Any Questions for Ben? (2012)

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Ben has a quarter -life crisis when returns to his old school to give career advice and nobody asks him any questions, because earning big dollars, dating hot chicks (including bisexual Russian tennis stars) , driving Italian sports cars, is leaving him a bit shallow inside��I believe they call this phenomena �[crossout]douchebag[/crossout] first-world problems�.

You see, on the same night Ben goes to a career night at his old school, he bumps into Alex, a sultry blonde human rights lawyer and old high school flame played by some chick who can�t act to save her life. Not only does Ben want to do her silly, he�s a bit envious of that she�s apparently making a difference in the world. .

The film is produced by the same people who did The Dish and The Castle, and who tend to bring out a new film as often as the Mets make the post-season, which makes me wonder what the fuck they do the rest of the time. The big selling point of this movie is that it has �gritty characters� , but dirt is "gritty� and much like some of the characters in this film is known to cause irritation especially when it gets in underwear. The comic relief characters, are not very convincing and script is way, way too self-important.

The editing in this film is a great example of how not to edit a film. Any message gets lost in the excessive fluff. This could easily and should have been a 90 minute. The fact the funniest scene is in the end credits speaks volumes.

The film is set in Melbourne and by Christ, does it try to show-off every single facet of life in Melbourne imaginable. This probably suits the film�s overly pretentious tone, but at times I got the feeling I was watching an extended Tourism Victoria ad�.


You see, my American cousins, there�s something about Melbourne you probably don�t know : Melbourne is hideously ugly city filled with twats. It has no natural beauty, no real beaches, nothing remarkable, shittier weather, and the aforementioned twats. No person of sane mind would actually visit Melbourne just to see Melbourne. So they stockpile �events� like the F1 GP, Australian Open tennis, and a horse race they�ve somehow convinced the rest of the country to observe as a national holiday. They even transported Captain Cook�s cottage from Britain as a tourist attraction. The only American I met who actually liked Melbourne was an Opera Singer and she was kinda wacky.


I remember I recommended this film to Bucket, awhile back when I saw it in the cinemas, fuck knows why�..maybe because of his fondness for blondes�maybe because you could recommend him anything related to Australia and he won�t complain.

In summation, watch it if you want to see how 20-something middle-class Melbournian douches live or if you like small-breasted blondes.

[Edgy MD]

What sucks about romantic comedies is not that they're romantic comedies. It's that they seem to have such limited off-the-rack ideas about what kinds of personalities people have.

"Tom's a money-grubbing womanizing douche. 'Cilla cares about people. Tom only cares about... TOM! Can these two find love?"

[Vic Sage]

that's probably why i tend to overrate RomComs that divert from the formula; its such a relief. f'rinstance, i really like the Brangelina MR. & MRS. SMITH, because its action-based, funny, and what they have to deal with to save their marriage (being assassins assigned to kill each other) is a hell of a lot more interesting than standard RomCom fare. But that's just a f'rinstance.