Hitch

Hitch
Cast: Will Smith, Eva Mendes, Kevin James, Michael Rapaport, Ato Essandoh
Studio: Columbia
Rating: 7.5/10

CORPORATE LINE: Alex “Hitch” Hitchens (Will Smith) is a legendary — and deliberately anonymous — New York City “date doctor” who, for a fee, has helped countless men woo the women of their dreams.

While coaching Albert (Kevin James), a meek accountant who is smitten with a glamorous celebrity, Allegra Cole (Amber Valletta), Hitch finally meets his match in the person of gorgeous, whip-smart Sara Melas (Eva Mendes), a gossip columnist who follows Allegra’s every move.

The ultimate professional bachelor, Hitch suddenly finds himself falling deliriously in love with Sara, a reporter whose biggest scoop could very well be the unmasking of Manhattan’s most famous date doctor.

THE GOOD: First and foremost, Will Smith needs to stick with comedies. He was a bore in I, Robot but Hitch was a blast. Smith came to us with comedy both in his music and television show and he is a natural at making us laugh. Smith nails his character Hitch who is charming but shallow while Kevin James’ character Albert is a laughable train wreck.

Sure Albert is stock full of every nerdy cliché imaginable yet James turns in an entertaining performance. This will have viewers yearning for more movie roles for this television star and it’s not hard to see Kevin James becoming a comedy film star. Eva Mendes turns in a wonderful performance as Allegra—the sexy and sassy gossip journalist. Step aside J-Lo—Eva is all we need!

THE BAD: Sure the script is full of clichés and Hollywood nonsense—but it works.

DVD FEATURES: The funniest extra is Dance Steps Made Easy with Kevin James improvising his hilarious scene where he dances for Will Smith.

The deleted scenes are not entirely interesting. Most were cut because they were dead weight. Director Andy Tennant does a brief discussion regarding the scenes—overall it’s mostly passable as is the gag reel. You’d think with two very funny guys the gag reel would be loaded. It isn’t.

Another weak featurette is The Dating Experts. There is a discussion on the Will Smith character and the writers and director discussing advice and the investigation of real experts.

FRANKLY: Kevin James and Will Smith offer on oddly appealing partnership in Hitch. These two are ten times more fun on screen than Smith and Martin Lawrence ever were. Smith offers the sex appeal and James offers the laughs and you can only expect that this will be a huge hit!

+ Charlie Craine


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.