28 replies to this topic

[SDG]

Just saw Zookeeper last night, a movie about which of two gorgeous, confident, well-adjusted women is right for Kevin James.

It seems the schlub who scores with the girl out of his league is going beyond a mere trope to a nearly ubiquitous Hollywood obsession. Just this week you've got Horrible Bosses, in which Charlie Day is engaged to Lindsay Sloane while also being sexually harassed by a nymphomaniac Jennifer Aniston (much to the half-hearted sympathy of his two slightly less schlubby best buds). Last week there was Shia LaBeouf in Transformers 3 living with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, on the rebound from Megan Fox in the earlier films.

What are some other recent examples? She's Out of My League, of course.

SDG, on 07 July 2011 - 06:26 AM, said:

Just saw Zookeeper last night, a movie about which of two gorgeous, confident women is right for Kevin James.

It seems the schlub who scores with the girl out of his league is going beyond a mere trope to a nearly ubiquitous Hollywood obsession. Just this week you've got Horrible Bosses, in which Charlie Day is engaged to Lindsay Sloane while also being sexually harassed by a nymphomaniac Jennifer Aniston (much to the half-hearted sympathy of his two slightly less schlubby best buds). Last week there was Shia LaBeouf in Transformers 3 living with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, on the rebound from Megan Fox in the earlier films.

What are some other recent examples? She's Out of My League, of course.

[NBooth]

Wasn't some of the criticism of Knocked Up based around the fact that Katherine Heigl is so manifestly out of Seth Rogan's league? Never saw the movie, myself, so I can't say if the plot made a big deal out of it or not.

[J.A.A. Purves]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zaA9APEatw"]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=_zaA9APEatw[/url]

Edited by Persiflage, 07 July 2011 - 10:26 AM.

[SDG]

NBooth, on 07 July 2011 - 10:19 AM, said:

Wasn't some of the criticism of Knocked Up based around the fact that Katherine Heigl is so manifestly out of Seth Rogan's league? Never saw the movie, myself, so I can't say if the plot made a big deal out of it or not.

Yeah, I meant to mention this one myself. Of course, whether the plot makes a big deal about it doesn't change the fact that the audience can see, which is the main point, I think. Like She's Out of My League, Knocked Up does acknowledge the disparity between them in a way that some of these other movies don't, but I'm not sure that helps much.

[NBooth]

SDG, on 07 July 2011 - 10:28 AM, said:

NBooth, on 07 July 2011 - 10:19 AM, said:

Wasn't some of the criticism of Knocked Up based around the fact that Katherine Heigl is so manifestly out of Seth Rogan's league? Never saw the movie, myself, so I can't say if the plot made a big deal out of it or not.

Yeah, I meant to mention this one myself. Of course, whether the plot makes a big deal about it doesn't change the fact that the audience can see, which is the main point, I think. Like She's Out of My League, Knocked Up does acknowledge the disparity between them in a way that some of these other movies don't, but I'm not sure that helps much.

In that case, I would like to humbly submit any movie Seth Rogan's ever been in, up to and including The Green Hornet. He's like the king of this sort of thing.

[mrmando]

Hm. Any film where Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Rick Moranis, Tom Arnold, Joe Pesci, or David Paymer is involved in any kind of romantic relationship could well qualify. I can't remember who played DeVito's girlfriend in Twins, but the relationship seemed singularly implausible.

Then, of course, there's Woody Allen pairing himself up with Mira Sorvino and Julia Roberts, among others...

Edited by mrmando, 07 July 2011 - 03:12 PM.

[Buckeye Jones]

Wasn't the Jack Black comedy* Shallow Hal about this?


*not sure this is the correct descriptor...

[Thom Wade]

No. Shallow Hal was about seeing a person's inner beauty, rather than judging them for their exterior.

It occurs to me that this thread's title is pretty descriptive of Kevin James' TV/Movie career.

[Buckeye Jones]

Ah, but you see--Hal needed to see her as a Size 2 before he could recognize her inner beauty. It was about the audience seeing her inner beauty (and laughing at a fat Gwyneth Paltrow).

Edited by Buckeye Jones, 07 July 2011 - 06:00 PM.

[mrmando]

Meanwhile, women everywhere are falling over each other in appreciation of Kevin James' inner beauty?

