends to determine if there's one she may possibly have overlooked.  This in and of itself seemed bizarre to me, as I'm sure it did to the legions of women out there who want nothing more than to forever disappear from the purview of past loves.  Nevertheless, I willed myself to suspend disbelief so that I may better enjoy Ally and company's antics.  And by company I mean Colin (Chris Evans), Ally's hunky and often shirtless across-the-hall neighbor.  Even more promiscuous than Ally, Colin strikes the all-important balance between recklessness and safety.  He is, after all, the only person in Ally's life who thinks that she can turn her passion for sculpting quirky characters into a career.  (Yes, folks, this is yet another movie in which the heroine is a frustrated, unappreciated artist whose spirit is cruelly crushed beneath the thumb of corporate America.  Or whatever the much less serious version of that is in the flawed, albeit highly addictive rom com genre.)  Yet even Colin's understanding ways do little to mask the lack of chemistry between him and Ally.  Sure, I wasn't expecting Notebook-caliber fireworks.  But I needed something to convince me that these two crazy kids would make it past the one-month mark.    

All criticism aside, What's Your Number? is nuanced by some highlights (as so wisely credenced by the bf).  Andy Samberg is hilarious as Ally's first lover, professional puppeteer Gerry Perry, and Faris's real-life husband Chris Pratt enjoys what may be the movie's funniest moment as the fat-suit-wearing Disgusting Donald.  Finally, David Annable of "Brothers and Sisters" fame makes an appearance as the one that got away (cue Katy Perry).  His character is one-dimensional and wooden, but I like David Annable, so I was willing to let that slide.  Just as my love for romantic comedies allowed the rest of this stuff to slide so I could enjoy a side of bubblegum with my chicken Caesar salad.   

Movie Moment: Captain America: The First Avenger

Before I get started here, I should say that Blogger appears to have run amuck again, having shunted my Etsy mini, followers, profile, listing, and archive widgets from their proper place on the lefthand side of the screen to the bottom of the screen. This happened once before. I think it eventually fixed itself, but this time I want to check out a couple of quick-fix sites I've bookmarked to see if I can't get a handle on it.

Now, on to the movie.

When I first heard about Marvel's Captain America feature, I instantly visualized Captain Planet, that green-haired, gray-skinned, musclebound recycling crusader of the mid-1990s. Why I confused some comic book hero wannabe with one of the classic Avengers I'll never know. Imagine my surprise when I spotted a star-spangled Chris Evans on the poster in the theater lobby!

Captain America, as it turns out, is about World War II and ninety-pound weakling Steve Rogers's (Chris Evans) burning need to enlist. But his small stature and laundry list of health issues get him rejected time and again, regardless of the many hometowns he claims. Then a kindly army doctor (Stanley Tucci) overhears him explaining his plight to his best friend, who just happens to be a strapping solider, and bends the rules to put him in uniform. Yet as with all stories of struggle, Steve's problems have only begun. He endures boot camp, the derision of his fellow soldiers, and the head-shaking doubt of the colonel (Tommy Lee Jones). Still, Officer Atwell, a.k.a. pretty Peggy, has taken a shine to his underdog determination and diamond-in-the-rough chivalry. Then the good doctor hurls a grenade onto the practice field, sending all the soldiers scattering save the intrepid Steve. It's this act of courage that finally earns him the respect of the colonel and the coveted spot as the guinea pig in a top-secret experiment headed up by none other than Iron Man's dad, weapons engineer Howard Stark.

After receiving the usual injections and electrodes and whatnot that figure in the plots of comic book adaptations, Steve emerges as a tall, muscular hunk of man worthy of Peggy's affections and the army's toughest assignments - the first of which turns out to be dancing around in a red, white, and blue suit with a troupe of chorus girls in an effort to hawk war bonds. Again, Steve suffers through adversity in true Marvel coming-of-age fashion until a chance opportunity at greatness propels him to hero status, launching the story into the blazing-gun, bomb-bursting territory of which boys young and old are so fond.

As always, this (the violence, that is) is where I began to zone out. I do remember a rather creepy villain in the image of a red devil. And something about Peggy promising to teach Steve how to dance. Then, just as I was in danger of nodding off, the story segued into a surprise ending starring Samuel L. Jackson and whispering, "Sequel!"

I probably have no business weighing in on movies that I didn't pick and aren't my cup of tea. But Captain America isn't bad as such films go, and the (gentle) 3D effects didn't make me sick, unlike the rollicking roller coaster ride that was Transformers. The bf was somewhat indifferent, also having had no prior knowledge of the original story. Still, a movie is a movie, and a good time was had by all.