Overboard (3¾ Stars)

I watched this film two days ago, but I'm only sitting down to review it now. The problem is my self-imposed "four word month". While it might seem at first glance that only writing four words about a film is lazy, the opposite is the case. It's a lot more difficult to write a good four word review than one of my usual rambling reviews. In the case of "Overboard" I was stumped. I wracked my brain and came up with nothing. So I'm now declaring my four month word over. It was fun while it lasted. I expected to receive complaints from my regular readers, but the opposite was the case. My friends were unanimous in praising my four word reviews. But now they're over. Sorry.

I haven't been watching many films this month. Over the last week I've been catching up on some television series I own on television. I've been watching "Star Trek TNG", "Ally McBeal", "The Vampire Diaries", "La Femme Nikita", "Teen Wolf" and "Torchwood". They're all very good series, I may write about some of them soon. Apart from that I've been following the Jodi Arias trial every day, which has taken up a lot of my time. At the risk of sounding cynical, it's the best reality show I've ever seen. I need to write my thoughts about the trial in detail, but not yet. Maybe after the verdict, maybe shortly before.

But wasn't I supposed to be writing about "Overboard" today? There's not really much I can say about it. It's a romantic comedy, and whatever the trimmings romantic comedies always follow a strict pattern.

1. Girl meets boy.
2. The girl doesn't like the boy, but as time goes on she grows to like him.
3. Girl and boy go different ways. (Sometimes geographically, sometimes she returns to an ex-lover).
4. Girl realises she can't live without the boy and returns to him.

Try applying that to any romantic comedy, and even if there are variations the pattern fits. Look at the films I've reviewed already, such as "Leap Year", "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Letters to Juliet". I almost forgot "The Elder Son" and "Tamara Drewe". Romantic comedies are always predictable, but they can be good. It depends on the trimmings and how good the actors are. In the case of this film Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn are both very competent in their roles. I greatly enjoyed the comedy in the first half of the film, and I was disappointed when the second half became more serious. Nevertheless a good film. Not quite four stars, but watchable.

Kurt Russell is an actor that I latched onto late in his career. Isn't it strange how you can sometimes see a character in films for years before really noticing him? I never paid attention to Kurt Russell till I saw him in "Death Proof". After that I went back and rewatched some of his older films, such as "The Thing". He's always been a good actor, I just never noticed.