Young Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds) has a problem. He has been best friends with Jamie Palamino (Amy Smart) for years, but it seems like that’s all they will ever be. He’s stuck in The Friend Zone.

Now they’re graduating, so he’s going to write her a special note in her yearbook. The only problem is one of those jerk jocks gets a hold of it and reads the note to everyone at the party, and he’s humiliated again. He jumps on his bike and rides off.

10 years later, he is in LA and his boss gives him an ultimatum. Sign (another) bratty superstar to a contract, or find somewhere else to work. It just so happens that he’s been dating this one, so they jet off towards Paris to see what he can do.

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You might think that The Dukes of Hazzard return in this big screen fiasco, but you’d be wrong. About the only thing that remains the same between this movie and the original The Dukes of Hazzard is the name, the name of the players and the General Lee.

The Duke boys do shoot those arrows that explode when they hit something, and the place names are the same.

Oh, and you could almost count Willie Nelson, because he used to play with Waylon Jennings. Willie plays the new Uncle Jesse, and Waylon used be The Balladeer. But that’s about as close as it gets, and that’s also the end of the comparison. Sad, really.

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Rose Feller (Toni Collette) has led a sensible life, but she has a wild side – it’s in her closet. Her shoes, to be precise. Meanwhile, her sister Maggie (Cameron Diaz) is a bit less sensible, but she doesn’t have quite the shoe collection of her sister. Oh, she’d like it, but she just doesn’t have it. So when she’s kicked out of her own apartment for coming home late one too many times (and too drunk), she goes to live with Rose.

The only problem is that she sleeps with Rose’s boyfriend – and coworker – which means that Rose has had enough, too. That means that Maggie takes off for new digs, and that is when she finds out about a stack of letters that her grandmother sent her (and Rose) that her father and stepmother have kept hidden. So instead of going to New York like she had planned, she goes to Florida to visit her grandmother. Enter Ella (Shirley MacLaine).

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Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton) is one of those people who just seems to have everything – his business is going well, he has a beautiful wife, and even his relationship with his ex-wife seems to be a good one. There just aren’t that many people like him in this world. So one day when his current wife disappears, then turns up missing, and eventually is found down the river, it shatters his amazing life. But it gets worse.

Because not long after this happens, he notices someone watching his house, then watching his office, so he confronts him, and finds out about “EVP” – Electronic Voice Phenomena – where the disembodied spirits of those who have passed try and communicate with those who are still here.

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Elizabeth Masterson (Reese Witherspoon) is a doctor who puts in some long hours. Even other doctors thinks that she works too much.

At the beginning of the movie, she finishes working a 26-hour shift and on her way out someone asks her to look at a patient and she agrees. That’s dedication. But she also has learned that she has just received a promotion, so it’s all worth it. Unfortunately she has given up any sense of a personal life in exchange, but she has decided that the exchange is worthwhile.

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When Lisa (Rachel McAdams) heads to the airport to return to Miami, she gets a call from her hotel. It turns out that night clerk Cynthia has an emergency on her hands – a regular couple seems to be there and she can’t find her reservation. Luckily, Lisa is one of those rare souls who can handle emergencies like this, and even though she’s late for her flight and in a cab on a cell phone, she walks Cynthia through handling things without a hitch.

Unfortunately when she gets to the airport, she finds out that her flights has been delayed, and it looks like she’ll be on the red eye back to Miami. That’s when a rather boisterous passenger gets upset about having to wait in line while others (who are about to miss their flights) get to go ahead of him. That’s host most of us would act – but Lisa takes it in stride and tries to help out the overwhelmed customer service people. She’s just that kind of person.

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Charlize Theron plays Josey Aimes, a down-on-her-luck woman who has decided to go to work in the mine, which is not exactly a woman-friendly environment in the late eighties. Though there are a handful of women there, they are roundly dismissed as real workers and regularly harassed in just about every imaginable way.

This is the story of how Josey Aimes fought back against the great machine that she was up against, and how nearly everyone was against her – not just the men in the mine and the courts, but even the other women who were at times her friends and the people in her own family.

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This seemingly low-budget film with a mostly no-name cast surprises with quite a decent ending. The only problem is that the beginning is rather jumbled and makes it difficult to get into it at first. If you can get past that, then this movie is most definitely worth watching, as it is full of twists and turns and there are very few like it these days.

The real surprise is that director (Jeff Wadlow) turned out a movie that is really quite good without utilizing the standard horror formula of lots of gore, tons of language or even nudity. There are certainly moments that you won’t want your younger kids to watch, but it’s enjoyable because of the suspense, not because of the content. I was really surprised.

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I wrote an entry comparing this movie to Animal House nearly ten months ago, but I never really reviewed the movie itself, so I figured that it was time to rectify that situation.

Overall, the movie is certainly enjoyable. It’s nothing like Animal House, true, but very few movies are. Frankly, I don’t think it’s even as good as Old School, but it’s definitely a closer comparison. The problem is that it simply doesn’t flow. Both Animal House and Old School stayed true to their vision throughout, while Wedding Crashers starts and stops, which detracts from the overall enjoyment.

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I have to admit to not being a huge fan of The Fantastic Four growing up. Heck, I wasn’t a fan of any of the traditional superheroes, though I did like comics in general well enough. I just didn’t want to be reading the same ones as everyone else. So while I was acquainted with the basic premise, I didn’t have too much attachment to it. I completely understand that someone who was in love with the story may have ideas that are completely shattered if the movie wasn’t faithful to the original story.

When the four primary characters travel to the space station to research cosmic rays, they find that their calculations were off, and the rays are both more powerful than expected and closer. So they are bombarded by radiation that is unknown in origin and in power. This in turn gives them new powers, and they return to Earth with these powers, which transforms them into the superhero team that is known as The Fantastic Four.

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