Someone Like You

Ashley Judd plays the part of a talent booker for an abrasive Springer-like TV talk show. She falls in love with sexy co-worker Greg Kinnear, and they seem to have a perfect sitcom romance. She tells all her friends he is the perfect guy.

He then proceeds to dump her for no good reason.

Her anger and curiosity lead her to make a scientific study of male mating behavior, and that leads to a new career as a sexual behavior guru, when she publishes her thoughts under a pseudonymous role as a clone of Dr Ruth.

NUDITY REPORT

none, but Ashley Judd did cheerleader routines in skimpy panties, and appeared in near-miss tease shots. I found it very sexy, although not naked.

The broken relationship also placed her in an unfortunate living situation. She was planning to move in with Kinnear, and got rid of her old apartment. When Kinnear walked, she found her self homeless as well as relationless. This forced her into moving in (on a Platonic basis) with her sexist male co-worker (Wolverine).

DVD info from Amazon.

Widescreen anamorphic, 1.85:1
full-length commentary
"making of" featurette
extended scenes

That cloud had a silver lining. Wolverine, with his sexual turnstile bedroom, was the perfect subject for her study of the "old cow, new cow theory", which was the essence of her philosophy as a sexual guru.

"Old cow, new cow" can be summed up as follows: place a new cow in the pen, bull will mount her. Bring her back tomorrow, bull will not mount her. Bring her around the next day with her smell disguised, bull will still not mount her. Bring around a new cow, bull will mount her. Men behave like bulls.

Oh, yeah, so what do you think will happen between Judd and Wolverine? He ends up tearing her apart with his retractable claws. Whew, what a bloody mess.

No just kidding. Unfortunately, the best they could come up with was the really happy, contrived, running-in-the-street-after-his-cab-followed-by-kiss, Hollywood ending. Somehow they forget to end it with the two lovers inside a heart with cupid's arrow through it.

The Critics Vote

General consensus: two stars. Ebert 2/4, BBC 2/5, Apollo 69/100.
Rotten Tomatoes summary. 35% positive reviews, only 24% from the top critics

The People Vote ...

With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 5.9, Apollo users 71/100

With their dollars ... it wasn't a smash, hit, but it took in $27 million domestic on a $23 million budget.

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C.