Episode 1202: Four Films

Saw four films during this flight, all starring actors about which there have been considerable buzz in Tinseltown in recent years. Started off with The Change-Up, which was funny enough, although ultimately quite forgettable. Ryan Reynolds has never struck me as being a fantastic actor, although I think it's hilarious that his first big break was actually his TV role on Two Guys And A Girl and now he's a movie star. Jason Bateman's character was more interesting, but overall, this film felt like the sort of heartwarming narrative with a neatly packaged moral that Hollywood has churned out many times before. What's Your Number?, starring Chris Evans's six-pack opposite Anna Faris, was more entertaining, but again, pretty formulaic. The twist in the last minute of the show was the sort of thing that's bound to leave cinemagoers grinning in approval or smirking at its inanity. Now Crazy, Stupid, Love, with Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, and Emma Stone, that I enjoyed very much. Still has a clear ready-made moral in its tale, and I really think Carrell's totally being typecast, but Gosling and Stone? Love them. Loved her performance in Easy A, and she's quirkily attractive, rather than being your typical blonde beauty. As for Gosling, I now genuinely think he's one of the best actors of his generation. Never paid much attention to his work before, but he's had a string of films out in 2011, so it's been hard not to notice him now. Same goes for Olivia Wilde, appearing with Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford in Cowboys & Aliens. I think Craig's a solid actor, although I still don't buy him as James Bond, and who doesn't love Ford (even if his dating and marrying Calista Flockhart was really random)? Wilde, on the other hand, keeps getting shoved down our throats in a series of performances (Tron: Legacy, The Change-Up) where she doesn't really have to do much acting, does she? Pretty sure her role in In Time isn't that important either, since Amanda Seyfried's the female star of that vehicle. Wilde never feels like she's one of the leads, even when she must be because she shares top billing. I get that she's this luminous, big-eyed beauty. Everyone must have noticed that when she first appeared on House. Like Stone, not one cast from the usual blonde mould. Unlike Gosling though, whose performances justify being watched, Wilde just seems like she's in danger of being overexposed as a starlet, in a string of insignificant parts in blockbuster films.