watching movies one cup at a time

Welcome to Ice Cubes In My Coffee :: The Caffeinated Movie Guide. I love movies and I have strong opinions about all of them. When they are great, they can change your life. And when they suck, you can at least have fun ripping them to shreds. I have seen a million movies and I have a bunch of movie facts and trivia stored up in my head - it's time to share. I'm going to be filling this movie guide with reviews on an ongoing basis, building up a large library of reviews so YOU, the movie-watching public, will know what movies are essential viewing and what movies you must avoid at all costs (hint: anything with the words "Starring Dane Cook"). I will also be posting some interesting articles and lists along the way as well. So grab a cup of joe and settle in for some movie talk!
      -- Mr. Coffee

Catch and Release

Starring: Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant, Kevin Smith, Juliette Lewis, Sam Jaeger
Director: Susannah Grant
Year of Release: 2006
 Rated 4 cups

I really enjoyed this movie. I had low expectations because I’m not a huge romantic-comedy fan (though I seem to have seen thousands somehow) but I was pleasantly surprised by an interesting story, real characters, and some great acting.

Jennifer Garner is lead here as a young woman about to be married only to have her fiance die in an accident right before the wedding. She deals with it with the help of her friends and a buddy of the fiance’s who is in town, played by Timothy Olyphant. Things get complicated when Juliette Lewis comes to town with a young child that she says was the fiance’s son whom Jennifer Garner never heard of before. But the pacing is kept light and airy, not too forced or hectic. All the characters deal with their friends death in different ways and it feels genuine and not some sappy made-for-TV movie cliche.

Jennifer Garner is great in this movie. She is perfect as the newly single character, Gray. Not extreme, not overthinking it, very natural. And her stunning beauty works well with the character.

Timothy Olyphant is also really, really good in this movie. Often he gets roles as the bad guy. And he can do bad guys exceptionally well. But he has been consistently great in everything I’ve seen him in. And in this film he does a great job of being at first the sort of rogue drifter but then really fleshing out the character as a good guy and a good person for Gray to start a romance with.

Kudos to Kevin Smith too. He rarely does movies that aren’t his own productions but this time he did a really good job in a purely supporting acting role. And his scene in the hospital was quite good. I know the character in the movie was pretty much just Kevin Smith by a different name, but he pulled it off and it flowed very naturally with the movie. I have seen far worse acting from people who don’t also have Director and Writer as their day job.

Bottom Line: If you’re looking for a good romantic-comedy-drama that isn’t wacky, gross, or over-the-top, give this a try.

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Filed Under (4 cups, C, Movie Reviews) by admin on 17-02-2008 | Read More

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