Love the Coopers (2015)

I love this movie so much

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

So, I saw this with my family last Christmas, and I completely hated it. The story line made no sense. They bounced scenarios around with no real rhyme or reason, constantly switching back and forth: 1. A struggling husband and wife, 2. A sister who meets a soldier and convinces him to act like her fiancé 3. An old man talking to a teenage waitress, 4. A teenager trying to kiss a girl, 5. and a woman being arrested and becoming buddy-buddy with a cop. It honestly felt like they had 5 different movie ideas and mashed them into one. The acting was poor, the ending was bad. OK, spoiler: The old man has heart attack. He lives (Of course) So, dancing in a hospital = family? I saw it just because of the trailer, but that was the only real "Good" things about the movie. This movie is billed as a "Comedy". I didn't even chuckle once.

This isn't the weirdest movie I ever saw, but it's high on the list. Although, weird doesn't necessarily mean bad. But, in this case, weird is kinda bad. This is a sort of ensemble-type film, and you either like or don't like some of the individual subplots.Sub-plot 1: John Goodman and Diane Keaton are planning on divorcing, with the precipitating factor being her refusal to go on a long-planned trip to Africa with him. But they want to have one last "regular" Christmas before they tell their family. This subplot is fine, although with age I think that Keaton has slightly lost her touch, and I never thought Goodman had the touch. As a result, while the subplot is fine, I wasn't that impressed with the acting in it.Sam and Charlotte are divorcing after forty years of marriage. Charlotte convinces Sam to wait until after their grown children (Hank and Eleanor), grandchildren (Hank's kids Charlie, Bo and Madison), Charlotte's father and sister (Bucky and Emma) and Sam's aunt (Fishy) have enjoyed one last "perfect Christmas" before announcing the planned divorce. As scenes shift back and forth across the Cooper family members, their memories also briefly appear on screen as younger versions of themselves.Subplot 2: Hank lost his photography job and his wife has left him, though she has flown in for the holiday Christmas. This just didn't work for me. Too much hand-wringing.Subplot 3: Eleanor has flown in for the holiday, but stays at the airport as long as possible because she dreads going home...although it was never clear to me why she dreaded it. The motherly nagging was pretty minor. At an airport bar she meets a soldier snowed in at the airport...even though there's not that much of a snowfall. They hit it off, though they are very different people. He agrees to act as her boyfriend for Christmas so that her mother will lay off the nagging. I didn't find Eleanor a very sympathetic character, although this part of the story was SOMETIMES intriguing.Subplot 4: Bucky -- the grandfather -- is eats daily at a local diner because he so admires a young waitress who hasn't gotten her life together. It's sort of charming, but I was never quite clear what his intentions were. Good...or a dirty old man? This was, at least, an interesting subplot.Subplot 5: The high school boy, awkward as can be, has a crush on a girl. They finally get together, but their Frenching and humping in public is illogical and disgusting.Subplot 6: Emma (sister to Keaton) gets arrested for shoplifting during Christmas shopping. She is arrested by a police officer played by Anthony Mackie. In the police car they get into a conversation in which the officer admits (sort of) that he is gay and that his personal life is a disaster. Okay. That sorta works...except Mackie is only a prop here because he lets her go because it's Christmas. Unfortunately, for Mackie, it's a dead end part.Finally it's Christmas dinner...and it's disastrous, resulting in an unexplained power failure during which Bucky suffers a stroke (yes, really). At the hospital they all kiss...well, dance and make up.Honestly, this film stinks, but has just enough good scenes that I couldn't turn it off. Perhaps most interesting is that the story is told by the dog (I'm not kidding), with voice portrayed by Steve Martin.To be honest, don't waste your time.

A festive movie about family, about values, about love and everything else. With a little twist at the end if you want to call it that. Other than that it is pretty much by the numbers (predictable that is). But it's a fun movie to watch and it's lovely to see another story about family interactions.If you like that kind of stuff that is. But it's light (drama included of course) and it's fun overall. The acting talent at hand is amazing and it's clear they're having a blast. I guess watching it around Christmas time makes the most sense, but you could also watch it anytime else and still have that good feeling

This is one of the worst Christmas movies I have ever seen. It perplexes me why a great cast of a great calibre would accept to participate in a movie like that. The movie has no clear story line. It is predictable and it is quite cringy. Usually, I write the reviews immediately after I watch a movie but in this case some days have past so I am therefore unable to comment in detail and the things that I especially did not like. But, I know that I expected a great Christmas movie and was let down. The energies of characters do not fit with one another. It is a strange connection between characters so the connection feels weird and forced. I would not recommend this movie to anyone who expects an enjoyable Christmas movie.