Sideways

Sideways isn't really a comedy like the ads say. Nor is it one of the best films of last year. It's a bit like Radio in its attempt to be an Oscar contender, though a little more subtle than Cuba Gooding, Jr. with fake teeth.

It seems to want to be a zany buddy/romantic comedy, but never really lets itself get over itself.

But I don't know anything about wine, so maybe there were some really funny wine jokes that slipped by me, but I doubt it.

There's a lot of talking about wine in this one.

There's also a scary running naked guy near the end that could be a centerpiece in a really funny comedy.

In fact, I see that M.C. Gainey, the big scary naked guy will be playing Roscoe P. Coltrane in the new Dukes of Hazzard movie. Now I have the incredibly hilarious image of Roscoe running naked after them Duke boys doing the "do-do-do" laugh from the show.

I'm not really offended, or surprised that Paul Giamatti didn't get nominated for an Oscar for this film. It was a good performance, but American Splendor was much, much better. I got the impression that Paul was just playing Paul in this one, and giving him an Oscar for that would be like giving John Wayne an Oscar for playing John Wayne.

Also, somewhere on the drive home I got pretty angry at this film because it tried to make me feel sorry for Giamatti's character when he is a lying scumbag. He steals money from his mother and lies repeatedly to his friends. I'm unsure why he was stealing money from his mother, he has a rich friend who would pay for all the wine that he can't really afford, and he has a steady job teaching school, so I would have to say he needs to take up a less expensive hobby than drinking grape juice that has gone bad.

Those of us who aren't wealthy drink beer or whiskey. You can do the tasting bit with beer and whiskey.

Also, Lowell would not know who John Kennedy Toole was, much less that he killed himself before his book was published.

But that naked guy was damn funny. I never would have thought that I would be demanding more time for a scary naked guy in a film.

The direction is fine, the acting is fine, but the story is just a bit on the slow side, and the score got on my nerves for about half the film.

There was some funny here, but it just didn't cary the slower parts.

I don't think that it's that I'm just too stupid or witless to 'get' this movie either. I just this one is a bit overhyped. I really liked director Alexander Payne's other film About Schmidt (which also featured a scary nude scene from an actor that really shouldn't be nude on film--hmm, methinks I sense a trend), but this one just doesn't quite gel like that one did.

Maybe I just need to drink a lot of wine.