MOVIE REVIEW - Going The Distance

Another tanker romantic comedy at the movies this week. This time Drew Barrymore gets her chance to be dropped through the trap door in Going The Distance. Last week Jennifer Aniston rode the elevator with a snapped cable to the basement with her tremendous flop, The Switch.

It would seem one of three things are in play here. One - people are on no mood for romantic comedies this summer. Two - people have caught on to the fact that there are no new ideas in Hollywood. Or three - We are done with some of these stars more than Hollywood knows. Probably a combination of all three. Mainly two and three.

GTD stars Barrymore and Justin Long as a young couple that fall in love and then are separated by many miles and settle into a long distance relationship or sorts. Will they make it, or is this too much to overcome? Now doesn't that sound fun? I've never heard of this plot line before. There are no new ideas in Hollywood right now. And it's a problem, especially in this line of movie making. Romantic comedies are staggering around. They have attempted reinvent them recently by making them more crude and action based. This one goes down the crude road at times, and to be honest it really doesn't work. And not because it's crude, because it's not funny. And that's worse.

I won't lie, there are some nice moments in this flick. At times Barrymore is engaging and clever, but a movie can't rely on a split second or two here and there. And some of these stars it would seem are really starting to show their lack of versatility. And we by and large may be becoming done with them. They all do what they do relatively well, problem is with Barrymore, Aniston, and maybe even Katherine Heigl it's all he same time and time again.

Could be they've done all they are really capable of doing, and now we're the wiser. We may be putting more thought into plopping down big money to see the same movie, character and performance time after time. Heigle to a lesser degree. She is funny and fresher, but Killers with Heigl earlier this year was also a mild hit. Aniston's Bounty Hunter did pretty well and was fun, but she had the draw of Girard Butler, and he's a big deal right now. He also was in The Ugly Truth with Heigl, and that was a big hit last year. But for the most part, the struggle is on.

Justin Long is a problem in GTD. Although really funny on MAC TV ads, and in smaller roles in other movies, he's just not strong enough to carry the load in a leading role. He brings no one to the theater and that's a problem too. Long and Barrymore may be great together in real life, but we don't have to pay to see that. The romantic comedy can be really great movie making. But right now we have a real problem getting the fans enthused into going.

Going The Distance. Old, tired idea, a leading actress that as fallen out of popular favor, and a male lead that no one wants to pay to see. You decide. A REDBOX rental in 90 days. Save your money. Everyone else did.