Quick Review: Love and Other Drugs

As you know, I've been anticipating this movie for a while now. "Love and Other Drugs" reunites Jake Gyllenhall and Anne Hathaway, who previously played a married couple in "Brokeback Mountain." Of course, in that movie Jake's character had other, ummm, interests. Not here, though. Gyllenhaal is Jamie Randall, a salesman for the Pfizer pharmaceutical company. He's basically a horndog, and uses that to his advantage. He meets Hathaway's Maggie Murdock at a doctor's office; she's dealing with the early stages of Parkinson's disease. They have a quickie and decide to keep seeing each other. She only wants sex -- not a relationship. It develops, though, in fits and starts. It's strained because of the way she wants to deal with her illness, and also by his success once Pfizer comes up with a new drug that he gets to sell: Viagra. At times the movie wants to be seen as a commentary on the big drug companies spending (and earning) mucho dinero on drugs to help a guy stay erect while people continue to struggle with real diseases like Parkinson's. During some scenes, often when Jamie's brother (Josh Gad) is in the picture, it devolves into a more lowbrow comedy. But the real heart of the story is the chemistry between Gyllenhall and Hathaway. And unlike so many movie romances, the obstacles placed between the couple are more realistic and mature. (Even the amount of nudity in the film fits. It's not nudity for nudity's sake.)

And now I'm going to say something that I've never said before about any woman: Anne Hathaway might be the one woman on the planet who could get me to go straight for a night. It would really help if my future ex-husband Jake were also in the room, however. My grade: B-plus.

Comic Book Flashback: Brokeback Before Brokeback

A while back, during a dark week where I had no comic books to buy, I mentioned that I was considering re-reading something old and writing a "flashback" post about it. At the time I had a vague thought of writing about "The Death of Superman," since it was that trade paperback collection that got me into this little obsession of mine. I never got around to it, though. Recently, I stumbled upon the news that Marvel Comics had released the first issue of "Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven," a four-issue follow-up of sorts to the 2003 miniseries, "Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather." And the seeds for this post were planted.

Now, normally a comic book about cowboys wouldn't be something I'm interested in. In fact, the resurgence of superhero comics in the 1950s led to fewer books featuring cowboys and other non-superhero characters. Marvel's book starring the Rawhide Kid, a creation of legendary Stan Lee, held on until 1979 and the Kid was only seen in a couple of miniseries after that. But in 2003, for the "Slap Leather" mini, the Kid was given a slight character revamp: now he was gay.

And not just gay, but gay. I mean, really gay. He's well-dressed, well-spoken, sophisticated and rather flamboyant. He makes no bones about what he likes. For example, here's what he says when some kids (small-k, as in youngsters) ask him about other famous gunfighters, including the Lone Ranger:

Quick Review...Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

I had no real expectation that I'd enjoy "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time," a movie based on a video game. I admit, I only went to see it because I like Jake Gyllenhaal. Unfortunately, he spent very little time with his shirt off, and he spoke in a silly British accent (as does pretty much everyone, because we all know that back in the day everyone spoke the King's English). The story is about how Prince Dastan (my Jakey) has to keep the Dagger of Time, which has magical sand that reverses time, from falling into the wrong hands. There's more to it than that, but I don't really care. Not that it's a bad movie. It was just average at best. All I cared about was seeing Jake, though. Let's hope next time it's more like the scene below... My grade: C.