After seeing trailers for 500 Days of Summer by Marc Webb, I dismissed it as another romance flick and had little intention of seeking it out but after a strong recommendation I finally gave it a go. The story revolves around a man (Tom) falling in love with a woman (Summer) who seemingly doesn't believe in the concept of love, and it jumps back and forth between days where they were together and the days after she left him. This format turns a fairly basic story of a broken heart into a very moving and often funny film, especially with brilliant contrasts between some of the best and worst days of his life shown back to back. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are great together in this, and I can't help but feel for Tom after being left completely bewildered by what this woman has done to him. 500 Days will hopefully reach out to everyone willing to give it a go, as I'm sure most people can relate to the characters at some level.
I also finally saw The Hangover by Todd Phillips, which was quite highly praised around it's release. As far as modern comedies go, it ticks all the boxes. Perhaps I'm getting old, but it provided few moments of proper laughter. Scenes such as a naked Asian with a tire iron popping out of a boot to belt unsuspecting passengers across the face just doesn't do it for me anymore (I'm questioning whether it ever did). Phillips also wrote Old School, Road Trip and the story for Borat, all of which (at the time) I enjoyed more than The Hangover. This may be another case of the buzz of a film not fulfilling it's expectations, so with that said, it's still a worthwhile watch and the story is fairly original (I'm sure you already know the story from the trailer), just don't expect too much =P
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