Love & Other Drugs

Love ain’t it grand? You meet someone, they catch your eye, and turn your world upside down. You just can not get them out of your head forcing you to take a chance on an individual that you may not have taken a chance on in the first place because they captivated your imagination.  For many of us this is the most elusive of all things in finding someone who we can love unconditionally without reservations, and by some miracle they actually love you right back with the same zest for you that you have for them. And that quest or search if you will for the one person with whom you can love and love unconditionally has led us all down sorted different paths with great triumph and at times tragedity yet we still pursue love hoping for the best every step of the way. In the film “Love & Other Drugs” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway we find a brilliantly talented yet underachieving Jamie Harper wasting away selling electronics, partying, and picking up chicks. Your archetypical slacker ladiesman, charming, smart, and underachieving with just enough charisma to fool women into giving a relationship with him a shot. Maybe they think they can “fix him” maybe they think he’ll stick around and not just use and abuse them but they’re wrong.  Then you have his quirky love interest in struggling artist Maggie Murdock, the troubled young twenty soomething suffering from Parkinson’s disease who can barely get by on a day to day basis. Her relationship problem is her outright refusal to commit so that no one will be attached to her or know the most intimate details of her disease. So the moment that they meet each other there is a spark, but she refuses to act on it and like the smooth playboy unuse to rejection Jamie doggedly pursues Maggie until she gives into him.

I found this movie very interesting in the contrasts of characters between the very sauve and debboaire Jamie, and the brilliant and unsteady Maggie.  It was almost as if  they were each others mirrors into the others souls. Maggie’s unchalance more of a front and Jamie’s noncomittal a defense mechanism inwhich they both could just coast through life a shell of themselves, not achieving that which is their best in life but getting by. Maggie a talented painter toils away at a coffee shop going through the motions whilst the smart yet uninspired Jamie goes from odd job to odd job skating through life and BAM they shine a light on the areas they are lacking in. The noncomittal Jamie must committ and the nonconfrontational Maggie must confront that which truly holds her back. As they do this throughout the film they continue to grow together as individuals and it does make you want to pull for them as they chug along in their journey. Finding those people in your life no matter if they’re your significant other or a dear friend who always seem to have that effect on you that they deeply move you and make you improve or change your ways are rare to find. When you find them you hold onto it and you fight for the relationship no matter what, and seeing Jamie fight throughout the film for Maggie, for them, and for his own soul in a sense kept me interested.

We all strive to get the approval for others in everything that we do because we want the status that comes with it. We want them to say “job well done” and tell us that we’ve finally “made it” even when we kill ourselves in the process. This rings true with Jamie constantly wanting the approval of his parents and to be pleasing to them. For many of us, this is the same as we strive to achieve greater, and greater things not so much as to do them for ourselves or to help others but only to get the approval of others we can never seem to please. As time goes on we see a change in Jaime and I would say that I enjoy the film and watching his journey evolve.

One Year in Movies

Wow, it’s been an entire year since I touched this bad boy. A very eventful year in movie going and working towards movie making. I have to admit I hit a screenwriting skid this year and doubted myself to the point that I stopped writing consistently for several months. It was the most agonizing few months of my life because movies and writing them are my life. Without them I would truly not be who I am and for so long I just couldn’t sitdown and finish what I started listening to individuals who did not have my best interests in mind and who were not looking out for my own good as a writer. I’m back in the saddle now and after wasting 2010 I’m going to make the most of 2011.

As for movies: I have to say that I finally saw Crazy Heart, Moon, Precious, The Proposal, Away We Go,The Blindside, and Hurt Locker and those films were easily into my top 10-15 for 2009(The Blindside ,The Proposal just misses the cut at 16, 20 respectively). 

If I could do a recount it would be:

1. District 9
2. 500 Days of Summer
3. Hurt Locker
4. Taken
5. Precious
6. Moon
7.Up
8. Away We Go
9. Duplicity
10. Crazy Heart
11.  Star Trek 
12.The Hangover
13. I love You Man
14. Julia & Julia
15. Revolutionary Road

I thought 2009 was an underrated year for movies to be honest. Too many people got hung up on the likes of Transformers 2, and how “hollywood’s Lost it” with commercialism and not celebrating the gems.

So, 2010 has been interesting to say the least with my movie going. I fell in love with Kristen Bell thanks to When in Rome and You Again. I don’t care what anyone says but this sassy lil’ blonde has a sharp tongue and loads of charm.

I want to see MORE Russell Brand, Get Him To The Greek should garner him a comedic nod at the Golden Globes. I know if I was voting it damn well should.

