The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Last night I went out with Kim, Cara and her sidekick Scott to take in Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston's The Break-Up. Previously, I was in a mood to see horrible horrible films such as Big Momma's House 2 and The Ringer(I was hoping they would be in the "so bad it's good" category, but no, both were just plain bad). Kim sat through BMH2 so she got to pick the next flick to see.

The ads and trailers made it look like The Break-Up is a romantic comedy, leaning more on the comedy side. But really, this is just a movie about two people being mean to each other. They try for laughs early and while nothing left me on the floor laughing, it seemed to go in the right direction. But early in the movie when Aniston's character decides to end the relationship, the movie just goes back and forth on these two ex-lovers being nasty to each other. I'm not saying every film about break-ups needs is expected to be all sunshine and lollipops, but the way the movie is set up and the "feel" of the sets and the characters initially makes you think it will be an easy-going film. But it's not the case and it makes for unenjoyable viewing. You sort of sitting back thinking to yourself, "Why am I paying to see these two get hurt and/or humiliated?"

When the movie winds down (MAJOR SPOILER. Skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to know what happens at the end of the film) with Aniston deciding she does not want Vaughan back after he figures out what he did wrong and asks for a second chance, didn't make any sense to me. Aniston ended the relationship in the hopes Vaughan would realize the mistakes he made. The span of time between these two occurrences is about three weeks in my estimation. She claims she's "exhausted" by the situation but c'mon, it was hardly dragged out. Maybe in high-school it would be a long time, but the way the story was told made it unconvincing to me. Maybe the argument could be made it was something bound to happen, but since we didn't really get to know the couple when they were happy together it's simple plot manipulation. They could have made a happy ending and it wouldn't have felt as out of place as the sad ending they went for.

I'd recommend you take a pass on this one. BTW, this is another post from work. Bringing in the PC tomorrow to get looked at, and soon I can return to giving you my "daily" SBP doses!