Friday 30 December 2011

The Back-Up Plan

I know, I know this is an old movie but then I have this compulsion of reviewing everything that I have seen darlings. “So please to be bearing with me” as they would say in colloquial Ingliss for those who have already seen this not so funny RomCom. But spare a thought for those who have not seen it and may make up their minds based on the writings of “is nacheez” (this insignificant person for those who may be unfamiliar with Urdu). There are some 4-5 movies more to be reviewed which are not recent movies and with time quickly running out for me in this calendar year – a little over 30 hours to go, I thought I should quickly get this over and done with. The Back-Up Plan is playing these days on HBO if I am not mistaken – maybe any of the movie channels from 341 to 361 on Tata Sky – forgive me if I am wrong.
Jenny from the Block may not be my favourite singer by a country mile but I must say that I have always liked the fact that she picks up extremely lovable characters in most of her movies and comes up with a performance which is sincere, honest and endearing. I guess it comes very naturally to her – especially when she plays “Jenny from the block” kind of roles. In TBUP she plays the role of Zoe – a 30 something (I am assuming) young woman who runs a pet store and is not really getting the right guy to be in a relationship with – hah!!! Whats new??? With Zoe, however, there is a peculiar problem – she wants to have a child. And quickly at that. Typically that requires someone from the opposite sex or as Zoe attempted – artificial insemination. Wonder what people back home think about the concept as such? Would a woman in India today, mind being injected with the frozen sperm of some unknown donor? Anyways, as luck would have it, she gets knocked up and meets Stan (Alex O'Loughlin) on the same day and lots of love happens – sigh…. As the write ups would say when u press the information button on your Tata Sky remote – hilarity ensues – always wondered who writes these; I am betting s/he doesn’t get paid too much.

TBUP is another example of a TV directors making an unsuccessful transition to movie direction. Whenever I study film and understand the difference between the two, I am quite certainly going to be in a better position to understand why so many of them just bomb at the BO. Alan Poul has joined the list of these bombs. Is he bad. Not really. Just not up there or different in anyways. Anyone could have come up with this as the end result. Even novice directors. There is hardly any intensity that he is able to generate with the cast. The saving grace for us men is the presence of 2 really good looking women on screen – J Lo and Noureen DeWulf. For the ladies there is Alex O’Loughlin. Nothing much to write home about the humour or acting either. Overall, an average flick. Watch if you have nothing better to watch or see or do at home. 5 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4230218777/

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