Film: Larry Crowne

GENRE: Romantic Comedy
RATING: PG-13 for brief language & sexual content
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 33 minutes
STARRING: Tom Hanks (Charlie Wilson’s War, The Terminal) Julia Roberts (Charlie Wilson’s War, Eat Pray Love, Closer)
DIRECTOR: Tom Hanks (That Thing You Do!)
WRITERS: Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) Tom Hanks (That Thing You Do!, From the Earth to the Moon)
PLOT: A middle-aged man reinvents himself by going to college and taking a speech course. Romance ensues with his teacher.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:
1 The only word I could use to describe this film is cute. There’s nothing much to this film. Cute moments. That’s all. If I wanted to see comedy at community college, I would just watch Community on NBC.
2 Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts have both been in some of the greatest romantic comedies of all time (Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, Notting Hill, Pretty Woman), but for Larry Crowne, it really seems like they are just phoning it in. I really think they just wanted to spend time talking to each other between takes, because there is not much chemistry on screen. Disappointing.
3 Wilmer Valderrama (That 70s Show) is slightly fun as the jealous boyfriend but really he’s just playing an older mature version of Fez.
4 This movie is definitely for older audiences. A quick scan after the movie was over and we realized we were surrounded by white haired individuals. Scary.
5 The ending credits are awful. Even if you loved the film, the credits would make you raise an eyebrow at the corniness mixed with lame editing green screen shots. What was Hanks thinking?

RECOMMENDATION: TBS
UPCOMING REVIEWS: 2011 Emmy nominations