500 Days of Summer review

 Number 461 on the top 1000 films of all time is the romantic-comedy 500 Days of Summer.

Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a greetings' card writer in LA who is looking for his soulmate. He thinks he has found it in Summer (Zooey Deschanel) a woman who doesn't believe in love or soulmates. What happens next?

If there were a list for most underwhelming films of all time, 500 Days of Summer would be number one. If I were to describe this film in one word, it would be average. Sure it was entertaining enough, but it didn't blow me away.

Let's start with the comedy or lack thereof. For the most part, none of the jokes elicited much more than a little chuckle from me. The funniest part was the parodies of the Ingmar Bergman films where Tom imagines himself in The Seventh Seal and Persona. Since beginning this challenge, I have become overly-familiar with Bergman. Otherwise I was only snickering throughout, sometimes at the narration or Tom's friends saying how pathetic he was being.

Let's come onto Tom and Summer whose romance was the focus of this story. Both characters were incredibly insipid. Tom was extremely whiny and Summer felt more like a rough sketch of the girl-next-door rather than a three-dimensional character. I am unfamiliar with Zooey Deschanel's other work, but this role was nothing compared to JGL's role in previous rom-com 10 Things I hate about you.

If anything, the true star of the show Chloe Grace Moretz who co-starred as Tom's half-sister Rachel. Many times she acted as the voice of reason. She was only twelve at the time, but you could already see her promise as an actress.

500 Days of Summer also employed a non-linear narrative in an attempt to subvert expectations. We are shown the different days of Tom and Summer's relationship out of order. However, we didn't get enough time on each day before it cut to the next. This hardly made for a cohesive film.

500 Days of Summer was certainly watchable enough, but it was nothing more than that.

The Philadelphia Story review

 Number 231 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1940 romantic-drama 'the Philadelphia Story.'

Wealthy socialite Tracy Lord (Katherine Hepburn) has recently divorced from her ex-husband Dexter Haven (Cary Grant.) She is now intending to marry the wealthy George Kittredge (John Howard.) New York's Spy magazine sends journalists Mike Connor (James Stewart) and Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) to cover the glitzy affair.

I'm probably just a culturally ignorant millennial who's been spoiled by the rich, complicated storytelling of directors like Christopher Nolan, and the like, but the older films are so much more simplistic.

And, by simplistic, I mean dull and predictable. It was obvious from the get-go that this film would centre around a love triangle between Hepburn, Grant and Stewart: Grant still has feelings for his old ex, but he faces new competition not only by Kittredge but also Connor played by Stewart. Meanwhile Hepburn is initially only interested in improving her social status. This is the only reason she is marrying Kittredge. However, she becomes romantically involved with Stewart. And I saw this coming from a mile away.

Of course, this is isn't to slate the acting talent in this film - Grant and Stewart were charismatic as usual - although I'm not sure whether Stewart was quite deserving of his Best Actor Oscar win. I think he was better in other roles like in Mr Smith Goes to Washington or Anatomy of a Murder. I did particularly like Hepburn. She was well-known as an outspoken feminist, constantly speaking out against the misogyny of the era. And she brought some of her fiery demeanour into her role. It was nice seeing a female lead as acting assertive and confident, rather than just a wet blanket, which was all too common for the films of the time.

While I was charmed by the three leads, I was less charmed by the film itself. All very cheesy and predictable.

Sabrina review

 Number 520 on the top 1000 films of all time is Billy Wilder's 1954 romantic-comedy 'Sabrina.'

Sabrina Fairchild (Audrey Hepburn) is the daughter of Thomas Fairchild - the chauffeur to the wealthy Larabee family. All her life, she has held an unrequited love to younger brother and playboy David (William Holden.) Also present is David's older brother Linus (Humphrey Bogart) who soon starts harbouring feelings of his own towards Sabrina.

Never mind 520 on the top 1000 films of all time, this film should be number one on the most boring films of all time. Seriously, it was as dull as your average period drama. And I'm not hating on romantic-comedies - I thoroughly enjoyed Breakfast at Tiffany's and Roman Holiday - but Sabrina was insufferably dull.

It was all so flat. There was so little drama. And so little conflict. Okay, fair enough, Sabrina's broken heart at David's constant womanising leads to her trying to commit suicide by locking herself in a garage with a running car, but she is quickly rescued by Linus, no harm done.

She is shipped off to a French-finishing school where she takes some cooking classes for a couple of years, before returning home where David finally starts taking an interest in her. It's hardly on the some levels of drama as the Notebook.

*Spoilers* It's later revealed that Linus has macchinated a marriage between David and Elizabeth Tyson - wealthy heiress to a business empire, all to serve the Larabees' business interests. In doing so, he falls in love with Sabrina and she him, creating a love triangle between David, Linus and Sabrina. Yet this never worked due to the lack of on-screen chemistry between the three leads, probably due to Bogart's dislike of Hepburn and Holden.

Hepburn is an obviously charming and accomplished actress especially in performing her verbose lines, so it's a shame I didn't like this film more. There was just nothing to interest me.

Crazy, Stupid Love review

 Number 852 on the top 1000 films of all time is the romantic-comedy 'Crazy, Stupid Love.'

Calvin Weaver's (Steve Carell) wife Emily (Julianne Moore) wants to divorce him after having an affair with colleague David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon.) Pick-up artist Jacob (Ryan Gosling) sees Calvin at a bar and starts teaching him how to have success with women. meanwhile, Calvin's babysitter Jessica (Lio Tipton) is secretly in love with him, and Calvin's son Robbie is in love with her. Finally, Jacob starts a romance with aspiring lawyer Hannah (Emma Stone,) and starts to reconsider his womanising ways.

It's a shame this film rushed the beginning so much because it was otherwise a humorous and heart-warming watch. it opens with Emily asking Cal for a divorce. before we even know Cal as a character we are expected to feel sorry for him. And because of this rushed pacing, a lot of the emotional beats fell flat. From here, the film had to catch up with itself.

But when it it did, the film was great. much of that was down to the talented cast. I find Steve Carell very over-the-the-top especially with comedy, but he was wonderfully understated here. He also did well in the more dramatic elements.

I also very much enjoyed Ryan Gosling. He is a good actor, but hitherto I haven't liked any of his films. This changed here. Again, this was due to the film's understated nature.

One of my favourite scene was where we see Jacob and Hannah about to hook up. Or, at least, that was the idea, because of instead of hooking up, they talk the night away. And they found that more enjoyable than if they had slept together. it was a wonderfully subtle note to begin a relationship on. To have the two sleeping together would be too easy and predictable.

Crazy, Stupid Love should have spent more time setting up its plot, but, despite its slow beginning, it is well worth a watch. It is understated, subtle, yet very funny and poignant.