Ben Affleck

Man About Town
$14.98
The joke on the Mallrats DVD commentary was that Mallrats was considered such a terrible film that not even a flop like Phantoms would list it on its cover as one of Ben Affleck's previous roles. Man About Town can now take that dubious distinction. This makes Affleck's other films like Paycheck and Gigli look as good as Good Will Hunting. This film wastes so much talent in Affleck, Rebecca Romijn, Bai Ling, John Cleese, Jerry O Connell, Kal Penn, and Gina Gershon. The writer/director Mike Binder is a much better actor as he gives himself a small role in this film as Morty Affleck's best friend. Binder also is responsible for the only real laugh of the movie as he wields a fire extinguisher against a jilted actor destroying his office. Affleck stars as Jack, he is supposed to be a wealthy and successful agent even though he has only two big name clients to speak of. One client a T.V. writer (Adam Goldberg) is sleeping with Jack's wife (Romijn) and his other client (Jerry O Connell) is going to leave him and seek other representation. Jack's partners in the firm are played by Gershon, Binder, and Penn. Since their business is going under they are desperate for Jack to forgive the T.V. writer for making a cuckold of him as he is their only high profile client. In the midst of all this confusion Jack enrolls in a journal writing course taught by Cleese. He doesn't know exactly why he is there but at the end of the film conveniently he realizes that he is hoping to find out who he really is and how to make his marriage work. He comes to the conclusion that he is imperfect. Before he makes all these life changes in his journal it is stolen from him by Barbi Ling (Bai Ling). She plans on blackmailing Jack and selling his secret business practices to a newspaper since Jack refused twelve of her screenplays over the years. The most embarrassing moments of this film involve Affleck with two giant white buck teeth doing Tom Cruise impersonations and an embarrassing and slightly racist scene where they challenge Ling and her whole family to a karate match in an alley after being chased through Chinatown by Ling who refuses to give Jack his notebook back. This film just sucks completely and it is no wonder that it went straight to DVD. Affleck is just embarrassing to watch. The extras have eleven more tortuous minutes of deleted scenes and perhaps most tellingly three featurettes and a gag reel neither one with participation from Affleck or director Mike Binder.

State of Play
$29.98
The Bottom Line:

When you walk away and think about the plot of State of Play there are a dozen plot holes and the denouement falls rather flat, but it works as a solid thriller while you're watching it, providing two hours of fast-moving entertainment without seeming to insult your intelligence; if you want a disposable 120 minutes of movie fun, by all means check this film out.

3/4

Surviving Christmas
$14.99
I liked this movie with all its screwball family comedy... maybe the plot was a bit predictable (rich girl and parents who are snobs) but I liked Ben and Christina as the new lovers pretending to be brother and sister. And James and Catherine as the battling parents could have been MY parents! (Though the only bit of a stretch was how a seemingly working-class family lived in such a great house in such a nice neighborhood! LOL). This is the second time I'm rented it at the video place and have decided it is worth purchasing to watch yearly.

He's Just Not That Into You
$19.96
I read the book and it was good, but I liked the movie, it really makes you wonder how guys behave.