Just Friends's Recent Activity

list Just Friends's Recent Activity - Spout http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Just Friends on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg Just Friends's Recent Activity - Spout http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 Film:Just Friends http://www.spout.com/films/Just_Friends/253110/default.aspx

Title: Just Friends
Year: 2005
Director: Roger Kumble
Plot: A hotshot thirtysomething record executive tries to win over the girl who once liked him only "as a friend" in this slapstick comedy. In high school, Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds) was an overweight, maladroit teen who spent every waking moment with his co-ed pal Jamie Palamino (Amy Smart). On the verge of graduation, Chris is humiliated when his yearbook confession to Jamie -- that he wants to be more than "just friends" -- is read aloud. Jamie is flattered, but rebuffs his advances, and Chris spends the next decade transforming himself into a buff, callous ladies' man. Assigned by his boss to sign his pop star ex-girlfriend Samantha James (Anna Faris), Chris finds himself stranded in New Jersey for the holidays, where he promptly sets out to find Jamie. But winning back the love of his life proves difficult, as Chris not only has to get back in touch with the sensitive teen he once was, but also fend off competition from another former geek, the guitar-playing Dusty (Chris Klein). ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 15
Number of Lists: 18
Number of blog posts: 2
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Fri, 08 May 2009 02:21:29 GMTJust Friends2005Roger KumbleA hotshot thirtysomething record executive tries to win over the girl who once liked him only "as a friend" in this slapstick comedy. In high school, Chris Brander (<a href="/players/P___232927/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Ryan Reynolds</a>) was an overweight, maladroit teen who spent every waking moment with his co-ed pal Jamie Palamino (<a href="/players/P___235676/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Amy Smart</a>). On the verge of graduation, Chris is humiliated when his yearbook confession to Jamie -- that he wants to be more than "just friends" -- is read aloud. Jamie is flattered, but rebuffs his advances, and Chris spends the next decade transforming himself into a buff, callous ladies' man. Assigned by his boss to sign his pop star ex-girlfriend Samantha James (<a href="/players/P___277709/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Anna Faris</a>), Chris finds himself stranded in New Jersey for the holidays, where he promptly sets out to find Jamie. But winning back the love of his life proves difficult, as Chris not only has to get back in touch with the sensitive teen he once was, but also fend off competition from another former geek, the guitar-playing Dusty (<a href="/players/P___269268/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Chris Klein</a>). ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide15Tag Target (>10)1823http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/u34220wsqal.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Just_Friends/253110/default.aspxFilm Spout Post: Ryan Reynolds: Why? http://www.spout.com/blogs/jakestevens/archive/2008/7/18/32732.aspx

Post By: JakeStevens
Post To: JakeStevens Blog
Post Date: 7/18/2008 2:19:29 PM
Body: Ryan Reynolds. All I can say is: WTF? NOTHING about him is funny. He even manages to make Chris Klein seem funny, and if you know me, you know how much I loathe Chris Klein. Anna Faris and Ryan Reynolds seem to be "acting" the same - over the top, totally unbelievable, annoyingly grating personalities...and yet Anna Faris made me laugh several times. Ryan Reynolds: ZERO. Oops...I take that back. The end credits where he's mouthing the words to All-4-One's "I Swear" right into the camera made me chuckle. A little. Everyone else in this film has great comic timing (Julie Hagerty, Anna Faris (GREAT skewering of recent pop brats, BTW)...even *barf* Chris Klein). You know who doesn't have great comic timing? Take a wild f**king guess. He single-handedly ruined this film for me. He has no timing AT ALL. He's like a deaf drummer with Tourette's Syndrome. Thanks a lot, Ryan Reynolds. Listen, wherever you came from, Ryan Reynolds...go back there. Don't return. Casting agents: Please don't cast him anymore. Movie going public: Please don't encourage this misguided behavior. He is not an actor. He is not a comedian. Go away, Ryan Reynolds.
]]>Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:19:29 GMTJakeStevensJakeStevens Blog7/18/2008 2:19:29 PMRyan Reynolds. All I can say is: WTF? NOTHING about him is funny. He even manages to make Chris Klein seem funny, and if you know me, you know how much I loathe Chris Klein. Anna Faris and Ryan Reynolds seem to be "acting" the same - over the top, totally unbelievable, annoyingly grating personalities...and yet Anna Faris made me laugh several times. Ryan Reynolds: ZERO. Oops...I take that back. The end credits where he's mouthing the words to All-4-One's "I Swear" right into the camera made me chuckle. A little. Everyone else in this film has great comic timing (Julie Hagerty, Anna Faris (GREAT skewering of recent pop brats, BTW)...even *barf* Chris Klein). You know who doesn't have great comic timing? Take a wild f**king guess. He single-handedly ruined this film for me. He has no timing AT ALL. He's like a deaf drummer with Tourette's Syndrome. Thanks a lot, Ryan Reynolds. Listen, wherever you came from, Ryan Reynolds...go back there. Don't return. Casting agents: Please don't cast him anymore. Movie going public: Please don't encourage this misguided behavior. He is not an actor. He is not a comedian. Go away, Ryan Reynolds. Spout Post: The Ice Harvest - Just Friends http://www.spout.com/blogs/moviebabe/archive/2007/7/18/15216.aspx

