Movie Review Monday #20: Crazy, Stupid, Love

Destiny, a friend of Jeff's (and now mine) who goes to Regent, recently blessed us like whoa by giving us money and free babysitting for a date night. That is what I call wild generosity. Jeff and I went to Texas Road House for dinner and then went to see Crazy, Stupid, Love. Thoughts!:


1. Arabella has this theory that Steve Carell might be a Christian. I have to agree. The dude unfailingly honors family in his work. Of course, his morals were pretty iffy in this film, but at the root of things was family. It's sadly so rare that we get to root for a married couple to stick together in movies today. This was one of those rarities.
2. Okay, but I really wish Steve's character hadn't been such a man-slut while he was reaching the conclusion that he wanted to fight for his wife.
3. Speaking of man-sluts, Ryan Gosling played a very convincing one. I felt like he was inspired by Barney Stinson himself.
4. There was NOT enough Emma Stone in this film. She was 73% of the reason I wanted to see it, and probably had a total of seven minutes screen time. False advertising, anyone? Actually, the only character who seemed really developed was Steve Carell's. The rest seemed a bit flat. Sad day.
5. One of the scenes was riotously funny. This also happened to be the scene during which the projectionist at Cinema Cafe messed things up and the film stopped and we had to wait a few minutes for things to start back up again. Jeff was NOT amused. Neither was I, but I was slightly less vocal about it.
6. Kevin Bacon looks like a skeleton.
7. Josh Groban plays Emma Stone's boring boyfriend. We were sad that he didn't sing, but without that voice, he looks like he really would be a boring boyfriend. I medium felt sorry for him.
8. Some chick plays Emma's BFF and she's really funny. Hold on while I visit my BFF, imdb.com, to give you a visual...

Apparently her name is Liza Lapira. 
Hope to see more of her in the future.
(Oh, hey, Emma!)

9. There is a twist toward the end of the film. I was even surprised. This is saying something, I promise.
10. Speaking of the end, a teenage girl gives a tween boy a naked picture of herself at the end, and it kind of seems like it's supposed to be a sweet moment. It's not. It's disturbing.


In conclusion, this film was slightly more good than bad, but certainly wasn't anything monumental. I give it one half-hearted claw up.

Reader Topic Request: Hair Dye

Today's request comes from my friend Cecie, who is a super talented actress, seamstress, party host, friend, etc, etc. The second time Jeff and I hung out outside of the office was to paint Cecie's house, so obviously she had something to do with our marriage. Plus she and her husband are just super fun people. Proof:

Here they are stealing the cake at my wedding.

Anyway, this post is not about Mark and Cecie. It's about hair dye. Ready? Thoughts on hair dye:


1. It is sometimes awesome and iconic.

If you haven't seen Run Lola Run yet, you should. It's the best movie you'll ever read.

2. It can be abused.

Oh, no. No, no, no.

3. It can go accidentally wrong. Like when I went to "Fantastic" Sams to get "highlights" the summer before my junior year of college. I have this dumb issue with getting my hair done - I feel like it needs to be noticeable in order for me to get my money's worth. That's why I rarely get a trim; I just grow it until the split ends are ridiculous and then chop it all off. Sad. Anyway, same deal with the one time I professionally colored it. They asked what color I wanted as highlights, and I basically asked for the blondest of the blonde. They asked how much I wanted in there, and I asked for a lot. Therefore, this was my own fault:

Oh, no. No, no, no.

Okay, you really can't tell just how disastrous it was from this picture; however, I have proof that it was terrible. I think I've mentioned before that my mother is super supportive. Like, ridiculously supportive. But the day I came home with my "highlights" she said, "What happened?!" Not hello. Not something vague and diplomatic. Not even "well, it'll grow out." No, she went straight for "What happened?!" Yeah, it was that bad. Hair dye is not to be trifled with.
4. Sometimes it's just nice to be able to use it. I got my first gray hair about five years ago. I thought it was cool. It kind of stuck up in the back of my head, so I named it Al (short for Alfalfa, obviously). But now Al has a LOT of friends and it's not as cool. So I've been hiding them with the magic of dye.
5. It seems to be a Hollywood necessity. See? Even my celebrity BFF, Emma Stone, is into it.

I think of her as a redhead though.

And those are my thoughts on hair dye. Cecie, do you have anything to add?