Johnny Simmons and Megan Fox in "Jennifer's Body"
courtesy of Fox Home Entertainment
“Foxy Megan”

Megan Fox is the sexy beauty who rose to fame with the two “Transformers” movies. They were the perfect showcase of her beauty and her limited acting talent. This is not the case with her latest movie which is now out on DVD. Fox provides a beautiful body for the film “Jennifer’s Body” but Diablo Cody doesn’t support her with a beautiful script. This tale of a high school girl who is a flesh eating monster lacks bite. The script is neither funny enough nor sympathetic enough. It either had to be over the hill funny or sweetly endearing in some way. It misses on both counts.

Jennifer (Fox) is a flag girl at a small town high school. She is best friends with a girl named Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and she totally dominates her life. Needy has a boyfriend named Chip (Johnny Simmons) but his needs are always secondary to those of Jennifer.

Needy discovers that Jennifer is a man eater in the literal sense, but she can’t convince anyone to take her seriously. Still when Jennifer turns her eyes towards Chip, Needy decides it is time to take matters into her own hands.

Fox is as sexy and sensuous as she was in both “Transformers” movies, but she isn’t sympathetic. And neither is Needy. One or both of them needs to be. Remember we all loved “Carrie” even when she was tearing down the gym, and dispatching tons of high school students to their deaths.

There is a side plot involving a rock group headed up by a guy named Nikolai Wolf (Adam Brody) but it doesn’t grab your interest. Maybe this is where the comedy could have come in but it doesn’t. It verges on it but never crosses over.

“Jennifer’s Body” is a movie that lacks heart. You never care about Jennifer, or Needy, or any of Jennifer’s victims. They are all cardboard thin characters who don’t make any impact of any kind. With Diablo Cody of “Juno” fame writing the script you expect more bang for your buck. She didn’t provide any excitement in this film and no cutting edge comedy to lift it up.

Mark this one down as a monster movie that is basically toothless. Megan Fox tries her hardest but to no avail. The body is great but the movie is flat.

On the other hand some movies are much better than you expect them to be. Such is the case with “A Perfect Getaway.” Steve Zahn, Milla Jovovich, Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez star in this new thriller. This cast manages to make this ordinary little movie much, much better than it should be. As four enigmatic characters they build the suspense in a film that has fear built into its premise 

Newlyweds Cliff and Cydney (Zahn and Jovovich) are honeymooning in Hawaii. He is a screenwriter and she is a woman who is content just being Cliff’s wife. As part of their honeymoon adventure they go on a hike through the back country of one of the islands. There they encounter Kale and Cleo (Chris Hemsworth and Marley Shelton), another couple out for adventure.

The chills begin when they meet this other couple because the audience has been let in on the fact a honeymooning couple has been murdered in Hawaii. It is said they were killed by a man and a woman. When Cliff and Cydney learn of the murder they try to put this couple behind them.

But then they run into another couple. Gina and Nick (Sanchez and Olyphant) are also on an adventure in the islands. These two couples do join together for a hike to a famous beach. Of course now the audience has another couple to suspect. The question is which one is the red herring and which one is the true murderers.

Zahn is basically playing Clark Kent in this movie. He is mild mannered and calm to the extreme. Jovovich is puppy dog like in her need to be loved. Olyphant plays a former special ops guy who knows his way around a knife and a bow and arrow. He struts his macho self around trying to be impressive. Sanchez plays a woman who also can survive on her own.

Keep your eye on Hemsworth. He is the actor who has been chosen to play “Thor” in that upcoming film, and he was also James Kirk’s father in “Star Trek” this past summer. Mr. Hemsworth has quite a career ahead of him.

”A Perfect Getaway” is a thriller that sets up clues to its ending all along the path of the movie. It is also a film that might deserve a second viewing after you have digested all that has happened in the film, and the beauty of DVD is that you can just watch it again.

The writing in this movie is subtle and the acting is intriguing. Combined they make this innocuous little movie into something that is really enjoyable to watch. Get the DVD and you will be surprised how much fun it is. It is one of the best surprises of the year.
 

 

 

 

 

©2009 Jackie K. Cooper

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