By Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

Tinsel & Tine #MiniMovieReview LONG SHOT (Jonathan Levine) Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) is a far left journalist with principals and a ridiculous jacket who quits his job when a Rupert Murdoch type takes over the newspaper. Fred turns to his friend Lance (O’Shea Jackson, Jr) for a little support and best friend night out – only, instead of going to a bar to hammer back a few, Lance takes Fred to a fancy fundraiser featuring none other than Philly’s own Boyz II Men.  It’s here that Fred runs into his old babysitter Charlotte (Charlize Theron) who is now Secretary of State and thinking of a run for the Presidency. (She’s American in the movie, not South African 🙂  One thing leads to another and he becomes her speech writer…

I really like Seth Rogen’s “This is the End” and “Sausage Party” (click for T&T reviews) both filled with frat boy humor, but just enough intelligence and slapstick to appeal to a wider audience, so I figured I’d be going in for something like that with “Long Shot”, and to some extent it is, but to my delight and surprise, it’s also a true rom/com. There’s a lot of travel which leads to romantic moments. They make reference to other classic rom/coms of the 90’s, even using Roxette’s – It Must Have Been Love song from “Pretty Woman”.  There are fun side characters which make up Charlotte’s staff, speaking of which, I like that actress June Diane Raphael from “Grace and Frankie” and she plays a similar role in this movie, but because she resembles Charlize Theron, even though they color her hair dark, I expected there would be a scene where she switches places with her boss, but it doesn’t happen, making me wonder why cast someone with such a similar look?  At any rate, the most important aspect of a rom/com is chemistry, which Theron & Rogen possess, allowing me to be invested as to whether or not they end up together.

T&T’s LAMB rating: 3.5 outta 5