Inception is my movie of the year. I don’t care what the Nolan haters say! I love this movie.  Something like dreams drive us, and i felt that Leo put in one of his best performances with his turn in this film. And having to come to grips with the harsh realities of our lives. Dreams show us so much. I felt Nolan nailed this as well as the visually stunning and mind bending twists.

Also, I love Julia Roberts, I loved Eat Pray Love, and I “got” it. Some cynical people will say meh some well to do reporter has “mid-life crisis” but think for one second. We all have crisis and want to run away from what matters the most and close ourselves off. This movie to me nailed the simplicity of the fact that all people have that common ground. And Julia and Javir Bardem make a cute pair but not as cute as Jules and Clive Owen. My god what a dreamy onscreen pair, if you haven’t please see Duplicity and Closer.

I want you all to stay tuned because I will be doing a full review of The Kids Are Alright, and Inception from the 2010 Summer Oscar fodder. After dvd viewings.

So stay tuned.  Best of 2010 list is forthcoming as well. Johnny at the movies is back baby. 🙂

Till Beth Do Us Part!

Til Beth Do Us Part
by
Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg

Genre: Comedy
Premise: When Hopeless bachelor Andy finally finds the love of his life in Beth Fischer after a whirlwind romance they get engaged. His Angry best friend Gavin sets out to ruin their relationship so they will break up and he’ll get his best friend back.

From the beginning this movie sets a tone and sticks with it. Andy and Gavin are complete losers, Andy is the unsure nice guy, and Gavin is the crass best buddy who mooches off Andy.  The opening scene is laugh out loud funny where they are excited about getting two extremely hot women in their apartment. They go to get these girls drinks and have a sidebar. They both bicker over if these girls are going to want anything to do with them Gavin is convinced that these women are going to have sex with them, Andy is hoping that he can land a long lasting relationship with Paula, while it’s obvious Gavin wants to bang Stacy. So after Gavin wears down Andy they both go out there with the drinks and sit down to enjoy the evening. While setting the mood for a good time Andy goes to put it on the hip-hop channel on Direct TV. They come across Pretty Women while surfing the channel and the girls MUST watch this movie. Gavin agonised over it. Andy insists. He caves. They flirt with the girls and joke around with “what this night is going to cost them”, and they start kissing them. The girls back off and get upset when the boys don’t pay up. That’s right these ladies are high class hookers. They’ve been playing these two from the get go and now they want the money for the evening to progress to where Gavin had hoped it would going “Balls deep inside these ladies”.  The boys flip out. Insults fly, an argument breaks out and these girls call them both losers. One pulls a switch blade on them. Andy accuses them of stealing his iPod. It gets out of hand they storm out and knock over a lamp. Both the boys are dejected. They perk up at the thought of iHop and they’re off.

For me, this is the perfect way to show us that these guys are losers when it comes to women because they end up irritating and running off hookers. And that Andy was actually starting to fall for the hooker. It is without a doubt something that I can envision happening that you’re so hard up you’d actually be blind not to see what’s going on.

Once at IHOP our heros make a pact that they will live the bachelor life forever. That everything will be just Gavin and Andy forever, and they’ll screw as many hot chicks as they want and live the good life.  They even toast to this.

The next time, Jose Reyes’ birthday party at the posh exclusive club “Les Crux” where there’s a swimming pool in the middle of the place. They go, and drag along Andy’s loser friend Pat who thinks he’s a player and dresses like Mystery from VH1’s “The Pick Up Artist”. He’s a complete tool and even Gavin can’t stand him.

This shows how much Gavin is a one friend guy. That he does not want to go out with Pat who is just like him and Andy in that he’s a huge dork. Except that he’s not willing to hang out with him constantly calling him “Andy’s friend” and Pat tries so hard to prove himself to Gavin failing miserably. Planting the seeds of Gavin’s clinginess.

The boys hit the club. It’s filled with beautiful people. Wall to wall hotties. Pat goes out on the dance floor and Andy and Gavin ditch him. Pat makes a fool of himself while Andy and Gavin watch with horror from a distance glad they didn’t tag along. Gavin spots Beth, she’s a perfect hottie, he points her out to Andy, he tells Andy to go talk to her. She hits him in the crotch with a Nerf football. He makes a joke, she laughs   too hard, she’s into Andy. Gavin urges him to get into the pool. Andy debates. he doesn’t have swim trunks. He goes in his boxers after losing this debate with Gavin. He comes out of the locker room she’s gone and Andy is dejected. Beth shows up again and his alerts him that his penis is sticking out of his boxers. He tucks it away, they joke around, and hug. Because after she’s already seen his “little soldier” there’s no use in shaking hands. She’s into him. They agree to hang out.

