The Rom Com Catalog

Tag: Leah Remini

  • ‘The Clapper’ (2017) Review

    ‘The Clapper’ (2017) Review

    Eddie Krumble (Ed Helms) lives in Hollywood with his best friend Chris, working as a professional clapper in infomercials. It’s not exactly a glamorous life, and Eddie begins to find happiness when a romance blossoms between him and a gas station attendant named Judy (Amanda Seyfried). But when a late-night talk show host zeroes in on Eddie’s many infomercial “disguises,” everyone sets out to discover who Eddie really is, jeopardizing his job and new relationship.

    I had not heard of The Clapper before scrolling on Netflix for something to watch and deciding to try it. I like Ed Helms, Amanda Seyfried, and Tracy Morgan. But after watching the movie, I understood why I hadn’t heard of it. Frankly put, it is not a good movie. I think it had an interesting enough premise, but director Dito Montiel (who also wrote the novel the film is based upon) does absolutely nothing with it. Instead, it feels like the characters sort of flail about until Eddie needs help finding Judy, and even then, it really fails to maintain any interest in the outcome.

    Eddie is an unlikeable lead, or perhaps that’s just Helms’s portrayal of him. He and Seyfried had zero chemistry, although admittedly, Seyfried was pretty sweet as the unsuspecting Judy. Eddie simply felt like a man with genuine homicidal tendencies.

    As I was watching, all I could think was that this movie was essentially what would have happened if Andy Bernard (Helms’s character in The Office) had moved to Hollywood to be a professional infomercial audience member… although Andy would have loved the attention. In contrast, Eddie seemed to lose his cool whenever anyone recognized him.

    The romance falls flat, and even though this is a comedy, it’s simply not funny. Not even Tracy Morgan, as Chris, could get a laugh out of me. Usually, with these little-known rom-coms, I can find something I enjoy, and, to be fair, The Clapper is no different… it has an excellent soundtrack, but thankfully you don’t need to watch it to listen to the music. This is a definite pass.

    Watched: 04/16/2020
    Notable Song: Outdoors by Rad Planet

    Rating:

  • ‘Second Act’ (2018) Review

    ‘Second Act’ (2018) Review

    Second Act Synopsis: A big box store worker reinvents her life and her life-story and shows Madison Avenue what street smarts can do.

    Second Act is being touted as Jennifer Lopez’s “return to romantic comedy,” her last venture in the rom-com genre having been the mediocre 2010 film, The Back-Up Plan. And while I can understand why the studio wants to market Second Act as a rom-com, it’s more than a little misleading.

    Yes, Second Act is a comedy, but the romance it’s touting is maybe a total of twenty-five minutes of the movie from start to finish. Essentially Second Act is meant to be a movie about female empowerment, where street smarts should mean just as much in the corporate world as book smarts do, something Lopez’s character Maya sets out to prove after she is passed over for a deserved promotion at her job of fifteen years due to her lack of a college degree.

    Her opportunity to do just that comes after her best friend’s son creates a fictional online persona where Maya has that college degree and job experience, along with some awe-inspiring achievements like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and befriending the Obamas. The falsified resume and new online identity land her in a job interview with a corporate cosmetic company, where she is hired as a consultant.

    It’s here Maya meets Zoe Clarke (Vanessa Hudgens), daughter of the CEO Anderson Clarke (played by Treat Williams), who is in charge of the beauty care line that Maya diplomatically criticizes during her interview while giving some advice on how to improve the product to consumers.

    At this point, you expect Zoe to become the typical ‘threatened female co-worker’ who plots to ruin Maya’s success as the two women are pitted against each other in a work-related competition. Thankfully Second Act avoids that particular ‘mean girl’ trope, and shifts into something of a family dramedy for the remainder of the film.

    While I thoroughly enjoyed the female-centric cast, namely Leah Remini and Annaleigh Ashford, who carry the comedic weight, I felt like the male characters fell short of feeling even remotely necessary.

    Milo Ventimiglia felt miscast as Maya’s love interest, Trey, a prop used to bookend the film for Maya to find herself, and a desire for a family (it should be okay that she doesn’t want a family, but well, you know…). Dave Foley was sorely underused, and Freddie Stroma’s Ron, a colleague of Maya’s, is essentially your typical rom-com villain who spends most of the movie working to unravel Maya’s lies and expose her, but even he fell short of adding any tension or conflict. Honestly, the movie doesn’t even need him, as Maya’s growing inner conflict is more than enough to drive the plot.

    It has a few laughs and a touching if a bit contrived, storyline about family, biological and otherwise, and Jennifer Lopez certainly won’t disappoint her fans with this performance. But while Second Act is a pleasant enough movie, it’s certainly not memorable.

    Watched: 10/14/2018
    Notable Song: Push It by Salt-N-Pepa

    Rating: