Ep 33: Two Weeks Notice

26 responses to “Ep 33: Two Weeks Notice”

1. I never really liked Two Weeks Notice. I usually love Sandra Bullock & Hugh Grant, but the bathroom scene completely ruins the movie for me.

2. The drunken cougar pretzel scene kills me every time. I can forgive just about anything if a movie makes me laugh that hard.

3. Annie – which bathroom scene? The one where she impossibly catches her hair on his belt – so stupid – OR the one with the camper on the bridge – also incredible stupid.

4. Exactly. We’re considering doing a PopD cut that gets rid of the bathroom scenes, both of them. And possibly the catfight. And putting back the job with the girlfriend.

5. The drunken cougar pretzel is genius.

6. I’ve listened to the podcast – on time!

   1. I didn’t mind the stapler scene. I liked the stapler scene! In the podcast you said that June’s not stupid, so why would she pick a fight? I think it’s because Lucy was so perfect at her job and June’s got such huge shoes to step into, that she’d like to pull Lucy down a peg or three so that she herself looks better as she starts the job. George isn’t in the room when the whole things starts, so I don’t think she’d have done it if he had been, because it’d make her look bad to HIM, but to the rest of the coworkers, maybe she thinks it might fly. And Lucy, despite her inherent goodness and morals, just gets het up at the whole June thing and goes a bit nuts.

   2. IMDb says that just ONE person wrote this movie, despite the diarrhea scene & the hair-caught-in-the-fly scene. I don’t know if he had outside “help” with those scenes, or input from producers, or what. Sandra Bullock was one of the producers so you’d hope she’d have a little input into her character … did SHE think it was funny? (I really wish I could find my DVD because she’s on the commentary and might lend some insight here.) Turns out he wrote “Miss Congeniality” and “Music & Lyrics” too. And he directed “M&L” and this one as well.
   Marc Lawrence: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0492909/

   3. Agreed on most points! The lovely writing and chemistry and acting, etc etc etc. One of my favorites. And I’d love to always watch the PopD cut from now on, with no bathroom humor. 😉

7. Possible thoughts on humiliating the heroine

   a) Sandra Bullock is known for being able to do physical comedy more so than some other leading actresses. She’s willing to look goofy for a scene. So there may have been an idea that they could get away with that.

   b) More depressingly, it seems a rule that in Hollywood movies these days that a woman who is depicted as a star in her choice of career – MUST be humiliated. She must be poked fun at, or get saddled with children who humble her or must realize that her career is costing her love, TRU love!

8. She is great at physical comedy–the scene on the boat is terrific–but that stuff wasn’t physical comedy, it was just degrading. Argh.

9. One thing I particularly liked about this movie was that the characters do NOT fall in love in:
   in:

   a) one weekend
   b) one week
   c) one month

   Instead, much more realistically, they fall in love over the course of working together for more than a year. It just takes the two week notice period for them to realize that they’ve been in love for months. This is so much easier to believe than “love at first sight” for me — and it makes it much easier to believe the couple might actually make it over the long haul.

   In the movie “The Jane Austen Book Club,” when the book club members are discussing Emma, one of the characters states that the humbling of the smart, pretty girl is one of the most popular themes in literature. It does seem to be a disturbingly popular theme in movies aimed at a female audience, too. 🙁

10. Kelly, I meant the one with the camper on the bridge- ugh. The hair in the pants is also incredibly annoying, but the camper one just memorable in all the wrong ways.

11. Random question – Is the rosemary chicken you mentioned on Twitter today the one you made on Sunday that was so delicious?

12. Aren’t uncredited writers sometimes thrown onto a project? That might be the case here. (I say this having looked up the info for 50 First Dates recently and saw something by the writer saying that a lot of things got thrown in that he wasn’t happy about. Having watched it ahead of time, I think I can guess THOSE scenes too.)

    Anyway: like everyone else, I loathe the diarrhea scene (and the hair scene), though I do have to give George props for (a) not being fazed by the situation in the slightest, and (b) actually solving the problem, fairly inventively.

    But their partnership is soooooo awesome. The meal scene! The rapport! The part where he has to know what she thinks! That is so awesome and I want that in real life. Freaking adorable.

    I do think it takes place over a year, though, not five years. They show her at various month intervals rather than years.

13. I just listened to the podcast, and had a comment about the stapler. It does show up in earlier scenes, like when Ansel and Lucy broke up and she was stapling things as a way of venting. I’m sure I saw it in at least one other scene, too, but it made it seem like stapling things was Lucy’s zen action. If that’s the case, then it would make sense that she would want to take it with her.

14. Yep. It’s on the cover of Martha Stewart Living and it’s ridiculously easy. It’s a copyrighted recipe or I’d just give it to you. Tonight we’re trying garlic roast chicken, I think. If I can get my butt in gear to make it.

15. That’s what I thought. I don’t know where I got five years.

16. Sierra, I do remember that stapling scene now. But I don’t think it sets up the catfight.
    Now if George had given her the stapler and June was trying to take it, then I could see the symbolism.

17. It sets up her wanting it, but not enough to lead to a catfight, I agree. We see a little of the competitive air between the two during the tennis scene, but again, nothing that would cause those two to start a catfight in front of the rest of the staff.

18. Re: credited script writers. A screenwriting class professor told our class that a writer that’s worked on rewriting a script won’t get credit unless a certain percentage of the script has changed. I believe it was something close to 40-50%, definitely a significant chunk. So who knows what was originally in the script and what was added ‘for laughs’ later on.

19. Was just listening to the podcast and thought I’d show how smart I am that I noticed the stapler earlier in the film, but Sierra beat me to it! There is no way a stapler would have prompted Lucy to cat fight status…

    As for how many writers work on a screenplay versus who gets credit for the film, it’s a fairly complicated process. The end result is that even if there are 50 writers who have worked on the script, in many cases only one writer gets credit for the finished film.

20. I have to say the best PopD podcasts spring from the worst movies. If you two meet a movie you love, it’s all giggles and sighs and looking deeply into the movie’s eyes while a violin plays in the background [all metaphorical, but work with me here].
    On the other hand, if you both loathe the movie — if it drives you to drink, a la Greek Wedding — you spurned lovers are driven to the heights of analytical brilliance. I speak as a woman who has endured many a PopD podcast whilst trying to jog. And there is nowhere to run (so to speak) when you’re listening to a podcast under those trying circumstances. So please review lots of rotten movies… ‘k?

21. WEBS re stapler and time. and you’re right about lucy and the stapler. she never, EVER would’ve packed that stapler up and taken it with her, even if she’d left a $20 on her desk with a note.

    It’s so hard to rate this one. on one handit’s one of the best movies i’ve seen. i get a fantastic ‘ah’ feeling at the end. i love the talking and the action but the BUTS are so big and such huge detractions that it takes this movie out of my ‘play it anytime’ rotatin and throws it into a lesser category. damn those bad jokes and throw away scenes. why can’t the bad stuff ever end up on the cutting room floor?

22. Merry, you’re going to LOVE the Hitmen in Love series. Three of them are going to drive me to drink and the other three I either haven’t seen or saw so long ago I can’t remember them that well.

23. Seriously, Stephanie, we’re doing to do a PopD cut, take out the hair-caught-in-fly scene and the whole intestinal scene sequence. Then we’re going to put the jogging with the best friend scene back in. Nothing we can do about June and the stapler since we can’t film George giving her the stapler early on.

24. Looks like I’m the only one not impressed with Two Weeks Notice. I guess that means I have to speak up and explain my view.

    The movie was great until Lucy ran off from her friend’s wedding. (Who does that? Well, an awesome heroine dedicated to her job as a rich playboy’s nanny, obviously.) It was a downhill from there.

    First, I didn’t buy the romance. Lucy and George are polar opposites with absolutely nothing in common. His feelings I can understand: he clearly needs someone to take care of him the way she does. He’s also very lonely, I think. So yes, I can see how he would love a woman who gives so much of her time for him. But what on earth does Lucy see in George?! He’s nothing but a spoiled brat who doesn’t take anything or anyone seriously. We get one glimpse of him showing interest in something real (the helicopter scene), but the rest of the time he just keeps on making jokes. That may be charming at firs, but soon it becomes just annoying.

    Second, the movie wasn’t that funny. Admittedly, I don’t laugh easily: a chuckle out of me and it’s four stars for comedy! It’s just that most of the jokes here made me cringe. It wasn’t just Lucy who got thrashed for the sake of bad jokes, there were other victims too. Like the chauffeur playing chess with George, sharing his views on women, based on his life with his mom. Or Lucy’s friend, whose marriage is a recurring joke that never goes anywhere. Did these characters have any other reason but these dumb comedy scenes to be in the movie? Too many stupid jokes and even the good ones won’t work for me.

    I didn’t hate the movie. There was plenty of good stuff, just not enough. More scenes with George showing who he could be if he wasn’t making fun of everything, less random jokes, and it would have been awesome.

25. Is this the recipe for the chicken Jenny?

    http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/crisp-skinned-chicken-with-rosemary-potatoes

26. That’s it. It was yummy.