Romantica Jeana

Interest in Estella Warren pointed me in this one's direction. Movie has a bit of a silly storyline. In the old days, really not so long ago, you'd definitely have caused trouble for suggesting that an unmarried woman is not a virgin anymore, here strife is caused by an accidental blab about the lead character's virginity. How times have changed.

No sex, no nudity, no foul language, no violence, set in gentle Sacramento, a chick flick in the truest sense. Pretty Estella Warren in the lead, all blonde mane and long, long legs that are quite often shown. Long, bare legs, at that. And lo, what's this? A decent helping of (gasp!) foot fetishism? Once that fountain scene comes up, gratuitous foot-shots totally escalates! There is also the poolside black bikini sequence that I had on slow motion just a while ago. And lots and lots of more leggy scenes, and, yes, the white toe-nail polish in that couch scene really looks scrumptious! Gasp! All these bare flesh in a chick flick! But no foul language. Except derogatory terms for men, awful creatures. Working title was 'Men Are Jerks', remember? No violence either. Unless you count Jeana stabbing director Charlie Matthau's character with a fork! (Albeit off- camera, but with a grisly sound effect!) And there is such a nasty slicing-the-cucumber scene, I wonder what Jeana was thinking of? Oh, so vicious! Hello, American Motion Picture Association, I want to file a complaint... Oh hell, just kidding, Estella's a long way off from raising any eyebrows, although with her long, long legs and soft-soled bare feet she is clearly not just playing to the chick flick regular audience, but raising more than temperatures. Kissing, cuddling, romantically it all gets pretty steamy, but only the far-out nutters will complain about this sexy movie. Then, again, there are a whole lot of far-out nutters out there filled with jealousy and rage at that black bikini scene.

For the most part, though, this movie needs something. Actual drive, actual conflict, actual drama? The storyline isn't worth three consecutive sneezes, and if the reference to midget porn is the funniest line, what does that say for the rest of the movie? The weak game is quickly given away at the very beginning with that poxy little LNELY GRL cartoon that keeps fading out to green (although the song about love making her stupid was great!)

But I do think that with a pretty girl like Estella Warren you could make a much better chick flick if the subject matter just wasn't so trivial. And hate me for saying this, but the virginity of somebody as hot as Estella has but a fleeting hope to last beyond summer. :)

Okay, the feminists are now queuing up to beat me to death. :(

If you could have a girl like Estella/Jeane or anybody like her, her virginal status would hardly matter. The point being that she's such a nice girl. Kidding her about her choice is clearly wrong, making a fuss about it, even more so. She is the wise one, after all, to wait for the right one. But virginity cannot be cherished forever, not when romance comes into the picture. All a girl can do, is hold out for real love and settle for nothing less. As indeed Jeana did.

Her Minor Thing played at the Kansas International Film Festival Sept 18, 2006 in Kansas City. I found it a marvelous little independent film. I think the Romantic Comedy is my favorite type of movie and this movie really fills the bill. I'm hard pressed to think of a movie with a prettier cast, with Supermodel Estella Warren, Michael Weatherly (of NCIS) and Ivana Milicevic (from the Reese Witherspoon flick, Just Like Heaven).

The basic setup is Estella is a computer programmer for the fire department who is also 26 virgin dating Michael Weatherly. Michael is a TV reporter who shares the fact Estalla is a virgin during an accidental live newscast. Estalla's life is turned upside down and everyone wants to know the why. Mix in a couple of $6,000 cruise tickets to Rio and all of the pervy voice messages she gets throughout the movie and you really get something.

Estella Warren is one of the most beautiful supermodels in the world and she can actually act (especially in a bikini!). The movie covers some pretty important themes (love isn't sex, stand up for yourself without hurting other people and you can't have true love without honesty). Michael Weatherly plays someone very pretty with a nice smile, knows it and really isn't very bright.

The movie was filmed on location in Sacramento, California and it was really nice to see something different than the standard Los Angles locations we've all seen a thousand times before.

All in All an excellent independent film without foul language or violence. Not really any villains in the movie, just people acting according to the nature. And it is twisted to leave the guy sobbing on the couch instead of the girl. Check it out (and the midget porn line is the funniest thing in the movie).

