Great comedy: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Spanish: Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios) is a 1988 Spanish black comedy film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas. The plot follows actress Pepa, who, after her lover Iván leaves without explanation, sets out to find the reason, and comes across an array of eccentric characters, including Iván's son from a previous relationship and her best friend Candela, who has been held captive by a Shiite terrorist cell.

TRAILER

PLOT 

Television actress Pepa Marcos is depressed because her boyfriend Iván has left her. They are voice actors who dub foreign films, notably Johnny Guitar with Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden. Iván's sweet-talking voice is the same one he uses in his work. About to leave on a trip, he has asked Pepa to pack his things in a suitcase he will pick up later.

Pepa returns home to find her answering machine filled with frantic messages from her friend, Candela; she rips out the phone and throws it out the window onto the balcony. Candela arrives; before she can explain her situation, Carlos (Iván's son with Lucía, his previous lover) arrives with his snobbish fiancée Marisa. They are apartment-hunting, and have chosen Pepa's penthouse to tour. Carlos and Pepa figure out each other's relationship to Iván; Pepa wants to know where Iván is, but Carlos does not know. Candela tries to kill herself by jumping off the balcony.

A bored Marisa decides to drink gazpacho from the fridge, unaware that it has been spiked with sleeping pills. Candela explains that she had an affair with an Arab who later visited her with some friends. Unbeknownst to her, they are a Shiite terrorist cell. When the terrorists leave, Candela flees to Pepa's place; she fears that the police are after her. Pepa goes to see a lawyer whom Carlos has recommended.

The lawyer, Paulina, behaves strangely, and has tickets to Stockholm. Candela tells Carlos that the Shiites plan to hijack a flight to Stockholm that evening and divert it to Beirut, where they have a friend who was arrested. Carlos fixes the phone, calls the police, hangs up before (he believes) they can trace the call, and kisses Candela. Pepa returns; Lucía calls and says that she is coming over to confront her about Iván. Carlos says that Lucía has recently been released from a mental hospital. Pepa, tired of Iván, throws his suitcase out (barely missing him); he leaves Pepa a message.

Pepa returns to her apartment and hears Carlos playing Lola Beltrán's "Soy Infeliz". She throws the record out the window, and it hits Paulina. Pepa hears Iván's message, rips out the phone and throws the answering machine out of the window. Lucía arrives with the telephone repairman and the police, who traced Carlos' call. Candela panics, but Carlos serves the spiked gazpacho. The policemen and repairman are knocked out, and Carlos and Candela fall asleep on the sofa; Lucía aims a policeman's gun at Pepa, who figures out that Iván is going to Stockholm with Paulina and their flight is the one the terrorists are planning to hijack. Lucía says that she faked being sane when she heard Iván's voice dubbed on a foreign film. She throws the gazpacho in Pepa's face, and rushes to the airport to kill Iván.

Pepa chases her in a cab with her neighbour, Ana. At the airport, Lucía sees Iván and Paulina at security and aims her gun at them. Pepa thwarts the murder attempt by rolling a luggage cart at Lucía, before fainting. Iván rushes to Pepa's aid and apologises for the way he has been treating her, offering to talk things out with her. Pepa, however, declares it is now too late and leaves. She returns to her home, which is a mess. Pepa sits on her balcony, where Marisa has just awakened. The women chat, sharing a moment of tranquility, and Pepa finally reveals what she wanted to tell Iván: she is pregnant.

Rating: 10 Stars (The movie is super fun!)

Great Comedy with the "The Wedding Ringer, 2015

The Wedding Ringer is a 2015 American buddy romantic comedy film directed and co-written by Jeremy Garelick. It stars Kevin Hart, Josh Gad, and Kaley Cuoco.The film was produced by Adam Fields, Will Packer Productions and Miramax, distributed by Screen Gems, and released on January 16, 2015.

TRAILER

PLOT

Jimmy Callahan provides best man services, through The Best Man Inc., for guys who don't have the friends needed for a wedding. Doug Harris, a successful tax attorney, and his fiancée Gretchen Palmer are planning their wedding. Frantically needing a best man and groomsmen, Doug contacts Jimmy's company.

Doug needs a "Golden Tux" (seven groomsmen) to match with Gretchen's bridesmaids, which has never been done before. Jimmy agrees to do it for $50,000, all expenses paid.