Gavin is stuck with Pat who infuriates a bunch of black guys after hitting on one of the dudes girlfriend who is also black, and then uses the word “niggardly” to describe being cheap to compound the issue. They have to run. Andy’s saved from the mess as Gavin tells him to go with Beth. They hit it off. They start dating.

This is the turning point. As Gavin has to put up with Beth being around for a year as we jump forward into the script where Beth’s spending the night and calling him Snuggle Baby, and having them be the almost married couple at this point. This sickens him. Absolutely sickens him to no end.

He’s losing Andy to this girl and he doesn’t like it. Andy and Beth are celebrating their one year anniversary and Beth makes Andy “The Best Cupcakes ever” and then he proposes to her.  He tells Gavin this and Gavin gets more and more upset over it but feigns happiness for his best friend. Gavin realizes that Andy’s breaking their bachelors and best buds forever pact. Things are changing and Gavin doesn’t like it one bit.  He is the best man on the bright side.

As the relationship progresses Andy draws farther and farther away from Gavin, and Gavin’s rudeness comes out more and more. Gavin hates that he’s losing Andy and the more he clings to his friend the further he distances himself away from Gavin. Every attempt for Gavin to “hang out” with Andy is thwarted because Andy and Beth have so much to do in planning the wedding.

This is where Gavin becomes desperate. And I know what it is like to feel as if you’ve lost or are losing your best friend because I’ve been there before. It’s not a pretty place and perception can become reality. Instead of just asking Beth if he could spend some time with his best friend Andy goes with the flow. This forces Gavin to act out of frustration and puts Andy on the defensive wanting to please but his friend and his lover.

It can not end well.  It does not. After Andy’s sick and twisted Uncle Sid laments losing Andy’s father Mr. Goldman to his wife and their friendship ending. Missing the “good ole’ days” and that life’s over after you get married at the Engagement Party. This lights a fire under Gavin.

In hopes of hooking Gavin up with one of Beth’s friends so that they can spend more time together Andy sets up a double date that becomes a triple date. Gavin hates his date, and makes her life miserable, he even rants against marriage with infuriates both Beth, and her engaged friend Zoey. While leaving doubts in Andy and Zoey’s fiancee’ Eddie’s minds.

Mission Accomplished! Planting the seeds of Andy breaking up with Beth so he can save the day.

Gavin takes Andy Paintballing when Andy should be with Beth at the Wedding Fair. Andy’s shot in the face without protective gear and is hurt badly. Gavin tags along to the fair and beats up a Madonna Drag Queen Tranny who kisses him while the he/she is performing a song.

Everyone’s horrified. Gavin’s plans look to be backfiring.

During Andy’s bachelor party, Gavin pays two strippers to sleep with Andy and give him his “ultimate fantasy” of a threesome. This backfires, Andy finds out, and rejects the girls. He really loves Beth. Things blow up between Gavin and Andy they break up their friendship.

So Gavin’s plans have full backfired. He’s uninvited to the wedding and he’s lost his best friend in the process. His worst fears have become a reality and it’s his own doing. He’s sad and for good reason he has screwed himself out of a best friend.

Andy prepares for the wedding half heartedly without his best friend.

Gavin’s life spirals out of control.

These are all what you would call cliche’ but with the twists and the different plays off the age old story of one best friend growing up and the other struggling to grow up. It has a nice ring to it. It’s funny, laugh out loud funny and I like that there is a contrast as Andy has to get a back bone and stand up for himself. While Gavin has to learn that he can not depend on everyone to do everything for him, and to hold his hand and walk him through life.

Andy sticks up for himself and for Beth.

Gavin learns that he can’t continue to act this way by getting rejected by his best friend.

The wedding goes down and Gavin refuses to miss it. Pours his heart out to Beth and he is there for the wedding as the best man.

What I really liked about this script. Is that it shows a friendship, a true friendship, and bond between Andy and Gavin, and also that it is flawed. Even though there are healthy friend moments going on that it is  unhealthy for Gavin to depend solely on Andy, and Andy to depend on Gavin.

I could not stop laughing throughout the script. Gavin is a real fire starter so to speak. When he hits the scene there is going to be some kind of shenanigans and you can not wait to see what happens good or bad. He speaks his mind and doesn’t hold back.

This is an R-Rated comedy for sure. It has some dark moments that are hilariously funny. I would say check out the script. It is worth the read.

http://www.mediafire.com/?v0znnz9wm9n

My rating:
[]Hated it
[]Tolerated it
[]Liked it
[x]Loved it

Current Screenwriting Projects

These are the three projects that I am  currently working on right now  getting them ready for submissions to both contests and talent agencies in 2010.

