Showing posts with label Jack Nicholson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jack Nicholson. Show all posts
It’s Hard To Know
Lisa (Reese Witherspoon) is a motivated and driven woman. She is a professional softball player that has a past with the US Olympic team. This year is different. The team is going younger and Lisa isn’t as quick or as strong as the youth movement the new coach is moving towards.
She is dating Matty (Owen Wilson). He is a hot pitcher for the Washington Nationals and knows what he wants. What he wants is Lisa, oh and he knows how to relate that fact, even if he doesn’t have an ounce of tact in his system.
This is all complicated a man named George (Paul Rudd). He’s an executive that is about to be indicted. Though he’s done nothing wrong, it’s the company his father has put him in charge of that is in trouble. It could be that his father (Jack Nicholson) has some involvement in the problems, or it could be he knows nothing.
Different individuals with different paths all searching for the answer to the question; how do you know?
Director James L. Brooks has made us laugh for years with a real life backdrop. Even his “bad” films that others dislike, I have tended to enjoy. How Do You Know is a tough film as it seems to have lost some of the regular sensibilities that you are used to finding.
Reese Witherspoon is likable, and I found myself coming away from this film with even more of an appreciation for everything she does. She plays a woman who is motivated and driven, using motivational words, phrases and techniques. Her ability to slip into her role as a champion softball player, with party side is amazingly fun.
Co-star Paul Rudd is perfectly cast as the nice guy who is caught in the middle of things. It’s a role he has gotten used to, and does it well. Owen Wilson gets to take his Fockers character and add a bit of attitude to it to create Matty. Sometimes it felt that it just wasn’t real enough. I almost wanted a bit more attitude out of his character, but you couldn’t help but “like” him and see the side that Lisa saw in him.
I know there were a number of laughs in this film. I know I like Reese Witherspoon more than I did before I saw this film. But ultimately, did I like this movie? It’s hard to know.
B- / C+
How Do You Know
Columbia Pictures
Director: James L. Brooks
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson
Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and some strong language.
Runtime: 116 minutes.
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Lisa (Reese Witherspoon) is a motivated and driven woman. She is a professional softball player that has a past with the US Olympic team. This year is different. The team is going younger and Lisa isn’t as quick or as strong as the youth movement the new coach is moving towards.
She is dating Matty (Owen Wilson). He is a hot pitcher for the Washington Nationals and knows what he wants. What he wants is Lisa, oh and he knows how to relate that fact, even if he doesn’t have an ounce of tact in his system.
This is all complicated a man named George (Paul Rudd). He’s an executive that is about to be indicted. Though he’s done nothing wrong, it’s the company his father has put him in charge of that is in trouble. It could be that his father (Jack Nicholson) has some involvement in the problems, or it could be he knows nothing.
Different individuals with different paths all searching for the answer to the question; how do you know?
Director James L. Brooks has made us laugh for years with a real life backdrop. Even his “bad” films that others dislike, I have tended to enjoy. How Do You Know is a tough film as it seems to have lost some of the regular sensibilities that you are used to finding.
Reese Witherspoon is likable, and I found myself coming away from this film with even more of an appreciation for everything she does. She plays a woman who is motivated and driven, using motivational words, phrases and techniques. Her ability to slip into her role as a champion softball player, with party side is amazingly fun.
Co-star Paul Rudd is perfectly cast as the nice guy who is caught in the middle of things. It’s a role he has gotten used to, and does it well. Owen Wilson gets to take his Fockers character and add a bit of attitude to it to create Matty. Sometimes it felt that it just wasn’t real enough. I almost wanted a bit more attitude out of his character, but you couldn’t help but “like” him and see the side that Lisa saw in him.
I know there were a number of laughs in this film. I know I like Reese Witherspoon more than I did before I saw this film. But ultimately, did I like this movie? It’s hard to know.
B- / C+
How Do You Know
Columbia Pictures
Director: James L. Brooks
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson
Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and some strong language.
Runtime: 116 minutes.
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| Ross Martin, Betty Garde, and John Vivyan |
In this series, one of several created by Blake Edwards, Mr. Lucky (John Vivyan) -- with no first name -- operates a legal gambling ship outside the limit with his friend, associate and fellow adventurer Andamo (Ross Martin) -- which could be the fellow's first name or last. The boat is named the Fortuna, which means luck. Halfway through the first and only season of the show, Lucky decides to give up gambling and turn the Fortuna into an exclusive and very expensive private restaurant and night spot; oddly the scripts seemed somewhat better afterward and there was even more action. Pippa Scott was a semi-regular who played Lucky's girlfriend while Andamo played the field. Another character who appeared frequently was Lt. Rovaks, (Tim Brown), whose voice was so squeaky that he sounded like a cartoon character [maybe "Lucky Duck."] Mr. Lucky, frankly, was not one of the classic shows of television, nor was it one of Edwards' better or more successful series, but some of the generally mediocre episodes were somewhat more memorable than usual, with the best single episode being one wherein Lucky gets targeted by a hit woman played by Mari Blanchard. Another memorable episode has Jack Nicholson and Richard Chamberlain robbing the Fortuna and its customers at gunpoint. There were plenty of desperate, kooky or sinister females, as well as gangsters [one of whom is played by Lou Krugman, from the "Lucy Gets in Pictures" episode of I Love Lucy] and other reprobates. Despite the competent and often charming performances of the two leads -- although Vivyan was a borderline stiff -- the characters were shadowy and never quite came alive. Other guest-stars on the show included Betty Garde [that tough maid in a classic Honeymooners episode]; Grant Williams, Barbara Bain, Cyril Delevanti, Eleanor Audley, Lee Van Cleef, Nita Talbot, and Doris Singleton [Carolyn/Lillian Appleby on I Love Lucy] who's striking as an especially ruthless female with murder on her mind. Henry Mancini's music is nothing special. Ross Martin ["Death Ship" on The Twilight Zone] would have much more success with The Wild, Wild West a few years later.
Verdict: Stick with Mike Hammer with Darren McGavin.**