Taxi For Hire..."Take Me Home"

Take Me Home (2011)

Rated PG-13

Starring Sam Jaeger, Amber Jaeger, Victor Garber, Lin Shaye, Christine Rose

Written and Directed by Sam Jaeger

The Story:

Thom (Jaeger), a down on his luck photographer moonlights as an illegal cabbie to try and keep the bill collectors at bay. He's having a really, really bad day when he is flagged down by Claire (Jaeger) whose day may be equally awful. She tells him to "just drive", and he does. When she wakes up, she's far from New York and heading to Ohio. At that point, she hires him to just take her to California so she can see her dad.  The adventure continues!

Not bad, not bad at all.

It's a very slow build road trip/romantic comedy, but without the romance.

See, Claire's married, and while not happily, she's still got a ring on her finger.

That's not to say that things can't change over the course of 3000 miles, but you've got the usual they hate each other at first and by the end when it's time to go their separate ways, they've come to care for one another a great deal.

Jaeger (Sam) does a really nice job of making the production look first rate, and I have little concern with this movie than I do with a lot of films that are written and directed by the same person, not to mention starring that same person, and their wife!

That doesn't happen every day, but this is a pleasant little road trip that's worth the time to take.

Available now, streaming on both Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Final Grade: B-

Smarter Than You Give It Credit For... "Legally Blonde"

Legally Blonde (2001)

Rated PG-13

Starring Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair, Matthew Davis, Victor Garber, Jennifer Coolidge, Ali Larter

Directed by Robert Luketic

The Story:

Elle (Witherspoon) has been dumped by her boyfriend (Davis) as the two plan on their college future.  He needs to get into Harvard and become a lawyer, and he just can't be with her anymore.  Elle doesn't take rejection lightly, so she pulls out all the stops and applies to Harvard...

And is accepted!

In over her head, Elle is ready to quit, but when the chance to intern under Professor Callahan (Garber) to defend fitness guru Brooke Windham (Larter) from murder charges, she discovers that she's kind of a natural at the whole lawyer thing.

:)

Legally Blonde is one of those movies that is a perfect storm of a great cast, some inspired writing, and just plain fun that you're not certain what you were expecting going into it, but will walk out glad that you saw it.

At least, that's how I see it.

Take your choice of genre:

Fish out of water.
Romantic Comedy.
New Kid in Town.
Legal Comedy.
Boy meets girl meets boy.

Shake lightly, and out comes Legally Blonde.

It's easy to think that Elle is just going to be beaten down by the system at the beginning of the movie.  She's out-matched, and everyone (faculty/other students) are against her.

But Witherspoon simply wins you over with her performance. 

If you had to circle a movie to explain why Witherspoon is a great actress, or why people like her, I would pick this one.

Luke Wilson is also given the chance to shine as the potential suitor for Elle's charms.  Not sure why he never did more romantic comedies, they all seem to fall to his brother, but Luke is always a great choice and does a nice job here at both challenging and supporting Elle to do her best.

Good stuff.

Final Grade: A-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I hadn't seen this one in a few years and had forgotten how fun(ny) it really is.  I'll try and get it back into rotation every few years now.