Movie Reviews: In Good Company & Guess Who

Call it coincidence, or call it some sort of conspiracy by some Hollywood mogul, but I watched two movies starring the members of the casts of The 70s Show consecutively. First, it is Topher Grace in In Good Company, then it is Ashton Kutcher in Guess Who.

Topher Grace puts in an okay performance as Carter Duryea, a young marketing hotshot working for a global company, which has just bought over the magazine that Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid) works in. While Carter has a successful career, his personal life just began to fall apart. His wife of 7 months decided to leave him, and he has little friends. So, he somehow managed to get himself invited to dinner with Dan and his family, where he met Alex, Dan's daughter (Scarlett Johansson). Apart from the romance that blossomed between Carter and Alex, the movie also shows the relationship between an older, wiser career man and a young upstart who are seeking the meaning of life and relationship.

Somehow, I feel that the movie can do better if it can decide to focus on either the romance between Carter and Alex, or on the buddy-hood between Carter and Dan, because at the end of the movie, you don't feel that either relationship is really developed properly.

Although Ashton Kutcher's performance as Simon Green in Guess Who doesn't take much of an effort or different path from his character in the 70s Show, overall, the movie is much more enjoyable. It stars Bernie Mac, as Percy Jones, the father of Simon's fiancee. What Percy hadn't anticipated, was that her daughter will bring a white guy back home. So, begins a series of funny exchanges between Percy and Simon, while in between, both men have to learn to deal with their respective angry partners.

Guess Who turns out to be pretty hilarious, not much of slapstick, unlike Kutcher's previous movies. It was definitely a good watch for a late night show.