Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 10, 2005 | | Summary | Enjoyable Romantic Comedy | Content
 | I went into this movie slighly pessimistic, after all of the negative reviews I had read. However I must say I was pleasntly surprised, Must Love Dogs may be formulaic as some have said, but if you are like me and enjoy the formula you also should find this movie fun. I don't know why people complain so much about formula, if a formula works it works, ask the makers of coca cola. 13 Going on 30, You've Got Mail, Ever After, and Sabrina are other formula films but very enjoyable as well, I don't find in neccesary that every movie be earth shattering. The meaning of life is not infused in the threads of this film, but who cares! John Cusack is a delight to watch with just the right amount of manic humor. The supporting cast keeps the laughs consistant. I recommend this movie to fans of light hearted romantic comedies, and to any naysayers, if you don't like it don't watch it then. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | Must Love John Cusack | Content
| And I do. I also love how Diane Lane is not afraid to look "not perfect". But this film is formulaic and completely unrealistic. Jake's (John Cusack) ex-wife got "everything" in the divorce, but somehow he lives in a huge loft, where he makes special wooden boats, of which he has sold none, and has no other job. His best friend is his lawyer, who is always over at his loft and needs a date himself, however, he hooks Cusack up with the Internet dating scene, instead of meeting his own needs first. Not likely.
Sarah's (Diane Lane) family is so interested in her lack of dating life that they stage an intervention trying to show her pictures of both single and married guys. Her sister puts Sarah's profile on the internet (with her high school grad picture), and the dates start coming, all of them terrible. Her sisters have their own families, but they drop everything to run to her side and commiserate with her dating woes. Again, not likely. Also not likely that people burst into song around the supper table.
I think this film could have been better if it didn't try so hard to be the typical comedy romance let's not take any chances or be any different than any other comedy romance we must fit in the mold.
2 1/2 stars. Cusack and Lane were wasted. And so was Stockard Channing. What was up with that role? |
| Rating | | | Date | August 07, 2005 | | Summary | How To Make A Romantic Comedy in 7 Easy Steps!! | Content
| #1 - For starters, the two leads must fall into one of two categories (A) that they have waited almost too long for the right person, and are about to miss their chance to love forever! Or (B) they have both been hurt before and must learn to love again - (MUST LOVE DOGS? CHECK!!!)
#2 - Be sure the female comes from a large extended family that is insuffarably close-knit, are all generically interchangable with one another, and can each come up with witty lines for EVERY situation! (MUST LOVE DOGS? CHECK!!)
#3 - Be sure the male lead is emotionally sensitive and has a passion for something obscure - like hand-carving wooden row boats, for example. (MUST LOVE DOGS? CHECK!!)
#4 - Ensure that the female lead has a gay best friend to have "girl talk" with! This role was previously filled by a more ambiguous guy friend who was a sharp dresser but never got girls (the 80s), then by a female friend who was a whore (late 80s, early 90s), then a female friend who never got any guys (early 90s), then a flamboyently gay man (late 90s, early 2000s), and now it would seem to be a gay COUPLE that is throroughly fulfilled in their monogamous, sexually non-threatening relationship. - (MUST LOVE DOGS? CHECK!!!)
#5 - Ensure that the female characters at some point spontaneously burst into a singing-and-dancing moment to the tune of some classic old song - (MUST LOVE DOGS? CHECK!!!)
#6 - Have one of the main characters obsessed with an obscure classic film from the 40s, 50s, or 60s that no one has watched for the last two generations! - (MUST LOVE DOGS? CHECK!!!)
#7 - Finally, and most importantly, the girl must waver between one of at least two choices for her one-true love - and then decide in the last minute of the movie to dramatically and romantically run to catch the one she had rejected all along - but in doing so, she must suddenly overcome some obstacle - a river, a traffic jam, a train speeding away! - (MUST LOVE DOGS? CHECK!!!)
So, in short, MUST LOVE DOGS is a cookie-cutter, by the book amalgamation of every Romantic Chick Flick you've seen for the last 20 years. There is nothing original here - it is boring and annoying - and I hope all of you will avoid it in droves!! |
| Rating | | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | Pedestrian romance. Not outstanding but enjoyable and may appeal to those older folks who can relate to dating after divorce. | Content
| 2.75 /5
Diane Lane portrays Sarah, a divorced 40-something woman who her family is trying to find a match for. They show up at her house with photos of elligible men they know, as a kind of intervention, so that she gets back into the dating game. She seems to be the "go-to" woman at the moment for playing older, single women seeking a fresh start on romance.
Soon, she discovers that one of her sisters has created an online dating profile for her. She is supposed to meet recently divorced Jake (John Cusack) on a park bench. One of Jake's friends saw Sarah's online profile and set Jake up to meet her.
Along the way, she meets the divorced father of one of her students, the grey-haired PhD student Bob, played by Dermot (not Ben or Brian) Mulroney. Both men are smitten with her. She's interested in both. Things happen that sour both relationships, etc.
The acting was fine all around. Christopher Plummer portrays her dad, the single, poetry-reciting 70-something who is looking for companionship since he has already had the "love of his life." Liz (Wilma Flinstone) Perkins portrays one of her well meaning sisters. John Cusack (39) was excellent as the boyish, reluctant Jake. Diane Lane is impossibly beautiful at the real age of 40 and that is both part of what makes the film appealing but also less interesting. She's so attractive that you don't stop for a moment to pity her for being a single woman, eating small quantities of chicken at home by herself. On the other hand, her looks make her a very credible love interest for her two suitors. Still, there's not enough crisis to make this anything other than a lightweight, pedestrian, romantic comedy and certainly not one of the very best.
This film is clearly aimed at an older demographic than, say, Wedding Crashers, and some people will find it enjoyable. Based on the novel by Claire Cook. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 05, 2005 | | Summary | Must Love Dogs | Content
| Recently divorced school teacher Sarah (Lane) wants no part of the dating scene, but her family, including sister Carol (Perkins) and father Bill (Plummer) are bound and determined to get her dating. Carol puts Sarah's profile on perfectmatch.com, and she ends up on a series of bad dates, and a date with her own father. But then comes Jake (Cusack), who is also dealing with the end of his marriage and is also dealing with dating again. Their first date is awkward, but not off-putting, and they both want to try again. Of course, when things start to look good, Bob (Mulroney), the father of one of her students, enters the picture and makes things a little more complicated.
"Must Love Dogs" is pretty much a standard romantic comedy. There is nothin special about it to seperate it from any other romantic comedy. Cusack and Lane are trying to make it work, but this formula can only take things so far. That is a shame, because both are good actors that deserve a better story. This one is for fans of the genre only. Otherwise, stay away. |
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