Down with Love (Widescreen Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Up with "Down With Love"
Review: This movie is totally adorable! It is one of my favorite peices
of fluff in my massive collection of romantic comedies. It stars
beautiful Renee Zellweger. It also stars Ewan McGregor and Sarah
Paulson. It's set in the early 60's. It's about a feminest author
from Maine who moved to New York and wrote a book called "Down
With Love", it's a help guide for women in a bad relationship.
Her genius friend Vicki (Paulson) gets Judy Garland to sing
about the book on the Ed Sullivan show, that gets women all over
the world getting back at their man and getting the book. Star
bachelor journalist Catcher Block (McGregor) is very furious with
her, all of his hot girlfriends are dumping him because he
"changes women as much as he changes his shirts", so he's screwed
not the way he wished he was though. So, he puts on glasses and
a fake southern accent and falls in love with Barbara. It has
a supprising ending and it is thrououhtly charming. It has ...
funny jokes and is very funny and clever. Buy it today

Parent's Advice
It has brief sexual jokes, but it is appropiote for kids 10 and
up.

Rating:
Summary: Why Did I Watch This Film??
Review: Why did I watch this film? Well, I really like old Rock Hudson-Doris Day films. I do watch them in a different light now than I did 40+ years ago - thank God! But that was then. And "Down With Love" is now...and it's a clever parody of every film Doris and Rock ever made, including the best/worst of: split screen telephone conversations in suggestive positions; hackneyed sexual innuendoes; casual chauvinistic male behavior; corny seduction lines; and diverse bachelor pads filled with gadgets geared to seduce women. It is mind-boggling how much time and energy used to be expended for the purpose of seduction. And for those who are clothes conscious, there are more wardrobe changes for Renee Zellweger than Doris Day had in all her films put together - and the costume design is fabulous! Ms. Zellweger's clothes are sometimes funnier than her lines! (Funny in a nostalgic, retro way).

All right - I watched this film because I loved Ms. Zellweger in "Chicago" and Ewan McGregor was fabulous in "Moulin Rouge." They're good here also...but nowhere near as good. It's the material not the actors! And there was a blizzard in the Northeast, I was snowed-in and there was nothing else to watch. That's the truth. So I will recommend "Down With Love" with some qualifications.

Be advised that the film is super light entertainment, er, fluff. It is not biting satire nor is it truly witty, although I had some really good silly laughs. The movie cleverly parodies a film genre with a bit of French farce thrown in. It does get old. There's a nice twist at the end to snap things up, but I did keep asking myself, until the very end, why don't I just rent "Pillow Talk?" After the very last scene was completed, "The End" appeared on the screen, the credits came up...and I realized that the best part had yet to come. Good thing I left my DVD player on! While the credits run, Ms. Zellweger and Mr. McGregor do a song and dance routine that is spectacular! The talent that I loved from Chicago and Moulin Rouge combine and it is worth every minute of watching what came before. So, if you are rained or snowed-in and feel like a few laughs and some light entertainment, go for it! The last scene is really terrific and the rest isn't too bad!
JANA

Rating:
Summary: 60's romantic comedy with a 21st century polish.
Review: Down with love takes a script that spoofs the romantic comedies from the 50's and 60's and adds a 21st century flair. Renee and Ewan did a fine job, the sets and costumes were groovy and the 60's cool/spy jazz soundtrack was great. The film does use a lot of sexual innuendo, which I happened to enjoy, but may not be for everyone. I thought the twists at the end were a little too drawn out (and over-explained). The film also lacked something I couldn't quite put my finger on ... after a few days I still haven't figured out what could have put in on par with those Hepburn/Peck and Day/Hudson films ... maybe just the fact that it's not an old film and the dialogue is more on the witty than it is charming.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't bear to watch to the end
Review: For the first time ever, I had to let my wife finish watching a movie without me. Spending half an hour on the treadmill was a much better use of my time than sitting thru any more of the dreck that is Down With Love. Every cliche and genre staple is included but it's just thrown into the mix without much foresight and the result is a muddled and unengaging mess. I'm a huge fan of romantic comedy but I was unable to find more than an occasional moment that wasn't almost painful to watch.