I saw this movie at its debut at SIFF. I was very interested in seeing this independently produced movie. It was OK. There were some parts that had you laughing out loud. It's the type of movie that you may want to watch on TV for free on a rainy day. The cinematography and production value were good for an independent but the plot was disjointed, the characters a bit 2-dimensional and the story unconvincing. Also there was something about the pace of editing that felt rushed, like scenes slapped together rather than a story being told. I normally don't even notice that type of thing. I understand that a romantic comedy is supposed to be light and take you away, but I believe the best ones make you feel a real connection between yourself and the characters to make it all believable and enjoyable. It wasn't there for me. The acting on the part of the female lead was mediocre and not terribly convincing--does she love either of these men? Is she disappointed or actually hurt by any of the situations which were supposed to be affecting her? For me there were just too many times that the movie lost a personal connection due to acting or pacing and took me out of just enjoying the story. The character acting for Rachel Dratch and Michael Weatherly stole the show. They were both excellent. All in all...just OK. Perhaps not the movie that would appeal largely to the film festival crowd-so perhaps I am not the market for this.

Saw this last night at the premiere in Sacramento, CA. This happens to be where it was filmed and I am thinking the rating for this movie (7 out of 10 as of last look) is from a lot of those people. Unfortunatlely, these people were probably so overjoyed that their city was finally featured in a movie, they thought they were rating the movie experience, and not the movie itself.

About the movie....I can summarize that up quickly... weak script, hot babe who cannot act and has language issues, a few memorable lines of which I have forgotten now, and a descent display of the city. Overall, I would not recommend this unless all your laundry is done, you have dyed your fro, your one friend has canceled your date to the fair, and you must attend a funeral tomorrow. If all these things are true, then by all means, find this movie and go see it.

The script is so weak that I am embarrassed that the two writers came from Sacramento. I'm moving....

I was lucky enough to see the world primer of "Her minor Thing" at the Seattle International Film Festival. The director, writers, producers, and the two main actors (Christian Kane and Estella Warren) were also attending. After a introduction be the SIFF coordinator and a short film called "Hello" the film begin.

I won't walk you through every single scene of the film, but I will give you my overall impressions. Charles Matthau, as always, directed the project brilliantly: the editing, sound, and camera angles were all used to exploit a reaction from the audience along with the actors' performances. I went to the film with mixed feelings about seeing yet another "romantic comedy", a term that is almost used as a curse word nowadays, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised.

Unlike most comedies were the girl is sobbing on the couch after her so-called true love did something completely horrid and uncaring, Warren's character was a girl who wasn't afraid to take matters into her own hands without proceeding into the "b***h" territory. Warren really brought her character away from the bright, bubbly, damsel in distress area and made this girl her own. Some of the events were slightly obvious and contrived, like as soon as we saw Kane's character we knew he would end up with Warren's, and the meetings between these characters seemed to be unrealistic, but hey, it's a low-budget comedy, give credit were it's due.

Other than that issue, I really couldn't find anything else to dislike about the film. Christian Kane's character wasn't the perfect man, he had issue that he had to deal with just like a real person. The supporting cast, such as Rachel Dratch, Flex Alexander, Kathy Griffin, and David Fine stole many of the scenes in which they were in or even just standing in the background (watch out for Charles Matthau's cameo with the fork scene). The performance were all very well done, Christian Kane proved why he had such a strong fan base and Estella Warren showed that she can stand toe to toe with any well known leading man or lady and still give as good as she gets.

The main thing I really appreciated about this film was there was no "fall down" humor. All the humor was from real life situations (having to get directions to the airport), the actors' reactions (look for Kane's "is this girl nuts" look), the actual dialogue (midget porn), and just through the characters themselves (the petty fight for the basketball). No one tripped or got hit by a door, which is a nice change of pace from the current romantic "comedy".

All in all, this film is good. It's not "Love Actually", but it can certainly hold it's own next to it. If there is a wide release of "Her Minor Thing" be sure to catch it in theatres, you won't be disappointed.