For the Love of Channing

I once said that on this blog, I will post reviews only for films that I really, really liked. 

I've changed my mind.  Now I will also post reviews of films featuring actors I like.  When I say "actors I like", what I actually mean is actors whom I find hot or adorable or both.

Yes, I'm shallow like that. 

I watched The Vow last week and I'm not the least bit ashamed of it! I confess that I will watch any movie starring Channing Tatum.  I've had a teeny-tiny crush on him ever since She's The Man, which will forever be memorable to me because it was the movie that I watched with law school friends on the day that we waited anxiously for the bar results. Good times!

The Vow is a story of a newly-married couple who has a car accident, the husband survives relatively unscathed while the wife is in a coma.  When the wife wakes up, she has lost all memory of the past five years of her life, including all memory of her husband.  The husband is now faced with the challenge of trying to make her remember him, or at least to make her love him again.

I've been told that there's a Dingdong-Marian movie with a similar premise, but The Vow was not an American remake of that movie (and I am LOL-ing at any suggestions to the contrary...seriously now!).  The Vow is inspired by the true story of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter.  "Inspired" is used very liberally, because aside from the basic premise (the accident and the wife forgetting her husband), The Vow is nothing like the story of Kim and Krickitt.  

Surprisingly, I enjoyed the movie more than I thought I would!  And here's why:

1. Channing is so likeable, that even if his acting reminds me of Keanu Reeves for all the wrong reasons, you can't help but be endeared by him.  You can tell he's trying, and to some degree he's successful.  He's completely charming and adorable in this film... and all you wanna do is hug him!
2. I've always been a fan of Rachel McAdams, even though sometimes I feel like she plays the same character in several of her films (her Paige is essentially the same as her character in Time Traveler's Wife, or even her character in The Notebook).  Also on a shallow note, I think Rachel is beautiful (girl-crush alert!).  I wish she'd play against type once again and play another character ala Regina George in Mean Girls.
3. There are lines which will melt even the coldest heart.  Reading them will not have the same effect as hearing them spoken onscreen, so I won't post the lines here.  Let's just say I liked the whole scene where Channing's character was walking away from Rachel at the end of a party.
4. Any movie set in Chicago is a winner in my book.  I got a kick out of  identifying each shooting location!  In all the times I've been to Chicago, how come I've never had the luck of walking by a movie set?
5. And because it's set in Chicago and Rachel's character is an artist, the famous Art Institute makes a cameo.  And my favorite painting makes a cameo too!
6. Save the best for last:  No Channing Tatum movie would be complete without a shirtless scene.  And here he has not just one (or two or three) shirtless scene, but he also has a...err...underpants-less scene.  You gotta see it to admire it :)

For all the reasons stated, I'm giving this movie 4 out of 5 stars (mostly because of Channing and his chemistry with Rachel).  Watch it in theatres while you still can!

Bonus:  This is not in the film, but I had to.. I just had to post this here.  Watch it now, and thank me later.