IT'S LET'S WATCH A MOVIE WEEK! Where I live-blog me watching a film and comment along the way! Most of these films I watched a while back, I just wanted to hold off talking about them until more people had a chance to see them. Because of the pandemic, and all that.

Today's movie is one that I saw only recently... The Hating Game!

If you're somebody who just wants me to summarize and not have to read through the smalltalk to see how I felt, here you go: The Hating Game is darn good at being exactly what it was meant to be... a fun, clever, rom-com romp. Sure it falls into a few tropes that had me wincing, but it also has one of the most romantic things I've seen in one of these.
GRADE: A

If you haven't seen it yet, this will obviously be a spoiler-filled entry. And probably not make a lot of sense. You've been warned.

• I'm just going to get this out of the way... LUCY HALE IS ONE OF THE MOST GORGEOUSLY ADORABLE WOMEN I HAVE EVER SEEN! I MEAN, DAMN!
• The whole "I hate him until I love him" trope has been used in half the Hallmark movies ever made, so I'm excrutiatingly familiar with the concept. And while Lucy Hale alone is enough to make me want to watch this film, they better have something more than that to make this movie worth my time.
• ADHD is real, y'all. You can hate on the guy for whatever you want, but over something he can't control? Not fair!
• Yeah. This is going to be another one of those movies where the cast wears hugely expensive wardrobes that they couldn't possibly afford with their job.
• Oh yeah. There's one in every office... somebody who slides through their career on the hard work of others.
• "Birthday Turkey!" LOL. Yeah, I can tell already that Lucy Hale is going to be the reason this movie works. If she can deliver lines like this and sell it, she can deliver anything.
• Corbin Bernsen! I've always liked him. But it was his work on Psych that made me love the guy.
• Nothing like a little cutthroat competition to make your heart melt!
• "Shortcake?" Rude!
• I'm not ashamed to admit... they could have made the entire film be two hours of Lucy Hale putting on lipstick and I would watch.
• The witty banter is on-point so far. It's approachable, clever, and doesn't grind the movie to a stop.
• "Shrimp?" Rude!
• Who is this guy? Austin Stowell? Do I know him? He's not new... his IMDB page is pretty respectable. But I don't recognize him from any of these works. And this just in... HE PLAYED LARRY KING IN BATTLE OF THE SEXES?!? Wow. I can only guess that it's not that Larry King. Must be a relative of Billie Jean King?
• Sex dreams. So annoying when they're with somebody you hate.
• LOL. Pratfalls are never the answer, but it totally works here.
• "Sex dream? Was I in it?" Cutting right to the point. I like this guy.
• Okay. The dialogue in this is film is worth the price of admission.
• Lord. They really went overboard with making this design guy as dorky as possible. I can relate.
• This movie is surprisingly well-shot. It always looks good, even in mundane scenes. And then they go and insert these beautiful establishing shots which drive it home. Cinematographer Noah Greenberg looks to have been around a while, but the only thing I've ever seen of him was his work as DP in Doom Patrol.
• We're what... only a quarter of the way through the movie... and they've already dropped the pretense! Exciting. What does this mean for the rest of the film? I'm intrigued!
• "Bailey's. Rocks" They are really working overtime to make poor Danny a hopeless case. Kinda lazy.
• So. It looks like Josh is the nice guy in this scenario. Refreshing.
• How can she afford this amazing apartment? She's a publisher's assistant in a struggling publishing company?
• He's a Mac guy. Usually that (and sexual solidarity) would have me be all "Team Josh!" But Lucy has much better lips.
• Lucy has an active (and violent!) imagination. I love her more now.
• So Lucy is a total pushover... with anybody except Josh.
• I've never been paintballing. Looks like fun, though I'd probably suck at it.
• The number of relationships that begin when a person pukes on another person seems high. In the movies, anyway.
• When I'm sick... especially throwing-up sick... the last thing I want is somebody taking care of me. Just leave me alone to puke in peace, thanks.
• I can only guess that when we see Josh's place, it will be immaculately organized. The set designer knows their stuff.
• Isn't Josh afraid of catching whatever bug she's plagued with?
