Ol Marty McFly decided to do his duty for filmdom and went and checked out RUNAWAY BRIDE, a film I won't see because I have an adverse reaction to Richard Gere movies (notable exception being PRETTY WOMAN and AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMEN). I think it's that stare look in his eyes that harkens back to that song... "The Lights are on... But you're not home... Your will... Is not your own..." But maybe it's just me. Let's take a gander at what Marty McFly thought...
This is Marty McFly, back after seeing the "highly anticipated" reunion of the stars and director of Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride. I liked Pretty Woman a lot, I mean, what is there not to like. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere are two very attractive and charismatic people and it was a classic fairy tale story with a modern twist.
Not to get off the subject but before the film I saw a trailer for the new thriller Double Jeopardy with Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd and it made my hatred for trailers go so strong that I had to control the urge get violent. Why see the movie now, just about all the suspense has been ruined in about 2 1/2 minutes.
Anyways, most of you know the plot from the trailer, which gives away way too much of the story. I mean we all know (Big spoiler if you are an idiot) Julia and Richard end up together but still (I'll stop here before I get into my trailer hating rant again). Richard plays a USA Today reporter who writes a story about a woman who has ran away from 3 grooms at the altar. He gets most of the facts wrong in the story though and is fired by his ex-wife/editor (Rita Wilson). For vindication, his ex's current husband (Pretty Woman cast member and Garry Marshall regular Hector Elizondo) tells him to go write a story about the woman, only this time go to her town and get the facts straight. Naturally, while he is getting his story, she falls for him and he falls for her.
This year there has been a shortage of romantic comedies and so far this year, the best one I saw was Notting Hill. This is not quite as good as that film for two reasons I can think of. First, I like Hugh Grant much better than Richard Gere because he is more of an everyman and second, Notting Hill was so much more realistic. Notting Hill had a plot I could relate to but in this film, everything was just too coincidental and everything is just so perfect right up to those so- damn-cute-you-wanna-throw-up credits where the cast dances around to a hit song. Not that Notting Hill was completely realistic, just a lot more than this film.
Still, like most films in the genre, Runaway Bride is a guilty pleasure and, though not on par with Pretty Woman, it will keep you smiling almost its entire running time. Julia Roberts, like in Notting Hill, turns a character you probably won't like from the start into a girl who you just fall in love with as Richard Gere does. She is luminous every minute she is on screen and she shows again why she is one of the most successful leading ladies. Gere has a lot of charisma but he just looks like a movie star in every scene, with his hair and dimples, and its distracting to me, but then again it could be cause I'm a guy.
I'm not sure if they're releasing this one too close to Notting Hill that people won't want to see such a similar film so soon. Still, this one is a by-the-numbers crowd pleaser, right up to the casting of Joan Cusack as Julia's best friend. So much sweetness and too many white teeth to last me a while, I think I'll see some sharks eating people to get my mind off it. See 'ya in the future.
