On The Couch #50: Shades of Ray

Never give up. That’s what I took away from Rudy and what was going through my mind when I decided I needed to do something drastic to catch up if I wanted any hope of hitting 52/52 at the end of 2010. Thus on Tuesday, 12/21/10, Super Tuesday was born, a day where I would watch movie after movie.

To start Super Tuesday, I plopped down on the couch at 8:00 AM and watched Shades of Ray on Netflix Instant Streaming. Shades of Ray was originally recommended to me back in the earliest days of Tuesday Night Movies by my uncle and again by a friend. I said I’d get right on it. Apparently by “right on it” I meant that I would wait until the second to last week of the year to watch it.

I should have watched it sooner. Shades of Ray is a great romantic comedy, possibly the best romantic comedy I’ve seen this year. If you like the TV show Chuck, you’ll probably like Shades of Ray as well. Zachary Levi basically plays a slightly smoother version of Chuck. Ray is Chuck minus the video game geekery and with a slightly darker skin tone. Ray even has a Morgan Grimes-esque sidekick in the form of his roommate and best friend Sal. I guess the casting of Joshua Gomez as Sal would have made things too eerily similar for Chuck fans.

Also like Chuck, Ray has both a blonde and a brunette vying for his affection.

In case this blog has a Secret Santa, I really, really want the pink shirt that both Ray and Sal buy from Lloyd from Entourage.

Brian George is batting 1.000 with me. First in his most famous role, as Babu Bhatt in one of the most memorable Seinfeld episodes ever, then as Raj’s father on my current favorite TV show The Big Bang Theory and now in Shades of Ray. Researching this post, I was surprised to find out he was born in Israel to Jewish parents and immigrated to India as a child. The second thing I was surprised to discover was just how many things he’s been in over the years. He’s the textbook example of a working actor, with 192 screen credits currently on IMDB.

“You’re a very bad man, Jerry Seinfeld! A very, very bad man!”
Classic.

If you’re looking for a funny romantic comedy you haven’t seen yet to watch one night, you’d have a hard time doing better than Shades of Ray. This movie proved to be a great start to Super Tuesday. Time to hit the theaters!