no one?
I want to know if this movie is any good.
Not because of Jennifer Garner though. Hate that bitch.

Fairly workmanlike and predictable, but well-crafted, nonetheless. Jennifer Garner is quite good here. Nowhere near as effective as Susannah Grant's most memorable screenplays (Erin Brockovich and In Her Shoes), but the film ends up being decent entertainment. B-

Yup a fair movie, with some funny moments. A little unrealistic though, given what the main character does. Smith is a hoot and a scene stealer through out the film. The other friend [Dennis-Sam Jager] though is a a fifth wheel and could have been dropped. His plot line was projected almost from the start and never really left the ground. Lewis was ok, especially when she was with Smith, but otherwise blah. Garner was herself, cheerful and cliched but likable more or less.

The premise of the story though seemed awkward and unrealistic as I mentioned before. It just did not ring well. In less than a month? the main character is in love and sleeping around with her dead fiance best friend for what reason? Honestly it's rebound sex presented as if she were really in love. It just does not come off that well or convincing.

I gave it a B, and that's generous. There were some funny and warm moments but I think this is a wait until it's on DVD thing.

Its a cute fluffy little film that if you allow logic and common sense to go flying out the window offers sparodic entertainment.

The whole angle with Garner and her relationship with the friends of her recently deceased fiance is riddled with holes, and the place her character eventually ends up makes absolutely no sense. Thankfully Garner is so peppy you'll find yourself not minding to much.

Kevin Smith is on balance the best thing about the film the guy should seriously act more, beyond that like I said fluffy fun you'll have forgotten about the moment its ended.

C+

CATCH & RELEASE - 6/10 (B-)

My rating is close to a C+. It's "decent," but so uneven and very flawed. It's an alright way to kill a bit of time though. I felt really bad for the one friend. I think his name was Dennis. I don't even know why they bothered trying to make us feel bad for him the whole time because he doesn't get anybody and in my opinion you can't help but be annoyed that she ends up with the other guy. I didn't care much for him and didn't want them together. She so didn't know what was good for her :p. This other guy will just break her heart . Oh well though. I was left with the feeling that this incredibly unlikely relationship wouldn't last anyway. And it is hard to believe she "fell in love" with someone so soon after her fiance died. And of course she has to pick one of the worst candidates. I agree with other people in that there are just too many holes in this relationship and in the relationship with her and her friends. So many things don't add up. It's rather silly really. And I certainly didn't find Smith's character funny. I thought he was annoying and rather lame. He should stay behind the camera or pick a better role.

Many words come to mind after watching Catch and Release. None of them are good. Annoying I think tops the list. Let's start with the structure and how the film moves from one scene to another. Is there any real good reason why Grant decided to have a song play at the beginning and end of every scene in the film? I'm not going to go back and count them, because I don't have that much time on my hands, but there had to be at least 10 songs within the first 20 minutes of the film and I wish I was exaggerating. And none of them are any good. Every song in the film is montone folk crap and after the hour mark, it was almost unbearable to watch the film. After like the fifth song in 10 minutes, the music began to take me out of the film. Music wasn't the only reason though.

Besides Kevin Smith, I'm having a real hard time finding something I liked. From the performances to the story itself, nothing is good here. Horrible? Not quite, but not good at all. Let's start with Kevin Smith's character's suicide attempt. Why is it in the film? So it proves that Smith's character was depressed while putting on a straight face? A crying scene would do. And then after a scene or two, the characters pretend like nothing happened. Well that's fantastic. And I know it's supposed to come full circle emotionally when Lewis and the kid move in, but her character is so fucking stupid (In terms of actual intelligence) that I kind of felt sorry for him - kind of. Smith's performance is so endearing that it kind of works.

*Sidenote problem* - Gray never realized her fiance was wealthy? Had she met his mother before, who reeks of pretentiousness and wealth? And talk about your one dimensional characters.

Now lets move on to "Roomate #2". I call him "Roomate #2" because I pretty much forget his name, and the film doesn't seem to even care if you care to remember it or not. He only exists because if she were to move into the house with just Smith's character, who's only purpose is comic relief, you don't have that much of a movie. That's the only reason why he exists though. Let me rephrase that. That's the only reason why he should've existed. The subplot of having a secret crush on Gray is so poorly handled that it was almost embarassing. And how is it dealt with? A brief conversation, a hug and a peck on the cheek, and him moving out of the house. Aww. Way to waste 20 minutes.

Finally, let's deal with Olyphant and Garner. Both give decent performances. Both are given one dimensional and unbelievably stupid characters. Let's start with Gray (Garner). The way she treats her friends I found to be flat out insulting (Except for Smith's who she ignores throughout most of the film, except when he tries to commit suicide. Hey, maybe that's another reason why they included it? Because either my mind is already forgetting the film, or that's the only scene the two have together without it being a group scene. She's let's "Roomate #2" down harshly when he says he has feelings for her, yet she treats the person she's "supposedly" falling in love with like shit by never admitting to the others because she's embarassed to be with him in the first place! So I guess that means she thinks "Roomate #2" is the equivalent of seven day old shit? I clearly must have missed something here, because this is the person were supposed to relate to and feel for, right?

