Generally speaking, I tend to dig writer-director Edward Burns’ movies. They usually have a unique voice — one that his very specifically his — and, typically, Burns as an actor tends to be my favorite part of his movies.
And the description of his newest movie, “Nice Guy Johnny,” sounds like a nice set up for a Burns movie: Sure, she can be a little overbearing sometimes, but baby-faced Johnny Rizzo loves his fiancée Claire, and he made her a promise: by the time he’s 25-years-old, he’ll trade his current dream job as a local sports talk radio host (even if it is the 2 a.m. slot) for something that’ll pay bigger bucks. And Johnny’s nothing, if not a man of his word. Now he’s flying to New York to interview for some snoozeville job that Claire’s well-to-do father set up. Enter Uncle Terry, who lives in New York, a rascally womanizer bent on turning a day in the Hamptons into a final fling for his nephew. Nice guy Johnny’s not interested, of course, but then he meets the lovely Brooke …
Now, that is how the movie is described, but the movie’s trailer does not set up that movie. No, it sets up a far different movie — one that I would have zero intention of seeing based on the trailer alone.
For one thing, Burns never once shows up in the trailer. He plays the pivotal role of Uncle Terry — someone you would think might show up in the trailer.
Also, the trailer said the movie is “introducing” Kerry Bishé. Unfortunately, I already know Bishé all too well — as does anyone who had the misfortune of watching the last season of “Scrubs.” Bishé’s character was the de facto replacement for Zach Braff (including doing the voice-over work) and she was very weak on the show. You could blame the show’s writers — and there was certainly plenty of blame to go around in the show’s final season — but Bishé was the worst part of the show in my opinion.
(For the record, the movie’s male lead — Matt Bush — is someone about whom I literally have no opinion … even after watching the trailer.)
“Nice Guy Johnny,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, is heading straight to DVD on Oct. 26. I can only hope the movie is truer to its description than it is to its trailer.
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Follow Sean Gerski on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DoubleDown44.
I honestly can’t say thatI blame you for your opinion Sean, this is the worst trailer ever! I almost killed myself twice just watching it so it would be over! LOL, but seriously it looks like nothing happens! Its an entire trailer about two semi-attractive people lounging around together. This trailer may have made me never want to see this movie.. even on DVD and thats bad even for me cause I see EVERYTHING!… usually