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How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (Widescreen Edition)

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (Widescreen Edition)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best movie of 2003?
Review: This movie was a great mix of comedy, romance, and familiarity. Let's forget for a moment that I love Matthew and Kate anyway, together they were an awesome duo. It's a must see and a definite buy when it goes to DVD. Ladies, have you ever wondered what you may have done wrong in a relationship? Seeing one of those things in this movie may light up that light bulb. Guys, you can see this with a female, the comedy and some scenes keep it from going into the chick-flick category.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: "I miss you Benny-Boo-Boo-Boo!"
Review: "How to Lose A Guy in Ten Days" starts off awkwardly, unfolds dully, suddenly gets better, and then loses steam again. This is too bad, because for a while in the middle I was starting to enjoy this goofy movie. Ultimately, though, it was as my mother would say "Sha-poopy."

The likable Kate Hudson stars as Andie Anderson, a columist for a "Vogue"-type magazine who longs to write about important issues like the refugee plight in "Takijstan". Instead, she is saddled with an assigment to drive a man away in ten days by comitting all the supposedly classic mistakes woman make in relationships. You know, calling a guy fifty million times a day, telling him you love him after knowing him less than a week, etc. Matthew McConaughey is a slick ad exec named Ben who attempts to prove he can handle a big account targeted toward women by making a random woman fall in love with him, also in ten days (This part of the plot is pretty shaky, to tell you the truth). Of the millions of people in New York, guess which two hook up in a crowded bar?

Of course, none of the nutty things Andie does to Ben send him packing, so her ideas gradually become more and more outrageous. This part of the movie actually borders on being funny, as Andie humilates Ben in wilder and wilder ways; redecorating his apartment, getting him beat up, and (horrors!) dragging him to see Celine Dion. There is also a sweet scene involving Ben's parents and a rather colorful card game, but the final fifteen minutes or so return to the strained feeling of the beginning before we finally get to the end we all knew was coming.

I feel this is really more of a 2 1/2 star film, but I rounded it down because I didn't want to give it 3. If you need a point of reference, "How to Lose A Guy" is worse than "Miss Congeniality" but better than "The Wedding Planner". But then again, what isn't.
GRADE: C+

(By the way, for those who care, Kate TROUNCES "Maid in Manhattan"'s J.Lo in the Looking-Stunning-While-Wearing-A-Designer-Dress Department. Go Kate!)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Must See Comedy
Review: This movie was absolutely wonderful. Matthew and Kate's chemistry was great and the writers did a wonderful job with the story line. In addition the soundtrack was filled with fun songs, both current and old. This was not your average romantic comedy, it was absolutely wonderful and enjoyable for both men and women.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: WORKS, but never gets beyond predictability
Review: Good acting, a familiar story, and an attractive cast-all help to keep this movie afloat.
Really, the only thing to hate about this movie is its eight-word title.

Kate Hudson portrays Andie, a young woman writing 'How To' articles for a fashion magazine. Even though her dream is to do more serious work dealing with politics. A side note that does not get much play in the movie-thankfully; that would have been murder to sit through.

She is assigned to write 'How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days'. She will meet a guy, have dates with him-but do everything that supposedly makes a man lose interest. Might sound a little sexist, but at least it is better than hearing how men only want sex from their relationships.

She meets Ben, an advertising agent who really wants a diamond account. Ben makes some comment that his co-workers willingly put to the test. They give him ten days to make a woman fall in love with him.

This light-hearted comedy keeps your interest, but it never goes beyond predictability. That only hinders the movie a little.

