M-Net Sunday night movie review: The Ugly Truth
The Ugly Truth indeed has an appropriate title, as it confirms the very ugly truth about the romantic comedy genre: These movies will always settle for sub par acting, predictable plot mechanisms, a corny & unimaginative soundtrack and an pathetically unrealistic look at love.
What makes Ugly Truth even worse than the other members of its dreary flock is that it tries to inject the genre with a new sense of flair, by opting for vulgar toilet humour that manages to leave a nasty taste in one's mouth. Not only does this approach fail horribly, but it also succeeds in highlighting how Hollywood is desperately in need for more clever script writers like Diablo Cody ('United States of Tara', 'Juno') to prevent their romantic cash cows form being sent to the butcher.
Gerald Butler once again plays the stereotyped shallow man-whore character to utter perfection, making one wonder if we'll ever see him in something proper again. Katherine Heigl delivers an all-time career low performance as another stereotyped, flat character with no real point to her existence, except for the creation of a canvas on which the movie can paint it's horrible picture of the modern business woman.
Director Robert Luketic (the mastermind behind the laughable 'Monster-n-law' and 'Win a date with Tad Hamilton') should now realize that he wasn't destined for making movies about love and that he should rather stick to his action-adventure attempts like '21'.
I can't even recommend this movie for nights when you just want to be brain-dead, sorry. But you know what's the Ugly Truth? This movie was a huge hit at the box office... how sad.
Rating: 1 Meerkat tail (Add one if you can actually bare to watch Rom-coms without puking)
What makes Ugly Truth even worse than the other members of its dreary flock is that it tries to inject the genre with a new sense of flair, by opting for vulgar toilet humour that manages to leave a nasty taste in one's mouth. Not only does this approach fail horribly, but it also succeeds in highlighting how Hollywood is desperately in need for more clever script writers like Diablo Cody ('United States of Tara', 'Juno') to prevent their romantic cash cows form being sent to the butcher.
Gerald Butler once again plays the stereotyped shallow man-whore character to utter perfection, making one wonder if we'll ever see him in something proper again. Katherine Heigl delivers an all-time career low performance as another stereotyped, flat character with no real point to her existence, except for the creation of a canvas on which the movie can paint it's horrible picture of the modern business woman.
Director Robert Luketic (the mastermind behind the laughable 'Monster-n-law' and 'Win a date with Tad Hamilton') should now realize that he wasn't destined for making movies about love and that he should rather stick to his action-adventure attempts like '21'.
I can't even recommend this movie for nights when you just want to be brain-dead, sorry. But you know what's the Ugly Truth? This movie was a huge hit at the box office... how sad.
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| A great example of Hollywood's willingness to make crappy movies for a few extra bucks. Tisk tisk. |
Rating: 1 Meerkat tail (Add one if you can actually bare to watch Rom-coms without puking)
Painful isn't it? Honestly, I think "rom-coms" are more predictable than the most pedestrian slasher flick. But at lease with a slasher flick there's usually the "boo!" moment that gets you. So at least there's one surprise, which is more than you get from movies like "The Ugly Truth"! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you see the light when it comes to the rom-com genre, Joel. But still, I'm positive that Hollywood can turn this down-hill franchise around. I really believe that if Hollywood is willing to take some chances with some up-and-coming directors, the genre can still be saved.. Here's hoping this doesn't happen though... :-)
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