The Lifeguard (2013)

Perfectly adorable

not horrible nor great

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

As somebody already mentioned you just have to be in a particular place of life to appreciate the movie. It is not the best movie I've watched and I think I would not watch the entire movie if I found it when I was in my early 20s. However I learned to appreciate these type of simple stories. There are no fake romantic dinners and there are no special events happening in the movie. It is just a chunk of everyday life and doubts that surround people after teen period. Certain silver lining point interwoven in the last scene when she is driving the car and sunshine lightens her face is just what we encounter in everyday lives when we face some difficulties. It is so simplistic yet so powerful.

Boring and disjointed. Why is this sometimes billed as a comedy? My guess is because the makers knew it sucked, but figured OK Kristin Bell, maybe we can leverage goodwill from folks who like Saving Sarah Marshall and con them into seeing it. Uneven tone, tries periodically to be quirky. You won't care about or believe these characters. The scene where she stands up to the police because they are harassing the teens for skating is one of the most hackneyed things put to film in the last 10 years. Spoiler alert: this movie stinks on ice, but it will put you to sleep faster than a sominex chased with some NyQuil.

This movie is just fine. It's an interesting story about more different characters with similar life issues. I love the scenery, the nature and whole summer small town vibe from the movie. I think that everyone gets at least once in their life to a point, where we don't know how to go on and what we really want from life. We remember easier times, when we were teenagers or kids and just want to go back to those times for a while, but we really can't. This movie also shows a lot of other different problems. I don't get people saying that this movie glorifies pedophilia? I guess those people don't even know the definition of pedophilia. And just because a movie shows a relationship between an older and a younger partner, doesn't mean it's abuse. Dear Americans- if you're able to get a driving license at the age of 16 and legally be responsible, not just for your own life, but for the lives of other people in traffic, how can you not be responsible for your own love life? Dear everyone else, who suddenly became super sensitive about this subject: Why are you not bashing movies like Scarface or The Godfather or just about any action/ mafia/ war movie for glorifying killing/ drugs/ hate/ rape/ murder or any other violent crimes against humanity? Oh, how wonderful the world would look like if people would be so sensitive to such topics in the media and movies, as they are about an inappropriate relationship in this movie.

Leigh is about to turn 30 and while she wants to be a respected journalist in the big city, no one seems to care about her story about a mistreated tiger who died. She needs to return to her parents' home in the small town she once called home.Her parents welcome her, and Leigh gets a job as a lifeguard for the summer. She meets "Little Jason", who is not little, but is the son of her boss Big Jason. We'll just call him Jason.Leigh meets up with old friends Mel, the high school vice-principal, and Todd, who works in a museum. They have a good time together, even though Mel is trying to get pregnant and shouldn't be drinking or smoking weed.Jason and his friends are losers and want out of this loser town. Meanwhile, they ask the adults to buy them beer. Instead, they try to convince the guys they are not losers. They do seem to get through to Jason. Leigh and Jason develop a special relationship. Maybe too special.Meanwhile, Mel's life is falling apart.So will Leigh go back to her real job? Because life in a small town isn't quite what she hoped it would be. Her parents aren't quite what she was hoping for.This isn't really my kind of movie, but the biggest incentive was Kristen Bell in a swimsuit. Actually, she is usually wearing more than that. But she still looks good, and has an appealing personality. She does a really good job with the role. Although Leigh can be irresponsible at times, she also shows maturity and responsibility in other situations.David Lambert also does a capable job and Jason is likable most of the time.Mamie Gummer was familiar and comfortable for some reason. I finally realized who she was when I saw the credits. I know her as a funny and quirky doctor on TV, but she was rarely funny here. In fact, she was quite depressing, but this probably means she did a good job. She just didn't appeal to me. The whole movie was quite depressing, but that works for some people. There was some comedy, just not enough. And then there's that depressing music, which young women seem to like. Also some upbeat, positive music, which didn't work for me.I think there were positive qualities to this movie. They were just positive for other people, not me.