The dentist character seems like a solid guy when he's not getting shitfaced in Vegas, and even Bradley Cooper's character was pretty charming with his wife and kid.

Hmm. I guess I'm judgemental and short-tempered, but I just don't see how someone with good decision-making capabilities gets into shenanigans like that, so by virtue of that, they don't date into the family. And that's not taking into consideration there's some combination of circumstance that gets them into another situation worthy of great laughter.

But, basically, this is on my mind because I found almost everyone in Bridesmaids also intensely unlikable, but I felt there was a clear effort to clean up the protagonists and get us on their side by the time the movie ended, and I just didn't get that sensation with The Hangover. Like, it doesn't matter as much if we respect those crazy guys, you know?

And I'm trying to work out what I'm projecting.

Once we found out they'd been given roofies, I wasn't judgmental anymore. Also, the whole thing was so completely over the top, I don't think there was realistically enough time for them to do everything they supposedly did. That, and I don't think anyone is running around that crazy when they've been roofied, are they?

I think they wanted the guys in The Hangover to seem respectable(ish) at the end, but also that it didn't matter if you thought they were all giant dopes because the movie was funny.

I liked Annie in Bridesmaids, and Lillian, too (although I did want Annie to stop being so stubborn and figure out what she was doing with her life a little sooner). I liked Helen by the end, and I loved Megan because she was so fucking honest about herself and her life and what she liked, I couldn't not. The other two were sort of useless filler.

Yeah, I shouldn't try holding The Hangover to any sort of standard. It just won't hold up. That's not a good example.

I did *not* like Annie. I didn't mind Lillian. I could give her a pass, because she was getting married, and that's a whirlwind, but Annie kept making her own life a mess, and blaming other people for it, and it really irritated me. I felt like they had a very abrupt turning point with both Megan and Annie after which we were supposed to like them--Annie as the main arc of the movie, and Megan when she acted as the catalyst for Annie, because that was the first non-self-centred thing she'd done in the movie.

I just couldn't work out any reason other than habit those people were friends with each other. I need that sort of thing in a party of friends story. Or something to make it explicit that it's habit.

And, yeah, those other two--whatevs. Did they actually even have the lesbian hookup?

None of them were friends except Annie and Lillian, and Lillian and Helen. Megan was an obligation, as SiL, and Becca and the other one ... were not close friends with Lillian. I don't think Annie knew any of them before Lillian got engaged.

I probably identified with Annie's depression more than I should have, but I was glad to see that when she made the I'm sorry carrot cake for the cop, she wasn't instantly forgiven. That usually happens nearly magically in the movies.

Not sure on the lesbian hookup, outside of the kiss on the plane.

I just couldn't work out any reason other than habit those people were friends with each other.

I think the implication (and symbolism) of Annie's failed bakery is that she's at a particularly low point. That she failed for reasons other than her talent and ambition and work ethic. That her boyfriend dicked her over and she's somewhat exposed and vulnerable and at-her-worst during the course of the movie.

Most of the movie Lillian is surprised at Annie's behavior, indicating it's anomalous.

and Becca and the other one ... were not close friends with Lillian

What did I miss here? Where did they come from? I'm confused now.

Of course I understand that Annie hadn't spent her whole life acting like she did during the movie, but it wasn't until the scene in Lillian's apartment that I felt any convincing indication of a history between them of a tight bond. I absolutely never got/bought the Helen stuff, except from her point of view. That made sense.

I think if I'd found more of it funny, I might have been more forgiving, because I was expecting a comedy. But I'm not particularly patient with protagonists who mess with other people's lives like that--I understand that your own might be falling apart around you, but the collateral damage thing makes me twitchy, and I disconnect from the protagonist.

I got the connection between Annie and Lillian in the scene at the beginning, with the exercise class and the breakfast, but I also got that they'd not been seeing each other too often recently.

I thought Becca and the angry mom were sort of obligatory bridesmaids. Wasn't Becca a cousin or something? And I think I missed who the angry mom was to Lillian, but I didn't get the impression they were all that close.

It just didn't sink in for me. Everyone felt at similar remove to me, although lip service was paid to Annie being closer.

But I was also full of not liking them all, so that surely coloured my reaction.

Extended sneak peek at Snow White and the Huntsman: [link]

I haven't decided what I think of it, but that trailer gives you a lot of the plot.

I just watched some of the original 1997 trailers for Titanic, and compared them to the new ones. I started this because I saw one of the new commercials and I thought it seemed like there was a lot more disaster and water rushing at the camera shots than I'd remembered from the old commercials. But after looking at them, I realized something else. The 1997 commercials made is clear that the reason that Jack and Rose couldn't be together was that Jack was poor and Rose was rich, and also, included several shots from the movie that made the point that the rich people had a chance at surviving the shipwreck, while the poor people didn't. The new commercials ignore this entirely. Practically every shot used is rich people. In at least one of the trailers, EVERY post-crash shot where you can see individual people shows rich people. The original commercials made a whole lot of use of the scene where Jack's friend, with a bunch of other people behind the locked gate, shouts something like, "There are women and children down here! For heaven's sake, give us a chance!" which I don't see anywhere in any of the new ones. Same thing with the scene where Rose shouts at her mother, "The ship is sinking, and there aren't enough lifeboats! Half the people on this ship are going to die!" and her fiance sniffs, "Not the better half."