“Schoolyard Bullies”

Genre: Comedy

Premise: Two overprotective parents become masked vigilantes to save their two high school teenagers from being bullied.  

Synopsis: Jacob and Chanda on the surface are your typical middle class couple with two teenage kids living a typical middle class life as school teachers at the local high school. Beneath it all they’re masked vigilantes, superheroes for the geeks and nerds taking out their bullies and tormentors for a fee after both of their twins Mike and Trixie get initiated into high school by being bullied by the popular couple and star football player and head cheerleader Quincy, and Bella. All hell breaks loose when Mike and Chanda break their pact with their children not to get involved into their social lives and they begin to exact revenge with extreme prejudice and excessive force against all bullies.

“Vamoose”

Genre: Romantic Dramedy

Premise: A grieving young hispanic woman goes on the run to escape reality after the sudden death of her beloved father leaving family, friends, and loved ones behind until she meets a handsome widower who turns her world upside down.

Synopsis: Alexis Espenoza has it all a good life, great family, budding career in journalism, and a handsome and ambitious fiancee’. Nothing can go wrong or so she thinks until her wealthy father Manny dies suddenly sending her family into limbo and a great deal of grief. Unable to handle the pressure of life without her father Alexis goes on the run becoming a career vacationer going from one vacation to another to escape the great pain and responsibility in her life if she stays put. She breaks off her marriage, abandons her family, and lives a life care free with no attachments until she meets a struggling widower and single father Franky. Who displays a great deal of the strong character and morals her beloved father represented and after falling in love with him she continues to run until she can not run anymore when Franky runs her down.

“Chubby Chasers”

Genre: Romantic Comedy/Mockumentry

Premise: Overweight Super Comedian Melvin Franklin gets his own celebreality dating show to see if he can find true love. The only catch is that his most hated rival model/actor Landon Max is cast as his wingman.

Synopsis: Melvin Franklin has it all, fame, fortune, friends, you name it but what he doesn’t have is love. A hopeless romantic the overweight stand-up comedian and actor longs to find true love. When three young ambition television producers approach Melvin with a chance to find the love of his life on a reality tv show with only the hottest women he bites. Un aware of the catch that Landon Max will be the man helping him cut down the field until he finds his dream girl. These producers also tell Landon that he will be the star of the show so that he agrees not telling him his true role until they begin shooting the show. Once Landon finds out he will have to help Melvin his hatred for the comedian clouds his vision turning this into a competition to see if the dream girl chooses true love with the overweight funny man or superficial bliss with the chiselled ladies man.

My Current 2009 Movie Rankings

Fall is officially here and I’m bummed out that I’ve not been able to hit the theaters and catch any new movies. But Luckily enough Winter, Spring, and Summer of 2009 I saw more than my fair share of movies. So I’m going to go ahead and rank the ones that I’ve seen this year from best to worst.

1. District 9
2. 500 Days of Summer
3. Taken
4. Star Trek
5. Up
6. The Hangover
7.Duplicity
8. I Love You Man
9. Julie & Julia
10. Funny People
11. Revolutionary Road(released wide in January 2009)
13.Drag Me to Hell
14. The Watchmen
15. Confessions of a Shopaholic
16. Bride Wars
17. Obsessed
18. Wolverine
19. Transformers II: Rise of the Fallen
20. Next Day Air
21. Madea Goes to Jail

There are a few movies that I haven’t seen that I would like to see like The Proposal, The Hurt Locker, and Moon that are going to be out on DVD soon. So my rankings by the end of the year will expand and shift but off the 20 new releases I’ve seen this years these are the best from top to bottom these are the best to worst.

Why I love my top 5?

1. District 9:
I love this movie because it forces you to think for yourself and come to your own conclusions. It forces you to look at humanity as a whole and how we treat others who are different from us, or act differently from us. The sharp, biting parallyl of the Aparthid in South African with the Aliens and the ongoing butchering warfare with the Nigerians placing the stranded aliens in the shanty town shakes and herding them like cattle. Just like the conditions in South Africa during the aparthid and alot of refugee camps all over Africa today.

The Main character Wickus is non-symphatic. As a matter of fact he’s the bad guy, and he’s forced to selfishly helpout the aliens he so gladly and gleafully oppresses. The growing trust in the aliens and him going out of his way to help them not only because it’s the right thing to do but first because he had something to gain and how as he changed into one of them he was forced to endure the same hardship, persecution, and hatred they had to endure pushed this movie over the edge for me.

