The Back-Up Plan, part 9 - SPOILERS

[redwinter101]

Just wanted to give a little "Hey" and a and a little *squee* to all of you lucky ladies who get to go and see the movie today. I hope you all enjoy it - have a fabulous time.

It's FINALLY April 23rd.

SPOILERS can be freely posted in this thread - so post your thoughts and reviews and experiences (no need for spoiler tags). So, if you don't want to know, best to avoid this thread until you've seen the movie!!!

Red

[Fleur de Lisa]

Just wanted to extend my very best wishes to all of my lovely friends here who are going to see Alex today. May you all have an absolutely wonderful time! We have waited so long for this day, let's enjoy the hell out of it!

Remember a few key safety facts:
--do not attempt to eat any popcorn prior to any scene in which he may appear shirtless: serious choking hazard.
--same goes for beverages as they may spew forth on unfortunate theatre goers sitting in front of you
--wear layers: you may experience periods of feeling extremely hot during the movie
--bring tissues: To dab on perspiring foreheads, catching errant drops of saliva that may escape one's mouth, to dry your eyes b/c you may become teary with pride that our man is in his first huge feature film.
--bring extra money: chances are you WILL catch that extra showing of BUP immediately following the one you just watched.

And on a serious, albeit kind of a bummer note, The Chicago Tribune gave BUP only 1 1/2 stars---surprising me, I thought 2 stars would be the minimum. Anyhow, the good news is that the review itself doesn't slam the movie, in fact, it is a very muddled review in that it never really addresses why the reviewer didn't like the film. He focuses more on the types of choices JLo has made in her acting career and how disappointed he is in her. There are just a few passing references to Alex--nothing about his acting at all, more about the "money shots" and how the reviewer is not the target audience for those. Meaning Alex shirtless! There was only really negative comment about the characters that I thought was harsh. If anyone wants me to post the link, let me know, otherwise: Phbbt.
The bright side? At the top of the review is a very large photo of Stan and Zoe where he is shirtless. In color. And simply gorgeous.

[cassysj]

AMNewYork only gave it one and a half stars. I've posted it below if anyone is interested. The format is a little hard to read but the only way to link is to download a 15MB file of the whole paper. They hardly mention Alex and spend most of the article trashing J-Lo. New York is always hard on J-LO but this is particularly growly.

If anyone wants to see the paper the link is http://longisland.newsday.com/gallery/g ... 100423.pdf


AM Newyork April 23rd by Mina Hochberg J-LO Back & Worse Then Ever


“The Back-up Plan” is being touted as Jennifer Lopez’s return to movies after an
extended maternity leave— though, honestly, did anyone miss her?
She plays Zoe, a 30-something woman who suffers from baby lust but is
tired of waiting for Mr. Right. Of course the day she becomes successfully
artificially inseminated is the day she does meet Mr. Right (Alex O’Loughlin),
a scruffy cheese purveyor who lives on a farm and sells his smelly wares
at a TriBeCa green market. Zoe is straight out of the chick-flick heroine factory.
She’s single, lives in Manhattan, has a wardrobe and body to drool over, works at a job that proves she’s not only fun but driven and hangs out with a
posse of hip co-workers who ply her with questions about her
love life. To the film’s credit, at least she doesn’t spend every waking
hour wondering when she’s going to find the perfect man. From the get-go, she’s determined to have a child and is OK with being a self-sufficient single mother. Mr. Right is incidental … except, of course, that he’s not. Zoe joins a single
mothers group and, at one point, alienates them when she begins to complain about her new man. The single mothers roll their eyes and nearly banish her, echoing my very own sentiments.
“The Back-up Plan” could have been a nice little twist to the chickflick
genre, but Lopez’s overbearing cuteness smothers any opportunity for genuine
moments.The uninspired script, shamelessly packed with pregnancy and
dating cliches, is certainly no help.

[redwinter101]

Just re-posting the metacritic link from the last thread - you can catch all the reviews from there:

http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/backupplan

Overall the metascore is "unfavourable" but there is a huge range of scores. The most positive review gave the film 75/100; the least positive 0/100. Go figure.

Red

[darkstarrising]

Bless you, ma Fleur, for all those safety tips I'm headed for the 2:20 pm show.....

The review in our local paper was actually from a Minneapolis paper, the critic being Colin Covert (we don't have a local film critic anymore. New York, Minnesota, eh, close enough). There wasn't a star rating like you have, but he called it 'cute, but cliched'.

On the plus side, he got one thing right in his synopsis

Zoe is inseminated in her doctor's office, and that very day meets Stan, the most attractive man on planet earth (Australian actor Alex O'Loughlin, who boasts a Tarzan physique and crack comic instincts.

