Long Shot (2019)

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Who would have thought that the first (positive) surprise of the year would be a movie starring Seth Rogen in a romantic-comedy?! This genre has been having trouble for the past few years (only a handful of films are worthy of high praise), but Long Shot's amazing cast called my attention at the beginning of 2019 when I was organizing my watchlist of the year. I genuinely love Rogen type of humor, and Charlize Theron is one of the best actresses of the 21st century. Add three more terrific actors like Bob Odenkirk (President Chambers), O'Shea Jackson Jr. (Lance), and an unrecognizable Andy Serkis (Parker Wembley), and you have yourself a clear path to success.

So, what's the missing key ingredient? A well-written and compelling story, which is the number one problem with rom-coms of today. Most of these movies go straight to streaming services since they're the easiest ones to produce. Just gather a reasonably decent cast, put together a cliche narrative about how two people with nothing in common end up together through the most unlikely and dumb plot devices, and you have a low-budget “success”. Long Shot‘s premise follows a variation of that concept and it still carries the trademark conventionality, but it's the chemistry of its leads, the hilarious comedy and the beautifully-written screenplay that makes this one stand out.

The dialogues don't feel forced, a large portion of the jokes land, and the best compliment I can give to this film: it took itself seriously, and it worked seamlessly. There’s a heartfelt message to transmit to the viewers, and it’s delivered in the most realistic possible way. The romance doesn’t seem far-fetched or born out of nowhere. Instead, it has a wonderful arc, filled with real-life relationship moral dilemmas and difficult decisions. Everything that any character says either makes sense or makes you laugh.

The cast is brilliant as expected. Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron‘s chemistry is palpable, and it’s one of the reasons why the romance part of the movie works. They clearly had much fun on-set, and that’s visible on the big screen. Rogen provides most of the laughs, but he also proves that he can be dramatic if necessary. Theron is just impeccable. She simply can’t act a single line of her script in a way that’s not perfect, whether it’s a romantic scene or a comedy bit. Her range is on display throughout the entire runtime, and Jonathan Levine should be extremely grateful as a director to have such an outstanding actress to work with.

In addition to all of this, there’s one thing I never expected to be praising right now: the makeup department. Before the film, I knew that Andy Serkis was on the cast, but I completely forgot what his role was. Without an ounce of exaggeration, I truly believe that it’s almost impossible to recognize him as Wembley if you don’t know beforehand that he participates in the movie. When I re-checked the cast members, I remembered that he had a role indeed, and I was almost as surprised by the discovery as I was with how much I enjoyed this film. O’Shea Jackson Jr. also delivers a hilarious performance while Bob Odenkirk doesn’t really have much screentime to shine.

This is one of those movies that you can’t precisely point out obvious flaws. A flawless film doesn’t mean it’s a perfect 10/10 movie. It just means you really don’t have any major issues with it. If every single aspect of a film is just “good”, then the movie is “good”, not “incredible” or “amazing”. That is how I view Long Shot. It’s an extremely entertaining rom-com, undeniably one of the best I’ve seen these past few years. Even though the main concept follows the genre’s traditional storylines, its well-written screenplay, hilarious comedy bits, and outstanding protagonists make a surprisingly serious story remarkably entertaining.

It’s a fast-paced 2-hour runtime that I recommend to anyone who just wants to have a good time at the movie theater.

Rating: B+

Oddly mild and politically centrist-affirming for a movie about a woman who spends the majority of the movie trying to enact a climate-benefit policy. Also kind of exists in this weird in-between purgatory world where it's "so woke" and "not like those other RomComs where the guy gets the hot girl just because" but is simultaneously like... The slovenly ~nice guy~ still gets this political powerhouse stunner of a woman by the power of... Being himself? I guess. It's a very half measures movie, is what I'm saying. Moves towards one set of things but can't leave the other set behind. And so a movie with this middling a perspective, of course, gets the middling-est of ratings.

Charlize is a fuckin' champ in this though, absolutely runs the show.

_Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._

What I hate about the political people is that the right is dissing this because of the way it starts out and the environmental policies at the heart of the campaign... and the Left is saying how horrible it is because a Republican was Black, and had a point, and was still a good person.

So, once more we have a film that you are not supposed to like because meh politics... but at least it's a film that both sides say you should hate. I guess that is progress.

Other than that, Boyz 2 Men, got the biggest laugh out of me, which was kind of shocking given that this is a movie that is supposed to be a stupid and pointless comedy.

And it is, and it's not the best stupid and pointless comedy out there, but, hey, these are throw away movies designed for mindless fun and that is how this film bills itself. It's supposed to be vulgar and hysterical and it is.

And, once more, if you are not watching this to see a mindless and vulgar comedy... I don't know what you expected to see.

The only real draw back is that Theron and Jackson kind of come across as the two funniest people, on a screen with Seth Rogen who was the comedian of the bunch... and kind of felt like he phoned this one in. But, other than that, you get exactly what you expect from it.

US Secretary of State "Charlotte Field" (Charlize Theron) has some fairly stellar approval ratings ahead of her impending bid for the Presidency when she encounters "Fred" (Seth Rogan) at a swanky soirée. She the epitome of chic, he that of chavdom. It turns out they dated many moons ago and against the advice of her staff, she decides that he could be useful as her speechwriter. A stroke of genius or a fit of madness? Well the rest of this over-long comedy drama really only belongs to fans of Rogan - and I'm not one of them. There are a few scenes where Theron plays the comedy well - swallowing some molly before some sensitive diplomacy, but for the most part it's a rather tacky comedy with loads of expletives and low-level crassness, compensating for a really lacking script and a predictable storyline. It does try to take a swipe at the political establishment and at those vacuous folks atop it, and the ensemble supporting cast help a little, but it's all been seen before and at over two hours, I'm afraid I just struggled to get engaged with the either of them before the rushed conclusion.