This was great movie experience. Alot of culture, great science fiction elements, and high drama. When this comes out on DVD if you did not catch this in the theaters please go check it out. By far the best film I’ve seen all year.

2. 500 Days of Summer:
Summer Fynn does not believe in love, Tom Hanson does. And once they meet sparks fly, they hit it off, and begin a wild up and down love affair that takes place over the course of about a year and a half. Summer is every modern man’s supposed dream girl, the girl who is not into committment, and just wants to have fun and enjoy the moment. While Tom is a nice guy, who believes that once he finds “the one” he’ll be blissfully chillin’ in paradise with his main squeeze. This has everything that your typical Romantic Comedy  has in the difficult woman who the sappy down on his luck nice guy falls for and eventually gets. What I love about this movie is that it doesn’t go down this route and sets up and then defies all your cliche’ Romantic Comedy conventions.

As time goes on Tom agonizes over Summer’s Aloof, flighty attitude about the relationship wanting to enjoy all the benefits of exclusivity without being exclusive. Everythings begins to come together as things unravel and the story unfolds in a unique non-linear beginning to end way. As it jumps from different day to different day in a non-sequentical way. All woven together masterfully telling the story of Tom’s undying love and Devotion of Summer and her constant waffling.

This is a dramatic comedy. As it explores the dynamics of a uneven relationship in a realistic and funny way. It has very subtle comedy that is more hit than miss and the ending of the movie is both heart breaking and uplifting. I recommend renting this one when it becomes available on DVD as well as this is without a doubt one the years best films. Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are a perfect match and display great off beat chemistry in this refreshing film that realistically depicts the breakdown of a given love story.

3. Taken:

Bryan is an ex-CIA agent. He’s a divorcee who loves his daughter and hates being marginalized by his ex-wife, and her uber rich new Husband. He buys his daughter a Karaoke Machine because she’s an aspiring singer, the step dad buys her a horse. He can’t compete? He okays a trip to Europe with his daughters best friend. They land, they are targetted by illegal sex trade bad guys, and kidnapped. Marginalized B.A.M.F dad with mess you up operative skills to the rescue.

I Love this movie because it is hard hitting, fast paced, and straight to the point. It doesn’t mess around, it doesn’t skip a beat, and it is all about a fathers undying love for his daughter, proving that he’ll go to the ends of the earth to make sure she’s alright. If you love suspensive action flicks, then see this movie, go see it now, stop what you’re doing, and see this now.

It is set up great showing his love and attention to his daughters desires, her dreams, her goals, her aspirations. She wants to be a singer he knows it and he respects it while her mother thinks it is silly.  His non-stop determination to get his daughter back and his desire to save her and even her best friend sends him on a frenzied warpath. Every event has meaning there is no wasted motion.

I highly recommend this.

4. Star Trek:

We all know this franchise well. James T. Kirk and company most namely Mr. Spock, and Jim “Bones” McCoy. This JJ Abrams gem rewrites the story and gives it a new twist. Basically a newly recruited James T. Kirk has to stop killer Romulans who have traveled from an alternate reality with the old school people into the new reality with the new school people. With a Vendetta against Spock. They destroy planets and even killed Kirk’s father in a epic battle at the beginning of the film.

These bad guys must be stopped! Without giving away anything for those who haven’t seen it, this is the growth, the growing up process of Kirk where he becomes Captain Kirk. And I love this movie so much. It’s a warp speed ride and I had a ton of fun watching it. I’d highly recommend this for rental..

I like this movie because it takes a franchise that had been done to death, and breathed new life into it with similar, and outrageous circumstances to overcome from a different view. With an interesting, compelling villan, from the usual suspects. A great way to rewrite the franchise.

5. Up:

This was another great Disney/Pixar triumph. Starting with the beginning short about the clouds that create things. And going through the entire feature I had so many “God moments” where it seems funny that people come into your life, and they are a heaven sent blessing. From beginning to end, starting with the loss of his wife, and the regret of not having the great adventure. To meeting the kid who wants to spend time with him to going on the adventure he always wanted to with the kid and them tracking down his idol who wasn’t all he was cracked up to be.

It just was a great look at mortality and why we people unite, and why we unite, and come together. This movie made me laugh, cry, and think. In life we have people who make an impact on each other, and build us up who we love greatly. The illustration is beautifully orchestrated by the widower and his wife through flash backs, and how he is determined to go on this adventure. To a great “Ah ha” moment at the end of the movie which I won’t give away.

This is worth a rent for sure.

Well those are my top five..