The Open Road

Movie was average, but the Blu couldn't sell me either
I am a big Jeff Bridges fan and appreciate everything he has done and such, but I didn't feel grabbed by this one at all. Not that there were horrible performances or bad film making, it just had a slew of little things peppered throughout that made me not give this the above average recommendation.

The story follows a minor league ball player (Timberlake) suffering a slump, who has to get his famous big league dad (Bridges) to make a final visit to his estranged and dying ex-wife. Through some poorly staged events, they have to make it a road trip together across several states (instead of flying) to make this union happen. The scenery is quite beautiful in some of the sequences, and it even upstages some of the sparse dialogue as the long-parted kin find a way to re-connect. Kate Mara is the tag-along friend who offers the love interest of Timberlake, but the chemistry never materializes in ways it should have.

The Blu quality is average to below average, with...

Family Dysfunction Hits The Pavement: A Pleasant, But Utterly By-The-Numbers, Road Trip Dramedy
As Jeff Bridges, to me, has always been one of the most underrated actors of his period--I'm glad to see him finally getting the recognition he deserves. His recent Oscar win for "Crazy Heart" is just a capper on his previous four nominations (The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Starman, and The Contender) which spanned nearly 40 years. Aside from "Picture Show," these films only hint at Bridges' range and I've always maintained that his best work often flew under the radar (Tucker: The Man And His Dream, The Fisher King, the incredible Oscar worthy Fearless, and dare I mention The Dude from The Big Lebowski) and were the true heights of his acting genius. It's only natural that Bridges has settled into somewhat of a comfort zone and "The Open Road" is a film he could do in his sleep. Playing a disheveled and obstinate man in a mid-life crisis has been Bridges' go-to role for several years now and it's on display again in this dysfunctional road trip dramedy...

Family Dysfunction Hits The Pavement: A Pleasant, But Utterly By-The-Numbers, Road Trip Dramedy
As Jeff Bridges, to me, has always been one of the most underrated actors of his period--I'm glad to see him finally getting the recognition he deserves. His recent Oscar win for "Crazy Heart" is just a capper on his previous four nominations (The Last Picture Show, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Starman, and The Contender) which spanned nearly 40 years. Aside from "Picture Show," these films only hint at Bridges' range and I've always maintained that his best work often flew under the radar (Tucker: The Man And His Dream, The Fisher King, the incredible Oscar worthy Fearless, and dare I mention The Dude from The Big Lebowski) and were the true heights of his acting genius. It's only natural that Bridges has settled into somewhat of a comfort zone and "The Open Road" is a film he could do in his sleep. Playing a disheveled and obstinate man in a mid-life crisis has been Bridges' go-to role for several years now and it's on display again in this dysfunctional road trip dramedy...

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The Break-Up Artist

a different type of comedy
While I didn't personally enjoy the Break-Up Artist because it felt too much like a "girly-girl" type of comedy to me (you know, the type of comedy where girls drag their boyfriends to the movie theaters to watch- ugh!) it's far from awful.

In fact the concept is fairly original and creative- a woman actually works for a company that breaks up relationships. This means the woman goes to restaurants and other places and tells the women or men that their partner is no longer interested in them. Talk about an extremely rough, emotionless business, haha. This of course leads to plenty of shocked, saddened, and disappointed reactions from her clients.

Anyway, the jokes feel like they were designed in a way that girls would find much funnier than guys, so I felt kind of awkward watching it, but hey- a movie with some originality deserves a bit of credit, so a rating of 4 out of 5 stars seems pretty spot on.

Just ok
It was just ok to me. I guess I should just stick with my Hallmark shows. I like cute clean family movies and this was just not that for me.

this movie is under rated!
This is a cute chick flick that does not get the credit it deserves! I enjoyed it and it is the kind of movie you can rewatch and not get tired of!

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Paper Heart

Very clever & funny treatment of a difficult subject
Charlyne Yi is a gal with a problem. She's not sure about love and whether it exists for her or if it ever will. So she sets about on a documentary quest to find out what other people think love is and just what exactly they think about it.

It's a romantic comedy that's a fake documentary that turns out to be party a true documentary. Trust me, you'll have to watch it to know what I just said.

Charlyne meets Michael Cera at a house party and a friendship begins to bud. After a short time, Mr. Cera would like it to develop into a romance because he falls in love with Charlyne.

As Shakespeare once wrote, therein lies the rub.

I guess love is something different for every individual and we need to discover what it is for ourselves. People can help us but the conclusions we draw are our own based upon our individual life experiences. And so it is for Ms. Yi.

I had to watch this one twice before writing my review. After that first...

Quirky, light, unique, thought provoking
I delayed watching this film because I made the mistake of reading too many negative reviews. It seemed like it was just going to be too "out there." The front artwork showing Yi and Cera running away from a film crew didn't help much. I was expecting a melodramatic mockumentary which didn't interest me at all. As others have pointed out, this is a hybrid documentary with elements of both a traditional documentary and fictional storytelling.

Yes, both Yi and Cera are awkward. I don't know about Yi so much, but that's Cera's M.O. so I'm surprised by other viewers surprise regarding the awkwardness in this film. That's part of the story and its charm.

There are basically three parts to "Paper Heart." The story between Yi and Cera, the interviews with everyday people and their experiences with love, and Yi's simplistic yet charming artistic interpretation (sort of a variation of stop-action, but different). All three parts are good. However, I do have to...

Pleasantly Entertaining
This faux documentary was nice a story to watch, but didn't leave a lasting impression. While I enjoyed it, there aren't many people I know I could recommend it to because it doesn't cater to a very wide crowd.

Which is weird because the topic is LOVE, but the presentation is too art-house for about 95% of the people I know.

That said it had its charms with comically and painfully awkward lead Charlyne Yi, and ever-droll Michael Cera.

The highlight of the entire movie was the funny little paper side tales presented. I supposed these help inform the title.

Overall, if you're into quirky, art-house, faux documentary films about love (ie your a college freshman majoring in liberal arts) you'll probably enjoy this flick

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