SNMR 8.9: "Just Married"

GREEN’S “GONNA CALL THE S.W.A.T. TEAM ON YOUR ASS” REVIEW:

Imagine that you’ve found the woman or man of your dreams and after a month you move in together. After nine months together you decide to get married, surprising her family because you‘re less than they expected for their youngest daughter. If you’re the woman, you’ve likely taken the lead in planning your wedding. If you’re the guy, you’ve got two responsibilities: don’t screw it up and plan the honeymoon.

Now the wedding goes off without a hitch and you’re off to Europe for the best honeymoon ever. Except that everything that can go wrong does go wrong. You’re late for your flight and in your rush to get up you and your spouse head butt each other. You get your foot caught in the airplane toilet while trying to join the mile high club and it only gets worse from there, as you proceed to have the honeymoon from hell and are ready to rip out each other’s throats soon after.

Such is the case with Tom (Ashton Kutcher), a graveyard shift radio traffic reporter and Sarah (Brittany Murphy), the daughter of a wealthy sports team owner. They meet on the beach when Tom throws a football that Sarah attempts to catch with her face.

Like many DVD’s I’d seen this one in the library and kept passing it by. Finally I decided to give it a shot, partly because of Brittany Murphy’s untimely death late last year and partly because I was in the mood to watch a funny romantic comedy.

Ashton Kutcher probably will never win an Oscar for Best Actor but every romantic comedy I’ve seen him in has been very funny. This is only the third movie I’ve seen that Brittany Murphy was in and one of them she was part of a large ensemble cast, so her role was limited. It’s a shame and a tragedy that such a young talent like Murphy died so young. It took me a while but I finally figured out what other film I saw David Moscow in. He plays Ashton Kutchers' best buddy Kyle.

This is one of the films that director Shaun Levy cut his teeth on and he shows a good feel for directing a comedy. This was the first screenwriting credit for Sam Harper.

The main DVD extra is a newlywed game show type interview with Kutcher and Murphy which is kind of corny but still good.

*** out of *****

Just Married (2003, PG-13, 95 minutes), starring Ashton Kutcher, Brittany Murphy, Christian Kane, Valeria Andrews and David Moscow. Written by Sam Harper. Directed by Shawn Levy.