Man About Town

Sometimes the business world makes your love frozen. In a society where the prestige and the money seems to be more important than relationships, "trust" becomes just another word of the dictionary. Stress takes the control of your life; and without warning you stop living, to start acting in automatic pilot. And that is the case of Jack Giamoro (Ben Affleck) a well recognized and very successful executive in the Hollywood industry; who in his routine tries to find safety in isolating himself. His ammo ironically turns into his wickedness when everything starts falling apart, and he decides to write his personal diary. His life, his pain, his loneliness and secrets in paper, put him in danger when someone steals his written memories. A good romantic comedy, with the excellent performance of John "the actor" Cleese and the always beautiful Rebecca Romijn. It makes you laugh, it makes you fall in love, it makes you stop and look around. What's important in life? I say: A great choice for a date.

Jack (Ben Affleck) is a hotshot and thriving writers agent in Hollywood. He built his company from the bottom up and has a fine crew of folks working for him, too. Not only this, he lives in a gorgeous house in Malibu and is married to a beautiful lady, Nina (Rebecca Romjim). Also in the house is Jack's father (Howard Hesseman) who has had a stroke and is subject to bizarre behaviors. Surprisingly, Jack is not happy and signs up for a nighttime writing class taught by a stuffy Brit (John Cleese). There, he is told to start a journal, which will not only improve his writing but will give clues to his psychological needs and wants. Reluctantly, Jack does this. But, there are pitfalls ahead. A former classmate, who knows Jack is very famous, has sent ten screenplays written by his girlfriend (Bai Ling) for Jack's evaluation and has never gotten a reply. Now, this man is out for revenge. He breaks into Jack's house and beats up the agent, while taking the diary. Since the perp's gal works for a minor newspaper, the rag is about to print Jacks every secrets. Also, there is trouble between Jack and Nina, deep trouble. How will Jack work his way out of this crisis? Despite the fine, fine cast, which also includes Gina Gershon, Mike Binder, Kal Penn, Adam Goldberg, and Jerry O'Connell, in addition to the ones listed above, this film is a big flop and a big mess. Oh, there are a few funny scenes, like Jack and his crew faking karate stances across from the employees of a Chinese restaurant who are doing the real moves! Also, Ling is pretty funny as the evil lady of blackmail. Yet, the movie is, in this viewers opinion, totally pointless. Especially surprising is the ending, where romance burnt to a crisp might still rekindle. Affleck is one of my favorite actors and this is his worst film, worse than Gigli. Thank God he went on to true glory with Argo, State of Play, and many other fine flicks. As for this one, avoid it by a wide mile.

To start, Im a bit biased when it comes to Afflecks limited acting abilities. In Good Will Hunting he didn't come up to scratch, in Gigli he was a complete disaster, much like the entire Gigli movie, a train wreck.

Watching to see how much worse he could be I was impressed from the start, his voice and acting has improved but not by much. The movie is above average, hence my 6.

Affleck must have worked a fair bit to get his acting up to a decent level and it shows here. John Cleese had me amused from the start with a 3 minute lecture for his class (which was most likely scheduled for at least a 40 minute session), Romjin (Affleck's wife here) is his wife, making Ben's marriage and his almost workahlic lifestyle problematic.

Ben's character here is similar to other roles he has tried to play, where he thinks he's better than everyone around him (which is irritating), his manner is the same, his tone of voice doesn't change where required (if at all), nor does how he expresses his character which seems to be the same as other movies he's starred.

There is definitely an improvement in his acting for this film, I will be hoping for more in his next role.

When the film was started I said another American Beauty type film coming. And because of this thought my expectations increased a lot. But Ben Affleck's acting capacity is limited so the movie never goes on. Also the story has some weak points and illogical parts. For example you stole something important and you will use it to blackmail someone. The first thing you will do to backup your source or at least you will not take your source with you when you're meeting with the person that you're blackmailing! But our writers don't think like this so there are a lot of stupid chasing scenes. I think your mood also very important for this film. I was very complicated and seeking something in me, before I went to cinema. Because of this in the film the 'course' scenes and the confessions covered by 'diary writing' scenes hit me directly. So I can't give bad votes to this film. I want to add one more thing, course teacher's acting was perfect. And Ling Bai. She's very different type. She don't like any girls that I know. I think this explains why I like her.

Conclusion, in this circumstances this is a movie for summer. Light scenario, beautiful girls (Rojmin, Ling Bai) and handsome guy.

Your choice to watch it :).

"Man About Town" is the biggest DTV movie of 2007. I can see why it deserved that fate.

The plot: Jack Giamoro (Affleck) is a smarmy talent agent who has a successful life and a beautiful wife (Romijn). He realizes that his wife is cheating on him with his top client (Adam Goldberg). This sets him off emotionally and he starts a journal and it contains all his dark secrets. Unfortunately, it gets stolen in a robbery and he needs it back desperately.

The first 40 minutes are excellent. Affleck and Romijn are great and they have some strong chemistry. Then it falls apart....fast. The journal class\robbery subplot just doesn't work. If they cut that out and focused on the infidelity it would have been a stronger movie. I think this went straight to video because of its wildly uneven tone. It's not really a comedy, it's more of a drama. The climax, while entertaining, is predictable and feels rushed. The supporting cast is good however, with John Cleese standing out as Jack's teacher.

Overall, "Man About Town" is worth seeing for the first 40 minutes. If you like Affleck, you might enjoy it. Take a look at the trailer! (Does contain spoilers!)