The Five Year Engagement.

My friend recently got engaged and wedding planning has been full on. We had a night to kill a couple weeks ago and went to see The Five Year Engagement. I was really stoked for this movie because one of the producers on the film was Judd Apatow, and he produced the movie Bridesmaids; which I was big fan of fun. Not only we were looking to enjoy a movie about a wedding but I have been a huge fan of Jason Segel.

Jason Segel not only acted in the movie but was a screenplay writer and executive producer on the film. From the cast and crew alone the movie had promise.  

The story line is about a couple, Tom and Violet, played by Jason Segel and Emily Blunt. After dating for a year the couple gets engaged, but instead of a quick engagement the end up being engaged for five years. The storyline follows the couple as they struggle with their careers, a move to a different state and planning a wedding.

Going into the movie I was really expecting comedy that was in Bridesmaids and excited to watch Jason Segel’s screenplay in action. The comedy was mediocre and nothing up to the same standards of the work in bridesmaids. The screenplay itself was decent but was not that original at all. It became clear where the story was going after the couple made the move to Michigan.

            Lately there have not been very many main stream romance comedies. The last one was Bridesmaids. I think that they were in the right market with a romance comedy movie and it felt like they were trying to get another hit like they had with Bridesmaids and reach the same target audience. The main target audience being young adults in their mid 20’s to mid 30’s. The movie was about a couple around that age just out of college and trying to establish careers for themselves. The storyline and characters are certainly relatable to someone around this age and going through the same thing. I do also think that the storyline did carry an important message about love and relationships; which I think is good for people around this age and helps them think about which to put first, love or a career. As far as stereotypes and offensive messages I think that someone from Michigan might come out of the movie being offended.  The writers really played on the stereotypes of Michigan and what it would be like for someone living there. It also played on the stereotypes of Professors taking advantage of their female students.

I was really excited to see this movie; given the wedding planning my friend was doing and being a huge Jason Segel fan. About 30 minutes into the movie I lost all my excitement. I found Jason Segel to still be funny and thought that his character was hilarious. But Jason’s humor was not enough to make up for the lack of humor from the other characters and the lack of story line. I was expecting a cute romcom and expecting to laugh about a couple planning a wedding. Instead I got a few laughs about Tom (Jason Segel) a San Francisco native trying to live in the cold and snow in Michigan. His character had trouble adapting and was not happy in Michigan, but his attempt to adapt was the best part of the movie. When the couple finally did end up getting married it was a silly thrown together wedding. A screenwriter’s attempt of trying to be cute but the whole thing just came off cheesy.
        The movie overall was not that memorable. In fact I had forgotten all about it till I was in class this past week. Even when my professor asked the class if anyone had seen it, it took me a minute to remember that I had. The movie has nothing to offer worth remembering or makes me want to watch it again. It had has laughs and I enjoyed the storyline and felt like I could relate to it but just left feeling so blah about it. Rafer Guzman a critic from Newsday gave one of the better reviews on I feel on the movie and is quoted saying "'The Five-Year Engagement' becomes two things: an accurate reflection of a new generation of postponement-prone 30-somethings, and a rather uninteresting story.” 

This isn’t a movie a will be buying on DVD or off I-tunes.  It is not a movie I recommended to anyone to see in the theater either. I recommend waiting and watching at home. I will though still remind a huge fan of Jason Segel and continue you to see Jude Apatow movies.  My friend that went to the movie with my felt the same way I did and walked away disappointed also. Other people I know that saw it also left with the same feeling of “Blah”. It was 124 minutes of some laughs and the feeling of always know what is coming next.  
This assignment left me with the want to review more movies. I learned how to dissect and analyze a movie. More than just expressing what I thought with the simple word of "Blah". Sure, I still used the word "Blah' to express my feelings towards the movie in my post, but I was able to write and say more about the movie than before.

Here are some more reviews of the movie - 

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2012/04/the_five_year_engagement_reviewed_.html

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/27/showbiz/movies/five-year-engagement-review/index.html

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-five-year-engagement

A Look Inside Advertising

Burger King recently just released a new advertising campaign featuring different celebrities from David Beckham to Sofia Vergara. Each celebrity has their own commercial and each one features them as a sex god or goddess, with each celebrity ordering or making something Healthy. David Beckham’s commercial shows him coming up to the counter and ordering one of BK’s new healthy smoothie. The employees then get all excited and zone out because of the sex appeal David Beckham has. 

In Sofia Vergara’s commercial she is actually one of the BK employees and is making one of the new healthy salads for a customer. When she goes to hand the salad to the customer; a bunch of men come running up and wants the same salad from her.

 Each ad uses background music that almost makes you feel like you’re watching a Disney fairy tale movie and the person fantasies about the celebrities as if they just found their soul mate.

The whole campaign is pretty well thought out. They hit a few different persuasive techniques with these commercials; Bandwagon, famous-person testimonial, and plain-folks. Using David Beckham and Sofia Vergara hits the famous-person testimonial. People see them eating Burger King then they will want to do the same. They also use David and Sofia’s sex appeal towards plain-folks and how they react towards their hotness. If celebrities eat Burger King and look amazingly hot, then why shouldn’t everyone?  Each commercial has a little story line to it which I think makes it more of a myth and less than an association principle.

The ad campaign isn’t really a new approach to the whole selling a product. Companies have been using sex for a long time to sell a product. This is not really a new approach that Burger King is taking to sell their new healthy food items. I would say though that mashing up the two, sex appeal with healthy food items is kind of a new approach; at least for fast food chains. Other companies have used sex appeal but never mixed the two.  In the past fast food companies have used mostly just healthy food to sell itself. I think that they made a good choice with the celebrities that they did use. David Beckham is an athlete, and is about staying in shape. Sofia Vergara is a healthy woman but is not stick in bones. She is about staying in shape and healthy. I think that if they went celebrities that were models then it would be harder to pull off.

The commercial definitely has its appeal and went with celebrities that are big right now. I was sitting with a friend when I started to watch them and she started talking along with the ad. Not because she is a huge fan of Burger King but because she remembers the commercials and the words from it.  It definitely is a commercial campaign that is going to stick around and people will remember. I think that this is a campaign that will be effective towards the fast food loving but wanting to be healthy person or will even be effective towards fans of these celebrities. People are always looking for healthy ways to eat fast food and Burger King is on the right track with this. I’m not a fan of fast food or eating out, but these commercials made me think about giving Burger King another try to check out their new healthy food. I would say that they hit on the mark with going with this campaign. How can someone say no to sex and food that is good for you? 
I've never really looked in to advertising campaigns or took a minute to think about they are really trying to get across. I'm always quick to turn my head or just judge them based off a first glance. If there is humor in them I'll stick around to enjoy but it does not really win me over. Doing this assignment gives me a new perspective on advertising campaigns.  I enjoyed going through the steps and analyzing this advertising campaign and find myself using the steps with other commercials. I'll sit through a commercial now and wont judge it right off the bat, but instead I will take the time to figure out the persuasive techniques and judge the commercial based off the techniques I learned.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/22/sofia-vergara-burger-king-commercial_n_1438542.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-mct-burger-king-sees-improvement-in-u.s.-sales-20120510,0,6749885.story
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/17/burger-king-new-menu_n_1432119.html