Three of Jimmy's friends are recruited as groomsmen: Fitzgibbons, a federal prison escapee, Lurch, who has a nagging wife and Reggie, an airport security guard. They interview for the four remaining spots: they choose Kip, sexy with a stutter; Endo, has three testicles; Bronstein, can dislocate and relocate his shoulder; and Otis, can say sentences backwards.

Doug tells Gretchen that "Bic" is a military priest based in El Salvador, and she insists that he also come to the family brunch. There, Doug gets nervous, almost blowing his cover until Jimmy accidentally sets Gretchen's grandmother on fire. In the emergency room, Jimmy lies to Gretchen's father Ed, that they used to play football. So he challenges them to a match with some of his old college teammates.

Doug meets his groomsmen, all with fake identities based on the last names of famous Los Angeles sports figures—Plunkett, Rambis, Garvey, Alzado, Drysdale, Carew, and Dickerson. Jimmy takes Doug and the groomsmen on fake photo shoots of skydiving, scuba-diving, etc..

When Doug begins to have doubts, they visit Edmundo, who tells him the key is to please Gretchen and her mother Lois and nothing else. To prove how good he is at being a best man, Jimmy takes Doug to a wedding where the best man makes a terrible speech. After, they have drinks and show off their dance moves. Jimmy tells him how he gave an excellent best man speech for an acquaintance which led to his career as a wedding ringer. Doug explains that he moved a lot with his parents, so he never got to make friends. When his parents died, Doug took over the business, and work consumed him, leaving him without friends and therefore a best man. Jimmy drives Doug home, and reiterates that they are in a business relationship, and Doug, although hurt, agrees.

At Doug's outrageous bachelor party he is introduced to Nadia, who tries to seduce him, but Doug instead befriends her. A prank involving peanut butter, a dog and a blindfolded Doug's goes awry, requiring the groomsmen and Nadia to rush him to a hospital. When he wakes up the next day, Nadia kisses him goodbye, she hints she would like to know him better. Later, the groomsmen play football with Ed and his college football friends, including Joe Namath, John Riggins, and Ed "Too Tall" Jones. A mud bowl ensues, Ed blows out his knee on the last play and the wedding party team wins.

At the rehearsal dinner, Gretchen's bridesmaids sing a song, while Doug's groomsmen create a slideshow of the fake pictures they took, winning Gretchen over. That night, she notices the Bic razors and Mitchum deodorant in the cabinet, and recognizes the last names of the groomsmen and deduces the scheme. Asking Doug about it, he brushes it off, saying she is paranoid, to which she reluctantly agrees.

On the wedding day, the family priest cancels, so Doug suggests that Jimmy officiate. At the reception, Jimmy congratulates Gretchen, who exclaims that the wedding is a disaster as her zipper is torn, her grandmother has third degree burns, her dad's knee is blown out, the food is bad, and she doesn't love Doug (saying she only married him because he is nice and can easily afford her lavish lifestyle). Doug overhears, telling Jimmy that he can't go through with it, but Jimmy dismisses this.

As Jimmy gives his best man speech, Doug stops him, revealing they aren't really married as "Bic" is not a real priest, nor are his groomsmen who they claim to be. Gretchen is livid that her wedding is ruined. Ed's college friends make peace with Doug and Jimmy and tell them they were good players. Jimmy gets a date with Gretchen's sister, Allison. As they leave, Doug pays Jimmy his $50,000 fee and they accept each other's friendship. Jimmy then has the idea to cash in Doug's first class honeymoon tickets to Tahiti, going instead on a guys trip, along with Nadia (who is now with Doug).

Rating: 10 Stars

The Best of Me, 2014 film - A history of Dawson who faces problems of an abusive father, finds a true love and a new father

NICHOLAS SPARKS 

The Best of Me film

General Information
Premiered	October 17, 2014
Starring	James Marsden as Dawson Cole Luke Bracey as young Dawson Michelle Monaghan as Amanda Collier Liana Liberato as young Amanda
Budget	$26 million
Box Office	$35,926,213

TRAILER

The Best of Me is an American romantic drama film directed by Michael Hoffman and written by Will Fetters and J. Mills Goodloe, based on Nicholas Sparks' 2011 novel of the same name. The film stars James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan with Luke Bracey and Liana Liberato.

Shooting began on March 6, 2014 in New Orleans. The film was released on October 17, 2014 by Relativity Media. Previews in selected test markets were shown on October 15.