Post By: MovieBabe
Post To: MovieBabe Blog
Post Date: 7/18/2007 4:46:00 PM
Body: By Tricia Olszewski The Ice Harvest certainly knows what kind of movie it is. In this Mob-world heist comedy, everyone’s in on the scam. John Cusack’s a businessman with big, bad ideas about how to make some extra money. Billy Bob Thornton’s a sleazebag. And the phrase “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way” is used to soften a potentially reputation-killing compliment—which, in this case, happens to be the observation “You’re just about the nicest guy I know.” But then there’s Oliver Platt, turning what should be a minor character—a drunk who needs a ride—into one who steals the show from Cusack’s Wichita, Kan., Mafia lawyer/strip-club owner, Charlie, and Thornton’s occupationally nonspecific ne’er-do-well, Vic. Platt is Pete, the husband of Charlie’s ex-wife. Far from being adversaries, Charlie and Pete, who were friends before all the relationship drama, only had their bond strengthened by their unions with the ball-buster. So when a restaurant manager begs Charlie to drive the hammered Pete home after too much reveling one Christmas Eve, he agrees. Besides, he has a more significant stressor to worry about on this particular night: Earlier, he and Vic made off with some $2 million from local kingpin Bill Guerrard (an enormous Randy Quaid). But they can’t skip town because of an unrelenting ice storm, and soon Guerrard is on Charlie’s tail—even though Vic has the cash, Charlie’s the connection. Pete initially seems merely a lame, annoying wrench in Charlie’s already nerve-wracked, clichéd world. But Platt’s turn as the sloppy but jolly lush brightens every scene he’s in: Perfecting the bleary, crossed-eyed look of the thoroughly wasted, Platt needs only stand slump-shouldered in his disarrayed suit to effect a Horatio Sanz level of genial clownishness. He’s helped by The Ice Harvest’s sardonic script, adapted by Nobody’s Fool collaborators Richard Russo and Robert Benton from a Scott Phillips novel. Here’s Pete looking for some action, right after Charlie claims that he’s bedded his dancers only “when completely desperate, totally shitfaced, or generally had my head up my ass”: “Well I’m all three of those things now, so let’s go!” Though you may hate yourself in the morning, you may even laugh when Pete pukes. (“You had the whole parking lot,” Charlie chides. “Why’d you have to do it in my car?”) But then again, you may not—not if you knew going in that this is a Harold Ramis movie and not, say, something by Shane Black. Though Cusack and Thornton also get their share of one-liners, this is a less antic film than Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. As the frigid night of transgression wears on—ironically accompanied by holiday tunes—Vic gets more devious. Charlie, for his part, gets more haggard, taking a seedy-Wichita tour of strip clubs and bars as he tries to dodge Guerrard until the weather clears, swigging from a flask as he drives. Subplots involve Charlie’s love interest, club manager Renata (a Veronica Lake–ish Connie Nielsen); an incriminating photo of a local politician that everyone’s scheming to get hold of; and, of course, the baby-sitting of Pete, which branches off into an underdeveloped story about Charlie’s poor relationship with his young kids. Of course, the important things here are the drive and, naturally, the con. The former unfolds a little lackadaisically by today’s stylish-noir standards, but at least cinematographer Alar Kivilo has the “stylish” part down, making the most of the dark sparkle that freezing rain lends Charlie’s lurid little world. As far as the latter goes, well, the violence escalates toward the end, with double crosses and mistakes of the wrong-place, wrong-time variety leading to corpses, kidnappings, and lots of blood (though the proceedings are mostly kept black-comedy-light, with even a trunk-stuffed bad guy getting a few laughs.) Throughout, Thornton easily handles his usual brand of sarcastic, soulless miscreant while Cusack portrays his more sensitive, anxious crook with a flickering sense of limitation. Russo and Benton’s script doesn’t always add up, and Ramis’ editor slips a little, too—most glaringly by allowing random scenes of dryness in a plot that hinges on continuous drenching precipitation. But as old as the job-gone-wrong story may be, The Ice Harvest is entertaining enough—and any movie that can make a slurred “turkey lurky” one of its funniest lines deserves a viewing over your holiday weekend. Anyone who requires proof that Ryan Reynolds can be funny—and after his starring roles in bombs such as Waiting... and Van Wilder, quite a