BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) THE NINES
I don’t think a lot of people saw this 2007 psychological drama. The movie was basically an hour and half long mind-fuck. It’s set up in three different parts where Reynolds plays three different roles. The movie creatively works around its own mythology of the number nine. At first you watch in amusement, then you start to pick up on things, and finally you’re just there dumbfounded. It’s a weird movie, but it’s well done and Reynolds does a great job keeping you interested throughout.
(THREE) DEFINITELY, MAYBE
Being a red blooded man I did not want to like this movie. I like Reynolds, Isla Fisher, Elizabeth Banks, and Rachel Weisz. I’m cool with Abigail Breslin because she was “Little Miss Sunshine” and Clint Mansell puts together a great soundtrack. So pretty much this movie rested on the story. And from a first look of a trailer it looks like a million other movies. Movies that I’d avoid, mock, and hate. But dammit, this movie was good stuff. It’s charming, it’s not an over the top girly rom com, and it’s an enjoyable little movie. The only thing it really had against it is that’s its named after an Oasis album.
(TWO) WAITING…
This 2005 comedy has grown into quite a cult classic. It has a great supporting cast including Anna Faris, Justin Long, Luis Guzman, David Koechner, and others but it’s the back of Ryan Reynolds that carries this movie. It’s like “Stripes”, but in food service and Ryan Reynolds is the Bill Murray of this. With each generation spawning more food service workers, this movie is always going to have a new audience and new people to relate to it.
(ONE) VAN WILDER
There have been a lot of college movies to come out in the past ten or so years. A lot of them just suck. They’re cliché and the same crap over and over again. Sadly, National Lampoon is responsible for a lot of them. They got it right a few times like with Animal House and to a lesser extent this movie. This came out in 2002, but for some reason it feels like a late 90’s movie to me. None the less, Reynolds shines here. He’s got that likeable smart ass thing going for him that Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and others had before him. It’s like the farther away I am from this movie, the more I like in retrospect. It’s not a great movie, but Ryan Reynolds makes this movie so much better than it had the right to be. He’s done so much more than this movie, but for the rest of his life there are going to be people who still call him “Van Wilder”. He has big roles coming up, but to most it’s “Hey! Van Wilder is playing Green Lantern”. That’s who he is now and forever.
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