Movie Review: Set It Up

If your brain substitutes the ‘Up’ for ‘Off’ and you’re suddenly thinking about the 1996 movie that has Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith, you are not alone. If not, then well you’re probably not alone either but we’re not in the same boat.

Anywho, Set it Up is a Netflix Original film that stars Lucy Liu, Zoey Deutch, Taye Diggs, and Glen Powell. It’s a story of two assistants (Deutch and Powell) who try to set up their small kine mean bosses (Liu and Diggs) up with each other so that they could go and actually live their lives.

Obviously this is a Romantic Comedy and I feel like it’s been a good hot minute (I blame my husband for introducing me to that phrase) since I have actually seen a romantic comedy that didn’t do the exact same thing as all the other romantic comedies. And that doesn’t make the other romcom movies bad, it just makes this one different.

Like, literally every other scene where you think you know what’s gonna happen because several other movies have had this exact same scene with only different scenery and they all played out the same, they end up not doing the thing and you’re just like whaaaa?

Okay maybe that last part was just me.

But I really enjoyed this movie. I was completely invested into the movie not even ten minutes in when Glen Powell’s character stole Lucy Liu’s food for his own boss.

Lucy Liu is amazing as usual. I love her. Like I’m having trouble finding the right words that I have about watching her in this movie. She goes from cool and dictator-like to soft and mentor like and then back in five seconds. She does describe why she is the way she is toward the middle end of the movie. Her character legit will call out everyone in short and precise sentences and even writing this and thinking back, her character just keeps it real from her standpoint of reality (does that make sense? Probably not).

Zoey Deutch is, okay I love Zoey Deutch first off. In the movies that I have seen her in, she absolutely kills it. From being a side character in ‘Beautiful Creatures’ to being one of the main kick ass characters in ‘Vampire Academy’ she fully embodies her role. This movie was no exception. She is sensitive, she enjoys sports intensely and, like Glen Powell’s character tells her later on, she is nice to everyone (except for him which is true and funny to me). She is also a bit of perfectionist when it comes to her work, which is not actually said and maybe I’m only noticing it because I’ve never been an assistant or an intern.

Here is the bad part, on my side: I actually had no idea who most of the actors were at first. I actually still don’t know who Glen Powell is or what else he’s been in but I DO know that he had me rolling a few times.

Glen Powell’s character’s moral code is legit always on the fence and the things he cares about can be seen as superficial and doesn’t really matter that much (as Zoey Deutch’s character points out) but that’s how most business investor type people are right? If not, well, the movies almost always portray them like that. Even with that though, there is something oddly endearing about him? Like if I was to meet someone like him in real life, I would roll my eyes affectionately. Also, he invented the LOOK. When you watch the movie, you’ll know what LOOK I’m talking about. We’ve all seen in the romcom movies before but he freaking owns it now.

Taye Diggs was familiar to me but I had to do an IMDb search first to figure out where I have seen him before (lo and behold, it was Rent where he played another asshole). Oh and props to Taye Diggs for acting his butt out because his character is a legit tantrum throwing man-child. And how I said Glen Powell’s character’s moral code is on the fence? Taye Diggs’ character’s is non-existent. He is a 30-year-old-something-or-another fuckboy in a suit. A High Maintenance fuckboy in a suit mind you. My lord almost every time he opens his mouth I wanted to shove a brick into it.

Which reminds me that I need to find the bloopers for this movie.

I love the roommates. They are hilarious. Zoey Deutch’s roommate is played by sunshine personify Meredith Hagner and Glen Powell’s roommate is played by funny man Pete Davidson. The two roommates never meet but their interaction with the mains is absolutely perfect as they understand their best friends more than anything. When their scenes come, they absolutely steal it.

Legit, I think my only complaint was that there wasn’t very much publicity going around before the movie released which I think is a weakness of Netflix a lot of the times. They don’t really hype up their own shows or movies very much which leads to shows like The Get Down and Sense8 being canceled because lack of views.

I was lucky enough to find out about it because one preview came over my Facebook feed and then a Buzzfeed writer watched it when it went up on the Netflix site and wrote about it.

