BEFORE: Ashton Kutcher carries over from "What Happens in Vegas", and this is sort of why I had to watch that film yesterday... I mean, nobody put a gun to my head and made me watch it, but when I started putting the schedule together for February and I saw what I had and what didn't connect to anything, I realized that adding a few key romance-based films would allow me to bring everything together. I follow my gut, even if I'm not always aware of it - like I had no idea when I recorded those 4 Debbie Reynolds films that I'd have a way to work them in this year, honestly I was going to save them for December or next February, but working them in was not only possible, it made my chain stronger, after a little effort.
Here's the TCM schedule for Sunday, February 5:
7:15 AM Cain and Mabel (1936)
8:45 AM Calamity Jane (1953)
10:30 AM Camelot (1967)
1:45 PM Camille (1937)
3:45 PM Captain Blood (1935)
6:00 PM Captains Courageous (1937)
8:00 PM Casablanca (1942)
10:00 PM Chariots of Fire (1981)
12:15 AM Citizen Kane (1941)
2:30 AM Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)
5:00 AM Comrade X (1940)
I'm considering adding "Camelot" to the list - I've never seen that one, and it could pair well with something like "Kiss Me, Kate", or perhaps "Knights of the Round Table" which will air in a week or so. Among the other films, I've seen "Captain Blood", "Casablanca", "Chariots of Fire", "Citizen Kane" and "Coal Miner's Daughter" so if I record "Camelot" I'll have seen 6 out of these 11, which brings me back up close to 50%, 26 seen out of 51.
THE PLOT: A young newlywed couple honeymoon in Europe, where obstacles challenge their ability to sustain the marriage.
AFTER: It's basically the same formula I've seen all week - people in relationships being horrible to each other, with physical comedy thrown in, just in case people aren't entertained by the relationship stuff. Probably some studio executives think this formula works because the love/relationship stuff is there to entertain the women in the audience, and the pratfalls and mishaps are there to entertain the men. Ha, ha, funny people fall down! Now funny people punch each other! Me want more popcorn!
I mean, we've all had good vacations and bad vacations, right? A couple's honeymoon is supposed to be something special, everything's supposed to go right - but it doesn't always work out that way. And some simple people might believe that if a honeymoon goes wrong, then symbolically the relationship is going the same way. (I can tell you stories about my first wife throwing up on the first night of our honeymoon, after eating some bad seafood. Looking back on it years later, the situation had another level of meaning...). But these people also believe that the person at the wedding who catches the bouquet is going to be the next one to be married.
This is about more than just the honeymoon, because it turns out that both Sarah and Tom have secrets that they haven't shared with each other. Hers is about her ex-boyfriend, and when the ex shows up in Europe and stays at the same hotel, it forces the issue. Then they're REALLY not enjoying their honeymoon - they might have survived a few vacation mishaps like a tiny rental car and confusion over the electrical outlets in Europe if the ex-boyfriend hadn't shown up. Worse, Tom spends time in the "Caffe Americaine" to watch a baseball game, and another American woman comes on to him. He resists temptation, but Sarah gets the wrong idea - so they actively fight all the way back home.
Can they patch things up after the honeymoon (which is all shown in flashback, by the way, quite unnecessarily...) and resist her family's attempts to keep them apart? Well, it's a standard Hollywood rom-com, so what do YOU think? I just question whether it was a good idea to crib so many gags directly from "National Lampoon's European Vacation".
Also starring Brittany Murphy (last seen in "Don't Say a Word"), Christian Kane (last seen in "Edtv"), David Moscow (last seen in "The Promotion"), David Rasche (last seen in "Hard Time: Hostage Hotel"), Veronica Cartwright (last seen in "The Invasion"), Monet Mazur, Thad Luckinbill, David Agranov, Taran Killam (last seen in "Ted 2"), Raymond J. Barry (last seen in "Little Children"), Valeria Andrews, Laurent Alexandre, with a cameo from George Gaynes (last seen in "Altered States").
RATING: 4 out of 10 gondolas
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