MOVIE REVIEW
Will Smith is smooth - very, very smooth. Especially in his new flick Hitch. Better still, nothing blows up, no aliens appear, and no guns are drawn.
Smith plays Alex 'Hitch' Hitchens, an attractive single man whose job it is to help those men more clueless than himself relate to the women they love and want to be with. He teaches hopeless men talk the talk, how to be suave, good listeners, stylish dressers, fancy dancers - or basically whatever is need to turn them into the perfect man. The tag line for the film sums Hitch up as "the cure for the common man." Heck, Will Smith even makes the colour mint green look good.
But all this success is about to come screaming to halt when he runs into a Sara (Eva Mendes), a gossip columnist with a chip on her shoulder. The two exchange verbal knifes, sizing each other up. It's a good scene, and a well written one, filled with verbal ironies disguised as pleasantries. They know exactly what the other is thinking.
In the meantime, Sara's best friend tells her about a professional dating consultant for men, which Sara dismisses as an urban myth, never guessing the man she's falling in love with is in fact the man in question.
She doesn't guess because every date she has had with Hitch has been a disaster. He kicks her off a jet ski, makes her cry and suffers an allergic reaction to fish, causing his face and ears to swell up. But Sara finds all these things endearing because it is the real Hitch and not the carefully presented one.
The writing and one-liners in the film are slick. At one point Sara says: "It's hard to see the forest through the sleaze." Another memorable moment involves some flying food. I've always thought it would be fun to throw an entire salad at someone.
Another nice thing about this movie is there is no obligatory love scene. All the characters remain fully clothed at all times. It's a nice change, considering how often funny movies resort to cheap gags using sex or throw in some unnecessary nudity. The language is clean too. For once a PG movie actually deserves the rating.
Hitch is a funny comedy, but not in a ribald type of way. It's a more sophisticated humor, with a few practical jokes thrown in.
Smith is extremely funny and light as Hitch. He doesn't rely on lame jokes or cheesy facial expressions to get him through his lines; instead he delivers them with timing and style.
Kevin James, TV's King of Queens, plays Albert, one of Hitch's protégés, who is in love with celebrity Allegra Cole (Amber Valletta). Albert is one of those average guys who just doesn't seem to have a clue. He can't dance, gets mustard on his clothes and has an inhaler. Hitch tries to teach him otherwise, but Albert can't be anyone but himself. And sometimes, that's enough - at least in this movie.
