Man, I Got Chick-Flicked

So, I had wanted to see Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist for a while now. It was one of those movies that I wanted to see in the theatres, but I lost the coin flip. By the time I found someone else to go with, it was already out of the theatres (that should have been a sign right there). Instead it was added to the Blockbuster list and I just held off until it showed up in the mail. I should have kept waiting.

The warning signs were all there. First off, because it features a solid amount of people that are from the Judd Apatow stable, I was expecting it to be a raunchier comedy. Not as far as Superbad, but at least to the level of Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Turns out that despite having a lot of the same people buzzing in and out of scenes, Apatow is not at all connected to this movie (learn something new everyday -thanks, IMDB). When I saw that it was only rated PG-13, that was the first warning sign. The next sign came in the previews. I'm a big believer that the previews on DVDs are a good indicator of what the movie is going to be. This DVD featured previews for Rent, Center Stage (which is from the "I'm rich and you're poor, but lets dance together" genre) and a commercial for movies to watch during a "Girls' Night In." Crap.

But, since I had waited so long to see this movie, I plowed ahead and watched it anyways. It stars Michael Cera, who is getting dangerously close to being type-cast. He could very well be a one-trick pony who can only play the role of the quiet, awkward and geeky kid. He plays it well, but you can only keep doing that for so long until Hollywood finds another even geekier and awkward guy. Time will tell. It also stars the impossibly cute Kat Dennings, who makes me wish I was just 4 years younger (I have a rule against dating too many years in either direction) and lived in Hollywood. It has a great soundtrack and very good music throughout, as you would expect. That's about where the positive reviews end.

It's not that this was a bad movie, but it wasn't good either. I guess the big complaint is that it wasn't very funny, which is a problem with a movie that is labeled as a comedy. I expected to laugh out loud and I think I only chuckled once or twice during the entire movie. As happens with a lot of movies lately, if you've seen the previews, you've seen the best parts already. Not to mention it gets far too sappy at points, with cheesy lines like:

Norah: Are you sorry we missed it?
Nick: No, this is it.

I guess on the whole it was a cute enough little movie, but not what I was looking forward to or expecting to see. A little too chick-flicky for my tastes. Also, I didn't like the ending (not as a whole, just one aspect of it bugged the hell out of me). In the end, I guess I'll just have to wait and hope I Love You, Man is better.