When I typically partake in a movie double feature — like I did Sunday — I vary the genre. A comedy paired with a thriller. A romance with a drama. A documentary followed by a sci-fi.
But yesterday?
I double downed on romance. Figured these two particular films were so completely different, they couldn’t possibly overlap.
Shows what I know.
Silver Linings Playbook is a wonderful film starring Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro. Lawrence and Cooper are crazy — as in, he just got out of the hospital and she probably needs one — and end up being just what the doctor ordered for each other. DeNiro is also crazy.
Pretty much all of us are a little crazy, right? That’s why this movie works. It’s funny and it’s real and it manages to work in a reference to Dancing with the Stars….how can it miss?
Imagine how surprised I was to find Anna Karenina much the same.
Clearly the costumes are much better. (Cooper wore a garbage bag for much of Playbook.) And director Joe Wright placed his actors on an actual stage for many scenes, which I found brilliant but distracting.
But Anna and her oh-so-good-looking lover are indeed crazy. Most of the people in the story are varying shades of crazy, too. And there is a long scene of ballroom dancing that is also integral to the storyline.
But alas, no silver lining.
Read my lips
Jimmy Fallon’s epic “Lip Sync Battle” has left its home at The Tonight Show and now occupies prime time Thursdays on Spike TV.
The earlier time slot means the segment gets 30 whole minutes, costumes, backup ‘singers’ and dancers and racier trash talk (since it’s on cable). And the celebs are lovin’ every minute. The only thing that suffers?
The actual lip sync.
The celebs have a lot more bells and whistles to contend with, and limited rehearsal time, I would guess. So everything is messier…but who cares?
They’re making fools of themselves to music — just like on Dancing with the Stars — and it is magical.
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Posted in cable, Celebrities, Commentary, Entertainment, Humor, Music, review, Television
Tagged backup singers, bells and whistles, cable, celebrities, commentary, costumes, dancers, Dancing with the Stars, entertainment, Humor, Jimmy Fallon, Lip Sync Battle, magic, Music, prime time, rehearsal, review, SpikeTV, Television, The Tonight Show, Thursday, time slot, trash talk