few probably do—need only give the guy four minutes. That’s the time it takes for Reynolds, swaddled in his Just Friends fat suit, to mouth the words to All-4-One’s luv ballad “I Swear,” complete with goofy hand gestures, exaggerated expressions, and a ridiculous attempt to sing the song’s multiple vocals all at once. The bad news: This performance plays during the end credits of director Roger Kumble’s by-the-book contribution to holiday-themed romantic comedies. The good news: Just Friends is not quite as stupid as it looks—though Kumble (The Sweetest Thing) at times renders its comedy with a broadness that makes The Ice Harvest look like Masterpiece Theatre—so most moviegoers should be pleasantly diverted until Reynolds’ encore. The setup is relatively simple. Chris (Reynolds), once a plus-size high-school reject, has slimmed down and become a successful Los Angeles music producer. While jetting with his girlfriend/client, the talentless, Courtney Love Jr. pop star Samantha James (a brash but funny Anna Faris), to France, Chris is forced by an aircraft malfunction to land in his New Jersey hometown, which he hasn’t been back to in 10 years. So he surprises his mom (a too-flaky Julie Haggarty) and visits the old watering hole, where he spots Jamie (Amy Smart), the woman he was best buds with in high school—and, of course, the girl he secretly loved and was eventually rejected by. When a drunk friend suggests he could probably win her over now, Chris postpones his Paris trip and distracts Samantha in an attempt to do just that. Here’s where things get a little mixed up. Scriptwriter Adam Davis—whose only previous big-screen credit is a 2001 MTV-backed movie called Spring Break Lawyer (!)—can’t seem to decide whether Chris is going after Jamie for love or revenge. One minute he’s looking longingly at his Jamie-is-the-best scribblings from high school; the next he’s boasting to a friend that a rented Porsche and callous attitude will make Jamie fall for him, because she was notorious for dating only jerks. OK, so it’s a ploy, but one that’s not very well-executed: Chris never really acts like an ass during their handful of dates—an old diner waitress pinching your cheeks and saying in a baby voice that you’re “not a chubby bunny anymore!” would make anyone subtly threaten her with a fork— but the apparently highly sensitive Jamie reacts as if he were. So they take multiple trips through the infuriating love-you/hate-you cycle, with a fellow classmate, the seemingly perfect Dusty Dinkleman (Chris Klein), showing up to complicate things. None of it is very believable. Where Davis excels is providing just the right dialogue for Reynolds’ proclivity for sometimes mannered, more often fuming sarcasm—think of him as the poor man’s Ben Stiller. Davis’ script isn’t quite worthy of Stiller himself, but it’s close, particularly with a running gag in which Chris’ younger brother, Mike (Chris Marquette), and friend Clark (Fred Ewanuick) rag on weepfest The Notebook (one of Chris’ date destinations) and its inherent “gay”-ness. The siblings’ perpetual, slap-happy feuding is just the right amount of physical comedy for anyone embarrassed to have bought a ticket to enjoy. Unfortunately, the filmmakers elsewhere take bodily harm to brutal Home Alone levels. (The way Chris manhandles Samantha is borderline abusive.) They also give us the absurd destruction of a home that mimics a similar (and equally ineffectual) scene in Meet the Parents. It all leads to a predictable, eye-rolling end—but then “I Swear” woos you back, at least for a few minutes, in a way that All-4-One surely never intended.
]]>Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:46:00 GMTMovieBabeMovieBabe Blog7/18/2007 4:46:00 PM By Tricia Olszewski The Ice Harvest certainly knows what kind of movie it is. In this Mob-world heist comedy, everyone’s in on the scam. John Cusack’s a businessman with big, bad ideas about how to make some extra money. Billy Bob Thornton’s a sleazebag. And the phrase “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way” is used to soften a potentially reputation-killing compliment—which, in this case, happens to be the observation “You’re just about the nicest guy I know.” But then there’s Oliver Platt, turning what should be a minor character—a drunk who needs a ride—into one who steals the show from Cusack’s Wichita, Kan., Mafia lawyer/strip-club owner, Charlie, and Thornton’s occupationally nonspecific ne’er-do-well, Vic. Platt is Pete, the husband of Charlie’s ex-wife. Far from being adversaries, Charlie and Pete, who were friends before all the relationship drama, only had their bond strengthened by their unions with the