This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Look Before You Leap
Plot Overview
Bay City Sports store owner Eddie Cantrow
(Ben Stiller) is coaching a colored boy on the store's demo pitching
machine. He tells him not to swing at the first pitch ("Everybody
wants to hit homers.") He should wait for one that's down the middle
("A walk's as good as a hit.") His father Doc (Jerry Stiller)
countermands him, telling the kid to swing. He does, hitting it a good
one. Our eye tracks the ball, past the net to alight on a pretty customer
Lila (Malin Åkerman) standing by.
Eddie had met her at the laundromat
on Valentine's Day, but he'd failed to "get her digits." With a little
push from his dad, he takes up their acquaintance and in six weeks
they're sizzling. Rather than lose her to an overseas transfer,
he marries her on the advice of his best buddy Mac (Rob Corddry.)
In a motel room on their honeymoon they find they have different
sex experience and needs. She wants to do the inverted corkscrew
but he's into the missionary position.
Arriving in Cabos, Mexico he rents
a porn video-tape from service desk manager Uncle Tito (Carlos Mencia)
with arrangement to have more sent up to their room ("Perfecto! You will have a fun night
tonight.") Some out-of-town partiers turn him on to a local favorite
tequila drink. Lila gets sunburned the next day and being confined
to their room tells Eddie, "Why don't you go explore Mexico or
something?" He does and stumbles onto a porn show. I'm not saying
they'll get all the kinks out of their relationship by the movie's
end, but if the censors aren't on the ball, there's an extra scene
slipped in among the end credits where Lila is finally satisfied.
I won't give it away, but check out the large carrot on the
nightstand. Don't try this at home, kiddies.
Ideology
Eddie had started out with lip service to playing the field ("I'm just kinda dating a little right now.") Researcher Paul H. Landis writes In Defense of Dating:
It is quite logical to believe that some kind of dating is necessary to the development of the judgment and pair interaction that is at the root of real objectivity in mate selection. Those who have dated more than one person have a chance to compare and to learn some of the usual behavior patterns of members of the opposite sex. They learn to distinguish between those whose personalities seem to promise a durable compatibility and those whose personalities obviously do not. Dating is an exploratory experience through which young people learn. In most circles today, therefore, it is considered desirable that young people "circulate" rather than "go steady" from the beginning, that some variety of dating experience is favorable to ultimate mate choice. The girl who is considered desirable as a date by a number of fellows is presumed to be the one most likely to be sought after in marriage. (223)
Lila concedes that she's not a virgin but has learned that, "Sleeping together too soon can ruin a relationship." That was not their problem though it would have been a moot point had they been virgins and learned sex together starting on their wedding day. Eddie had been floundering in the field he was supposedly playing. He accumulated a five-year laundry list of objections to his earlier fiancée Jodi before breaking up with her, missing five years of learning opportunities with other broads. Then on the rebound he tried to hit a homer with Lila rather than let her walk. There are other fish in the sea.
He was living in San Francisco a city filled with eligible women. He owned a sports emporium where he'd meet oodles of them, all fit as a fiddle. He strolled around his neighborhood regularly. He had friends. He had a social life. And furthermore he was not in a hurry.
It was external influences that tried to hurry him along. Mac extolled marriage ("Happy wife, happy life.") So did his dad ("You refuse to get married, yet you don't really enjoy the fruits of bachelor life.") And the immature singles at the wedding he attended kept taunting him seated alone for supposedly being gay. These external pressures would be best eased up on per, (Song 8:4) "I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please."
As a last resort Eddie could have learned by looking at Lila's corpulent mother—arriving late at their wedding—to see how his bride would look some years down the road. The mom was scary and Lila not likely to roll far from that tree. (Song 8:5) "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee." Contrast her with Jodi who's "got the kinda looks that are gonna last. Look at her mom. What a cougar!"
Enjoying the tourist destination in Mexico
Eddie joined a party of "Jimmy Carter rednecks." They brought out
the inner redneck in him and featured a couple who went down there
yearly to renew their vows. We get a major education about redneck
love. (Song 8:6) "Set me as a seal
upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as
death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals
of fire, which hath a most vehement flame." Love being "strong as
death" was like that in a Matt Rees thriller: "Could be better to
be dead than to have your wife say you're dead to her" (59).
An earlier version of "Kid" did indeed feature a conflict between Jews
and Gentiles where a Jewish family might consider a member dead to
them if she married a Goy. Here, though, it was a case of destroyed
papers and an American citizen stranded in Mexico apart from his true
love in the USA.
(Song of Solomon 8:7) "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned." Here we encounter a business sacrifice for love and a water rescue.
Production Values
"" (2007) is a remake of the 1972 comedy, "The Heartbreak Kid," which itself was derived from the Italian film, "Luna di miele in tre." They come from a stage play by Neil Simon. Bruce Jay Friedman wrote its original story. This one was directed by brothers Bob Farrelly and Peter Farrelly. Its screenplay was written by Leslie Dixon, Scot Armstrong, the two Farrelly brothers and Kevin Barnett. It stars Ben Stiller, Jerry Stiller (Ben's real life father), Malin Åkerman, Michelle Monaghan, Carlos Mencia, Rob Corrdry, and Danny McBride. Ben Stiller was awesome. All the actors were picture perfect and the leads worked well together.
MPAA rated it R for strong sexual content, crude humor and language. Its music was pervasive—as part of the humor. The mariachi musicians were repetitive—as part of the humor. The whale statues in the Mexican fountain and the Confederate soldier statue north of the border are threatened species. For that matter this movie is a rare gem but unlikely to set a trend. It was filmed in Santa Clarita, California, USA, Los Cabos, Mexico and elsewhere. Camera tricks were seamless. The big boobs in the hot tub were real.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This movie is unlikely to appeal to a straight arrow, but the underlying message to be cautious in mate selection is stronger for witnessing the troubles a hasty choice caused the morally flexible. It would be much worse for someone whose morals are set in stone. The redneck humor was outrageous and sometimes they weren't joking. I found it so funny I could hardly stand it. But that's just me. A word to the wise.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups of Guys. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Five stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quotations from the Authorized King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Landis, Paul H. Making the Most of Marriage. New York: Meredith Publishing, 1965. Print.
Rees, Matt. China Strike. Copyright © 2017 by Matt Rees. New York: Crooked Lane Books, 2017. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org