True, it has style and flair, but what little substance it could have had just doesn't come together and instead there are just a series of very self-conscious and isolated events. The clothes and sets recreated the era but the attitudes of the characters is so far from any reality that it's bizarre. The plot twist towards the end is far too contrived to redeem this film and it's actually by far the silliest bit of celluloid I've ever seen.

I did try very hard, even pausing the show to watch something else, hoping the problem was that I wasn't in the right mood for so much froth. As much as I like the two leads it was just too contrived and pretentious to even sit thru. I kept hoping I would start to enjoy it, especially given the good reviews I'd read, but this was just a little too intentionally oddball to work for me.

Rating:
Summary: I wanted to like it.
Review: I loved the old 50s movies with Rock Hudson and Doris Day. I used to watch the with my Mom growing up but I never felt the movie was charming enough and the characters were quite annoying.
There's nothing wrong with lite mindless movies occasionally but this just didn't really have anything new to say. It was like a Mad TV sketch that went on for too long.
I dont know , maybe things are just so different now a days that it is hard to go back and see a movie that really has any significance now in the 21st Century.

Rating:
Summary: Two Thumbs Down With Love
Review: This was like a Mel Brooks film combined with an opera by Wagner, too cliche with no end in sight. Higly satirical, it covered every stereotype of the 60's and added in a sexual inuendo in every possible place. Hugely distateful and beneath the talens of renee Zellwegar and Ewan McGregor, I have to wonder if they even read the scripts before signing or were just dazzled by the clever wardrobes. If you don't feel like sitting through borderline one-liners and symbolism too obvious to be symbolic, don't buy or rent this movie!

Rating:
Summary: Divine in Every Detail
Review: The people who will get the most satisfaction out of this delicious movie are the lucky ones who already know its pedigree (Austin Powers fans will know what I mean). Catching references to Pillow Talk, Auntie Mame, Sex and The Single Girl and countless others are a good deal of the fun, but there's room for beginners too, since they can covet the clothes, the sets and the snappy, innuendo-laced dialogue as well as the rest of us. Every detail from the men's stylishly pink shirts and masculine decor to the girl's precariously thin stiletto heels and lushly false lashes is divinely recreated, and the set designers should be worshipped as Gods. The acting and script are both light, breezy and charming, and Tony Randall's appearance is the big, sweet cherry on top of this cinematic confection. This, my friends, is 90 minutes of playful, sexy fun.

Chocolate, anyone?

Rating:
Summary: I had a "love"ly time.
Review: "Down with love" is an homage to the Doris Day/Rock Hudson type sex comedies of the sixties. It kinda reminded me of "Legally Blonde". Renee Zellweger does a good job as Barbara Novak a writer/feminist who seeks to empower women by inspiring them to become more than housewives, to seek out job opportunities and to enjoy sex "a la carte" by separating sex from feelings of love. The terrific Ewan McGregor is Catcher Block :ladies man, mans man and man about town. After crossing each others paths the two engage in a battle of one upmanship trying to outmanuver each other.The plot is pretty flimsy but the movies style and flair hold it together. EP

Rating:
Summary: A Delightful Film
Review: It was a boring evening, and I was in the mood for a light comedy or something entertaining. I didn't expect much when the movie began, but received a lot of pleasure from this film. To me it worked on every level. I also loved the singing that McGregor and Zellweger did in the film, as it added another dimension to the film for me. Renee Zellweger was perfect as the Hollywood style early sixties woman, and Ewan McGregor convinced me as the playboy. He's a real nice looking guy.

Rating:
Summary: Down with "Down with Love"
Review: The people who did Down with Love's music, sets, and costumes deserve an Oscar. The actors, directors, producers, and screenwriters deserve to be shot. This movie has absolutely no charm, and works 'way too hard to achieve silly, vulgar one-liners. If you want to see Renee Zellwegger in something worth watching, try Chicago, or Bridget Jones' Diary. I can't figure out why Tony Randall would be in this, except for the money.