Men, Women, & Children – Rated R 119 Minutes
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS7uc8OF6Rs
Starring: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Ansel Elgort, Dean Norris, Emma Thompson, JK Simmons (sorry closed the IMDB page before I realized he wasn’t on the list)
My Rating: 6.5
IMDB Rating: 6.7
Would I watch i with my parents: Hell to the NO! Never lol.
Review
So, the funny thing is…I finally bought Boyhood today and I put in the PS3, got comfy in bed and pt it on to watch…But then….this amazing intriguing trailer came across my screen….I won’t lie…It first caught my attention because of Ansel Elgort. I’ve only seen him in The Fault in Our Stars so, I’ve been intrigued to see him in more movies; however, as the trailer continued I became more interested because 1. It’s directed by Jason Reitman (Juno) and 2. The plot line genuinely seemed good, and continued to show an awesome cast.
Alright so here’s a brief plot explanation… It kind of has the vibe of the Valentines Day movie (or New Years Eve) where it’s several different storylines with characters who are all connected, but in this movie there are not as MANY and it’s easier to follow…However, I feel like some of the story lines were pointless and if they were cut they could have focused more on the interesting ones…But, anyway….It’s basically a movie about everyone’s issues surrounding sex…. Adam Sandler plays a husband whose wife is never interested in sex anymore and he starts watching porn and then one day they both see a commercial for Ashley Madison and start to consider having affairs; while his son is getting way too into porn and has problems getting turned on by traditional sex. Then we have Judy Greer who is a mom who failed as an actress and now her daughter wants to be an actress so she takes modeling pictures of her and puts it on a website. The daughter is trying to get onto a reality show. Then there’s another girl who I guess was fat the year before, and she is anorexic skinny and dealing with her desire to eat and desire to be thin, mostly because of a crush she has on some loser jock guy who called her fat last year.
The two most fascinating storylines lay within Ansel Elgorts character, whose dad is played by Dean Norris. Basically, Ansel was a football player and he decides to quit football because he doesn’t enjoy it.His mom just ran out on them to California with some guy, and while everyone else is looking at porn or having sex, he’s just over here playing Guild Wars non stop lol. His dad is upset with his son for not playing football anymore and is concerned with his gaming…
Then you have Jennifer Gardner, who plays a mom to Ansel Elgort’s love interest in the movie. She is crazy. She has the girl on lock down. She has a tracker on her phone so she can see every step her daughter takes, she can read and delete her daughters messages from her own cell phone, and she monitors and checks everything she says or does on the internet. She can read every character her daughter types on her phone or computer. Pretty intense..
I mean yeah, without going into the details and spoiling what happens, thats about all you need to know to understand the plot.
The movie is OKAY. The trailer is better lol, but I liked it. I wouldn’t say it’s great, but it’s watchable and you’ll probably enjoy it. The beginning is confusing. It’s a narration in outerspace… honestly felt like I accidentally put on a documentary…So, don’t let that throw you off. The movie is narrated by Emma Thompson, which is kind of annoying to be honest. I also think it was unnecessary. Jennifer Gardner also portrays how i picture most modern day parents…Way too overbearing, and despite the outcome her actions cause, I don’t feel like she really learned any lesson or grew as a character. The movie ended abruptly and I would have liked to see more development.
I do like the way they used social media and the internet on the camera…It’s been done before in movies like Sex Drive but I really enjoyed the way it was done in this movie. It was very fitting and done nicely.
Ansel’s character in this movie is much more introverted and I am not sure if I enjoyed him as much as I did in the Fault in our Stars, but still likable and I can tell he’s gonna make a lot of good movies and break a lot of teenage hearts.
I wouldn’t say it was as good as Juno despite reusing cast members (Gardner, Simmons) and using a main character who looks a lot like Ellen Page, but it’s definitely up the alley of a Juno-like movie and I would enjoy seeing more Jason Reitman films.
Also, after watching it, you’ll never be able to watch All State commercials the same way ever again…
Erica Talks Movies 