She's Out of My League (C- or 1.5/4 stars)
Ever watch a movie and think it's absolutely fine - not great - but fine; meeting expectations, or even slightly exceeding them ... when all of a sudden, the movie loses its MIND? Yeah, that's 'She's Out of My League', directed by Jim Field Smith. Kirk (Jay Baruchel), a lowly airport security agent, is a hard '5' on the scale of attractiveness. He knows it, his family knows it, his bitchy ex-girlfriend, Marnie (Lindsay Sloane) knows it, & his friends, Stainer, Jack, & Devon (a fun trio of T.J. Miller, Mike Vogel, Nate Torrence) know it. See, Kirk is a really nice guy with an appealing, self-deprecating sense of humor & a quiet sense of confidence, but he's not exactly the type to reel in the ladies. So it's with complete & utter puzzlement that his pals watch as Kirk gets involved with the successful, gorgeous Molly (Australian beauty, Alice Eve), who is clearly a hard '10' on said scale.
Kirk can't believe it. And Molly overlooks Kirk's '5' exterior to see what's inside of him; this even shocks her friend, Patty (Anne Hathaway lookalike, Krysten Ritter). But for purposes of this plot (and in life, for some), if a couple is separated by more than '2' spots on the physical attractiveness scale, then your doomed. And while Kirk recognizes Molly's liking to him, his lack of self-confidence is deafening. And the disdain that his friends & family regard this relationship with doesn't help, either. To him, she's totally out of his league ... but does Molly feel the same way? Can they make their 'all-odds-against-them' relationship work?
Honestly, it's rare that you're digging a movie, only to have it fall beneath the weight of its utter stupidity in the final 20 or so minutes. Everything was lining up for a decent outting: I liked the characters. There's some chemistry btwn. the leads. I wanted them to work out in the end. And on the humor end of it - I probably burst out laughing (literally) close to 10 times, or so. Some of the humor is a bit much (sex jokes, absurd, gross-out situations - like ejaculating in your pants & trying to avoid shaking hands with the father of the girl your dating - or - having your pal shave your balls for you, etc.). But there are several well-timed quips, one-liners, & looks that had me roaring (something as minor as one character submerging low in a pool to see if a female character was wearing no underwear, etc.). I thought, 'great, some decent, breezy, if disposable entertainment about mismatched mates'. Nope.
I don't even know where to begin to explain how juvenile, awful, & ridiculous the last 20 min. are; ripe with contrivances, cliches, & predictable outcomes. There's a point in the film where things aren't going well for our Leads, and then, poof - it's as if 15-20 min. of exposition was cut, & the film picks back up with a scatterbrain race-to-the-airport scene where the problem that the two Leads had had becomes a moot point, & they really DO love each other {gag me}. It's hard to convey in words how befuddling this was to watch. Bad dialogue & atrocious acting takes over. To say that the character's intentions become muddled is an understatement. Cringe-inducing airport/airplane behavior occurs (where the characters think it's just fine to evacuate a plane just so that our Leads can look in each other's faces & say, 'none of what happened 10 min. ago in the plot matters, so, I love you'. And the other characters can just hang in the background going 'aww'. No explanation of their change of hearts. And no ramifications of things said to certain characters or crimes committed at the airport.
That's not how the formula works. That's not how any movie ever MADE works. Haha, as I type, I still can't believe how much this film went off the rails. As mentioned, I 'had' liked the characters. I enjoy the geek/charisma thing that Jay Baruchel does so well. Alice Eve is hypnotic to watch, & gives the film some heart. 'Some' of the supporting characters gave me a lot to laugh at. And the aforementioned humor varied btwn. being comfortably inappropriate & hilarious. But the movie made me uneasy with what it has to say about nerds with little hope of landing a babe, vice-versa, & how poor self-image can ruin you. And narratively, this is the most uneven film I've seen in a long time. Even stupid movies have better denouements than this one. 'SOoML' really dropped the ball in the end.
Kirk can't believe it. And Molly overlooks Kirk's '5' exterior to see what's inside of him; this even shocks her friend, Patty (Anne Hathaway lookalike, Krysten Ritter). But for purposes of this plot (and in life, for some), if a couple is separated by more than '2' spots on the physical attractiveness scale, then your doomed. And while Kirk recognizes Molly's liking to him, his lack of self-confidence is deafening. And the disdain that his friends & family regard this relationship with doesn't help, either. To him, she's totally out of his league ... but does Molly feel the same way? Can they make their 'all-odds-against-them' relationship work?
Honestly, it's rare that you're digging a movie, only to have it fall beneath the weight of its utter stupidity in the final 20 or so minutes. Everything was lining up for a decent outting: I liked the characters. There's some chemistry btwn. the leads. I wanted them to work out in the end. And on the humor end of it - I probably burst out laughing (literally) close to 10 times, or so. Some of the humor is a bit much (sex jokes, absurd, gross-out situations - like ejaculating in your pants & trying to avoid shaking hands with the father of the girl your dating - or - having your pal shave your balls for you, etc.). But there are several well-timed quips, one-liners, & looks that had me roaring (something as minor as one character submerging low in a pool to see if a female character was wearing no underwear, etc.). I thought, 'great, some decent, breezy, if disposable entertainment about mismatched mates'. Nope.
I don't even know where to begin to explain how juvenile, awful, & ridiculous the last 20 min. are; ripe with contrivances, cliches, & predictable outcomes. There's a point in the film where things aren't going well for our Leads, and then, poof - it's as if 15-20 min. of exposition was cut, & the film picks back up with a scatterbrain race-to-the-airport scene where the problem that the two Leads had had becomes a moot point, & they really DO love each other {gag me}. It's hard to convey in words how befuddling this was to watch. Bad dialogue & atrocious acting takes over. To say that the character's intentions become muddled is an understatement. Cringe-inducing airport/airplane behavior occurs (where the characters think it's just fine to evacuate a plane just so that our Leads can look in each other's faces & say, 'none of what happened 10 min. ago in the plot matters, so, I love you'. And the other characters can just hang in the background going 'aww'. No explanation of their change of hearts. And no ramifications of things said to certain characters or crimes committed at the airport.
That's not how the formula works. That's not how any movie ever MADE works. Haha, as I type, I still can't believe how much this film went off the rails. As mentioned, I 'had' liked the characters. I enjoy the geek/charisma thing that Jay Baruchel does so well. Alice Eve is hypnotic to watch, & gives the film some heart. 'Some' of the supporting characters gave me a lot to laugh at. And the aforementioned humor varied btwn. being comfortably inappropriate & hilarious. But the movie made me uneasy with what it has to say about nerds with little hope of landing a babe, vice-versa, & how poor self-image can ruin you. And narratively, this is the most uneven film I've seen in a long time. Even stupid movies have better denouements than this one. 'SOoML' really dropped the ball in the end.