Plot/Summary 

Dawson Cole works on an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana. One day, an explosion on the job nearly kills him, throwing him into the water, but miraculously, he survives. Months later after recovering, Dawson learns that his close friend and surrogate father, Tuck Hostetler , has died and returns home for the first time in almost twenty years to carry out Tuck's final wishes. When he arrives at his house, Dawson is surprised to find that Tuck also arranged for Dawson's high school girlfriend, Amanda Collier, to join him. It seems that Tuck's intention was that Dawson and Amanda would perhaps rekindle their former romance. However, Amanda is now married.

Going back to 1992, Dawson was born into a notorious backwoods criminal family with an abusive father. As a teenager, it is revealed that his cousin Bobby was going to be a teen parent along with his girlfriend April. When leaving the restaurant they were at, April's car breaks down. Being a helpful person Dawson gets out of the car and tells her to put the car in neutral and tries to go get help. He then goes ask the people in the car behind him if they were going to help push or just honk to which they just honk. In that car, however, was Amanda realizes that her friends were being jerks and decides to go help Dawson. Once they had the car to the side of the road, Amanda offers to call a tow truck to which Dawson decline saying he can fix it. See how kind he was tries to hit on him but Dawson is oblivious to any of it, to the dismay of his friends. When he got home his father is mad that he didn't say hello when he walked in so Dawson begrudgingly says hi. Not being satisfied he father threatens to beat him. Not feeling respected he left his father's home and stayed overnight in Tuck Hostetler's garage. Tuck, a local mechanic who had recently lost his wife, allows Dawson to live with him and eventually considers him a son of his own. One day at school Dawson sees Amanda at her car with the front open. He comes over to see what is going on to where he easily finds the problem being a disconnected battery. Amanda then asks him on a date to which he says yes. However, Dawson never came. Amanda being mad goes over to his house where she finds him working on a car. He then explains to her that the reason he didn't want to go out in public was that he had gotten a black eye earlier that day. In response, Amanda tells him to take her someplace private to which they go to a local water tower. It is here where Amanda tells Dawson about her plans for the future is going to Tulane University and wanting to work for a non-profit. The two start dating a truly fall in love. Before the prom, Dawson's father and brothers beat Tuck. Dawson angered, goes to his father's house with the intent of killing him with Tuck's rifle. However, in the scuffle Bobby is accidentally killed. In exchange for a lighter sentence, Dawson testifies against his father and brothers. However, since Dawson will not be paroled for another four years, he cuts ties with Amanda, forcing her to choose college over staying with him.

After Tuck's death, Amanda and Dawson meet with Tuck's lawyer and learn that he has left them with cottage he and he wife lived in and that they are to scatter Tuck's ashes there. Things start out with rocky with Amanda and Dawson keeping their distance and doing it for Tuck. Once Dawson stumbles upon a photo of Tuck, Amanda, and her daughter, Amanda starts to open up about what has happened over the past twenty years. She tells him that she went to Tulane University as planned but unexpectedly got pregnant. Afterward, she got married to a guy named Frank and had two children: Jared and Bee. She also tells Dawson that Bee had just turned two in that photo had been diagnosed with leukemia a few weeks later and passed away. Dawson comforts and consoles her and says that he couldn't fathom what that was like. Later, Dawson and Amanda spend a passionate night together. While having dinner Amanda asks if he had been in any relationships or had loved anyone. In response, Dawson said that she set a pretty high bar. Amanda then feels a bit guilty and touched being the only one he had truly loved. While walking to the car Amanda admits that she intentionally pulled the battery out of the car just so he could save her. However, Dawson knew all along that was the case and Amanda wonders why he did tell her to which Dawson replies when was a mechanic ever the hero of the story. Amand then goes in and kisses him. next day the take a ride in Dawson's stickshift car and Amanda is taught by Dawson how to operate it. They then come back to the cottage where they spread Tuck's ashers. They sit down at boat dock discuss their plans during which Amanda tells Dawson that she came every day for month and every week for a year. Dawson says to her that he knew about every time she came, she gets mad and walks away. Dawson, pleading for her to listen says that he only did that to alleviate some of the pain. Amanda then says that he didn't take away any of the pain and confesses that she would have waited as long as it took. She then says (knowing full well how wrong it was) that when Jared was born she wanted to tell him and when Bee died of Leukemia she wanted him to hold her and Dawson does just that. She hated him for it because she would have done anything for him and he took that option away from her. After admitting he was wrong the two of them kiss and makeup. Later that day, while by the fire Amanda and Dawson reminisce over their song "Sweet Jamie" and Amanda says to Dawson that she had always trusted for life to work out and that she doesn't feel that way anymore. Dawson then gets up, and to Amanda's surprise and glee, he goes to his car and plays that same song in his car. The two then dance and Amanda admits that he is not stepping on her feet to which Dawson replies that he hasn't yet. Afterward, they have sex and both are happy beyond content. The following day, they are both reminded of old times with a rose in a bottle. Later they both jump into the nearby lake and Amanda lies on her back as Dawson holds her. Then while sitting outside looking at the garden, Amanda gets a phone call from her son Jared asking how it was going and asks when she will be back. She says she will be back in a few days and hangs up. Dawson then says that Amanda should go back and respect her commitments to her family and only loves her more for it. Amanda knows that she should but doesn't know how to say goodbye. Dawsons says that he will be here and will always love her. She then decides to return to her family and her strained marriage, to meet her family commitments.

