Any Guy Can Sweep Any Girl Off Her Feet

You would think with a week until Christmas, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation would be the perfect movie last night, or even Scrooged another holiday favorite of mine. Yet somehow I got conned into watching Hitch instead. How festive, but anyways. The film follows the artist formally known as the Fresh Prince (sadly D.J. Jazzy Jeff is nowhere to be found) around as the mystical Date Doctor as he helps the hapless men of New York land the girl of their dreams because as Hitch says, “Any guy can sweep any girl off her feet, he just needs the right broom.”

His latest client also stands to be his biggest triumph as a goofy account Albert, played by Kevin James hires Hitch to help catch the eye of the socialite, Allegra Cole, who is a client at his firm. But with about ten other accountants on her case, it’s hard for Albert to stick out. Granted whenever Allegra’s name was brought up I couldn’t help wondering how much the filmmakers were getting paid from pharmaceutical industry.

But Hitch’s greatest success could be in trouble when he meets a jaded woman that he tries to woo who just so happens to have a gossip column that regularly focuses on Allegra’s dating life. But since this is a romantic comedy, hilarity ensues instead, or at least tries too. The movie tries a little too hard at the physical which is fine when James is on screen, but when it’s left up to the Fresh Prince and Eva Mendez as the gossip maven, it sometimes fall flat.

Overall it was a decent movie with a couple good laughs even though most of the movie, much like every romantic comedy, was extremely predictable. There were also a few scenes that didn’t really need to be in the movie like Hitch’s flashback to his dorkier college days or the scene with movie killer Michael Rapaport. As for the extras on the DVD, there were a couple of run of the mil featurettes and boring deleted scenes that were rightfully left on the cutting room floor along with your typical gag reel. Also there was a video for 2005’s summer anthem, Amerie’s 1 Thing which will undoubtably show up on my Best Songs of 2005 that will be showing up next week.

Hitch gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.