As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.
TODAY’S CRITIC: Lafronda Stumn
Lafronda Stumn is a student at Madisonville Community College and intends to graduate with an Associate's degree in Associate of the Arts. She plans on earning a Bachelors Degree in Motion Picture Studies and English at Wright State University. Her favorite Directors are Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Spike Lee, and her favorite actors are Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, and Halle Berry. Lafronda contacted this page looking for a place to get published and I enjoy giving people that very kind of opportunity. This is her 12th guest review for Every Movie Has a Lesson. Welcome back, Lafronda!
HER REVIEW: Long Shot
Romantic comedies are an endangered species nowadays. The superhero/comic book movies have taken over films. I do love those types of films; however, other films need representation as well. I was looking forward to seeing the movie. The great Oscar winner Charlize Theron and the funny Seth Rogan of Knocked Up fame together. However, the film doesn't fully deliver the good in comedy or moments of drama/romance.
The movie stars Seth Rogan as Fred Flarksy. The film begins with him investigating as a reporter at a party to expose infiltrating neo-Nazis at a party. Nazi’s find out his identity as Jewish and literary threw him over a balcony, with few scars. The next day he’s being told by his boss that the company he works for, The Advocate, has been taken over by a billionaire jerk with no ethics whatsoever.
Fred does not want to use, for a corrupt boss that he can’t stand, so he quits his job and is invited, to a political party, by his friend Lance (O’Shea Jackson Jr). Earlier Secretary of State Charlotte Field (Theron) is being told by President Chambers (Bob Odenkirk, a former TV actor who now wants to be a movie star), is stepping down as President and wants Field to succeed after he resigns. Charlotte is flattered and is excited by the prospect of being the first woman to be President. Chambers hires staffers Maggie (June Diane Raphael), Tom (Ravi Patel), and polling manager Katherine (Lisa Kudrow) to campaign for her.
Fred and Lance go to the party where Boyz II Men are signing. There, Fred meets Charlotte. Fred remembers her being his babysitter over 30 years ago when she was 15 and he was 12. Charlotte recognizes him, and they start chatting. When Charlotte discovers he is a journalist, she asks to read some of his work after the party. She reads his writings and is impressed and wants to hire him as her speechwriter, much to the dismay of staffer Maggie, who thinks he is out of his league in looks and low status. Charlotte ignores Maggie’s issues with Fred. Fred joins the campaign.
The campaign goes to Sweden, where Charlotte is giving a speech about the environment. Fred wears a Swedish suit that makes him look silly. Charlotte and Fred laugh at his outfit in good fun. Fred disagrees with Charlotte's speech, which would compromise key climate change issues, and later, they have an argument. Charlotte compromises what’s right to please her more conservative base of voters.
Later on, they go to Buenos Aries, where they get to know each other alone together. War breaks out from outside, and they feverishly attempt to hide from the attack. Charlotte calms Fred down and after the fighting is over. They eventually have sex for less than 10 seconds. Despite this, they continue to have sex and see each other.
Maggie discovers the affair and doesn’t like him as a potential first husband of the White House. Maggie feels that Fred is beneath her. Charlotte and Maggie disagree. They spend the rest of the movie, whether the relationship will stand the test of time.
The film is charming. Theron and Rogan do have chemistry, and I like O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Fred's best friend, Lance. Unfortunately, the movie is predictable in the outcome, and the pacing by director Jonathan Levine is at a snail's pace. The film goes on a little too long for its sound. The director should have cut about 15 minutes. As the film stands, the film is sluggish and relatively routine. The plot has been done million times before and done better in earlier films such as Chris Rock’s Take Five, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Crazy Stupid Love. All of those films do a much better job with the rom-com formula. They do something that is not predictable, and those movies are well-directed than in this film. As it stands, Long Shot is a movie that needs to be more daring and original for the romantic comedy to make a comeback in the future.
RATING: **1/2
CONCLUSION
Thank you again, Lafronda! You are welcome anytime. Friends, if you see a movie that I don't see and want to be featured on my website, hit up my website's Facebook page and you can be my next GUEST CRITIC!
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