(Rated PG-13 for sexual content and language.)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Kate Hudson's A Keeper in 'How to Lose A Guy...'
Review: Kate Hudson is great in the new romantic comedy "How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days." She plays Andie, a magazine columnist who gets assigned to write a story about the things women do sometimes that tend to drive men away. The main catch is...she only has ten days to scare the guy out of a relationship. On a search for a likeable guy whom she can use to drastically make the mistakes that will make him run towards the door, she meets Ben (Matthew McConaughey). Coincidentally, Ben has just made a bet that he can make any woman fall in love with him, in a short period of time. As fate has it, Ben and Andie meet...so let the games begin. While he's set on being the perfect guy he can be, she's set on driving him crazy with small but sometimes drastic annoyances that may do the trick. When they get personal, they find it's not work jeopardizing the true love that's hidden behind false intentions. And as the romantic comedy genre has it, one can only expect what will happen between the two, who claim to be doomed for a break-up...or not. The film is very funny and very likeable. Hudson has proved that she can be the new queen of romantic comedies, and this film will make her one. The two lead stars have great chemistry, and the overall feminine cover has a fun approach and should prove to be hilarious for anyone.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A loss
Review: Even if you've never seen a movie in your life, everything about How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days will seem familiar

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Wow, the realism of this movie....
Review: Damn, they said that life imitates art but as we discover after watching this movie, it's the other way round. This movie is just so realistic. You know, the things that took place in that movie happened to me just last week. And the names! Andie Anderson, Benjamin Barry! Highly imaginative, hugely inovative. And movies like this are rare in todays world. Such an incredible script. I'm blown away.

P.S: I'm a compulsive lier. My shrink told me I should warn you that everything I just said was a HUGE PILE OF CRAP, much like this movie. Let's all hope together that it takes less than ten days to stop having nightmares about this movie.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Shoulda, woulda, coulda -- it doesn't.
Review: "How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days" is a movie that has the classic bones of the type of bubbly romantic comedy we used to see far more of before 1970. Doris Day and Rock Hudson plus good writers could have pulled it off spectacularly. The premise is that Kate Hudson's character is assigned a magazine article for a trendy magazine, the theme being the movie's title. Matthew McConaughey is a serial bachelor determined to win a wager that he can engage in a serious relationship. Each becomes the other's prey, and what ensues is Hudson's writer pushed to more and more excessive behavior to shake the unshakable and unbelievably patient suitor.

Hudson, McConaughey and a talented supporting cast are ready and willing but their efforts are decimated by messy writing and an uneven, mean-spirited plot that never succeeds in suspending disbelief. Rather than the witty 21st century battle of the sexes that this should have been, it feels more like "Fatal Attraction" with crocheted poodle toilet paper cozies. Hudson's antics are agonizing and the scenes don't know when to end. They lack a snappy rhythm. Some lines were crossed that leave the civil world of romantic comedy behind. Sticking the guy with the pet he never ordered without knowing whether he would take responsibility contemplates animal cruelty. Dragging innocent family members into the mess does not seem particularly fair, and it is quite hard to appreciate the leads when they use someone else's special event for their own ugly climax. Their original intentions are unprincipled, using supposedly innocent strangers for personal gain, but that scruple is easily resolved by the dual agendas, so that isn't a problem. Had they been played out with genuine humor and less extreme behavior, had the infliction of cruelty been confined just to the lead characters who finally reach the big revelation that they are basically good people and meant for each other (that's not giving away the plot because it is to be assumed), had it been a genuine lesson in how women and men think about romance, then it would be the film it should have been.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I hope I can sum this movie up in less than ten
Review: (albeit funny) paragraphs. Especially if I go barely 3 stars. Three because I liked it. Especially Andie played by Kate Hudson. Cute & sexy but I didn't catch the "channeling Goldie Hawn" thing. She's funny like her mom but in a different way. Ben, played by Matthew McConaugley, kind of cruises through his role like he always does. Someday he'll get a challenging role & we'll see if he can act. Kate too. Anyway, she is playing him & he is playing her. That they even meet on a timetable is a bit improbable, but that they fall is love is of course predictable & never in doubt. I did wince at some of the stunts she pulled to repel him. Sex hovered over the relationship but never really landed. Good sex certainly wouldn't have repelled him in merely ten days. Bad sex wouldn't have made her fall in love with him in ten days, but the future posibility of good sex might. That's about it: your average, New York City romantic comedy. It' a real bargain if you've got a free rental coming.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: How to lose an audience in 10 minutes...
Review: Some people cleave to the notion that the more frequent use of hyperbole, the better case it makes for their argument. For me, it has always smacked of overstatement, but I kid you not when I saw the very face of Satan as I watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Just so no one suspects any equivocations on my part, this bottom-feeding piece of sludge deserves to grind to a halt the careers of anyone involved in the making of this movie, especially Matthew McConaughey's. Why him? Because I hated A Time to Kill and no one's yet seen fit to punish him for it - that's why.

