"| In the '70s a friend of mine once ducked into a Times Square grind house to catch Martin Scorsese's "Boxcar Bertha," which was showing on a double bill. The blaxploitation flick that preceded it was just ending, and when the lights came up, my friend realized that he and his buddy were the only white people in the theater. When the lights went down again and "Boxcar Bertha" began, two enthusiastic and vocal moviegoers, shouting to each other from opposite ends of the theater, kept up a lively running argument. Suddenly, their attention shifted to the screen. In a scene featuring a nude Barbara Hershey walking away from the camera, one of these unabashed truth tellers announced, to the actress's image and to everyone within earshot, "She ain't got no ass! White women ain't got no ass!"- Stephanie Zacharek, in Salon.If only that woman had been around to see the nude Jennifer Aniston slink away from the camera in Peyton Reed's "The Break-Up." Aniston has a fine figure for those silky, tubular red-carpet evening dresses, and she looks great in those low-slung trousers that rest so fetchingly just below the navel. But watching her in that nude scene, from what should have been a choice angle, I suddenly realized why I've never been able to whip up either gentle admiration for the actress or active dislike: With Aniston, there's just nothing to hang on to, either literally or figuratively. Her love handles, if they exist at all, are recessive."
I saw it Tuesday; what a horrible movie. There are a few funny moments in argument scenes, but "The Break-Up" suffers from the "every good scene was in the trailer" syndrome more than any movie in recent memory. Horrible script, horrible acting, and about 15 different pointless cameos by actors who are only in the movie because of Vaughn. And while it's good to see Vaughn and Favreau back on screen together again, the film goes back to that well way too many times.
And that Aniston nude scene is a lot more creepy than sexy. Who told her it's attractive to be able to see each individual rib cage muscle?
Anyway, the other critics seem to agree with me; I'm yet to read a positive review.
Posted by Stephen Silver at June 2, 2006 04:49 PMAmen. I thought the arguments between Vaughn and Aniston were the worst parts of the film, because there wasn't anything to laugh at, and all you wanted when you listened to them was for the characters to get very very far away from each other and never see each other again.
Nice to see Jason Bateman working again, though.
Posted by: Gib at June 5, 2006 09:14 AM