He's relatively positive about Alex.

O'Loughlin is agreeable as Stan. He can be romantically expansive and uptight

He's really more interested in JLo

And Lopez is so funny, glowingly warm and awkwardly sexy as the hugely pregnant unwed lady, you wonder what she's doing in a trifling movie like this.

Wonder what the evaluation would have been like from a female critic?

But whatever faults he has with the movie, he plants at the feet of the director Alan Poul, as 'indifferently' directing. He also slammed the opening credits. OK,maybe it's just me, but I really don't give a rat's ass about opening credits, and I certainly wouldn't have them influence my assessment of the movie itself.

Anyway, I'll make my own assessment later this afternoon. Until then, enjoy the movie!!

[darkstarrising]

Just re-posting the metacritic link from the last thread - you can catch all the reviews from there:

http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/backupplan

Overall the metascore is "unfavourable" but there is a huge range of scores. The most positive review gave the film 75/100; the least positive 0/100. Go figure.

Red

You're right, they are all over the board....for comparison purposes, 'The Bounty Hunter', the Jennifer Aniston, Gerard Butler flick that got a 22 rating is still in the top 10 after 5 weeks release...

If you're an actor, you've got to have a thick skin .....some people love you, while others hate you and the latter can be most hurtful.

[cassysj]

Just re-posting the metacritic link from the last thread - you can catch all the reviews from there:

http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/backupplan

Overall the metascore is "unfavourable" but there is a huge range of scores. The most positive review gave the film 75/100; the least positive 0/100. Go figure.

Red

You're right, they are all over the board....for comparison purposes, 'The Bounty Hunter', the Jennifer Aniston, Gerard Butler flick that got a 22 rating is still in the top 10 after 5 weeks release...

If you're an actor, you've got to have a thick skin .....some people love you, while others hate you and the latter can be most hurtful.

I liked The Bounty Hunter even though I'm not a Jennifer Anniston fan. I thought it was cute and I expect to like BUP. I probably wouldn't go out to the theater to see it if Alex wasn't in it because I prefer J-Lo in dramatic roles but I have my ticket for tomorrow

[Fleur de Lisa]

dsr~~
The review from your paper and mine seem somewhat similar, in that they both reference JLo and what this means for her career. Ours even has a "Careers highs and lows" section, where it lists her movies into 2 categories, "The Best" and "The Rest." I'll leave you to ponder which category Gigli fell into!!

As I mentioned before, there was only one really harsh criticism: the reviewer stated: "The characters are meant to be attractive and likable, but they come across as narcisstic divas." Huh??? Alex's character is a narcisstic diva?? Granted, I haven't even seen the film yet, but I reallllly take issue with that statement.

And carol--I am with you. If Alex wasn't in this film, there would be no way I'd go to see it. The fact that he is draws all of his fans to it and of course, all of JLo's diehard fans will go plus the general rom-com loving audience that attends, should make up for a decent box office opening.

Again, this only helps Alex's career--he really has nothing to lose. JLo might, if her critics are disappointed in her performance and this movie--- her earning potential for her next film might go down a few dollars, but this is nothing but massive promotion for Alex. This gets his name, face and acting talent out there.

[r1015bill]

I tend to look at www.rottentomatoes.com.

BUP has an 18% approval rating (based on how many reviews are positive). For comparison, The Bounty Hunter had an 8% approval rating, Twilight New Moon has 27% and Whiteout got a 7%).

[redwinter101]

Anthony Anderson on Jimmy Kimmel :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJavO7t0F5k

Red

[r1015bill]

Am I the first one to be writing about seeing it? I'm honored!

I enjoyed it because Alex was in it. It was cute but it is a romantic comedy where people do odd things just so it fits in with the formula. I kept asking myself "Why are they...?", "Why is she...?", "Why is he...?" (I know we're allowed spoilers here but maybe not everyone is ready for it.)

Honestly, I kind of wonder what the movie would have been like if it had been an independent film instead of CBS who knows how to do television, not movies. I did see the preview for CBS' next film "Beastly" - directed more at a teenage audience.

[librarian_7]

Well, Roger Ebert basically hated it. He barely mentions Alex, he's so busy fulminating about the stupidity of the plot. And the settings. And the plot some more. He really says nothing about the acting, or even the actors, except that JLo is looking as good as ever.

to give you the flavor of it...here's the first paragraph:

Some movies are no better than second-rate sitcoms. Other movies are no better than third-rate sitcoms. "The Back-up Plan" doesn't deserve comparison with sitcoms. It plays like an unendurable TV commercial about beautiful people with great lifestyles and not a thought in their empty little heads. So timid is this film that when it finally arrives at its inevitable childbirth scene, it bails out after two "pushes"!

