Screen Spotlight

Home / Movie Categories / Drama / Nice Guy Johnny

Browse by Category

Hot New Movies

Box Office Numbers

$	55.6M	Marvel's The Avengers
$	25.5M	Battleship
$	17.4M	The Dictator
$	12.5M	Dark Shadows
$	10.5M	What to Expect When You're Expecting
As of May 21, 2012

Hollywood Gossip, Tidbits, and News

An office worker has been fired for her whistle, distracting nice boobs, figure and look at that...Maria Menounos gained 6 pounds on Dancing with the Has Beens. Kristen Stewart is number 15 on Maxim's 100 Hot List. I wonder how her acting ranks on the S*it List? These days Hugh Hefner spends more time in the kitchen than in the bedroom. John Mayer regrets dissing Jessica Simpson and Jen Aniston in interviews. We just regret John Mayer. Is Bar Rafaeli the hottest woman in the world? Dude, your girlfriend is the hottest woman in the world and don't you ever forget it! Justin Bieber is dating high school students? Man guys at that age are so impressionable. Kate Gosselin says she and Jon have made peace. Awww, that's special. Once their fame ran out they stopped cheating. That's really sweet. Why does Kelly Clarkson lose weight when she's only going to put it back on? Heidi Klum felt more special as a blond. Ah, the world's most profound questions answered as only a super model can.

A man has broken the world record for fist pumping by pumping for 17 hours. My god what an achievement, but we are overlooking how raw his penis must be. The President of Yahoo has been forced to resign because he made an inflated claim on his resume. Meanwhile, in other news, Barak Obama ate dog. Robert Pattinson is 27 going on 17, good for you RSchmuck, I mean RPutz. Are Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer an item again? Is Jessica Simpson's body still a wonderland? Yes, it's just we are wondering why her territory doubled in size. Is Jay-Z acting like a wild bachelor on the prowl? With a name like Jay-Z I don't think any of us really care. Drake is romancing two cougars? Man, dude's a zookeeper. Does Casper Smart enjoy his five minutes of fame? Is that all he lasts for? Lightweight. Rihanna was recently hospitalized for too much partying. It's ok though, let's keep the focus on Lindsay Lohan, she's white after all. Christina Aguilera is quitting The Voice. John Travolta is not gay, he just like's dudes.

Mariah and Nick renew their vows in Paris? I bet he showed her the Eiffel Tower. Truth be told, it might have been more like the leaning tower of Pisa. Gwyneth Paltrow has post partum depression. Me too, but it has been quite a while since I was in the womb. Kim K and Lindsay Lohan will attend the White House Correspondent's Dinner. I guess they wanted to see who has the best lines, and I'm not talking about comedy. Jessica Simpson has a baby shower? What is it like 2 feet tall and a tiny water head? Weirdo. Ellen DeGeneres is a Vegan? I thought she ate meat every night! Jenny McCarthy loves Botox. She loves silicon too. Richard Simmons has flammable shorts. Molly Ringwald drinks Kristen Stewart's blood. But alas it's not that time of the month yet. Want to see Taylor Lautner pics? Then go see Breaking Dawn Part 2. Lisa Rinna does advertisements for adult diapers. That's a coincidence because the first time I saw her naked I shit my pants!

Katy Perry dyes her hair purple. That's quite a change from the pink it was last week. Kelsey Grammar has proven you are never too old to get a tattoo or a Viagra prescription. Nicole Kidman does not mind being naked. Trust me when I tell you we don't mind either. Ashton Kutcher is having "intercourse" with Mila Kunis. One more time for those of you from Port Saint Lucie Florida, that's "intercourse". Who's is bigger Angelina's or Jennifer's? What are we talking about? Just ask Brad Pitt, he'll tell you! Seal has a new girlfriend and her name is whatshernameIdon'tcare. Will Pippa Middleton face arrest? Will switching to Progressive really give you better discounts? Taylor Armstrong is "so not ready to date yet". Wait, I don't speak moron, does that mean she wants to date or not? Bow Wow is no longer a wanted man but that doesn't answer the question who let the dogs out?

J-Lo bought Casper Smart a truck for his birthday. Hey, we already know where he likes to park it! Lamar Odom you are fired! Thanks for playing, next time leave the 500lb gorilla at home. Yeah, we are talking to you Kardashian. NBC's Rock Center has coverage more lopsided than Brian Williams' face. Miley Cyrus is not anorexic, she just eats lots of laxatives, get it? LOL? Ann Hathaway's hair is so short she looks like Jerry Seinfeld and there is nothing funny about that. Jennifer Hudson will appear at a murder trial. As a witness or as a defendant? Ah who keeps up with the Kardashians anyway. Khloe Kardashian says Lamar Odom deserved better from the Mavericks. Khloe, try running your fat ass up a basketball court and then you can talk. Is Lindsay Lohan guilty of assault? Only because she attacked my heart. Awwwww. Mila Kunis or Kate Upton? It depends, which one did Justin Timberlake already date? After being arrested for a DUI Amanda Bynes went back to her hotel bar. Maybe it's time she went back to acting because she sure plays a dumbass great in real life.