[Greg P]

Ugly men hookup with gorgeous women all the time. What was unrealistic about the relationship in "Knocked Up" was not that Rogan was fat and ugly-- it's that he was fat, ugly AND poor. Heigl's character was a successful, nationally-known TV reporter for the E! network. Rogan played an unemployed pot-smoker with $60 in his bank account. That kind of match-up simply never occurs in the real world.

Shallow Hal was believable because that showed a very average-looking and overweight protagonist (Jack Black) eventually finding true love with a woman who was, herself, obese. That's not a stretch at all. Now if Black's character had been played by Brad Pitt or Clive Owen-- that would be absurd. Because, let's face it, handsome men never date homely, overweight women.

Edited by Greg P, 07 July 2011 - 07:28 PM.

[mrmando]

How about Peter Lorre and Joyce Jameson in Roger Corman's Tales of Terror? Of course she does cheat on him with Vincent Price...

Edited by mrmando, 08 July 2011 - 01:14 AM.

[Thom Wade]

Greg P, on 07 July 2011 - 07:16 PM, said:

Heigl's character was a successful, nationally-known TV reporter for the E! network.

Correction, she worked for the E! network. She was a producer who had just gotten promoted to on air personality the very day she hooks up with Rogen.

[Darren H]

For the record: a photo of Kevin James and his real-life, super-hot wife. Hollywood always has been and always will be a magical land of male wish-fulfillment.

[SDG]

Darren H, on 08 July 2011 - 09:54 AM, said:

For the record: a photo of Kevin James and his real-life, super-hot wife. Hollywood always has been and always will be a magical land of male wish-fulfillment.

This is implicitly addressed in my review. Steffiana de la Cruz, James’s real-life wife, is in the film, as I note. Note the bolded bit:

Quote

[Zookeeper is] about which of two gorgeous, confident, otherwise well-adjusted women is right for Kevin James, a short, overweight, neurotic, clumsy schlub who relates better to animals than he does to people.

Is it impossible that an average guy with below-average personal skills and no special fortune could wind up involved with not one but multiple dazzling beauties? No, not at all. Why, just this week in Horrible Bosses there’s Charlie Day, a rather emasculated dental hygienist with no long-term career plans, who is engaged to Lindsay Sloane while also being aggressively pursued at work by his boss, Jennifer Aniston. And last week in the third Transformers the unemployed Shia LaBeouf, on the rebound from Megan Fox, landed in the posh DC apartment of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. It happens all the time.

FWIW, a Twitter exchange this morning between me and Victor Morton:

Quote

(@vjmfilms) hey bud ... if Kevin James is married IRL to the hot Filipina chick, maybe the movie's not so unrealistic #ducks

(@decentfilms) Don't gloss "below-average personal skills and no special fortune." Not to impugn HFC, if KJ were a socially maladroit zookeeper..

(@vjmfilms) besides short, overweight, neurotic, clumsy schlubs relate better to MOVIES than to people #duh

(@decentfilms) But not IN the movies. #duhsquared

(@vjmfilms) what what what ... are you trying to tell me ZOOKEEPER is not realistic? #andDeSicawept

Edited by SDG, 08 July 2011 - 11:36 AM.

[MattPage]

It's not a movie, but this is my wife's major criticism of Seinfeld. And we've just started watching Fraiser...

Matt

[mrmando]

Frasier may be a craven prig, but he's not a schlub: he's supposed to be successful and famous even if he's not good-looking. And from my recollection, the show gets more mileage on a regular basis out of his inability to get laid than it does from his occasional conquests (which usually end in some frightful embarrassment or another).

Most importantly, please don't judge Seattle by "Frasier." Only John Mahoney's character looks or behaves anything like a Seattleite (and even he has more than a touch of Kent or Auburn in him). Of course, John Mahoney was born in Lancashire!

[MattPage]

Oh I'm enjoying Fraiser immensely.

[Thom Wade]

Jerry is playing a fairly successful comedian on the show. So he falls into the "Rich and famous" category.

[Christian]

SDG, on 07 July 2011 - 06:26 AM, said:

Last week there was Shia LaBeouf in Transformers 3 living with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, on the rebound from Megan Fox in the earlier films.

Shia LeBeouf is a "schlub"? I thought he was considered a sex symbol, or a "hottie," or whatever. Maybe I just haven't seen him lately.