No Hard Feelings is a comedy featuring Jennifer Lawrence as a broke and desperate thirty-something who enters into a sketchy plot to break a teenage shut-in out of his shell by pretending to be his girlfriend. High-jinks ensue, with the movie resolving with the typical Hollywood ending. Is No Hard Feelings a great movie? No, but it is a comedy with a ridiculous premise like The Forty Year-Old Virgin or Step-Brothers, and while it's not as funny as those two classics, it does have some memorable gags, which include a misconstrued kidnapping that ends in a macing as well as a naked wrestling match at a beach. Lawrence is pretty good here, showing excellent physical comedic chops, and while the movie bombed at the box office, it will assuredly have a second life on Netflix, which was where I watched it. Definitely worth a watch, especially for the novelty factor of a major Hollywood actress showing ass (both literally and figuratively).
The Critic had the privilege of seeing the great Bob Dylan live last Friday and was pleasantly surprised. Dylan has always been famous more for his innovative songwriting rather than his musical ability, and while his voice has never been pleasant, he seemed to be in good form last weekend. Performing a set derived mostly from his last album (which the Critic hasn't listened to) Mr. Dylan maintained my interest with his inscrutable lyrics and his ragged piano playing, which always threatened to leave the band behind. Not many 82 year-olds are still touring! Keep being the artist of all artists, Mr. Bob.
The Wheel of Time is a classic fantasy series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, and while the second season of Amazon's adaptation gets a lot of things right (the casting is mostly on point), they bungle the exciting plotline of the second book in the series in favor of rewriting Moiraine and Lan's relationship in a way that will disappoint book fans. Principal author Jordan's series has a lot of faults (certain books seem to go on forever without any substantial action), but his character arcs are excellent, and it's a shame that Amazon seems intent on changing what doesn't need to be changed. Rosamund Pike is a great actress, and she's a series highlight, but Moiraine was not as important a character in the books as she is in the television series. Still, it's a competently-written show most of the time, and for those looking for a Game of Thrones replacement, The Wheel of Time will satisfy more so than Netflix's Witcher series.
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