ball-buster. So when a restaurant manager begs Charlie to drive the hammered Pete home after too much reveling one Christmas Eve, he agrees. Besides, he has a more significant stressor to worry about on this particular night: Earlier, he and Vic made off with some $2 million from local kingpin Bill Guerrard (an enormous Randy Quaid). But they can’t skip town because of an unrelenting ice storm, and soon Guerrard is on Charlie’s tail—even though Vic has the cash, Charlie’s the connection. Pete initially seems merely a lame, annoying wrench in Charlie’s already nerve-wracked, clichéd world. But Platt’s turn as the sloppy but jolly lush brightens every scene he’s in: Perfecting the bleary, crossed-eyed look of the thoroughly wasted, Platt needs only stand slump-shouldered in his disarrayed suit to effect a Horatio Sanz level of genial clownishness. He’s helped by The Ice Harvest’s sardonic script, adapted by Nobody’s Fool collaborators Richard Russo and Robert Benton from a Scott Phillips novel. Here’s Pete looking for some action, right after Charlie claims that he’s bedded his dancers only “when completely desperate, totally shitfaced, or generally had my head up my ass”: “Well I’m all three of those things now, so let’s go!” Though you may hate yourself in the morning, you may even laugh when Pete pukes. (“You had the whole parking lot,” Charlie chides. “Why’d you have to do it in my car?”) But then again, you may not—not if you knew going in that this is a Harold Ramis movie and not, say, something by Shane Black. Though Cusack and Thornton also get their share of one-liners, this is a less antic film than Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. As the frigid night of transgression wears on—ironically accompanied by holiday tunes—Vic gets more devious. Charlie, for his part, gets more haggard, taking a seedy-Wichita tour of strip clubs and bars as he tries to dodge Guerrard until the weather clears, swigging from a flask as he drives. Subplots involve Charlie’s love interest, club manager Renata (a Veronica Lake–ish Connie Nielsen); an incriminating photo of a local politician that everyone’s scheming to get hold of; and, of course, the baby-sitting of Pete, which branches off into an underdeveloped story about Charlie’s poor relationship with his young kids. Of course, the important things here are the drive and, naturally, the con. The former unfolds a little lackadaisically by today’s stylish-noir standards, but at least cinematographer Alar Kivilo has the “stylish” part down, making the most of the dark sparkle that freezing rain lends Charlie’s lurid little world. As far as the latter goes, well, the violence escalates toward the end, with double crosses and mistakes of the wrong-place, wrong-time variety leading to corpses, kidnappings, and lots of blood (though the proceedings are mostly kept black-comedy-light, with even a trunk-stuffed bad guy getting a few laughs.) Throughout, Thornton easily handles his usual brand of sarcastic, soulless miscreant while Cusack portrays his more sensitive, anxious crook with a flickering sense of limitation. Russo and Benton’s script doesn’t always add up, and Ramis’ editor slips a little, too—most glaringly by allowing random scenes of dryness in a plot that hinges on continuous drenching precipitation. But as old as the job-gone-wrong story may be, The Ice Harvest is entertaining enough—and any movie that can make a slurred “turkey lurky” one of its funniest lines deserves a viewing over your holiday weekend. Anyone who requires proof that Ryan Reynolds can be funny—and after his starring roles in bombs such as Waiting... and Van Wilder, quite a few probably do—need only give the guy four minutes. That’s the time it takes for Reynolds, swaddled in his Just Friends fat suit, to mouth the words to All-4-One’s luv ballad “I Swear,” complete with goofy hand gestures, exaggerated expressions, and a ridiculous attempt to sing the song’s multiple vocals all at once. The bad news: This performance plays during the end credits of director Roger Kumble’s by-the-book contribution to holiday-themed romantic comedies. The good news: Just Friends is not quite as stupid as it looks—though Kumble (The Sweetest Thing) at times renders its comedy with a broadness that makes The Ice Harvest look like Masterpiece Theatre—so most moviegoers should be pleasantly diverted until Reynolds’ encore. The setup is relatively simple. Chris (Reynolds), once a plus-size high-school reject, has slimmed down and become a successful Los Angeles music producer. While jetting with his girlfriend/client, the talentless, Courtney Love Jr. pop star Samantha James (a brash but funny Anna Faris), to France, Chris is forced by an aircraft malfunction to land in his New Jersey hometown, which he hasn’t been back to in 10 years. So he surprises his mom (a too-flaky Julie Haggarty) and visits the old watering hole, where he spots Jamie (Amy Smart), the woman he was best buds with in high school—and, of course, the girl he secretly loved and was eventually rejected by. When a drunk friend suggests he could probably win her over now, Chris postpones his Paris trip and distracts Samantha in an attempt to do just that. Here’s where things get a little mixed up. Scriptwriter Adam Davis—whose only previous big-screen credit is a 2001 MTV-backed movie called Spring Break Lawyer (!)