Vintage

Sooner or later I have to review some cool chick flicks.  Although it should be noted that the term "cool chick flicks" could be an oxymoron.  Moreover, I don't have to review such films, but screw it, I will.  I will start with The Proposal.  This is a campy film starring Sandra Bullock as Margaret Tate, a mean, hard-to-please editorial boss, who finds she will be deported to Canada if she can’t get a visa.  What does she do to fix this immigration problem?

She in a sense blackmails her assistant, Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) into marrying her so she can get her visa and thus maintain her role as a workaholic hell bitch.  Well, this is the absurd set-up for a fairly predictable series of gags based on this milquetoast premise. But, read me out.  It is tolerable from a dude's standpoint and your broad should stay entertained, if not all giddy for a moment admiring the six pack on Ryan Reynolds.  Me, I'll admire a six pack of brew.

Under the scrutiny of an officious immigration agent, she agrees to fly to cold Sitka, Alaska for a large family gathering all for a grandmother's 90th birthday party.  Here she discovers her assistant was in fact really a scion of a well-heeled aristocratic family of which the family Patriarch, Joe Paxton (Craig. T. Nelson), a gruff, hard-nosed figure, does not approve of his son’s running off to New York and shirking his family duties as an heir apparent.  He finds nothing manly in his son's job as an assistant.  Neither do I for that matter. 

Sandra Bullock will inevitably find she indeed loves her assistant and come to see the error of her ways and that should come as no surprise there. The dude in this flick is not cool at all. He serves the role as Sandra Bullock’s dildo.  He is a writer and not very manly at that.  This is no Ernest Hemmingway in the making.  

Still, the gaffes are okay to keep you entertained.  They put the film in Alaska, which for lack of some other place, seems interesting. The scenery and acting are serviceable for this kind of ho hum flick.  The comedy is nothing to get hysterical about. 

All in all, you can sit through this chick flick and if you can sit through it, that makes it a Queen chick flick.   Plus, it’s got Craig T. Nelson in there and if you imagine hard enough, it is like he is “Coach” in this movie.