• "I like her!" Yeah, get in line, buddy.
• The old "Younger brother gets married before the older brother is embarrassing" trope. Some people just don't want to get married (like me!) and that should be okay.
• So... not quite half-way through and there's already a love story. Which means something is going to come along to break them up so they can get back together. Groundbreaking.
• God. The writers really want Danny to be the worst. Mission accomplished.
• Yeah. I hate to say it, but Josh is quickly looking too good for Lucy. THE AUDACITY!
• He is very tall. Or she is very short.
• Okay. I really am Team Josh. His reasoning here is spot-on. As an aside: his breath must smell incredible for him to be breathing all over her like this.
• Oh noes. There's no chemistry at all with Danny. I never saw that coming given how he's been portrayed as somebody who is essentially not worth her time.
• Well, shit. This would be the end of a Hallmark movie.
• Of course his place is frickin' amazing. My dream apartment, essentially.
• HOLY SHIT HIS APARTMENT IS INCREDIBLE!
• Obviously they couldn't have hired a normal guy to play Josh. It had to be somebody with impossibly defined muscles.
• "Maybe some other time?!? That's what you say when you turn down a muffin, not sex!" — I sure hope that Josh has a really good reason for not sleeping with her. Likely just trying to make him the anti-Danny. He respects her too much!
• "Roll Tide!" — LOL.
• Lucy really knows how to dress to accentuate those incredible eyes.
• Ha! Mop socks! I actually considered buying them... until my over-priced hardwood ended up having slivers all over the place.
• Oh noes. Only one room left at the inn. Didn't see that coming.
• "No keys. Everything's unlocked." The look on Josh's face is all of us right now.
• Yeah. They didn't hire Austin Stowell for his looks at all.
• This soundtrack is pretty great. I will have to look up these songs and put them in a playlist.
• No need to look at the credits. The writer is clearly a woman writing Josh to be her dream man (Whoops! IMDB says it was two women writing Josh to be their dream man).
• I covet the end-table lamps in this hotel. Very Frank Lloyd Wright. Could even be Frank Lloyd Wright in design.
• Ah. I get it now. Lucy's dress is Benjamin Moore Calypso Green. The sheets on the hotel bed were Benjamin Moore Calypso Green. Lucy wears Benjamin Moore Calypso Green all the time. There's Benjamin Moore Calypso Green everywhere in this movie. And Josh's apartment walls are Benjamin Moore Calypso Green. He painted his wall to match her eyes. That is hands-down one of the most romantic things I've ever seen in a rom-com. The entire movie was built around it, and that's pretty great.
• Welp. If your sympathies weren't with Josh, they sure are now. His brother married his girlfriend. Cold.
• The bride is incredibly beautiful. But her wedding dress is awful. The clothing designer has been so good up until now.
• So... Josh's dad is an asshole from start to finish. And sexist to boot.
• YEP, THERE IT IS. HE TOLD HER ABOUT THE BENJAMIN MOORE CALYPSO GREEN ON HIS WALL. DAMN. I mean, seriously. Is she ready to have his children now? Because I sure am! And the reason he calls her "Shortcake" has everything to do with strawberries and nothing to do with her height.
• Ah. So this is where we get the breakup. The old A HORRIBLE MISUNDERSTANDING THAT COULD HAVE BEEN CLEARED UP IN FIVE SECONDS IF ONLY SHE WOULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING trope. Sigh.
• Danny. In Benjamin Moore Calypso Green pants. Doesn't hit the same as painting your wall though. Nice try, Danny.
• Josh is confused. And you just know that there is a good explanation for what was said. I mean, I know that this probably happens in Real Life, but it's so lazy.
• I dunno, Lucy. This presentation concept sounds like a terrible idea. Writing by committee (especially with fans at large) doesn't seem like it would work well at all.
• It took the entire move for Lucy to realize that Josh is "The Nice Guy?" Kinda clueless of you, Lucy.
• Once again with the soundtrack. Oh interesting. Two of the songs I liked most were both by "Dagny." Never heard of her before. Cool!
• Okay. The final line of the movie is perfect. Sometimes that's all it takes to push a film over the top for me. Grade: A.

Benjamin Moore Calypso Green...

Not the best match to her eyes, but still a great part of the story.