“Along Came Polly” isn’t a great film. It’s a pretty conventional and predictable romantic comedy released in 2004, directed by John Hamburg and starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston. Yet the film has many of the ingredients that make it succeed in the romantic comedy genre, including chemistry between the co-stars and some hilarious scenes that make you laugh out loud.
The story follows Reuben Feffer (Stiller), a somewhat reserved and neurotic risk analyst who marries lovely Lisa (Debra Messing), the woman of his dreams, as the film opens. But on their honeymoon in St. Barts, their marriage falls apart when Reuben catches Lisa cheating on him with her athletic and well-endowed scuba diving instructor. Devastated and heartbroken, Reuben returns to New York City and tries to get his life back on track.
That’s when he meets an old acquaintance, Polly Prince (Aniston), a free-spirited and impulsive woman who shakes up Reuben’s world. Despite their different personalities, they start dating, and Reuben discovers new passions and experiences he had never imagined before. You can pretty much guess the rest of the movie from here.
Like many good action movies, all of the Bourne films are rewatchable, so it was fun to go back to this film 21 years after its release. The first installment in the Bourne film series was released in 2002 starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne. It’s the type of role actors dream about. Damon gets the opportunity to explore the many layers of this character while also building a blockbuster Hollywood franchise that certainly paid off nicely. And, who wouldn’t enjoy playing a badass!
The film is an action-thriller film directed by Doug Liman and based on the 1980 novel of the same name by Robert Ludlum. The story revolves around Jason Bourne, an amnesiac who slowly uncovers his past as a highly-skilled and lethal CIA assassin.
The story begins with Bourne found floating in the Mediterranean Sea with gunshot wounds and no memory of his identity. He is rescued by a group of fishermen, and upon examining his body, they discover a small laser projector surgically implanted in his hip, which displays a Swiss bank account number.
It’s always refreshing to see excellent television shows wrap up there series before the show gets stale. “Succession” has been a big hit for HBO, but we saw last year that the cycle of conflict started to settle into a somewhat predictable pattern. Of course the show still packs quite a punch, and consistently delivers plot twists to keep viewers on their toes, but how many storylines can you create around family strife?
A final season also helps to generate buzz, and the first episode generated great rating according to HBO:
The season four debut of SUCCESSION garnered 2.3 million viewers across HBO Max and linear telecasts, marking a series high. Total viewing for Sunday night was up 62% compared to last season’s premiere (1.4M) and 33% compared to last season’s finale (1.7M), with season 3 episodes going on to average 7.2 million viewers per episode across platforms. Viewership figures are based on Nielsen and first party data.
The battle between Logan Roy (Brian Cox) and his three of his children is heating up as Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Siobhan (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) team up to do their own thing in the media business. Meanwhile, first-born Connor (Alan Ruck) continues to be a clown with his pathetic presidential campaign. The first episode was packed with drama as the kids find themselves in a bidding war with Logan.
This fourth and final season should end up being memorable, as opposed to a show like Showtime’s “Billions” which was equally brilliant in the early seasons but then hung around way to long, becoming a caricature of itself in recent seasons.
Police officers are tasked with protecting the public and enforcing the law. In order to do their job effectively, they need the right gear and equipment to keep them safe. From their uniform to their protective gear, police gear plays a crucial role in ensuring that officers are protected while on duty. In this article, we will take a closer look at how police gear helps officers keep safe.
Police Uniform
The uniform of a police officer is an important part of their gear. It serves as a symbol of authority and professionalism and helps officers to identify each other while on duty. Police uniforms are designed to be durable, comfortable, and practical. They are typically made of a combination of materials such as cotton, polyester, and wool. The uniform includes a shirt, pants, jacket, hat, and boots.
Police uniforms also have reflective materials on them to make officers more visible during low-light situations. This helps to prevent accidents and keeps officers safe while working in traffic or at night.
You have to give Damien Chazelle credit for trying. “Babylon” was an ambitious project. But despite all of the big stars, wild scenes and stunning visuals, the film is a disappointing mess. All of the brilliant cinematography doesn’t count for much when the audience can’t connect with the characters or the story. The 3-hour run time makes these flaws even more annoying. I couldn’t wait for the movie to end.
The film generated a lot of buzz around the opening party scene that features stunning shot of the beautiful and charismatic Margot Robbie dancing up a storm. Robbie draws you in and you can’t take your eyes off of her. She executes her elaborate dance moves in her spectacular red dress in the middle of what can only be described as managed chaos. It’s the best scene of the film and it goes on for quite a while, yet even this scene falls flat. All of the moves are overly choreographed and stylized. There are various couples engaging in sex in the middle of all the frenzied dancing, but none of it is remotely natural or believable. Rather, it comes across as awkward as opposed to erotic, reminding me of robotic orgy scenes in “Eyes Wide Shut.” Everyone is supposed to be having fun, but they just seem like they’re pretending.
Things slow down a bit with the rest of the film, which sadly does little to make anyone become more interested in the characters. The stories revolve around several stars of Hollywood’s silent film era and the excesses of those times. But many of these scenes do little to advance the story, but rather give Chazelle an excuse to create elaborate, cinematic scenes showing how these films were made. The scenes look great, but most are tedious and boring. You always feel like you’re watching a stylized movie . . . the film never grabs you and makes you feel like you’re there. It just feels like a bizarre series of sketches with little purpose.
A lot of acting talent is wasted here. Brad Pitt has proven his acting chops again and again, but here he seems robotic as he recites his poorly written lines. There’s little that’s believable about his character or his performance. His character is a silent film star, living the life of a rich and adored celebrity, who then struggles with the emergence of talkies. But the audience isn’t given a chance to become emotionally invested in his plight.
Margot Robbie does her best with her part, but she’s asked to deliver an over-the-top performance. She delivers, but there’s little to like about her character beyond her stunning appearance. Tobey Maguire gives a creepy and memorable performance as he guides us through an underground party with disturbing visuals that we’d prefer to forget.
The ending is the film is supposed to make the audience feel nostalgic about the silent film era in Hollywood through the eyes of the lead character Manny (Diego Calva). But flashbacks to characters in their glory days don’t land as well if the audience doesn’t care about those characters.
Sadly, it’s not surprising that this film bombed at the box office. It’s difficult to imagine how a director who delivered the brilliant “Whiplash” could also create this self-indulgent disaster, but even the best creative minds have their misses. Don’t waste your time on this one.
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