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbc ... 29995/1023

Gee, thanks, Ebert.

Lucky

[wpgrace]

Well, I liked it. I LOVED Alex, reallly loved him... and I liked the movie.

I identified with several parts of it... and pffffffttt to the reviewers who said it isn't believable that lovely Zoe would be unattached. She says in one of the very first scenes that she's had hundreds of dates in the last 5 years, but none were the one. She's picky. And good for her, too, cause that Stan is amazingly gorgeous.

There were some hilariously laugh out loud moments... and I did. And there were some breathtaking Stan moments... and they did. I also thought there were some draggy moments, particularly the ones where JLo was supposedly "pondering" things... and sometimes the music was intrusive.

But I totally would recommend it. If you are a parent, have ever given birth, and particularly if the husband was in there with you... you will laugh a lot. It is definitely more about the odd parent and parent-to-be moments than being a "dating" film. And during pregnancy, there are issues to work out... parents will recognize them. They're funny. When they're someone else's moments... and here they are.

[Fleur de Lisa]

My over-all and very general review:
It was about what I expected it to be, and less than I'd hoped for--if that makes any sense. My friend and I had a great time--especially in the beginning, b/c we were completely enamored and overwhelmed with seeing Alex on the big screen! Then we settled in. Somewhat.

The first time that Alex is in the movie for any length of time? The fire alarm went off in our theatre! Yeah, I might have made one or 300 comments about how his mere presence was too hot for the theatre. It also happened again towards the ending--the dude is just too hot, evidently!

It was cute. I definitely wouldn't have seen it if he hadn't been in it, but was so very glad to see him on the big screen for such a great length of time. I have to give him credit on his comedic chops: his facial expressions (which are always fantastic) and timing were spot on. I won't go into great detail about how amazing he looks, b/c we all know that already. I will say that he was made for the big screen. Some actors' looks just don't translate as well to the movie screen. He was made for it. To be fair, I think I gushed equally about how beautiful JLo looked.

There were definitely a few kinda corny/not so greatly acted moments, but none of them involved Alex. And as far as JLo is concerned, I thought that she did a good job, too. The woman is immeasurably beautiful and came across as very sweet and adorable. But who the hell wears Laboutins and has that kind of a wardrobe owning a pet store?? I know, it's a movie.

Tons of these types of movies get made every year, I just never go to see them, so, perhaps I am being too critical.

This movie is, in my opinion, a classic case of the performances being better than the overall movie. Linda Lavin, Robert Klein and Anthony Anderson all contributed mightily and rather humorously in small roles.
I will say one last thing, the outtakes at the end are fabulous (I know we have the link here) I could have watched those for another 20 minutes and been happy. Especially the scenes where Alex is genuinely and truly laughing his a*s off!

In sum: for Alex's big screen debut, this was a winner for him and his career. He got to show a different side of himself to us, and it introduces him to an entire new group of people.

[darkstarrising]

OK Just got back from the 4:40 showing.....was supposed to go to the earlier show, but a snake in the backyard did that in (long story)

Anyhow....for a while I thought I was going to have a private viewing, but before the movie showed up another dozen folks wandered in - all over the age map.

I'll agree with Fleur in that it was a cute movie. I'm not a real JLo fan, but she did a great job here. What was fun for me was watching Alex do comedy, and he does it well. I'm going to go through the next few days with a silly grin on my face, every time I think of some of the scenes.

As grace said, though, there are some laugh out loud hysterical moments, mostly with the childbirth scene. Any woman who has ever been pregnant and given birth can identify with what she sees on the screen.

Linda Lavin and Robert Klein give great supporting performances. My one real criticism of the movie was that I wish it had been longer and spent more time on some of the relationship development between Stan and Zoe. I realize they were trying to cram 9 months into 90 minutes, but it felt a little like speed dating. For a romcom, there was a fair amount of development, but it could have been just a little more.

I squeed when Zoe says 'Nothing lasts forever' and Stan replies 'Some things do.' Sounded familiar....


As much as I loved watching Alex bring Stan to life as he courts Zoe, develops a relationship with her and freaks out as he sees his life getting out of control, the scene with the two little girls on his lap as he reads them a bedtime story was absolutely awesome.

The scenes in the playground were cute, too. Anthony Anderson was credible as the man who has been there and done that and now is living with it.

Know how much I enjoyed this? I came home and told the hubby that he would have enjoyed it as well and maybe we'll both go to see it.

That is if we can get the woodchuck out of the yard.