Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in "The Proposal"
Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) works for Golden Book as the chief editor. When she finds out that she is being deported back to Canada, she forces her assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her. An immigration officer is suspicious of their marriage and warns them on conducting a fraud.
As Andrew accepts Margaret’s idea of marriage and a quicky divorce to follow, he makes her to promote him to the position of editor and have his manuscript be published.
They spend their weekends in Andrew’s hometown, Sitka, Alaska to celebrate the 90th birthday of Andrew’s grandmother Gammy (Betty White). Andrew announces his plan to marry Margaret in front of many friends and family members, everyone rejoices except Andrew’s father and ex-girlfriend Gertrude (Malin Akerman).
Andrew’s mother and grandmother insist to have Margaret and Andrew marry in the barn at their house in conjunction with Gammy’s birthday.
As Margaret is overwhelmed by the reception she receives from Andrew’s family, she decides to tell Andrew’s family about the truth and walk off from the wedding. Gammy fakes a heart attack in order to get Andrew to the airport. However, when Andrew reaches the airport, Margaret’s plane has already departed. Margaret has 24 hours to leave The United States of America as soon as she lands in New York. Andrew finds Margaret packing in her office and announces his love for Margaret in front of the entire office.
Overall, the movie is surprisingly entertaining with numerous satirical jokes. The chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock is amazingly matching despite their age gap and position level in the film. While Ryan Reynolds is well-known for his sarcastic jokes, Sandra Bullock who is also the executive producer of the film, manages to pull this off as an attractive but arrogant boss that everybody hates.
Couples Retreat is a comedy centered around four couples who settle into a tropical-island resort for a vacation. While one of the couples is there to work on the marriage, the others fail to realize that participation in the resort’s therapy sessions is not optional. Starring Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Jon Favreau, Malin Akerman, Kristin Davis, Kristen Bell, Faizon Love, Kali Hawk and Jean Reno, Couples Retreat opens on October 9, 2009.
Set in 1985, the tensions between the United States of America and Soviet Union are incredibly high with the threat of an atomic bomb from the Soviet. When Edward Blake (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), also known as The Comedian is killed, former superhero, Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) investigates the murder to uncover a plot of an intent to dispose the past and present vigilantes. Along the way, Rorschach reunites with Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson), Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) and Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup).
When these vigilantes attempt to unmask the conspiracy, they only end up in unwanted situation. Dr. Manhattan, a superhero who works for the U.S. government, is made to believe he is the cause of cancer to his former colleagues and ex-girlfriend, which lead him into hiding out in Mars, leaving U.S.’s soil in a great danger as he’s the only one who has the power to stop a possible World War III. Rorschach is set up to look like he has killed Edgar Jacobi (Matt Frewer) or known as Moloch to the vigilantes and is put in the same jail as 50 other criminals which he is responsible for.
Nite Owl II a.k.a. Daniel and Silk Spectre II a.k.a. Laurie decide to go public and help to save people. After saving a group of people from fire, Daniel suggests to Laurie to save Rorschach from the prison.
When they realize that Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode) is the man behind all the conspiracy, they fly to the Antarctica to arrest Adrian. However, it is too late as Adrian has already activated his time-bomb which wipe out the people in major cities of the world.
The movie is not only rich with visual graphic and sound effects, it is one of the best adapted movies based on comic book. I am also amazed at how the director managed to bring not just one character but so many characters to life.
Overall, even though the movie is dark and complicated, the script for the film is well-written and throughout the entire movie, there are numerous flashback scenes which connect the past with the future. This could as well be the best superhero flick for 2009.
Watchmen is an adaption of the comic book series Watchmen, directed by 300 director Zack Snyder. Are we all glad 2009 will have more great films from the comic book? Watchmen will be released on March 6, 2009.
