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Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!

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NO SPOILERS BELOW

 

Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!

A Pretentious Review

 

Let's not avoid the obvious: How does this movie compare to The Butterfly Effect (TBE)?

 

Even though Grace shows us the same on-screen charm that made him one of the unsung stars of Traffic as well as the anchor of their TV show (That 70's Show), this movie is nothing compared to Kutcher's. But TBE, though very good, is "just" an above-average movie - what a movie experience should be. How bad is a movie if it's "nothing" compared to that?

 

It has to be bad. Really bad. It has to be painfully bad in a way that makes you question how it could have possibly looked any better as a screenplay.

 

That's how bad Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (Tad) is. It's painful. You wonder why the movie was made, why the actors accepted their roles, and why the production company didn't just cut their losses at some point. Overstating the case? Possibly.

 

Maybe in a few months I'll be able to make a better evaluation.

 

Where TBE was humble in its production and performance, confident that the story was enough to carry the viewer though, the insecurities of Tad are evident from the beginning. The opening credit sequence features glamourized eighties tech-pop music over animated shots of Tad Hamilton. Though it tries to establish Tad's celebrity, it becomes redundant when the opening scene features an audience viewing one of his movies. Wouldn't that have been enough to establish his star?

 

The sequence ends up being trite, a quality that's pervasive throughout the movie. Two minutes after the sequence ends, Kate Bosworth's character is sighing wantingly during the credit sequence of a Hamilton movie. Nevermind that her character is about 8-10 years too old to be your cookie cutter New Kids fan-derivative: It fits in perfectly with her Piggly Wiggly, living with her loving father in West Virginia world. All of these cliches are etablished over the first three minutes, a relatively slow pace compared to the rest of the movie.

 

What is the movie about?

 

Rosalee Futch (Bosworth) wins a date with Tad Hamilton (Josh Duhamel), a hunky, young Hollywood actor whose management team organizes a online blind-date contest to clean up his party-boy imagine. Flown out to Los Angeles from West Virgina, Rosalee finds that despite living in a fast-paced, glamourous world, Hamilton is wholesome enough to appeal to her small town values. Oh yeah: He's really good looking.

 

After a date which includes vomiting in a limosuine and taking out a retainer at the table, Hamilton sees something in Rosalee's values that brings clarity to his confusing world. He flies back to West Virginia to get away from his big city troubles. Soon he's fallen in love with Rosalee. It doesn't hurt that she's also really good looking.

 

But back in West Virginia there's Pete (Topher Grace), Rosalee's superior at the Piggly Wiggly (yes, the Piggly Wiggly), her after hours drinking buddy, and an unrequited love. Rosalee's trip to Los Angeles, along with Pete's impending departure for college, motivates Pete to seize the relationship he's always wanted. Obstensibly inferior to Hollywood Tad, his passive courting of Rosalee sets up the movie's love triangle.

 

No, really. What is the movie about?

 

It is about an old Hollywood formula given another spin. This movie is Sabrina: Grace plays Linus; Duhamel plays David; Bosworth plays Sabrina. Just as in this formula's other incarnations, there's a flimsy ediface that creates the love triangle, but in the end it's the same question: Packaging or content.

 

The main problem with this incarnation is there's little to no effort the develop the ediface. A great supporting cast is put to waste with pedestrain dialogue and undeveloped (or non-existent) secondary storylines.

 

Why you would like this movie:

 

Grace, Nathan Lane, Sean Hayes, and Ginnifer Goodwin all give charming performances. Each time one of them would come on scene my hope for the movie would suddenly regain a faint pulse. But these four don't carry much screen time, and although Duhamel is fine as Tad Hamilton, the rest of the cast isn't strong enough to carry the film through it's short comings.

 

Why you wouldn't like this movie:

 

You have a pulse.

 

Bosworth is out of her element. At this point in her career she's not a lead performer. True, she was the lead in Blue Crush, but that movie did not require anybody to carry the film. The surfing was the lead performer. Here, Bosworth doesn't do enough to portray the conflict of her situation or the awkwardness of Pete suddenly playing for her affections.

 

This movie lacked imagination in every element except some of the acting. The direction is trite. The shots are canned. The writing is cliched. The idea is wrong.

 

Overall

 

On my 1 to 9, this movie gets a 3-, and I am having a difficult time justifying rating it so high.

