The Rom Com Catalog

Tag: Mike Myers

  • ‘View from the Top’ (2003) Review

    ‘View from the Top’ (2003) Review

    After being dumped by her boyfriend on her birthday, Donna decides to ditch her small Nevada town and become a flight attendant in California. She learns the ropes while working for a small commuter airline, but has bigger dreams.

    I remember exactly one part of this movie – Mike Myers in the trailer telling Christina Applegate that she put the wrong emPHASIS on the wrong syllABLE. It’s probably the funniest part of the trailer – and the funniest part of View from the Top as a whole.

    Gwyneth Paltrow is horribly miscast as the sugary sweet Donna Jensen. I’m not sure what it is about her, but her performance comes across as more like a naive child than anything else, and it’s a bit creepy.

    She’s also not terribly gifted in comedy, so the movie is already off to a pretty rocky start. After the movie, I was convinced that View from the Top might have been more successful had Applegate played Donna and Paltrow played Christine, Donna’s co-worker and frenemy.

    The rest of the cast is excellent, but wasted on a flimsy script. There’s just not enough going on to make it a worthwhile watch. The silly shenanigans aren’t silly-funny; they’re just… silly. Donna’s romance with Ted (Mark Ruffalo) is promising, but it takes a backseat to the silliness.

    Maybe leaning into the romance more would have salvaged the movie and given it more of a purpose. There was just an unevenness to the whole thing, and I wonder if director Bruno Barreto even knew what kind of movie he wanted View from the Top to be.

    I just wasn’t a fan. Mike Myers was probably the bright spot in this movie, though they went all in on the joke that his character was cross-eyed. It’s not as funny as I think they hoped it would be. View from the Top is a bunch of meh blandness, completely forgettable, and a waste of a highly talented cast.

    Watched: 03/01/2023
    Notable Song: Time After Time by Katie Cook

    Rating:

  • ‘So I Married an Axe Murderer’ (1993) Review

    ‘So I Married an Axe Murderer’ (1993) Review

    So I Married an Axe Murderer Synopsis: A San Francisco poet who fears commitment suspects his girlfriend may have a knack for killing off her significant others.

    ommitment-phobic Charlie finds himself smitten when he meets a pretty butcher named Harriet. After he steps in to help her during a busy shift, the two begin to date. Their relationship deepens, but Harriet remains something of a mystery.

    She doesn’t talk about her past much, and she has terrifying night terrors. After discovering a few details of her past, Charlie becomes convinced that Harriet is actually Mrs. X, a woman who murders her husbands on their honeymoon with an axe.

    So I Married an Axe Murderer is a movie I always watched when I was younger. Obviously, I liked it! Watching again for this review, I anticipated every silly joke, so apparently, my memory isn’t as bad as I thought it was.

    Mike Myers and Nancy Travis together are cute enough to have you rooting for their relationship, even though it’s possible Harriet is an axe murderer. Charlie can be quite a dumbass, but Myers softens his buffoonery enough that he’s more lovable than obnoxious. Harriet remains an enigma, but that’s necessary to keep the audience guessing her true motives regarding Charlie.

    So I Married an Axe Murderer has a very strong supporting cast with Alan Arkin, Brenda Fricker, and Anthony LaPaglia, not to mention several fun cameos from various comedians. And, of course, Mike Myers in a dual role playing Charlie’s father, Stuart. The definite highlights of the movie are whenever Charlie’s family is on screen… well, Charlie’s family or Alan Arkin attempting to play a badass superior to Anthony LaPaglia’s somewhat incompetent cop. It’s comedy gold right there.

    I would say the downside of So I Married an Axe Murder is that the buildup to the climax drags a bit, and the movie feels like filler more than anything else. Like when studios take a short story and try to stretch it to fit a 90-minute feature film. Sometimes it just doesn’t work. The script felt a little disjointed to me as well, like it was a couple of different movies mushed together to create something coherent. Harriet and Charlie are, once again, very cute together, but unfortunately, there’s not enough chemistry between them to carry the movie solidly into the third act.

    Despite the flaws, I still found So I Married an Axe Murderer pretty funny and enjoyed myself watching it, so I’ll recommend it. If you get bored, at least you can close your eyes and pretend Shrek is Charlie’s father.

    Watched: 08/23/2022
    Notable Song: There She Goes by The Boo Radley

    Rating: