If you are new to Pygmy Reviews, they are short quick reviews of several things of the same type. The name comes from the pygmy hippopotamus
Unfaithful (2002)
One Line Description: An affluent stay-at-home mom has an affair before her husband finds out and confronts the man.
Diane Lane plays an incredibly sexy housewife who falls for a foreign stranger1 and begins a torrid love affair with him. Eventually her husband (Richard Gere) finds out and decides to confront the man. I am guessing you can figure out what happens next, but needless to say the story evolves from there, including the part where his wife finds out that he knows she had an affair. Disturbing movie that is a bit hard to watch, but it definitely keeps you in suspense.
Cocktail (1988)
One Line Description: An aspiring entrepreneur moonlights as a bartender before escaping Manhattan for Jamaica, where he meets his dream girl.
Tom Cruise early in his peak years stars in this one. Although bar tending is the backdrop, this movie seems to be more about a deeper lesson, essentially that money isn’t everything, and being with someone you love is. This movie never went where I thought it would and the shocking ending left me scratching my head. I probably would not watch this one again.
Due Date (2010)
One Line Description: An uptight businessman attempting to make it home for the birth of his child is forced to carpool with the man responsible for getting him kicked off his flight.
Essentially a remake of the classic Plains, Trains and Automobiles without the sappy ending. Robert Downey Jr. plays the uptight businessman and Zach Galifianakas plays the idiot. He is far more over the top than John Candy was, and is essentially playing Alan from The Hangover movies. Not as good as either of those, or it’s spiritual predecessor, but still funny.
The Green Hornet (2011)
One Line Description: After a newspaper magnate dies, his rich son teams up with his dad’s mechanic to fight crime.
Another comic book turned into a movie, this time with Seth Rogen as the lead. I don’t know much about the comic book, but I hope in the original the Green Hornet was someone more believable than Seth Rogen. It wasn’t the worst movie I have seen, but it wasn’t great either. The story moves at an odd pace and seems like it was only designed to be a setup for future movies, but that would be a bad mistake. I wouldn’t waste your time.
Eddie and the Cruisers (1983)
One Line Description: A magazine reporter working on a story about a ’60s band causes the keyboardist to seek out his former bandmates and their lost master tapes from an unreleased album.
A longtime recommendation of my dad, I finally found time to watch it. The story is weird and doesn’t seem to follow the path it seems like it will at the beginning. The flashbacks that show how the band became what they were are unquestionably the best parts, but the bizarre story about the death of the lead singer seemed to be glossed over a bit. Also, the story about the missing master tapes didn’t sit right. I love the premise, but it wasn’t a home run.
- I am bad with accents, he is European, that’s all I know [↩]
