This afternoon I saw J. Lo's newest romantic comedy, the Back Up Plan. I absolutely adored her in the Wedding Planner and after seeing a promising preview for this flick, decided to give it a go.
Boy was I wrong! The only fun part of this entire movie was the opening credits which are a stylish, effervescent, Daily Candy-esque cartoon sequence. After that, its all down hill.
Let's begin with J.Lo's character Zoe. In real life Jennifer Lopez is a fierce Latina, and in this movie we are supposed to believe her name is Zoe and she was raised by her yenta, Jewish grandmother? Come. On.
We are also supposed to believe she left corporate America to run a pet store. A pet store she barely spends any time in and we rarely see her show any love or affection towards a single animal. They do give her a cute doggie with some disabilities, but she even seems annoyed by him.
I will say, Alex O'Loughlin, who plays J. Lo's love interest Stan (yes, Stan, a name with no sex appeal) is painfully gorgeous. However, his steaminess doesn't translate into any chemistry between him and Jenny from the block.
Additionally, every aspect of this film was predictable. I realize there is a bit of romantic comedy formula (ok, maybe a fool proof formula) but I was literally calling plot twists before they happened. There was no element of surprise. At all. At any point.
Special shout out to Michaela Watkins who played J. Lo's best friend Mona and had the only laughs in the film. Thank you for telling at least one solid joke for each of the nine dollars I spent to see your movie.
Ladies, I am sparing you cash you can spend on a cocktail. If you were planning to see this one, its time for your own back up plan.
