(S)ex List

a friend invited me to a screening of What's Your Number the other night and i went, but thought it was going to be lame. It wasn't! the trailer is so bad - why is it so bad? but the movie is funny! i swear, there are parts that are still making me chuckle days later.

Anna Faris is darling. Chris Evans not as boring as you think he's going to be - he's actually quite charming. (and his body is sick, but that's beside the point.) They have good chemistry and the banter between them is hysterical. they say the things that you think and would never dare to say out loud, which made me laugh and laugh. some people might find that offensive, like my mom, but i'm not recommending this movie to her.

i am recommending it to my girlfriends though. i see a lot of movies and this is waaay better than that No Strings Attached or horrible Justin Timberlake rom-com. this one is cute and has some really funny lines.

also - it's a fun shopping movie. i covet her apartment, i want to go to Boston in springtime, and it made me want to dig up some of my 80's music. is it winning an Oscar? no, but it's cute. i don't think you'll be disappointed.

WHAT'S YOU NUMBER? is a flimsy bit of fluff based on the novel '20 Times A Lady' by Karen Bosnak and transformed for the screen by Gabrielle Allan and Jennifer Crittenden. It is a very light comedy that has some observations about today's dating/quasi-relationship scene, but those impressions are a bit too true to be funny, so it is best to just concentrate on the film as a diversion of the kick back, put feet up, and giggle along with it genre.

Ally Darling (!) (Anna Faris) has a history of having many ex-boy connections who turned out to be losers. Reading an article that offers number amounts for judging sexual encounters (Ally has exceeded the norm) she freaks and believes that she can't find THE good guy. Deciding to reevaluate her ex-encounters searching for Mr Right, she decides to look up all of her exs to see if any of them have changed for the better. Finding this task daunting she turns to her apartment neighbor Colin Shea (Chris Evans), a would-be musician who sleeps with women every night and sneaks out the morning after to avoid relating to them, to act as her detective. The rest is a contrived series of ups and downs of the manhunt that has few qualified candidates. And the end is predictable.

For once Anna Faris has snagged a role that shows her talent (and fingernails-on-the- blackboard voice) and she looks terrific. But the biggest treat in the film is Chris Evans appearing in the buff often enough to keep the movie on: not only does he enjoy his Adonis body but he seems happy allowing it to buff up an otherwise routine comedy part. There is another attraction in the wings - Oliver Jackson-Cohen - who seems to have a future in film. Tuck in the always reliable Blythe Danner and Ed Begley, Jr and this is a cast worth an evening's outing. But the treat on top of the confection is the eye candy generously shared by Chris Evans.

Grady Harp

I saw the promos for this pic when I saw "Crazy Stupid Love" and "Our Idiot Brother". It seemed kind of funny, so I took a chance on it tonight.

I'm not a big fan of the bubbly blonde genre, nor do I frown upon it, but the film seemed to have lots of sexual references, almost too many for a character like Anna Faris's "Ally Darling". In this regard the film is a bit of a disappointment as it dove immediately to uninhibited descriptors of sex, as opposed to building up to those moments where Anna's character has to blurt out the obvious. But hey, it's a chick flick rom-com, so you can't really fault it too much, because it does mean well.

I can't say I laughed too much at this film, but laugh I did, and I truly wanted to laugh more, but the humor bounced from raunch to intellectual, with some shades of gray in-between. So it was that I found myself hard pressed to absorb and laugh at all of the sexually oriented humor, but nor was I a prude in that department, as I could very much appreciate some of the finer points of sex-gags.

Some of the alleged romantic moments seemed way over the top. So much that one wonders why they were put in there to begin with. And casting Colin Shea as the hunky yet uninteresting neighbor who might be a sleaze, seemed a bit of a stretch. Particularly when Ally's past suitors physiques pail in comparison to her sleuth-neighbor.

The other stretch is the notion that perky cute blonde living on her own in Boston would have a hard time finding mister right. But, it's a movie, so we take the premise for what it is, and either go with it, or shrug and begrudgingly accept what is put forth.

Technical marks all hit their cues. There're some interesting shots here and there, and one wonders how they got some of those. Otherwise this film isn't about great cinematography nor sound, just about a quirky little girl in a highly explicit verbal-sex film. Now, having said that, I think the delivery and editing of some of the lines (not to mention some of the lines themselves) could have been better executed, for the film does feel a bit flat in act I, and doesn't really pick up until a third of the way into act II.

Still, it is what it is. Not a film I'd go see again, something I might rent in the future just to see what went into making this film.

Give it a chance.

I know I shouldn't have liked or enjoyed it. Especially because I'm not really a big fan of Anna Faris (as an actress that is). But you can't fault her in this one. She really gets the most of many scenes (as stupid as they seem and feel like). And while this isn't really something that should be accounted for (as a positive), it really is nice, that it does not pull any punches (talking about the R-rating, although there is a longer cut to be released later on).

Of course you know where this is heading and while the ending again might fall short of all the swagger that has come up to that point it still feels like a nice comedy. Or should I say "raunchy" instead of nice? But both words fit the bill here. Both lead actors are obviously having fun and it translates and really transcends to the viewer. Not comedy gold, but entertaining enough

"What's Your Number?" follows the standard Rom-Com formula as all the other Katherine Heigl or Jennifer Aniston movies that came before it. The only difference is this one is actually funny and has a bunch of laugh out loud jokes.

The reason this film is so much better than the other R-rated Rom-Com's is that Anna Faris is a true comedienne and is not afraid to show a little butt-cheek to get a laugh. She is essentially the whole reason to see this film.

Chris Evans, Blythe Danner, and Ed Begley Jr. make up the fine supporting cast. The jokes are mostly foul, crude, and unsophisticated but the audience at my showing was laughing throughout most of the film. The ending gets saccharine and sentimental at the end, but most of these types of films do that.

If you have felt cheated by the films of Jennifer Aniston and Katherine Heigl, you should check out "What's Your Number?"