So we went to the drive-in last night...

[agilebrit]

Because "District 9" (which we really wanted to see) was playing with "The Ugly Truth."

I highly, highly recommend "District 9." Seriously, I'm probably the last person on my flist to see it, but if you haven't yet, you should go. Those of you who have, we can talk about it in comments.

That was the Good.

Now, "The Ugly Truth" has Gerard Butler in it. So, no Bad there, right?

Except his character is a misogynistic frat boy who thinks with his dick. This guy has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. At least not in the first half hour of the movie, which is when we gave up and came home.

And see, this is a basic storytelling thing. If you're writing a RomCom and you want your audience to root for the leads to get together, then you need to show in the first five to seven minutes that the Misogynist Jerk actually has a Heart of Gold. There are ways of doing this. The kid we saw could have been his rather than his sister's, and he could have been left with a broken heart by a Cruel Bitch. He could have had a lover who died and so he's hardened himself so that he'll never hurt that much ever again. Etc, etc.

But you have to show us that. EARLY. Otherwise, he's just a creep, and why should we care about him? Why should we want the Hapless Heroine to get involved with someone like that? Maybe he's redeemed later, but we didn't care enough to stick around through the suck and the rampant man-hating the writers were exhibiting to find out. Good god, they even dressed him in a monkey suit. *shakes head*

The other thing I hated about this was it foments the myth that "women like jerks." No. No, we don't.

And the Hugh Jackman movie "Someone Like You" failed the other way. His character was supposed to be a jerk, everyone in the movie thought he was a jerk--but they never actually showed him being a jerk. I spent that one going "why is everyone hating on this guy, he's really pretty nice?"

Writing FAIL. If they'd tossed me a sliver of a bone, we might have stayed. I wanted to like this movie. I tried to like this movie. But the male lead sucked, and so I couldn't. "The Ugly Truth" is ugly, indeed.

Comments

[mela-lyn.livejournal.com]

Dang. I had no desire to see District 9 and really wanted to see The Ugly Truth. Ugh.

I did like Someone Like You, but you've hit on the head exactly what bothered me about it... he was flippant in his speech but he never did anything mean. But it's Hugh Jackman... I'll still watch it over and over and over again. *ebil grin*

[pensive]

You should have stuck around. Gerard's character actually had motivation for acting like a bitch-ass jerk. I have more to say about it, but NEVER GIVE UP ON GERRY. EVER.

I will OWN the Ugly Truth, dammit.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

I would watch Hugh Jackman reading the phone book.

The thing is, it would have been so easy to slide a Redeeming Quality into Butler's character. It would have taken a minute of screentime. The reason we love that guy in your icon even though he's a scary evil vampire for six seasons is because he went to the ends of the earth for his lady love. Seriously, the first time we saw him, what was he doing? Trying to make Dru well. Insta-redeeming quality.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

I'm sure some Horrible Bitch broke his heart Right in Twain, but they should have shown it earlier. Toss me a bone, dammit.

[mela-lyn.livejournal.com]

So true!! So true!!

[mela-lyn.livejournal.com]

Yeah... even if it sucks, I'll watch it all the way through. Then go home and watch 300 so I can see him mostly naked... Oh hell, so I can see him totally naked. *thinks on butt scene* :)

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

District 9 is a seriously thinky (extremely violent) movie. It was excellent and unsettling, causing you to constantly question what you could and should believe.

By the way, I agree entirely about the "women like jerks" myth. Sometimes one woman sees a nice guy where others see a jerk but we still really like nice guys.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

District 9 was about a man finding his humanity by getting turned into an alien. Which, wow. That's two indy SF movies this year that have been just excellent (the other being "Moon"). I'm pretty sure that the scene where they set the nest on fire was one of the most horrifying cinematic bits I've seen in a long time. *shivers*

[gates-end.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen any of them, but wanted to see all three. Glad to hear the first one was good. Maybe I'll just wait until they all come to cable. =)

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. The casualness of it freaked me completely out.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

They weren't just casual--they were almost gleeful. Considering how I feel about abortion anyway (and the personal reasons behind those feelings), I was completely horrified. I've still got cold shudders.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

You should see "District 9" in the theater, if possible. "Someone Like You" came out in 2001. And "The Ugly Truth" has a 14 rating at Rotten Tomatoes for a reason. Apparently Butler's character Has His Reasons for being an utter pig that come out later in the movie, but by the time he asked her, in all seriousness, how often she masturbated, we were done.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm getting cold shivers just remembering it.