And then there's Olyphant's character. What a self-hating piece of shit this guy must be. SPOILER - Despite the fact that he figures Gray is too embarassed to admit she's fucking him, he takes her back? And then has the audacity to say, "What took you so long?" Are you fucking kidding me?

Did I mention how much of a fucking moron Lewis' character is? I did? Well, since I've already spent way too much time talking about this film, I'll just leave it at that. I mean, she couldn't do simple math to figure out that her son, wasn't Gray's finace's?

You know, it's amazing what happens when you think a film over. An hour into the film, despite the horrific and unbelievably annoying soundtrack, I didn't mind the film. Now, a half hour after watching the film, I can't help but pretty much hate it. I went from a B- to a......

D+

In the blink of an eye. And I'm being very generous with the grade since I thought the performances were decent, especially given the material they had to work with.

C+

It's silly.

Disappointing considering how great Jennifer Garner usually is. She makes the film bearable, but the whole thing feels so disjointed, and characters are very underdeveloped. Passable, but it could have been a lot better.

C+

Tried to stomach it on a flight from DC to Munich. Wasn't impressed and I doubt it was the environment I watched it in. I'm surprised to know that the script for this was penned by the woman behind In Her Shoes - gone is the intelligence and heart. Garner is a decent (sometimes better) actress but does, well, nothing here. The rest of the cast is just there. It sort of amounts to a film that's ineffectual and forgettable, combining elements from past films into a product that isn't interesting or successful on any level. It'll do well as late night filler for Oxygen's schedule, no doubt.

*/****

A lot better than I thought it would be, loved Juliette Lewis and Kevin Smith through most of it.

Spoiler of course

I cannot accept that she ends up with guy who had sex with a caterer in the bathroom at her parents house after her fiance's funeral. I also cannot accept that she ends up with guy who covered up the affair and child. Not too happy about the 'accidental' drug overdose/suicide that just gets brushed over like a case of food poisoning. That is not what happens when you 'accidentally' overdose on someone elses prescription medication.

Also, if your fiance dies and you are crying on screen about it in the opening scene and the audience isn't moved, its because you are a bad actress. Take some time before your next project and take a lesson or something.

Hmm, I graded it a B, but after reading what I just wrote it feels a lot more like a C.

Basically I expected it to be completely awful, and it wasn't completely awful.

I totally agree with Jmarts review. The movie was crap and as much as I like Garner normally, she completely lost her charme in this movie. D

C

Definitely Garners weakest film yet. Surprising that such a talented array of people could all participate in something so stale and generally dull.

The most annoying part was the disjointed nature of the flick, painfully obvious that major chunks of the movie were removed. Why would this kind of story even NEED that kind of heavy editing? Susannah Grant is to blame for her clearly self-indulgent over writing and directing here. She should stick to scripts and work her way through shorts before she hits another feature film. Sloppy at best.

Garner is charming as always, but spends much of the film looking petulant. But Grays character is difficult to feel sympathetic towards and Garner seems bored here. The rest of the cast range from being wildly over the top to dead on arrival.

C+


Okay, I don't know how it happened, but I actually graded a Jennifer Garner movie better than Michael. I think the world is coming to an end now.

But, yeah, in all honestly, this wasn't half as bad as I feared and expected. Maybe it was just a case of extremely lowered expectations, but I found this movie to be charming and decently made most of the time. Yes, it's disjointed, flawed and some of the acting is really not the best, but I enjoyed it.

Jennifer Garner carries this movie almost entirely on her shoulders. The role requieres much of her and while she doesn't fulfil all of that, her natural style here feels right. Juliette Lewis is the other acting highlight here (even though she plays this white trash role for the umpteenth time probably). Kevin Smith really seems out of place, though. He's just not funny here and I usually find the man extremely funny, but he should stick to R-rated comedies. Timothy Olyphant also doesn't make a good romantic lead. I liked him in Hitman and in The Girl Next Door, but not as much here. That's why I had some issues understanding why the hell Garner's Gray would fall for him.

The script is very corny and clichéd. I mean lines like "What's your favorite color? Gray." just made me cringe, but some other moments seemed truly heartfelt. It's a difficult topic that Susannah Grant picked for her directional debut and she doesn't pull it off too well. For this kind of a topic, the movie is just too damn fluffy and easy-going, but on the whole I enjoyed it for what it was which was a slight romance with some drama injected that mostly didn't work. A charming leading lady and some nice moments throughout elevated it just a small tad above average to me.

I love Garner and I like Kevin Smith, but this one just about put me to sleep, and I never ever fall asleep during a movie.

It really seemed so pointless, and just plodded along. About halfway through I thought I could just turn it off and wouldn't care what happened, and by the end I kind of wish I had done just that.

Grade: D

If Garner and Smith hadn't been in it, it would have been a gigantic flaming F.

Smith was one of my major reasons to dislike this. I like him, but he just didn't fit in here.

I just realized i already reivewed this.

I was on crack in my original post. This movie is not good at all. Such a vast disappointment considering the screenwriter wrote In Her Shoes (still, in my opinion, the most underrated movie of the decade so far) and Erin Brockovich

Yeah it was a big dissapointment for me too. Thankfully Jennifer Garner is making good movies..finally.