So, in conclusion (I haven’t wrote those words since high school), I thought it was a really good romcom movie. Netflix couldn’t have picked better people to star in it. I really enjoyed it and I definitely recommend for anybody who enjoys romcoms or Lucy Liu to definitely watch it.

Thanks for reading! Aloha!

Disney’s Descendants: A Gushing

Warning: There will be spoilers

I was 20 when the first Descendants movie came out in 2015. I watched it with my little cousin. I did not expect to become mildly obsessed with it for months afterwards. So of course when a sequel was announced, I have been patiently impatiently waiting for it. Friday, July 21, Descendants 2 premiered not only on Disney Channel (but also on ABC, Freeform and Lifetime).

For those of you who don’t know what the movie franchise is about here is a “quick” overview:

In the first Descendants movie you learn that it’s been 20 years since the villains of all the Disney Animated Movies have been exiled to an island where there is no magic and they’re getting scraps and leftovers from Auradon and there’s a giant barrier around it that prevents anybody from leaving. The movie follows the children of four of these villains (Maleficient, Evil Queen, Jafar, and Cruella de Vil) as they are invited to leave the island and experience Auradon and learn how to be good by the son of King Beast/Adam and Queen Belle.

Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos go to Auradon with a mission from their evil parents to steal Fairy Godmother’s magic wand in order to set everyone on the isle free so they can reign evil and terror on the world again. They end up  learning that they’re not their parents and that they don’t have to be evil if they don’t want to be.

The second movie, Disney’s Descendants 2 takes place about six months after the first one and Mal is crumbling under the pressure of being King Ben’s girlfriend as well as a Lady of the Court. Her friends are doing extremely well in their new life so she keeps shutting herself up whenever she starts to talk about missing being evil and the isle.

Evie is a successful fashion designer and is raking in major dough from the dresses she is making for the Cotillion (which we find out from adorable Jane (daughter of Fairy Godmother) is basically the pre-pre-pre-engagement of Ben and Mal). Jay is Captain of the Fencing team and is basically Auradon’s most eligible bachelor (in the high school way). Carlos is still an amazing hacker, lover of Dude and he’s having girl troubles.

So Mal continues to try her best at fitting in and being the best girlfriend/future queen that she can (something she has had no previous training for). However, an argument between her and Ben pushes her into going back to the isle where she had known exactly who she was before going to Auradon, where she felt the most comfortable.

Ben, along with the VK (Villain Kids), follow her to the Isle to try and get her to return and high jinks occur as we are introduced to the Antagonists in this film.

Uma (daughter of Ursula) is very sour at Mal, and the other three, for leaving the isle without a second look back and plots to get back at Mal and to take over Auradon. Her partners-in-crime are Harry Hook (son of Captain Hook) and Gil (son of Gaston). Imagine her reaction to finding out that the Rotten 4 are back on the isle along with the King!

There is singing and dancing which is all choreographed by the absolutely wonderful Kenny Ortega (he choreographed the High School Musical franchise). And I love these movies so very much. The costumes and sets are so great.

This is what the Villain Kids looked like in the first movie:

(From left to right: Evie (daughter of Evil Queen), Mal (daughter of Maleficient), Carlos (son of Cruella), and Jay (son of Jafar))

And then there’s this full poster that I believe is fan-made that I got from this site: http://mirmay.mplore.com/images?keyword=Descendants%202

(From left to right: Doug (son of Dopey), Jane (daughter of Fairy Godmother), Audrey (daughter of Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip), Lonnie (daughter of Mulan and Shang), Chad (son of Cinderella and Prince Charming), Ben (son of King Adam and Queen Belle), Jay, Evie, Mal, and Carlos)

LOOK AT THE COSTUMING! And that’s just the first movie.

This is one of the many posters for the sequel:

That girl in the background? That’s Uma. Played by none other than China Ann McClaine

Here is more pictures from the movie:

That’s Ben at the end dressed as a VK. Looks good on him!

Here we have Harry Hook, Uma, and Gil.

These movies were great and I suggest everyone to watch them so they can make their own judgement about them.

Thanks for reading this gushing! Peace!