CUT AND REEL: Summer Lovin’, Had Me A Blast…
A word from Cut and Reel writer and Cut and Reel: Live Action! Host, Maureen Shampine
Summer is just about gone, and with it goes the blockbuster season (that is until the Oscar push in late fall). So where has Cut and Reel been all summer—on hiatus? Well guilty as charged, but we did take in the LA Film Festival and got into the summer action (films) and now we are back, gearing up for the upcoming Oscar season with a new team of writers dedicated to help you decide whether you should call “cut” or “reel” for that insanely overpriced celluloid strip of entertainment for a Friday or Saturday night.
Also, new this season, tune into Cut and Reel Live www.isgoodradio.com on Sundays at 8pm (beginning this Sunday September 13, 2009) for the latest cuts, reels, and film forums…or download our podcasts and listen on the go!
Welcome to our new coven of writers and panel guests: Jaime Chavez, Jennifer Haren, Adriane Hoff, Ryan Lutz, and this week’s featured writer, Chris Poulos.
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Dubbed the Summer of Love by the ladies of TRAffIK (Ms. Siria Contreras, Ms. Amanda Jones [Boys of Summer], and me) this summer was rife with romance, rock n’roll, and reel fun! (more…)
CUT AND REEL: ‘The Proposal’
The Proposal by Chris Poulos
Well, first off seeing this was not my idea. I was meeting up with friends I hadn’t seen in a while (one of whom was attempting to retrieve her bike lock that I was still in possession of). The original plan was to meet at a bar for a trivia night but…there was a last minute change of plans…really?! Really.
With half an hour to think about it, and the biting urge to leave the office, I buckled and headed out to meet them at the theatre, (mind you I still had no idea what we were seeing) then I got the text:
“It’s The Proposal, 7:15.”
I don’t have a TV. I don’t watch commercials…I was clueless about what they were dragging me into. And wait–7:15? It was already 7:30 something…yeah–it’s gonna be one of those nights!
I get chick flicks: very simplistic plot with not-so-subtle innuendos, which somehow are, very often, delivered by an over-sexed, elderly woman whose job it is to wink at the protagonist female to illustrate that “Life is short and then you get old and get no lovin’.”
Well, The Proposal wasn’t very different, except that Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) gets conned into tying the knot with his boss from hell, Margaret Tate, (Sandra Bullock) whose visa is expiring and now has to forfeit her position at a New York book company. Boo hoo. (more…)
CUT AND REEL: ‘500 Days (of Summer)’
Every now and then a summer romance comedy/drama comes along that makes you forget why you hated them in the first place—500 Days of Summer is one such remarkable film.
From its clever opening and ominous, narrative exposition, the viewer is enchanted and enamored by the story’s two irresistibly adorable main characters, Tom Hansen and Summer Finn–enlivened by inspired performances by Joseph Gordon—Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. (more…)