HowToLoseAGuyIn10Days Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Duplicity
Julia Roberts and Clive Owen in a smart, fast-paced espionage thriller should have gone gangbusters at the box office, but for some reason never caught fire. They play dueling corporate spies, and that's all you really need to know to enjoy it. Duplicity is witty and engaging, and I think it should hold up quite well to multiple viewings. Also on Blu-ray. Buy it.

Adventureland
Greg Mottola's nostalgic paen to youth is more wistful and bittersweet than rambunctious and celebratory, which makes for a darker viewing experience. It's shot through with a sub-current of anger and resentment, occasionally flaring up to reveal unflattering embarrassments most of us would rather forget. With Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and Ryan Reynolds at his most sleazily appealing. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

Sunshine Cleaning
This is triumph through tears and really bad smells, as sisters Amy Adams and Emily Blunt start a business to clean up crime scenes, without really knowing what they're doing. Alan Arkin provides support as their father, with Steve Zahn, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Clifton Collins, Jr. adding nice turns in supporting roles. Ultimately it's a trifle, but the trip is warm and funny. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

Fighting
For fans of Channing Tatum only, as the buff-bodied star occasionally takes off his shirt in an otherwise numbingly familiar, sometimes unwatchably confusing tale of the NYC underground fighting scene. (My review.) Also on Blu-ray. Skip it.

An outstanding week for Indies on DVD, plus more Blu-ray picks and a very special Collector's Corner -- after the jump!

Let me make this clear: when I say that I'm compiling a list of the most contrived rom-com scenarios, I'm not saying that they're automatically the worst -- although a glance at the titles doesn't exactly stray far from that correlation. Tomorrow's The Proposal finds Sandra Bullock forcing Ryan Reynolds into marriage for the sake of holding off immigration authorities and keeping her/their jobs (I guess it's not too soon to remake Green Card and Picture Perfect after all), so we're talking about seven plot points along those lines of high-concept, close-quarters thinking, with some (dis)honorable mentions along the way...

If you were one of the millions of people who fell in love with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, then I'm sure you will be pleasantly surprised to hear they are now making a sequel. With the first film grossing an astonishing $177 million worldwide, who can blame them for wanting to go another round?

Scribes Keith Merryman and David A. Newman have been tapped to write How To Lose It All for Paramount Pictures and, based on how well the original did, I'm betting these guys won't lose much... assuming Matt and Kate jump onboard. There's no word on whether the two stars will reprise their roles for the sequel, though I imagine we'll know soon seeing as the script will have to be written to either include their characters or focus on an entirely different couple. Currently, Merryman and Newman have Jerry Zucker attached to direct their script, Friends with Benefits, and recently re-wrote Maid of Dishonor for Warners.