Saturday, November 07, 2009

The Proposal

I had heard good things about The Proposal, and I generally like Sandra Bullock (I admittedly love Miss Congeniality, and she's awesome as law student Ellen in A Time to Kill). And since I adore Ryan "The Abs" Reynolds, I suppose that it was just a matter of time before I saw the flick.

I had no idea what I had gotten myself into.

Friday night, Mike and I settled in with his parents for movie night. We expected light-hearted comedy. We got a pile of steaming poo.

Andrew Paxton (Reynolds) is an executive assistant to Editor-in-Chief Margaret Tate (Bullock) - a bit of a massive bitch. Andrew has been toiling away as her slave for the past three years holding on to hope that he'll eventually be promoted to editor.

The plot is established early: Margaret is a Canadian citizen about to be deported, and she blackmails Andrew into marriage. In a whirlwind of events, they are on a plane bound for Alaska that weekend to meet his family. It's ridiculous. There's a red herring in the form of Drew's ex-girlfriend, and that's about the only plot point that results in something other than a cliche.

I do NOT understand the reviews I've read here. This site usually spots the bullshit of Hollywood from miles away, and they liked this film. Does. Not. Compute. But who knows - I hated The Hangover, putting me at odds with most of America, so do what you will with this review.

Of course, there are some good things about The Proposal. The first would be excellent casting. Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson, and Betty White are excellent as Drew's parents and grandmother, respectively.

Okay, wait. I take it back. The casting is the only good thing about this film next to the abs of Reynolds. I'm glad that I didn't waste money to see this in the theater. Gah.

One of the two good things about The Proposal:

5 comments:

Em said...

Are you kidding? We love this movie!! Sure, it isn't anything too original, but it is hilarious. Tim couldn't wait until the day it came out on DVD and bought it immediately. He watches it over and over.

Heather said...

em - I know. Kari loves it, too. And lots of other people. I just didn't like it! Of course, it didn't help that Mike and his dad were making cracks throughout the ENTIRE thing. I'm sure that I'll give it another shot. At some point. Maybe.

lem said...

I also greatly disliked The Hangover. I wasn't planning on seeing The Proposal anyway, but after your review I most certainly won't!

Waayers said...

I agree with you, HP. After seeing the previews for the movie, I thought it looked lame. But all my friends were all "oh you should see it, it's so CUTE!" And it got four stars on Netflix. So I watched it. And I was right; it was pretty lame. Thank God for Ryan Reynolds's abs...

Heather said...

lem - God, writing about The Hangover just reminded me how much I FREAKING HATED IT. But yeah, don't waste your time on The Proposal. Boo.

waayers - At least it was Netflix and not $10 in the theater, right? But yeah. LAME.