Charlize Theron’s Overlooked Romantic Comedy Is A Huge Streaming Success
Charlize Theron's Long Shot is in the top ten most-watched movies on HBO Max.
Ever discover that a movie that you’ve never heard of is absolutely packed with an amazing cast? This is the case with the Charlize Theron movie Long Shot, which is currently streaming on HBO Max and also stars Seth Rogen, Andy Serkis, Bob Odenkirk, and Alexander Skarsgård. Even though this 2019 comedy has been long overlooked, that’s finally changing: according to Flix Patrol, the film is now on the HBO Max top 10 list.
Just hearing how many great actors are in Long Shot may be enough to get you to stream it, but if not, the utterly bonkers plot will. In the movie, Seth Rogen is a journalist and Charlize Theron is his former babysitter who has now become the Secretary of State. She has ambitious plans to run for president, but once she links back up with Rogen’s character, they begin a professional and then personal relationship that alternates between him trying to help her win the presidency and him possibly dooming her political ambitions.
Interestingly enough, the movie may never have been made if the real-life Seth Rogen, much like his onscreen character, wasn’t so enamored of Charlize Theron. He reviewed the script in the early 2010s and loved it, and he instantly wanted to star in it alongside Theron. When they finally got a chance to make this 2019 movie, Rogen joked that it only took him seven years to get popular enough to work with a Hollywood legend like Theron.
Of course, the jury is out on whether Seth Rogen was telling the truth or just engaging in his brand of self-deprecating humor. To hear her tell it, the primary reason Charlize Theron agreed to star in the movie is that she was jazzed to star alongside Rogen, an actor whom she greatly admired. And she likely dug the script as well, which screenwriter Dan Sterling had previously likened to the Julia Roberts romantic comedy classic Pretty Woman.
This Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron romcom was directed by Jonathan Levine, who had some solid previous history with Rogen. Previously, Levine directed two other Rogen movies: 50/50 and The Night Before, each of which also starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt. But if you’re more into horror movies, you might best know Levine from his 2006 slasher All the Boys Love Mandy Lane.
Critics generally enjoyed Long Shot, and it currently has an 81 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. In fact, the early screenings for the movie went so well that it was moved from a February 2019 release date to June, with the hopes that it might become a summer blockbuster (especially with the star power of Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen). Unfortunately, one of the reasons the movie didn’t do as well as the studio hoped is that it was released one week after Avengers: Endgame, widely considered the most ambitious Marvel Cinematic Universe project to date.
Ultimately, one of the best things about streaming is that it helps you catch some of the cinematic gems you might have overlooked before. And while Long Shot may be one of Charlize Theron’s most-overlooked movies, its rising success on HBO Max shows that more and more audiences are learning just how fun this really is. And you might be surprised it’s kind of the perfect date movie, balancing emotional tenderness and wild (and sometimes shocking) humor into a memorable film you won’t soon forget.