 

This was the worst movie I've seen in eight months. I felt patronized walking out of the theater. It is as if the producers said "Let's get a bunch of young, good looking stars and put them in a love-triangle movie.

 

"That should sell."

 

If this movie continues to tank, we should all be better off for it.

 

Feel free to give me feedback on what you've read above. I post because I want to talk about the movie as well as improve my writing skills. Feel free to send me a PM.

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rf_ucsd

rf_ucsd

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heh...I was gonna say something but honestly' date=' it doesn't interest me..... :dozey:[/quote']

 

And you're definitely better for it. I only went and saw it because ... well ... I see almost every movie and the previews for this one weren't so bad that I would avoid it. I like romantic comedies ...

 

... but this movie was neither romantic or comedic.

 

When I saw it, I was one of three people in the theatre.

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Sternly

Sternly

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:snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore: :snore:

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Guest LiquidSky

Guest LiquidSky

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heh...I was gonna say something but honestly' date=' it doesn't interest me..... :dozey:[/quote']

 

And you're definitely better for it. I only went and saw it because ... well ... I see almost every movie and the previews for this one weren't so bad that I would avoid it. I like romantic comedies ...

 

... but this movie was neither romantic or comedic.

 

When I saw it, I was one of three people in the theatre.

 

3 ppl in the theatre??lmao! :lol: wow! :o

 

hummm sorry :smug:

 

 

but well for me I like action movies.....and I do watch other types of movies also but those are just to see at home, so any type of this kind of movie, it doesn't really interest me.......so for me, action movies are just meant to watch at the theatre ;) :D

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Guest LiquidSky

Guest LiquidSky

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aaaaaaaawwwwwwwww............. I THOUGHT IT WAS A CONTEST! TERNLY' date=' NEXT TIME READ BEFORE YOU ASK! :embarrased: :sneaky:[/quote']

 

 

:D yeap ;)

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rf_ucsd

rf_ucsd

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I like romantic comedies too...but wasn't sure about this one...it was really that bad?

 

Yes. I wasn't just writing for effect.

 

I keep a noteboook of thoughts during movies. The notebook is 5" x 8". For the best movies, I write almost no notes because I don't need to (and I don't want to take my eyes off the screen).

 

I started a new book this year.

Girl With a Pearl Earring, which I say today, got a page and a half of notes, and I thoguht that was about a 5 (review later).

 

Tad Hamilton got seven pages of notes. Here are some fo the highlights:

 

"Already the music, 80s tech, is setting a teen beat tone. Is this movie just cute? The opening credit sequence is campy."

 

This turned out to be some foreshadowing that I didn't pick up on. The director was tell me something: Run! I'm giving you a big hint here!

 

"A Piggly Wiggly? Bordering on small town cliche between this and their reactions to the Hamilton movie."

 

Little did I know that there was no border. There was a thoughway straight to insultly cliched.

 

"How naive all these small towners (from Rosalee's hometown) are ... I'm not getting good vibes."

 

Far from excitations.

 

"And a dog?"

 

Yes, Topher Grace's character had a Frasier-esque dog for no apparent reason.

 

"And they're not being subtle about this Grace/Bosworth thing."

 

They never spent any time developing why Grace's character likes Bosworth's. It just is ... but since they didn't explain it, how do they expect me to empathize with Bosworth while she makes her decision?

 

"8 minutes in and [Duhamel] has his shirt off."

 

They have him standing outside his house with his shirt off ... at about 10pm at night. Yes, don't we all do that. There are three scenes in the movie were Duhamel has his shirt off but there are no love scenes.

 

"Grace lip-syncing to a Barry White song."

 

The song was "Love to Love You, Baby." It reminded me of Adaptation[/u[ when the Donald Kaufman annouces to Charlie he's going to put a song into his thriller to ease the tension. As if from a rubric.

 

"15-20 women. That's not physically possible."

 

This was Bosworth answering a question (from Grace) as to Hamilton's possible sexual history. Apparently small-towners are socially inept morons. That's not patronizing.

 

"FUCKING PATRONIZING MONTAGE!!!!!"

 

Yes, the movie has a cool montage.

 

From what I can tell, this was written about 30 minutes into the movie ... after all of the above was already written. I omitteed most of the stuff I wrote in between.

 

I think you get the point.

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