No Strings Attached

Natalie Portman has been doing a lot of movies lately, and with quite a range in variety. The raw, dark indie comedy Hesher with Joe Gordon-Levitt (yeah, he likes to go by Joe), Black Swan where she imagines making out with Milla Kunis, and soon coming out in Thor and Your Highness. Even more unique from those is the romantic comedy No Strings Attached where she ACTUALLY makes out with Ashton Kutcher.

Ashton Kutcher has not been in much lately, and nothing very far out of his comfort zone. Valentines Day with so many big name actors that it ruined the whole thing, and Killers with movie killer Katherine Heigl, and in that same comfort zone, No Strings Attached. So why pair the award-winning actress with the goofball from Dude, Where’s My Car?

Chad: Who cares, Natalie Portman is hot! That’s the only reason I wanted to see it.

Gina: You got to see Ashton’s bare ass!

Kevin: OK… Looks like I’m taking this review solo!

This movie is make or break for Portman much more than Kutcher. If it fails, Kutcher could care less. He still gets paid and it can’t be any worse than any other roles he has done, however, it reflects badly on Portman who is coming off her ground breaking performance in Black Swan. If it does well, Kutcher could care less. He still gets paid and it can’t be worse than any other roles he has done, however, it is one more genre that Portman can notch in her belt.

Fortunately, it wasn’t bad. It was pretty funny for the most part and showed a lighter, humorous side for Natalie, kind of on the lines of her SNL Digital Short “Natalie Raps” (look it up if you haven’t seen it, very good). Obviously no one is winning any awards, not even Kevin Kline for playing Kutcher’s immoral dad, or Cary Elwes as the head doctor at Portman’s hospital. But it looked like everyone had fun, and that comes out in every ones performance.

There were also some great supporting performances from Ludacris, and Jake M. Johnson as Kutchers’ buddies, Lake Bell as a crazy co-worker, and Mindy Kaling as Portman’s roommate. I only wish they could have found a better use of Adhir Kalyan, who can be really funny when you let him actually have some lines!

An above average movie from Ivan Reitman (not nearly his best), who has made some classics, but fun and didn’t slow it’s pace too much… Decent date movie.

Chad: Who cares, Natalie Portman is hot! 3.75 of 5 beers.

Gina: Did you know Ashton Kutcher started off as a model? 8 of 10 stars.

Kevin: It started off like She’s Out Of My League, and ended like every other romantic comedy. 6.5 of 10 stars.

Overall Rating: 7.33 of 10 stars