Hot New Movies

Screen Spotlight Featured Reviews

Nice Guy Johnny

Written by Jonathan Jacobs

Opening night of the FLIFF (Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival) was unmistakably about the marvelous writer/director/actor, Edward Burns. Burns addressed the audience after screening his self-commissioned independent film, Nice Guy Johnny. Burns is exactly what one would expect; charming, manly and excessively tall. I would estimate he is 6’3” which is lofty by Hollywood standards (as we will see during the film). Although Burns is married with children (as his manager/producer assured me), his on stage persona very much resembles that of Uncle Terry, the gruff, brusque, chauvinistic character he so effortless plays. Burns’ script came from sundry lines he heard on the subway and discussions he engaged in with close friends. The fact that the story is so lifelike, and not a Hollywood forgery, is a testament to Director Burns’ authorship. And now, let’s get ready to rumble.

Johnny Rizzo (Matt Bush) is by all standards a “nice guy”. It is even his sports talk radio moniker. On the cusp of marriage, engaged to one of the most strict, rigid and rightfully ambitious young women on the planet (Earth), Claire (Anna Wood), Johnny is having doubts about relinquishing his 2:00 A.M. time slot and pitiful salary to satisfy her career longings. His reward will be a long-distance move from Oakland, CA to Manhattan, the Big Apple. His future father in law would love for him to work as an apprentice as a cardboard box manufacturer. The job would pay an appealing triple his current salary and remove the young couple from daddy’s wallet for good. Throughout all of this, neither Claire, nor her parents care in the slightest for Johnny’s hopes, dreams, and desires. Rightfully so of course. A married man should not host a 2:00 A.M. talk show for 20K a year. It is a disaster waiting to happen. Nonetheless, Johnny is honorable and sweet to a fault. He is ready to sacrifice his aspirations and his happiness for the sake of his fiancée’s desires. That is, until he meets the glorious, pigheaded, but free-spirited Uncle Terry (Edward Burns).

In New York (Edward Burns’ playground), Johnny visits his Uncle’s bar for a beer. In Uncle Terry’s bar everyone must consume mass quantities of hard alcohol without exception. Already off on the wrong foot, Terry offers his nephew a chance to stay with him in the Hamptons for the weekend. His alternative is to go handbag shopping for Claire and to stay in his parents’ boring and quiet home. Ever eager to continue pleasing his fiancée, Johnny declines the invitation several times before accepting. He even forces Terry to venture downtown to buy the purse (there are always small details or plot points that have a symbolic meaning throughout so pay careful attention here). Before leaving Terry visits his girlfriend’s house with Jonny. She just so happens to be married. Her tennis instructor is the smoking hot hottie Brooke (Kerry Bishé), a young twenty-something stuck in a dating rut without end. Brooke has been addicted to allowing sleazeballs to control her every move and career decision. So much so that she traded a potentially lucrative professional tennis career for what she thought would be true love. It turned out to be a one-sided sexploitation.

When Johnny is introduced to Brooke he is on automatic pilot. He refuses to be overtly social and speaks with her only out of a sense of decency. Nonetheless, this designed encounter (Uncle Terry’s idea of course) begins a spark in Johnny’s mind that continues to develop into a full-blown forest fire. She causes him to challenge all of his predetermined notions about “doing the right thing” and about “keeping promises” no matter how irrelevant and destructive they are in the present time. For a split second amid the chaos of his Uncle’s womanizing and his own struggle to maintain his semi-marital commitment, Johnny falls in love with Brooke. Although he hardly acts on his powerful impulse to make love to her, he remains mostly chaste and abandons her near the end in a final desperate attempt to salvage his relationship with his fiancée.

Nice Guy Johnny is a film that tells the tale of why some people fall in love so easily and why others are swept away in the daily humdrum only to find themselves stagnating and bitterly unhappy. There is a difference between being a “nice guy” and being a chump that is oft-trampled on. Johnny Rizzo finds out this lesson the hard way. The only gripe I have with Burns’ terrific independent film is the storyline unfolds over a 2-3 day period. That alone seems implausible considering the amount of developments and realizations that take place. Nevertheless, casting unknown actors in this picture on a $25,000 budget makes me salivate at the thought of duplicating Burns’ effort and style. Donations anyone? It is my turn to take center stage. What a show.