Every so often, I see a TV show or movie that makes me think that there are no original ideas left. I ask myself if we’re almost at the point where it will be impossible to write a script that doesn’t borrow heavily from something else. A few years pass and something else comes up.
To be fair, I don’t get the impression that What Men Want is presenting itself as anything new. It’s a remake of What Women Want, except the genders of the main characters are reversed. Instead of a man being able to hear women’s thoughts, a woman is able to hear men’s thoughts.
Ali Davis is the woman who gains psychic powers. She’s a sports agent that wants to make partner. Unfortunately, she doesn’t quite get how to connect with men. This is a problem, since most of her coworkers are male, as is the big star her agency wants to recruit.
As is usually the case with newfound thought-reading abilities, the inability to control the ability proves too much. Ali is hit with all manner of male thoughts from getting a prostate checked to the usual lewd thoughts. She’s scared until she realizes that she now has an in. She can sneak into the secret card game that no one wants her to attend. She can read the mind of Jamal Barry, the would-be client. She can even read the mind of her hot neighbor with the patently adult nickname.
Ali wants to get an edge only to realize that many of the men are just as worried and insecure as she is. The movie plays the concept for laughs, though. There’s a doctor with a drug habit. Ali is able to get two male coworkers together. She even takes the lead at a meeting to recruit Jamal. Stuff like that. If you’ve seen the trailers you’re going to be in for absolutely zero surprises. There’s even a case where Ali lies and it comes back to ruin a potential relationship.
Most of my problem with the movie is that it wasn’t as nuanced as it could have been. Even if say it’s a comedy, jokes tend to be better when there are several layers of meaning. Here, there’s very little that you could understand differently on a second viewing. It’s a fun movie, but I don’t think there’s going ot be a lot of replay value here. I’d wait to rent it on DVD.
To be fair, I don’t get the impression that What Men Want is presenting itself as anything new. It’s a remake of What Women Want, except the genders of the main characters are reversed. Instead of a man being able to hear women’s thoughts, a woman is able to hear men’s thoughts.
Ali Davis is the woman who gains psychic powers. She’s a sports agent that wants to make partner. Unfortunately, she doesn’t quite get how to connect with men. This is a problem, since most of her coworkers are male, as is the big star her agency wants to recruit.
As is usually the case with newfound thought-reading abilities, the inability to control the ability proves too much. Ali is hit with all manner of male thoughts from getting a prostate checked to the usual lewd thoughts. She’s scared until she realizes that she now has an in. She can sneak into the secret card game that no one wants her to attend. She can read the mind of Jamal Barry, the would-be client. She can even read the mind of her hot neighbor with the patently adult nickname.
Ali wants to get an edge only to realize that many of the men are just as worried and insecure as she is. The movie plays the concept for laughs, though. There’s a doctor with a drug habit. Ali is able to get two male coworkers together. She even takes the lead at a meeting to recruit Jamal. Stuff like that. If you’ve seen the trailers you’re going to be in for absolutely zero surprises. There’s even a case where Ali lies and it comes back to ruin a potential relationship.
Most of my problem with the movie is that it wasn’t as nuanced as it could have been. Even if say it’s a comedy, jokes tend to be better when there are several layers of meaning. Here, there’s very little that you could understand differently on a second viewing. It’s a fun movie, but I don’t think there’s going ot be a lot of replay value here. I’d wait to rent it on DVD.
No comments :
Post a Comment