But Tell Us How You Really Feel, Jack
Before I go in detail, I have to tell you that my friend Kay dragged me to see this movie. And ever the purveyor of bad movie choices, Kay, over the years, has tortured our circle of friends by subjecting us to such swill as Dude, Where's My Car, Tomcats, Maid in Manhattan, Joe Dirt, The Greatest Story Ever Told and anything starring Colin Firth.

But with this flick, I've officially relegated Kay to B-List status. Here's why: In one corner, there's Ben (Matthew McConaughey) an Advertising Executive who's competing for a big account with De Lauer, the most prominent diamond company in the world. To land this venture, he makes a wager with his boss that he could make any woman fall and stay in love with him for ten days. At this time, I was preoccupied with plucking a few strands of hair from Kay's head, so I really missed the connection between the wager and his acquisition of the account (like it matters anyway).

Then there's Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson), an aspiring, serious minded journalist stuck writing "How To" articles in a prominent women's magazine. Concerned with world events, politics, and the economy, Andie wants to abandon the fluff pieces for more serious fare, but she just can't catch a break. In fact she has such lofty intellectual ambitions, that the movie spends a great deal of time establishing the fact that she's an avid Knicks fan. Inspired by her friend's relationship woes, Andie comes up with the idea to write about the dating "don'ts" that women commit during courtship. Again, it's all a blur because now I was forming a makeshift Santeria altar on the empty movie seat to my left. But the basic premise is this: in order to garner notes for her article, Andie needs to date a man for ten days and do everything possible to lose him, while Ben needs to hold onto the woman he's dating for at least ten days so that the diamond account is his.

Laughing yet? Cue up the sight gags and the uninspired skits that follow. Watch Andie festoon Ben's apartment with cuddly teddy bears, stock up his medicine cabinet with feminine hygiene products and all things pink. While it's cute at first, the set up quickly becomes a stale, one-note joke. The antics just get more extreme and tiresome, and ultimately become more tortuous for Ben - not to mention the audience, too.

Kate Hudson does her best, but ultimately overdoes it in some parts. I can't say much for her shallow performance, except that she does emit occasional flashes of the comedic chops that her mother bears in spades. But Kay and I both agree that Hudson looked very fetching in that canary yellow gown during one of the final scenes. Prancing away in that shimmering yellow satin, Kay and I were both mesmerized by Hudson's bobbing buttocks, clearly sashaying with no panties we admired, albeit briefly, the beauty that was Kate Hudson in all her wagging pudendal glory.

Speaking of pudenda - ladies, hold onto your labia, Matthew McConaughey is one hell of a looker. With a bounty of thick curly hair, lantern jaw and slight southern drawl, McConaughey, as per usual, coasts by on his looks and virile charms alone. It's McConaughey playing himself - no depth and no character development revealed beyond the introduction to his wacky family three quarters into the movie. Perhaps it's unfair to blame McConaughey since the script itself is so feeble, but a smarter actor would know enough to be in on the joke.

I don't think it's giving anything away when I say that Andie and Ben eventually settle their differences and fall in love at the end - anyone with half a brain could have figured that from the commercial. Instead, the film's director, Donald Petrie, doesn't trust the audience's intelligence enough to suffuse this formulaic twaddle with any kind of meaningful characterization or subtle humor. It's the story of two careerists willing to advance themselves at the expense of the other, and no tacked on happy ending should make anyone buy this little tart spiked with malice.

In conclusion, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is a dumbed-down chick flick/date movie pieced together assembly line style just in time for the Valentine's season. Bring the popcorn and the speculum.


A notable Postscript:
Kay eventually redeemed herself by suggesting the subject title for this review. As such, I relented and decided to downgrade the spell to a toe stubbing.



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