When Amanda goes home, Dawson remains at Tuck's to restore the garden. However, she later plans to split up with her husband, and she leaves Dawson a voicemail expressing her love. Before anything more can happen between them, Dawson is attacked and almost killed by his brothers and is almost pushed in front of a moving train. Dawson knocks out his brothers, but after calling 911, he is spotted by his father across the railroad tracks and is shot dead.

Meanwhile, Amanda's son is in an automobile accident and receives a heart from a donor. Amanda's mother in tears sobbingly tells Amanda of the tragic death of Dawson, and she is heartbroken. A year later, Jared calls her from college saying that since it has been a year since the accident, he has learned the identity of his donor and wonders if Amanda knew him: Dawson Cole. Amanda says that she did and starts to cry happily They agree that she will tell Jared about him when he comes home for spring break.

RATING: 10 STARS

Soul Man, 1986 - Comedy: Young Man disguises himself as black to get into Harvard

Soul Man is a 1986 American comedy film directed by Steve Miner and written by Carol L. Black. C. Thomas Howell stars as a white male law student who pretends to be black in order to qualify for a scholarship. Its title refers to the song of the same name by Isaac Hayes and David Porter; the original soundtrack includes a version performed by Sam Moore and Lou Reed.

PLOT

Mark Watson is the pampered son of a rich family who is about to attend Harvard Law School along with his best friend Gordon. Unfortunately, his father's neurotic psychiatrist talks his patient into focusing on his own happiness instead of spending money on his son. Faced with the prospect of having to pay for law school by himself, Mark decides to apply for a scholarship, but the only suitable one is for African Americans only. He decides to cheat by using tanning pills in a larger dose than prescribed to appear as an African American. Watson then sets out for Harvard, naïvely believing that black people have no problems at all in American society.

However, once immersed in a black student's life, Mark finds out prejudice and racism truly exists. He meets a young African American student named Sarah Walker, whom he at first only flirts with; gradually, however, he genuinely falls in love with her. In passing, she mentions that he received the scholarship she was in the running for at the last minute. Due to this, she not only has to handle her classes but work as a waitress to support herself and her young son George.

Slowly, Mark begins to regret his decision as he continues to experience problems because of his skin tone. He gets arrested by a cop who assumes that he is a thief because he is driving an expensive car, is put on the receiving end of many hurtful racial stereotypes by white people and finds himself subjected to sexual harassment by his landlord's daughter, Whitney, who is eager to explore what she perceives to be the "exotic" thrill of sleeping with a black man.

After a chaotic day in which Sarah, his parents (who are not aware of his double life), and Whitney all make surprise visits at the same time, Mark drops the charade and publicly reveals himself to be white. He is surprised to find that many are willing to forgive him for the charade after considering his reasons for doing so, but Sarah is furious. Mark has a private conversation with his professor. He has learned more than he bargained for, admitting that he still doesn't know what it is like to be black because he could have changed back to being white at any time.

Because Mark must forfeit his scholarship, his father agrees to loan him the money for school, but with exorbitant interest. He goes to Sarah and begs for another chance, to which she agrees after Mark stands up for her and George when two male students tell a racist joke in front of them.