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Hugh Grant plays the aging popstar "Alex", an ex-80s glamboy who never quite grew up. The late 70s would be "Spinal Tap". Instant comedy, my friends.But really, the plot is almost irrelevant. And here, ladies & gentlemen of the 80s generation, we have "Music and Lyrics".I don't know if pre-80s or post-80s people would understand the humour, but gawd I was in stitches from the beginning.
You laugh at the screen, but you're actually laughing at yourselves & loving every minute.Both Hugh & Drew deliver great, believable performances, and the script is fast paced & witty like an old Katharine Hepburn / Cary Grant picture. The film starts with a frighteningly accurate parody of an 80s pop video: complete with plinky synthesizers, moussed hair, atrocious 80s dancing (you know the moves I'm talking about), slutty nurses with grand cleavage, and men with pants that are so tight you can tell their religion. If this description stirs up any high school memories, then this is the movie for you.People call this a romantic comedy, which it is, but I think the real comedy lies in the cultural satire. Every few years, a musical comedy comes along that perfectly nails a musical era. Twice even. Enter Drew Barrymore as "Sophie" whose lyric writing skills are only topped by her neurotic behaviour.
The point of this film is--in the spirit of Spinal Tap--to mock the silliness of what we all were but are too embarrassed to admit, now that we're "grown up". My fellow refugees from the 80s, this is your catharsis, a way of exorcising all the 80s demons from your closets.
And the bonus features on the DVD are a real treat: the Gag Reel (bloopers), Deleted Scenes, and The Making Of featurette. The 90s would be "Singles".
But what really made this a great film are the riotous performances by the supporting characters: Brad Garrett ("Everybody Loves Raymond"), Kristen Johnston ("3rd Rock from the Sun"), and the rookie Haley Bennett as the perfect Britney/Shakira pop diva whose songs always seem to have the word "booty" in them. Over the years he's been reduced to playing highschool reunions and Six Flags themeparks, always eliciting orgasmic screams from the middle-aged women in the crowd but never taken seriously in the real world.
Then one day he gets the chance to write a new hit song for a modern pop diva, but he needs a lyricist to make it happen. Each of these actors add their own particular quirky comedy to this production.Don't miss your chance to see this movie.
Especially if you were born between the years of 1965 and 1975, you must see this movie immediately.
This is an enjoyable bit of fluff. Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore play well off each other, and the has-been angle (he's an 80's pop-star faded into obscurity) is fun. The song (Pop Goes My Love) is actually quite infectious, too. You'll find yourself humming it well after the movie is over.
Playing it at 480p improves the image, but it doesn't compare to a lot of other DVDs that look flawless. This is a great movie, but this DVD doesn't make the movie look its best on my 52 inch LCD. It is pixelated and grainy when upconverted. If you have an HD TV and you love this movie, consider it in blu-ray (I assume it will look much better). I am a huge DVD fan, and I think they generally look wonderful on my big tv, so I was dissappointed with this one.
If you check out his wiki page, he's had quite an impressive career writing, you guessed it: Music & Lyrics.Particularly of note: what bonehead decided against releasing the closing number, "Way Back Into Love", as a single. What a treat for anyone who likes good romantic comedies. Well in almost any romantic comedy, the end result is, of course, always predictable. If the songs had been second rate, this would have been a second rate film.Most of the killer songs were written by some guy named: Adam Schlesinger. Instead they should just have had the screenwriters & songwriters do an audio comentary on how this movie came about. But how the movie gets to that end result is what makes all the difference.I call this movie a masterpiece because it completely delivers on what it's title promises: MUSIC and LYRICS.
Korea.Shame on the stupid producers for wasting even one second making that ridiculous pop Parody included with the extras. I'm amazed at how the critics dismissed this movie - the standard compaint is that it's predictable. "Way Back Into Love" was #1 in Hong Kong, #5 in Japan & Singapore, #11 in S. Almost all the songs in this movie are really good, and perfectly fit into the story of this movie. Most other movies would have just stuck any ole songs into here. The time and money flushed down the sewer on that lame & useless venture should have been saved for the investors.
Whoever made the decision to waste valuable resources on "Pop Goes My Heart", should be blacklisted in Hollywood, and never allowed to work in the industry again.
The Bottom Line:Another film to be added to my burgeoning list of films that peak before 10 minutes have elapsed, (e.g. America's Sweethearts, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) Music & Lyrics begins with a hilariously dead-on parody of 80s music videos but then devolves into a formulaic romance devoid of laughs or charms; I enjoy Hugh Grant a lot and wanted to like this movie, but couldn't find much to appreciate, let alone treasure.2/4
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