While Watching "Life as We Know It"...

...I couldn't help but feel terrible for Katherine Heigl. You know you're watching a bad, bad movie when you spend the entire film wishing it was Heigl who died at the beginning so we could get more of the luscious (and oh so warm in her few scenes here) Christina Hendricks.

Anyone else saw this movie? Did you enjoy it? When will Heigl stop playing the same damn characters? If you were really bad at something, say acting, would you keep trying?

The Ugly Truth **

Director: Robert Luketic
Cast: Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler
Bree Turner, Eric Winter, John Michael Higgins, Cheryl Hines

Heigl plays Sacramento TV producer Abby Richter, a work obsessed woman who has convinced herself she has no time to find the man she deserves (you know what that means in modern rom-com slang: psychotic control freak).
When her morning news show begins to falter in the ratings, she's forced by her boss to hire Mike Chadway (Butler) a cable TV personality whose show, the eponymous movie title, has become a new benchmark of crass, rude television.
He gives advice to men and women about relationships always considering feelings a load of BS and highlighting everything that leads to orgasms.
He represents everything Abby is against and of course by the end of the movie they will end together (opposites attract, first appearances are rarely accurate, biggest stars end together...you name it, we've seen it).
The movie isn't special and it seems to know it; therefore it gives in to some low class humor (who would've thought the word "cock" could come out of the angelical Heigl's mouth so much? or that a pussy-as in cat-could spark so many lazy jokes about the female genitals) like bikini clad girls wrestling in a pool of, cherry, Jell-O, baseball fellatio cams and a scene with a sex toy that works only because of Heigl's determination (and a too obvious reference to "When Harry Met Sally").
The movie doesn't reach all-time low levels of crappy, because of the chemistry between Heigl and Butler (so many movies lately are counting on being saved by chemistry that it should really start scaring screenwriters), their banter may not be the stuff of classic Hollywood battles-of-the-sexes, but it makes the crassness sting a bit less.
She is all cute pouts and fabulous outfits, he's all about the rugged charms of a rogue, the sexual tension between them is palpable and they both look damn good throughout the film.
As long as they've got the looks people will keep coming to their movies and that might just be the ugly truth.

27 Dresses *

Director: Anne Fletcher

Cast: Katherine Heigl, James Marsden, Edward Burns, Malin Akerman, Judy Greer

Jane (Heigl) is always a bridesmaid...literally. She has become the perpetual best friend who always helps other brides in their big day, while she only dreams of her own.

She fantasizes about the day when her boss George (Burns) will finally realize he loves her and propose, but when Jane's younger sister Tess (Akerman) arrives in town, she's the one who ends up living Jane's fantasy.

Now she must plan her sister's wedding to the man she loves.

What should be a cute romantic comedy about making your dreams come true, turns into a parade of bitchiness where each character outodes each other in dislikeability.

Tess is the kind of character you know will eventually evolve, but she's such a liar that you wonder why does Jane put up with her.

Jane's a pushover, but instead of making us root for her, because of her noble qualities all you wanna do is slap her (which, scene stealer, Judy Greer's character eventually does).

Even Jane's eventual Prince Charming, a cynical journalist (Marsden) who unbeknownst to her is the author of her favorite wedding stories, results more stalker than romantic.

But when Jane starts taking her life on her hands, she becomes an awful person, the one who you hope never gets married!

Not since Lars von Trier had a director made the lead actress suffer so much, so it's good that Heigl possesses an incredible charm and next door beauty that make us look at her and smile regardless of the tortures she's being submitted to.