—can’t seem to decide whether Chris is going after Jamie for love or revenge. One minute he’s looking longingly at his Jamie-is-the-best scribblings from high school; the next he’s boasting to a friend that a rented Porsche and callous attitude will make Jamie fall for him, because she was notorious for dating only jerks. OK, so it’s a ploy, but one that’s not very well-executed: Chris never really acts like an ass during their handful of dates—an old diner waitress pinching your cheeks and saying in a baby voice that you’re “not a chubby bunny anymore!” would make anyone subtly threaten her with a fork— but the apparently highly sensitive Jamie reacts as if he were. So they take multiple trips through the infuriating love-you/hate-you cycle, with a fellow classmate, the seemingly perfect Dusty Dinkleman (Chris Klein), showing up to complicate things. None of it is very believable. Where Davis excels is providing just the right dialogue for Reynolds’ proclivity for sometimes mannered, more often fuming sarcasm—think of him as the poor man’s Ben Stiller. Davis’ script isn’t quite worthy of Stiller himself, but it’s close, particularly with a running gag in which Chris’ younger brother, Mike (Chris Marquette), and friend Clark (Fred Ewanuick) rag on weepfest The Notebook (one of Chris’ date destinations) and its inherent “gay”-ness. The siblings’ perpetual, slap-happy feuding is just the right amount of physical comedy for anyone embarrassed to have bought a ticket to enjoy. Unfortunately, the filmmakers elsewhere take bodily harm to brutal Home Alone levels. (The way Chris manhandles Samantha is borderline abusive.) They also give us the absurd destruction of a home that mimics a similar (and equally ineffectual) scene in Meet the Parents. It all leads to a predictable, eye-rolling end—but then “I Swear” woos you back, at least for a few minutes, in a way that All-4-One surely never intended. Spout Tag:comedy http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/comedy/MemberTagFilms.aspxcomedy
Number of films tagged: 1087

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]]>Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:38:30 GMT10872531342Tag Spout Tag:romance http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/romance/MemberTagFilms.aspxromance
Number of films tagged: 7163

Number of people who tagged: 169

Number of times used: 1005

]]>Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:16:35 GMT71631691005Tag Spout Tag:friendship http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/friendship/MemberTagFilms.aspxfriendship
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]]>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:42:20 GMT6791154980Tag Spout Tag:Crazy http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/Crazy/MemberTagFilms.aspxCrazy
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]]>Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:53:34 GMT5511530Tag Spout Tag:happiness http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/happiness/MemberTagFilms.aspxhappiness
Number of films tagged: 198

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]]>Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:43:46 GMT1981421Tag Spout Tag:success http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/success/MemberTagFilms.aspxsuccess
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]]>Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:49:00 GMT4041122Tag Spout Tag:homecoming http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/homecoming/MemberTagFilms.aspxhomecoming
Number of films tagged: 408

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]]>Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:03:08 GMT228914Tag Spout Tag:exgirlfriend http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/exgirlfriend/MemberTagFilms.aspxexgirlfriend
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]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:07:06 GMT7357Tag