The UGLY TRUTH

“The UGLY TRUTH” (Katherine Heigl & Gerard Butler)

What is it with Gerard Butler? Does he want to be a manly man action-movie star or a pussy that takes all those chick flick roles that are just too challenging for Matthew McConaughey?
Whereas “The Hangover” used crude humor effectively (& in a somewhat witty way) “The Ugly Truth” tries too hard to be shocking with its frank, sexually explicit dialogue; it is in no way ‘witty’ banter – the use of 4-letter R-Rated words & sexual innuendo falls flat on its face time & time again.
Now, the initial premise isn’t moronic, but the path they take it down is.
Heigl plays Abby, the producer of a morning TV talk show in Sacramento; she’s blonde, spunky & neurotic over the fact that she hasn’t met ‘Mr. Right’ yet. Mmm, there’s an interesting new female character that we’ve never met in a chick flick before. (Insert sarcastic roll of the eyes)
Butler plays Mike ‘Male’-way; the host of a local cable access show called The Ugly Truth where he invites females to call in & prove him wrong. Abby’s show is dumping big time in the ratings, so the manager of the station hires Mike to ‘spice up’ Abby’s dull, stuck-in-a-rut program. Mike miraculously gets the married couple that hosts the show to kiss on camera & suddenly he’s the talk of the town... Wait a minute is this set in Sacramento or Pullman?
In yet another dumb set-up Abby finds herself hanging upside down in a tree outside her house with her panties exposed so the handsome doctor (Eric Winter) that just moved in next door can run out of the shower & rescue her. & wouldn’t you know it, the towel around his waist falls to the ground leaving the doctor’s package pointing directly at Abby’s upside down oral cavity? What will they think of next? Hey, I’ve got an idea – How about something original that doesn’t insult my intelligence?
Mike tells Abby if she does what he tells her to do, she can win the doctor’s heart; Abby agrees because a) being herself doesn’t work & b) the script, written by a thousand chimpanzees, told her to agree to the proposition.
Another major annoyance was the selection of songs that were used – Holy mind-numbing disco-beat, where do they dig up this garbage? It was all like a cross between 80’s techno-pop & hip hop & what I imagine the likes of Britney Spears, etc. put out – just gawdawful junk that invaded my ears until my brain was begging me to stick something smaller than my elbow inside them so the torture would cease!
What I really disliked about this film, and with apologies to the thousand chimps that worked so diligently on the screenplay, is that it wants to come across as being on the ‘cutting edge’ when in actuality, it simple follows the same predictable, boring formula as every other chick-friendly romantic comedy... Proving yet again that chimps are pussies!